We'll I'm a bit new to piano sort of and I was wondering how most of the people here learn how to transcribe their music sheets. I want to learn how to learn how so I wont have to depend on others to be able to play a song.

So everyone please post:
(1) How did you start transcribing?
(2) How did you learn?
(3) Tips on transcribing.

-Thanks for reading and this is a helpful thread for people who also wants to learn, such as me. I also would like to thank brncao, a member of this forum, for giving me this idea. :] Ty brncao!

1. Through inspiration from other transcribers. It all started with Gori Fater's Sonic the Hedgehog piano video. I was truly amazed because there were absolutely no sheets for those. I downloaded the sheets and played them. Half a year later I decided to transcribe and arrange my own songs.

I'll combine #2 and #3 because it's essentially the same; the tips will be based on my own experience how I learned to transcribe. I'll write a lesson for those new to transcribing by ear. Maybe it'll cut down on the number of requesters :heh:


So you've finally dipped your toes into the water. Where should you start?


The first thing I recommend everyone to do first is to learn basic music theory. The term "Music theory" might frighten some beginners, but it's really straight forward. If you've learned how to read sheet music then you can skip this step.
You'll need to be able to understand and read sheet music if you're planning on playing it on your instrument right? Here's a great website that teaches music theory. http://musictheory.net/.

For beginners, click on the "Lessons" drop down box and read from "The Staff, Clefs, and ledger lines" to "Key Signatures." These are just the basics needed to read sheet music. The only hard part is the major and minor scales. A beginner might ask what's the difference? To put it in layman's term, major sounds happy and minor sounds sad and emotional.

Now that you can read sheet music, read on!

The things that you'll need:

Hardware
Computer

Headphones (I don't recommend transcribing off of computer speakers or ibuds for that matter). I'm saving up for an upgrade to my crappy audio rig for a better transcribing experience. If you're a detail freak and care so much for accuracy, you may be an audiophile like I am :lol: I must warn you though this stuff is hard to quit lol. I can't stand youtube sound quality even at 128Kb HD. It's a burden I have to live with lmao. All in all, the better your audio chain is, the better sound reproduction and accuracy you'll get.

Instrument (vocal counts too)

Software
Audio editing program (ei. Audacity [freeware], Adobe Audition) to play your favorite songs. I use Adobe Audition.

Score notation software (ei. Sibelius or Finale) to arrange sheet music. I use Finale.

Audio recognition program (my personal favorite is Widi Professional (http://widisoft.com/english/download.html)) for converting pitch to midi notes in a graphical piano roll display that shows bars. Don't worry about the trial. You can still use it for the purpose of transcribing even after it expires.


Note: I'll only talk about the programs I use because I don't know how to use any other programs beside the ones I'm using so I'm sorry for this inconvenience. Who knows, maybe it could apply to others, maybe not.

Choose a very easy song to practice with. Open it up in Adobe Audition. Put on your headphones and have an instrument next to you so you can locate the pitch and what not. If you can hum the melody or at least in your mind if you're a bad singer like I am, you have good relative pitch, and that is all you'll need.

Open Finale. You'll need to enter the time signature, key signature, and tempo at the end of the setup wizard. I recommend choosing a song that is either in 3/4 or 4/4 for a beginner.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8084/scoresettingsfinale.th.png (http://img9.imageshack.us/i/scoresettingsfinale.png/)

To find the correct tempo in a song there is a bpm plugin for winamp that measures the tempo. However, this only works if there is a strong beat and can sometimes be inaccurate. You can also try to find it manually through trial and error. I use Adobe Audition for the job.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/967/tempop.th.png (http://img339.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tempop.png)

Down below right click on the Time Panel (borders highlighted in yellow) and select Bars and Beats. Place the cursor (vertical dotted yellow line) on the first beat in the main display. Right click the time panel again and select Edit Tempo. A dialogue box pops up as shown in the image. Click "Reset 1:1 to cursor." Next (if necessary) set the time signature: Beats per Bar / Beat Length = 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, etc.

Experiment with Beats per Minute until the beats line up with what you're hearing. You'll need to wait about 32+ measures to ensure it really lines up all the way. The song in the pic is exactly 130bpm. Enter the tempo in the score settings in Finale.

