Transcribing Popular/Guitar Music

May 25, 2014 at 10:57 PM ·

May 26, 2014 at 12:19 AM · Transcribing music is made easier with a computerized scoring tool. There is an excellent free one called MuseScore (musescore.com)

Guitar music is frequently presented in "tab" form, i.e., chords illustrated at key points of the lyrics. Do an internet search for guitar tabs and you just might find the lyrics and chords for the songs you like to transcribe.

Start by creating a violin part and a piano part in your score. Then drop in the chords where you think they should go on the piano staff.

If you have a recording of the voice part, you can use that to fill in the melody on the piano staff.

The scoring software will play the note as you drop it on the staff and move it about, so you can have a lousy ear and still get adept at filling in the score.

Once you work out something that sounds good, you can copy the melody onto the violin staff.

At this point, you want to use the auto key transcribe feature to try the melody in different keys until you find one where the fingering and string crossings seem reasonable for your skill level.

Once you transcribe a few songs, you will find that you will become good at figuring out a good key for the violin.

May 27, 2014 at 12:25 AM · Thanks Carmen.

I'll give that software a go in the next few days, and let you know how I get on. :)

I've got my first recital coming up in a few months, and it'd be nice to play something well-known.

May 28, 2014 at 02:55 AM · This would be a good start, John.

I've ordered a violin book of The Beatles' songs,, incidentally: I wonder how easy it'll be to play Eleanor Rigby...

May 28, 2014 at 06:59 AM · Transcribing is not easy. It's one of the more advanced musical skills and needs basic knowledge.

If one can hum a melody, he is at least able to recognize it. next step would be playing by ear.

Then write down the notes as dots.

Then add rhythm by counting the beat und subbeats.

It's not always helpful to use a computer, because you have to master the programm first. Doing somethingdifficult you don't understand with a tool you don't know is not the easiest way...

PS. TABs are not chords. Tabs are "painting by numbers", there are the strings and the frets:

see who finds out this one:

--0-0-7-7-9-9-7---5-5-4-4-2---0---

This is common, but somehow stupid, because that's not the music but only what you stop on a certain instrument, and it's not transposable or readable by players of other instruments.

Chord symbols are like this: Cma7/9

that is c-e-g-b-d, or Am7 (a-c-e-g)

In metal you usually only need this kind of chord: C5

That's c-g

greetings

ps. there are zillions of books with popular music on the market, I don't see the need to do it yourself. There are professional publications from ac/dc to zz top (including full detailled scores (!!) oft the whole beatles-oeuvre).

May 28, 2014 at 12:11 PM · I agree with Tobias. 90% of what you might want to play from the popular repertoire has been put into a book by Hal Leonard. My experience is that commercial transcriptions including those in famous fake books are just starting points -- often the harmonies have been over-simplified so that they can be played by beginner-level pianists or guitarists or they have been overwrought with substitutions to the point where only certain voicing progressions will make sense. If you are playing through a Hal Leonard arrangement and it does not sound right, that is a good place to spend your time tinkering with those few bars.

May 28, 2014 at 12:58 PM · Just to be clear, formally, guitar tablature notation is a way of showing what fret to press on for each string.

But with the age of the internet, an informal use of the term has been adopted by a great many web sites. This has the lyrics written out and chords illustrated above appropriate syllables. The actual melody is filled in by ear since it is exclusively used to represent popular music.

If you do a search for "guitar tabs", the probability is high you will find an informal "tab" for a popular song (lyrics and chords). But the odds are not so good at finding a full, formal guitar tab for the song.

In the case of Eleanor Rigby, that sounds like a good candidate for an adaptation to solo violin because it is orchestrated as a string piece. But it might pose a challenge with the original key if you are comfortable in playing only in first position. I see some single finger string crossings just in the first line.

May 28, 2014 at 02:45 PM · If you need to play something quickly, search around for a book with pop/rock songs. Transcribing is a skill that takes a while to get good/quick at it. However, transcribing develops many useful skills, like hearing intervals better, visualizing rhythms, memorizing great licks, etc. So at some point, its a good thing to do lots of it.

Here are some tips for transcribing. First, do short sections of the melody - maybe just a few notes at first. Sing those few notes while the music plays, and then stop the music to avoid distractions. Then work out the sound on your violin, as you sing the section again. Avoid using the piano or guitar. You want to map the sound into your violin mentality. Write the notes and rhythm down. If you can get one but not the other, write that down and repeat the singing phase with the music until you get both. Rinse and repeat - a lot of times.

You will get better by doing it, but its a skill and it takes a while. Some people earn a living transcribing music. Its tough to do accurately, fast, and across multiple instruments in a song.

May 28, 2014 at 02:59 PM · Carmen, lyrics with chords above are a little bit older as the internet.

I have never seen the misuse of "tab" for such a notation. It's only that search engines offer a tab page when you search a certain song.

But that's OT.

May 28, 2014 at 03:33 PM · Following up on Mike's comment, I think the first step in learning to transcribe is learning to play by ear. Oh, the fun you can have with this skill! Just stream a few pop tunes on the internet or play them on YouTube with your violin there, and try to play what you hear. Pause and rewind as needed. At first a few notes at a time will be all you can manage, but quickly you'll see it can be a bar or two at a time. You'll also see that some things are written in keys that are not very friendly to the violin fingerboard, but as was mentioned above you can transpose. If something seems too hard, or you're not able to "get it," just try something else. There are no Suzuki books for this so you've got to plot your own study. TV show themes are a reasonable starting point.