During the first part of this edition in my "Coach's Corner" article series, I shared with you personal experiences that eventually led me to begin transcribing music on a day-to-day basis. I also briefly defined what transcription is, and offered some basic guidelines to help you in choosing a potential project to tackle. Finally, as you recall, we discussed the critical issue of determining exactly what key the song or solo might be in. In this chapter we'll move ahead and start covering the entire process in a methodical, step-by-step manner. Ready?

Made A Decision Yet?

Now, the obvious assumption is that you've already decided on a project by this time, and possibly also figured out the key as well. But before we move on, I want to offer some advice regarding the decision itself.

I often remind my students that "success lies in the effort," even though there's often a lot of pain and frustration involved. I'm not about to lie to you. There's inherently a pretty high frustration factor involved with transcription, sometimes to the degree where it keeps a player away from doing it at all (which is a big mistake!). Accept the reality of the situation, and be willing to take whatever you can get. Believe me, what you'll get will be priceless in the long run. To make transcription life a little more bearable, feel free to select more than one project. Remember that this is all a means to an end, so there's nothing wrong with having a second or third project waiting in the wings when you inevitably run into a brick wall with the primary target.

"Highlights" or the Whole Enchilada?

Take the time, before officially getting in the trenches, to decide whether you wish to transcribe a project in its entirety, note-for-note, or just in what I like to call "highlight" fashion. This is where, as the name implies, you go shopping for just those special moments that stand out for you. I often do this if I'm transcribing licks from a given artist, especially if they're the type of licks that can be played in many situations, and not just within the parameters of that particular song. If, however, I'm tackling a melody, chord progression, bass line, or if a solo really fascinates me from beginning to end, I'll go for the whole enchilada. Again, remember the "means to an end" theory, and the fact that your aim is generally not to play another artist's solo verbatim. It's also easier, in a sense, to tackle a project in highlight format, because you can simply hunt around looking for those aforementioned special moments.

Your Transcribing "Toolbox"

You'll need three essential tools to effectively handle a transcribing project: your guitar or bass, a decent audio player or software, and later some manuscript paper (or software) for getting what you're interpreting into standard notation. All of my early efforts involved tape machines, and in my formative transcribing years I managed to burn-out a couple of nice open-reel decks, just by the sheer amount of pausing and rewinding to listen and verify the accuracy of what I was doing. On the cassette front, Marantz made the most widely used model for transcribing purposes for many years (PMD-201). Those eventually gave way to inexpensive digital samplers, many with the ability to playback at a variety of speeds. The main negative with the early units was the fact that you¹d often be limited to usually around thirty seconds (give or take ten or fifteen) per sample. It's much nicer to have the full three or four minute track at your disposal. Another negative was that the digital sound quality would deteriorate when you'd slow down the audio, but that has been improving. Software is being used more and more nowadays, the most popular being Amazing Slow Downer (ASD) and Transcribe! by Seventh String Software, which is easily my favorite choice.

Step By Step, Inch By Inch...

As you begin the initial stage of transcription (i.e. the "ear" part of the equation), be prepared to do three things with every event that you try to capture. First listen, then hum what you've heard, and finally imitate what you're humming on your instrument. You'll do this over and over again until you're as certain as possible that what you've come up with is the real deal, and not some facsimile of something that you've heard before. One huge tip that I can offer is to limit yourself to as few notes as possible, making it much easier to verify your accuracy. Stop after each note, making that pitch the last event that you've given your ear a chance to hear. Tedious? Sure, but it's the only way to get the job done and sharpen your ear.

In the next edition we'll discuss techniques for transcribing chord voicings and progressions, and how to handle notation.