Next is the hard part, finding the key signature. There are two ways you can find it: Play the melody on the piano and see which black keys are used often or use an audio recognition software like Widi Pro. There are other methods as well such as using figured bass, chords, and scales, but I won't be covering it in this lesson because it's not beginner friendly.

Open the song in Widi Pro through the wizard and let it analyze the song (it'll take some time). You'll get something like this
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5562/compositionanalysis.png

The first one is the recommended key signature (In case you're wondering the "H" is the same as "B"). And remember, happy is "Maj" and sad is "m". If you want to double check it, play the melody on your piano for the most often used black keys. Ok just so no one flames me for saying "black keys", when you come across a key that has Cb, Fb, E#, and/or B# in it, it's not really a black key but a white key. For now lets pretend it's a black key. :heh:

If you hate reading B notes as H you can change it by going to Options > General Options -> under the Misc tab select use letter B for note 'si'.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/8803/widipro.th.png (http://img200.imageshack.us/my.php?image=widipro.png)

This is a simple 8bit song from Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening - "Mabe Village". I recommend starting your first song on 8bit video games because it's very easy. Press Ctrl+Shift+A to switch to audio mode. Midi mode is useless as it sounds like one big blob.

Now let's start transcribing!!! :punk:

Note: Before you start killing your ears over nothing, stay away from youtube including ripping music from youtube. That is a bad source to transcribe from. Go and find a high quality mp3 (at least 192kbps), flac, wav, ape, etc.

The first thing you should do is transcribe the melody because it's what stands out the most in a song. Then the bass, then the chords, and lastly whatever else there are. You can do it in any particular order you want, it's just my preference.

Transcribing for note durations. If you know your rhythms very well, even odd ones, you can skip this step.

Break it down first. Do not try to transcribe over several measures. My advice is to break it down to one beat or divide the beat into several subdivisions. Let's look at the Zelda example above. How many notes are there in one beat? Well lets find out. I counted only 1 note in the first beat, therefore it is a quarter note. The next beat only has one note that extends over one beat, and it is also a quarter note. The last two notes "B and C" in measure 1 is fast. So divide your quarter beats into 8th beats. B started exactly on the 8th beat and I counted 2 notes within this beat so therefore they are 16th notes. You can experiment it in Finale to check if you're right.

The notes below the melody are 8th notes because I counted 2 notes in one beat.

If you hear 3 notes distributed evenly in one beat, it is a triplet.

Transcribing for pitch. If you have "perfect pitch" you may skip this step.

Widi Pro has already done the job for you! It's just a matter of copying what you see and entering it in Finale. Remember to use your ears! Do NOT rely on the software and blindly enter every note you see in Widi into Finale. Trust your ears. There are times when Widi Pro is unreliable for complex songs. It's time for a little ear training.

Grab your instrument, your ears, your headphones, and have the song ready in Adobe Audition. Play the first beat of the song in Adobe. Take an "aural snapshot" of what you've heard. Find the notes on your instrument. Keep playing the first beat over and over until you have it down. Arrange it into Finale. Move on to the next beat, etc.


Target Lock on!

Good aural honing skills is key to transcribing, and this takes weeks, months, or years to build up. Don't listen to music as a whole, but lock your ears in on one instrument at a time. For example, an oboe might blend in with other strings. You probably recognize an oboe's sound characteristics or timbre so you should only focus on that, not on the strings. If you try to focus in on more than one instrument, you'll be lost in the transcription process. My advice is to break it down by layer first.

Don't forget to transcribe in a quiet environment


Understand what the limitations are

If you're dealing with acoustic instruments, be aware of their limitations such as pitch range and our physical limitations. NES 8bit music has a limit of 3 channels (excluding noise channel) which is 2 squares and 1 triangle wave. In Widi Pro if you struck a chord on a piano, the overtones will carry over into the higher frequency making it seem like the person had 4 hands. Just keep in mind humans don't have 4 hands nor can we stretch a 15th with one hand (comfortably that is) :sweat:


Making your life easier with Adobe Audition!

One special tool that I often use is the "center channel extraction." This removes the center channel leaving you only the left and right channel so you can transcribe the song a bit more clearly.

Use EQ to boost certain band frequencies.

You can even slow down the song.

You can also raise the pitch to hear the bass clearly.

Adobe Audition is a great software for manipulating audio.

End of lesson! Lesson 2 will be a bit more technical on music theory that involves chords. For now just do bass and melody. And remember to ask questions!

Now I will discuss a little bit about chord progressions (the basics). It's basically how harmonies or chords change from one chord to the next, in what order. People can feel this change subconsciously, but they don't know that it's actually called a "chord progression."

If you look at some music theory books or guides, you'll come across roman numerals like I, II, III...VII both in upper case and lower case. Uppercase are major chords and minor are lower case. Play a C major chord (C,E,G) and a C minor chord (C,Eb,G) and you'll notice one sounds happy and the other sounds sadder respectively.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/2456/chordprogressioncmajorsr.png
Shown here is a basic chord progression of a C major scale. It's like playing triads up the scale, which it is. The degree sign in vii° means it's a diminished chord or for short "dim". I'll only be covering maj and min chords for beginners.

For this demonstration, I'll use "Houki Boshi" (Bleach ED2) as my example. Originally it's in D major, but with chord progressions, it doesn't matter what key you're in. You can also check out my "crappy Houki Boshi Caramelldansen" remix in the composition section to see chord progressions in action (I practically overlapped the two because both songs had the same chord progressions).

The chord progression for Houki Boshi is I, V, vi, and IV, and it uses this chord progression all the way till the end if my memory serves me right. Look at the chart above and find those roman numerals. Answer: In this case it's Cmaj, Gmaj, Amin, and then Fmaj "in that order". Now that you've learned basic chord progression, let's move on to "figured bass."

Figured bass sometimes helps whenever you want to figure out simple triads. It draws sort of an implied harmony. If you look at the bass in Houki Boshi (let's assume it was in C major) you will see C, G, A, F in each measure respectively. At this point you don't know what the chords are. Look at the bass notes in the bass staff. Try building a chord around a single bass note. For C it would be Cmaj, for G it would be Gmaj, etc. So in the end you have Cmaj, Gmaj, Amin, and Fmaj. There are songs that have more complex chord progressions, but for now it's better if you train your ears first before attempting the more complex ones.

Over time you'll be able to familiarize yourself with common chord progressions that you don't have to resort to using widi pro to figure out the song's chord progressions.

Well that's all I can teach you guys. Everything else is mostly ear training. If you want to go even more advanced into music theory, then it's better if you consult a music teacher or something.

Somehow I started playing jazz then ended up in j-pop, so my ears have probably atrophied quite a bit, jazz melodies being infinitely more complex than those of j-pop.

I do it by ear, and the more you transcribe, the easier it will be to instantly recognize basic (ubiquitous) chord progressions, rhythms and intervals.

I don't know if you need all the software the previous poster used. It would certainly make the process easier...but no pain, no gain, as they say. On the other hand, you could just buy some real physical sheet music and do it the old fashioned way. For actually creating electronic files to share on the internet, however, I use lilypond (http://lilypond.org/web/). It's free, but probably takes around 4 hours to get a firm grasp of the syntax. I still refer back to the guide when confronted with difficulties, however. Here's an example (http://lelangir.dotq.org/?p=651) of lilypond in action.

WOW, GREAT INFORMATION!, This will help me A L O T.

Another audio recognition program worth trying is Intelliscore (http://www.intelliscore.net/). It also helps to transcribe music by converting audio to midi notes and it costs a LOT less that Widi. With Widi Professional charging $229 that is too steep for me! @_@

1) I started transcribing a while ago. I was in situations where I could not find the right sheet music, so I decided to make my own lol.

2) Music classes help you learn a lot, as well as basic knowledge of music theory (pitch, note durations, time signatures, etc) So if you know those things, you won't have a hard time trying to transcribe.

3) I just have my keyboard with me at all times when transcribing. As well as wearing headphones. You just can't hear everything from computer speakers. But you don't necessarily need all the high tech stuff in the first reply, IMO.

ALL YOU NEED IS HEADPHONES, A KEYBOARD, AND A SHEET MUSIC NOTATION HUB (Finale, or even plain old manuscript paper) And, of course, PATIENCE.

I wish everyone would follow in your footsteps lol. Way to go! :thumbsup: Right, you need to be patient and dedicated. What's nice about transcribing is that you hear things you've never heard before. An average joe will only hear the melody and don't pay attention to everything else (though they do hear it subconsciously).

"If nobody takes your request in ages, then transcribe it!" as I always say.

You don't need the high-end stuff to be super analytical, but that's just me being an audiophile :heh:

lol i thought so ;)

Honestly, I just play it over and over until it soundsright, eventually write down the key notes, then get out my notation program and work it until the notes sound right in both length and tone.
In short, I start with hit and miss guessing, then move on to trying. On my flute. Which I'll assume is different than piano in difficulty.

HOLY DAMN !

What an useful POST you got there BRNCAO! you got consideration in the begginers that don't know anything like me

THANKS ALOT MAN

Very detailed guide.

I transcribe in front of my piano, with my earphones and my MP3 player. Yeah. Hey, it works, and that's all that really matters. You really don't need high-end equipment, just a high-quality song. Maybe some good bass headphones. But that's pretty much it. Abuse the equalizer to get the really low notes.

I like WIDI, but it's so unreliable for anything other than pure piano that it's practically useless. You may as well just listen to teh song (or you can use a program to drop the vocal part if there's a vocal part in the song; it helps a lot). Actually, another way to drop the vocal is, on your mp3 player, to unplug the headphones a bit, so the volume drops ever so slightly. You'll also hear that anything on both tracks (this works only on stereo tracks) is dropped, which is usually vocal :>

Play one bar or phrase over and over again on your mp3, in front of your instrument. It is imperative that you're doing this in front of your instrument, unless you're writing for multiple instruments. Then, with each repeat, try to pick out notes and play them, and eventually you'll get all the notes in a bar. Rinse and repeat. (Well, that's how I do it) It's a pretty time-consuming task, but you basically memorize your transcription. Then, you just have to feed it into Finale or something and print it, or do it physically (lol).

If you're new to piano, you really want to learn music theory, as the first poster said. It's essential to writing it, and it really helps during the listening process. So does a lot of experience. I have perfect pitch, but I really don't know if I always had it or if it was trained into me. Of course, it doesn't really matter if you have perfect pitch, because you're in front of your instrument anyways.

Right?

Hahaha, open this up in WIDI:

http://beemp3.com/download.php?file=6407471&song=Tetris+Theme

(Don't worry, it's not a spam/pirate link)

Anyways, after analyzing it as piano, play it

Heh, epic example of the fail of WIDI when it's not pure piano. When it is pure piano though...

Impressive guide. For me, I just grab my iPod and transcribe as I go. Getting the sheet out is another matter, because I'm usually too lazy to start up the program and get on to inputting notes. And since I do only piano or virtually any song that is mainly piano and has no singing, the scores won't really matter in the end.

Unless someone wants it, that is.

Holy hell. What an explanation!
I really only had enough time to read to musictheory.net and try it out a little. I just wanted to say that that is a superb website! I am trying to help my friend play the piano but I want her to know the basics first. Not having the most amount of time and the world and not knowing how to explain everything plainly makes it difficult, but this website might just be the solution! Thanks!

I look forward to reading the rest of your replies but I must go.

Playing the piano usually doesn't require theory, but... heh :P

Playing the piano usually doesn't require theory, but... heh :P
You will admit that it helps...............................a lot.

Right?

Nope, I don't know any theory.

Nope, I don't know any theory.
Do you read sheet music?

Nope, I don't know any theory.
I don't mean you need to know it formally (the names of the notes or anything, even though it is useful when trying to learn a song or trying to help someone else learn it), but I don't see how you can play any instrument without understanding the sounds and such.

Heh, just to explain the misunderstanding (or my epic fail at using words), I meant music theory as in... "complicated" music theory. I personally don't think recognizing sounds or knowing the names of notes counts as "theory" when I say it, although I guess it does, since anything to do with music (excluding practical music) counts as theory...

Heh, just to explain the misunderstanding (or my epic fail at using words), I meant music theory as in... "complicated" music theory. I personally don't think recognizing sounds or knowing the names of notes counts as "theory" when I say it, although I guess it does, since anything to do with music (excluding practical music) counts as theory...
That was what I and (I think) brncao were getting at. It's theory whether the symbols are there or not (<--that was specifically my point). It really does make it a lot easier. Knowing them by name just makes it a hell of a lot easier. I believe that knowing the "advanced" stuff can only make a person better, but whatev.

Then, I do know theory :)

WOW brncao, your a real audio freak LOL! Very informative guide btw~

I would like to see some of your work, do you have a link?

Hence the "audiophile" under my name lol. My only recent arrangement here was Melt (Vocaloid). You can find it somewhere in the sheet music request section. My biggest project is an anime/vg medley inspired by the medleys from nico nico douga. I won't be releasing that anytime soon as I still need to build a home music studio first :( I'm a poor college student lol.

High five! (im a poor college student as well ^^). I can't even get a decent pair of headphones for my digital piano *sigh*. oo Christmas is almost here.

Thanks, Ill search for it.

Wow Brncao, that's some insane tips. I just listen to the youtube...something you said not to do...put in a random starting note and see where it falls for solfage based on the song to find the key and start writing down the notes. I'm not a tech savvy guy so I've never even heard of half those programs lol. My tips are just to keep your focus on the individual parts instead of the whole thing. The understanding of harmony and chord progression will help you a lot since most anime music doesn't go too far out of an overly used progression.

Also, transcriptions don't mean you can't work with imagination. When you condense a score into one or two instruments, just remember that you will have to sacrifice certain parts and stick to the important stuff sometimes, but also that a straight transcription might sound boring simply due to a change in timbre. A piano playing a whole note chord is ALOT less interesting than the strings.

I decided to move this thread to the sheet music request for those that want to give it a try and learn how to transcribe by their own and not to wait for someone else to do it. I think here will receive better attention.

If you want to share tips or short tutorials about this subject, do it here.

For free (legal) software that may help you or you want to use to transcribe music, check the "Free Tools" thread at the composition section of the forum.

Also for additional threads related to transcriptions, browse the Music Discussions, there are a few threads around.

___________

If I or someone else of the staff move this thread again, check it in the Music Discussion section of the forum.

you know what... I actually want to try transcribing...

you know what... I actually want to try transcribing...

DO IT!

LOVE this thread!

First, thanks to brncao ! This is an huge answer :)


For my part, I started transcribing by need. The Songs I wanted wasn't transcribed or some parts was missing.


I still transcribe with the same mean: I hear, I play (while or not with the song) and I write. I only use a sequencer software, an audio player and my keyboard.


For my last song, I "found" another way to transcribe faster:

I open my sequencer software (Cubase LE), create a new project in which I import the audio file into one track.
I find the tempo and the meter key and then synchronize my audio track with the midi tracks.
Of course, I heard a lot of time the song to be sure about all the parts (Verse, chorus,etc.). This way, I know about the structure of the song.

Then, I focus on a single instrument.
Several times, I listen to a short sequence of the song for this instrument to learn its notes and I play over it.
When it's ok, I record my playing in a midi track.
I redo this work for each instrument, for the all song.
I'll obtain many midi tracks: the same number as the number of instruments in the song.
Of course I do some corrections (quantize, pitches...)

To verify that the transcription is good, I just play one or more midi track with the audio to make comparisons. When it's possible I use the same sounds than the original one. It give more similitude and is much accuracy to verify.

Then, when it's done, I use LilyPond to get the sheet music about what I want. As I have the original transcribed, I can produce the parts and the arrangement I want. I can also personalize the song, get my own interpretation. It depends how I want to work with it.

I know my method is long and could understand people consider I'm wasting time. But, as I'm not often practising my ear, transcribing is an opportunity to do this. I must admit that sometimes I help myself with some existing midi or sheet music to go faster ^.^

How did you start transcribing?

I've always loved playing by ear, and this seemed like the next natural step.
How did you learn?

If you can hear the melody in your head, then you can learn how to write it down, given enough time. Music theory and ear-training classes helped immensely.
Tips on transcribing.

Always transcribe the rhythm first. It's much easier to pick out the notes when you know where they are. Learn how to subdivide and be sure to clap or count out loud. It may seem basic, but it's extremely helpful.
It helps to be at a piano and to be able to play along. When you're struggling to nail down a pitch, play your guess beforehand and see if it matches, or try to figure out the chord being used.
Don't sweat the details at first. Don't know the key? Who cares? Not sure how big that chord is? Ignore it for now. That can all be fixed later.

Wow, this is a great tutorial for beginers. I want to add something. I see brncao explain how to use software to guess the key and the time signature, and for convert any file in MIDI to see the notes. Maybe great if you can´t take out something, but the best is do ALL without any help. Why? Very easy: you will improve your hear, and it will be more and more easy take out song. Let´s start with the principal problem. How I do to get a good hear?

1) Making audition, trying to take out simple instrumental melodies. Start with your instrument and after with other. Once you can write melodies easily, try out with the two hands of the piano. And start taking more and more complex songs.

2) Compose and arrange!! I win all my hear doing this: experment with chords progression, make arranges of your scores for other instruments and groups and try to compose something. In my case, after two years doing this, I win perfect pitch ^^.

3) Sing your scores. Always sing the notes you play in your scores. If you can do it at the same time you´re playing, better. And this is very important: you have to say the name of the note you are singing, trying also to differenciate alterations. If you want to guess what note is that, you first have to know how it sound ;).

Practising this you will gain hear. And after that, I think it´s better take out the song without software. Let´s start.

1) Key Signature: Often you only have to take out the last chord of the song. If chord is Gm, the key will be Gm. Be careful with this: if you hear all the song in minor key and the last chord is a major chord, for example A, then the key will be A minor. This occurs often in classical songs.
But in some songs the chord is dissonant. What can I do in that case? Don´t worry. Take out some of the melody and the chords. If the melody only have two sharps (and the will be F# and C#) only can be D major or B minor. Now we have to see the chords. We are wanting the chords IV, V and I of the key.
If our chord progression is
Bm - Em - F# - Bm. In D major will be a VI - II - III - VI progression and in Bm a I - IV - V - I. Seeing this I know the key is Bm, because I, IV and V and common chords and because we have a V - I progression. This progression is very important, and in many case give us information about keys.
But, at EmeraldShine says, if you can´t, don´t worry. You will see clarely after.

2) Time signature. First we have to decide if it is X / 4 or X / 8. It isn´t very difficult. Try always to write it in X / 4. If you obtain triplets everywhere, maybe is a X / 8.
Now, what is our "X"? If is a full song maybe it has drums. This drums will be give you it. See what is the strong beat. If it occurs every 4 fours beats (PAM - pam - pam - pam) is a 4 / 4. If it occurs every 3, it´s a 3 / 4. If it a piano solo, string quartet, etc, the strong beat often is the beat with the big chord.

3) I have the melody but I can´t find the chords, what can I do? If play only a wind instrument you maybe have often this problem. Well, as I explain above, the most important chords are the I, IV and V of a key. Try to put this chords to the melody. If it isn´t any of that chords, try with VI, II, III and VII. Not yet? Let´s change chords,
For example, if IV is F, let´s try with Fm, with F+ (F - A - C#) and with Fdim(F - A - Cb). Maybe you find the correct chord, but... there are something missing. It sound like in the song, but not exactly. In this case, try with the 7th, 9th, 6th and 4th intervals.

For example, our chord is Eb. Lets try with EbMaj7 (Eb - G - Bb - D), Eb7(Eb - G - Bb - Db), Eb6(Eb - G - Bb - C), Eb9(Eb - F - G - Bb) or Eb4(Eb - G - Ab - Bb)

4) I CAN´T MORE!!! TAKE THIS OUT IS IMPOSSIBLE!! Well, we have also this kind of problems XD. If is a full version of something, try to download a piano version, or a version for your instrument. You will hear better the notes, especially if your trying with the melody. You can also play the song more slow to hear the notes better.

More difficult than the brncao method, yes, but this help you to improve your musical skills not only at hearing, also at musical analisys, improvisation and composition. I hope this help to somebody :lol:

(awesome post)

This was huge and informative, thank you.

What questions do people have? It'd be good to address those specifically. That being said, here are a couple of tips, for people with slightly more theory:
Learn how to analyze chords. When you can't quite identify a pitch, you can often narrow your options down this way. Secondary dominants are also very nice to know.
The key signature is usually pretty easy to figure out. When a piece comes to a pause, it will usually do it on either the I/i chord or the V chord (see Musictheory.net for more info). As Victor Seven said, usually the piece will end on the key name. Another thing to watch out for is the harmonic minor form. If the piece uses G# a ton, but no other accidentals, then it's in A harmonic minor. Learning how to recognize bVI and bVII is also useful.

Above all, train your ear and learn what each interval and chord sounds like! This will make things VASTLY easier. Musictheory.net has an excellent training program.

Does anyone have any tips for discerning the time signature?

Does anyone have any tips for discerning the time signature?

I usually go through some "trial-and-error" to figure out a song's time signature. I've been playing music instruments for over 10 years now, so I'm able to use my experience of playing many different sheet music to narrow down a piece's time signature when I transcribe. For example, if the song has a "triplet" feel, then it's most likely a #/8 time signature (#=any number). From there, I experiment on my piano if the song feels like 3 sets of triplets per measure, I know that the song is in 6/8. Bottom Line: I use my experience and intuition to discern a piece's time signature that I'm about to transcribe.

To transcribe chords do the bassline first as this will help you form a basis for what the actual chords are could be. Also use your theory knowledge if you hear a V- I in the bass and it doesn't sound weird then there are only a few combinations you could try that would work. Also know all of your inversions of chords as they are vital in getting chords, beacause most of the time they aren't in root position which can throw people off. I'm putting this out there just incase. But you guys probably know this already.
Just the basics
For triads
Root: 1 3 5
1st inversion 1 3 6
2nd inversion 1 4 6

7ths
Root 1 3 5 7
1st 1 3 5 6
2nd 1 3 4 6
3rd 1 2 4 6

I'll give an example of how to use them, say you hear the lowest note in the chord and above it is a perfect 4th, and above that a minor 3rd. Then in your head you can invert those intervals and see the chord in root position to test if you're right.
If you invert the P4 it becomes a Perfect 5th, so now you know there is a 1,P5 so it could not be diminshed triad (1, diminshed 5th/augmented 4th, aka tritone) and not a augmented triad (1, Augmented 5th/minor 6th). Since it's a 1 4 6 chord/ second inversion of a triad. So if the 6 is a min 3rd in relation to the 4 then it should be min 6th in relation to the 1. Invert that and you have a major 3rd so now you know the chord stacks like this: 1 b3, P5/ minor 3rd + Major 3rd. So it's a minor chord. With practice, transcribing chords shouldn't take very long... unless the chord progression you're transcribing has really weird variants.

lols well i transcribe atonal music, the basics are basically chords, time signature, key signature, progression and devices. The rest are up to ur exposure to how u transcribe the music and how u inject ur ideas into the work.

Since I'm moving toward this section of Ichigo's now, I might as well answer these questions to give out a little more information about me and the subject itself.

(1) How did you start transcribing?

I started playing the piano (and started music, in general) in Middle school. I've always loved the Zelda series, and I worked out the melody and chords to play for enjoyment. When I learned there was a community for this type of thing, I ended up stopping simply because there were much better arrangements and transcriptions around. You could say I simply got discouraged. It was at this time I focused purely on getting better at my instrument, and quit transcribing. After I started music school a number of months ago, and formally started developing my Aural Skills, I thought it would help my training even more by becoming apart of the transcribing community for Anime, Video games, etc.

(2) How did you learn?

First it was just by figuring out the melody, chords, etc. by listening to a piece of music over and over again (of course, focusing on one section at a time) until I got it right. Overtime, this kind of thing became easier, especially if you have a piano, an mp3 player or a computer at your disposal. Since I'm also studying jazz, it's a fundamental practice (transcribing) you must become used to in order to further your skills as an improviser. My music school's aural skills and sight singing program has developed and pushed my ears to a new limit; drilling intervals, chords, rhythms, melodic and harmonic dictation all help to further the skill of hearing and listening to sounds. And as a rule of thumb, the more you do the better you get.

(3) Tips on transcribing:

Start slow, and start simple. Pick out a melody that you know that's simple (anything will do... a nursery rhyme, folk tune or a pop song) and then try to work out the chords after that. It's good to be mindful of what the key signature is. Once you start to recognize the key, transcribing the rest of the song will be much easier -- the same goes for the time signature, tempo, etc. After you transcribe, especially if you're starting out, it's good to refer back to a good transcription of the song you're trying to figure out, just to see if that person got the same thing as you, or something different. You're going to make some mistakes, and it's always good for you to pick up on the kinds of things that you miss, so you can learn from them and continue on.

Something else you might want to consider is the study of music theory. Although many people disregard learning theory as "useless textbook" information that "holds people back" it really isn't that at all. Music Theory is simply the study of what composers have done over the last hundreds of years, and find trends with their harmonic progressions and melodic lines. If you come to understand the "functions" of tones and chords, you'll be able to hear things much more in depth and faster than if you wouldn't have understood theory (believe me, I thought I "understood" music until I really started to study theory and understood it's purpose... I can't imagine listening to music now without knowing theory... it's an amazing tool to use at your disposal).

A question that seems to get asked a lot is, "How DO you transcribe?" And for me, I've found a system that works great, and I'm happy that my school supplies such great tools for the students to use. This is what I use/ what I do:

1. Make sure I have headphones (not ear-buds) that are of good quality. It is preferred to use sound-cancelling headphones, or be in a quiet room.
2a. I use a computer 90% of the time that I transcribe.
2b. I use the notation program Finale, a MIDI Keyboard and the program Transcribe!. I encourage the use of Transcribe, since you're able to slow down music by ~95% and loop music so you can make sure you're extremely accurate with notes.
3. Patience and Diligence.

I hope this helps any other transcribers out there (or beginners!)

Hi ermm. is there such a software that can separate the bass from the music?? :x

Since I noticed Milchh's inspiring journey on transcribing, I figure I might as well give mine as well:

I started transcribing out of interest actually (I didn't even know it was called transcribing that time). I've started piano informally without formal classes from an older friend of mine who taught me a few piano pieces at 10 years old (Or at least arrangements by someone else on a few Chinese songs). Then I've graduated to my secondary school (Before high school for other countries I believe), when my music teacher introduced me to Finale, as part of our standard immersion curriculum (We are exposed to all sort of subjects from Arts to Science to Music). Then, I've began listening to music and transcriptions. Even though I've enjoyed playing them, but I felt that they can be further improved on and adapted for playability and technique, so I remade those transcriptions I had into my own renditions through Finale, setting up challenging passages to play on without care on difficulty. This process eventually became modified as I listened to original pieces and songs and writing them out on Finale directly without any reference onto other transcriber's scores. Then, at my final year of secondary school, I took formal piano and music theory classes. Do know that I am not an arts student but a science student (This is to clear up stereotypes that that science students cannot do arts, as I think many people will assume I am an arts student)

I learnt transcribing without knowing by listening actually. There is no real shortcut to it, or one button does it all, its really just to open up your ears and listen to the music like as if you are performing it. It will be natural overtime that a slight deviation of the key to your playing of the transcription will become obvious and you will be able to tell them immediately, even if they are not obvious to some people (I know this because I hear them very often in my old works). The main process for me was to determine the key signature (Except for atonal musics), determine the chord, and listen out to the melody. The rest is all just about practice and apply, the process gets faster eventually.

For tips, I don't think I have many tips to share since Milchh mentioned all of them (big thanks!). I'm more inclined towards expressive music and music which invoke dream-like feelings so that is where I got my ear training from as it is very easy to spot mistakes in these moods. However, one tip that I can share with everyone is to follow your muse (I know some people say it does not agree which I respectfully disagree), let the music flow and the transcription will flow eventually, don't let technical stuffs such as mistakes or intonation, etc bother the musical flow (Even though you have to correct them eventually).

@icyxicyx, there is no such softwares which can do that, but there are softwares which can tell you what keys are in the chords, but not so accurately. Try Transcribe!, it is rather accurate for most clear-tone pieces.

This is amazing thank you X3

Hi there,

Transcribing music is not a easy process, it requires the musician to listen to a piece of music and write down what he hears. Not only does this process improves upon the musician's ability to listen to and examine the sounds we hear, it also allows allow to create a version of the song specific to individual’s taste. Though it is a difficult process for beginners, but with time and practice it becomes a more natural.

Nice presentation . Thanks for great sharing

Wow, this is the best intro i could've asked for. btw, how long have u been transcribing music?

Wow, this is the best intro i could've asked for. btw, how long have u been transcribing music?

7 years