Top Tricks for Transcribing Music Quickly

So, what is transcribing?

To transcribe music is to notate what you hear on a recording, or even during a live performance.  When transcribing, you might be writing down just the melody or the chord sequence, or maybe all the separate instrumental parts in a song.  You’ll need to listen to the song repeatedly, and write down the rhythm and pitch of each note that is being played or sung.

Why would you want to do that??

There are numerous reasons for wanting to transcribe music, but the two most common are:

• To create sheet music for a song so you can perform it yourself
• To re-arrange song for different combination of instruments/singers

Magic transcribing software

There is no such thing.  I don’t want to disappoint you, but there is no quick-fix when transcribing music from an audio file.  You can’t drag an audio file into a piece of software, press “analyse” and have it spit out fully-notated sheet music complete with lyrics at the other end.  There are software programs which will help you with certain aspects of transcribing, but the bottom line is:

There is no substitute for good aural skills

Some software programs do claim to transcribe music for you, but I haven’t found them very useful and they’re certainly not accurate.  There are often so many mistakes to be fixed that it’s hardly worth using the software in the first place.  It’s also worthwhile remembering that music is repetitive by nature, so when transcribing by ear, you often only need to transcribe one chorus and verse which can be copied into other places in your arrangement.

So, you know all the ear-training classes you hated at school or university, or the ones you’re still enduring now?  Stick with them – they’re good for you!

Transcribing tips

I’ve been transcribing music from recordings since I was a teenager and I’d like to think that I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way.  When I started transcribing, I suffered through transcribing from tape cassettes.  I later utilised  CD players and once went shopping for one that had responsive fast forward and rewind buttons to make transcribing easier.  Those early days were pre-internet, so I didn’t have the luxury of Googling the lyrics to a song – I had to write them down from the recording (they had lots of mistakes….).  I also had to buy a whole album when I wanted just a single song because there was no iTunes store.

Nowadays, my tools are quite different and the job is quite a bit faster due to technological advances.  However, my transcription workflow is roughly the same:

Step 1: gather materials

Lyrics – where possible, find the lyrics online before you start transcribing the song.  Even if you already know the lyrics to a song, having them written out can help to see the song structure (ie. the order of verses, where the bridge is etc.)

Existing sheet music - find out if there’s anything available that will give you a head start, even if it’s just a lead sheet, chord chart or guitar TAB

MIDI files – if you’re unfamiliar with MIDI files, take a look at my earlier article.  MIDI is a “musical language” that is interpreted by many software programs and because of this, you can open MIDI files in your notation program and then edit the information. It’s important to remember though that MIDI files are intended for listening to, not for viewing as notation.  Opening a MIDI file in a notation program may give you a head start, but there will be a lot of fixing up to do before it is a clear, readable notation file.

Step 2: map out the song

Map out the song structure on a piece of paper or in a Word document by writing a list of the sections in order.  If you managed to find the lyrics online, you can use them to help you determine the song structure.  If not, you’ll need listen to the song and write down the order of sections.  It’s useful to do this because you easily see the number of bars in each part and you can also see repeated parts at a glance which can be copied and pasted in your notation program.  You can also work out where you might use repeat signs, 1st and 2nd time endings, codas and so on when you notate your score.

Mine usually looks something like this:

Intro [8 bars]

Verse 1 [16 bars]

Chorus [16 bars]

Verse 2 [16 bars]

Chorus [16 bars]

Bridge [8 bars]

Key change – Chorus x 2 [16 + 16 bars]

Outro [4 bars]

Step 3: set up your notation file

In your notation program create a score with the correct key signature and time signature, the right number of bars, and include double barlines at the ends of sections.  Add in key signature or time signature changes that occur mid-way through the song as well.  Creating a score “skeleton” like this allows you to jump between sections when transcribing so you can do all the easy bits first and then fill in the harder sections later.  It also allows you to see where you can copy and paste sections of music.

Step 4: start transcribing

Melody – I often start with the melody line because it’s usually easiest to hear and it will help you keep track of where you are when you work on the other parts.  This is particularly true with vocal parts  - having the lyrics in the score straight away helps to keep track of which verse you’re looking at when you work on the other instruments.

Bass – After I’ve done the melody line I usually work on the bass part next.  The bass part provides a good grounding for the other parts, and helps you to work out the underlying harmonic structure.

Lastly, work on the inner parts and rhythmic parts if applicable.

Its a good idea to work on short phrases or single bars at a time.  Start with the rhythm and then fill in the pitches if you have trouble working out both at the same time.

Difficult-to-hear sections

Sing it – my personal philosophy is: if you can sing it, you can write it down.  That also means: if you can’t sing it you probably won’t be able to write it down.  There are a couple of common instances where I find it difficult to sing parts of a song:

• It’s very fast.  To overcome this, use a software program to slow the song down without changing pitch (see Tools For Audio Playback section below)
• It’s very low.  I find very low parts (ie. bass guitar or orchestral double bass) harder to hear probably because they’re out of my singing range.  Being a female they’re impossible for me to sing along with, so my solution is to transpose the song higher to make it easier.  Taking the song up a whole octave can be helpful because you’ll maintain the key you’re working in.  However, taking it up so far can distort the sound quality of the original recording, so test out the options to see what works (again, see the Tools For Audio Playback section below)

Use a variety of devices - I find it useful to listen to the section in through different devices – with headphones, without headphones, on my laptop, or on my iPod.  A change in sound quality can mean that you hear something different in the recording.

Hone in on a texture - sometimes it’s possible to oncentrate on the texture or timbre of an instrument on voice part when trying to listen to difficult passages.  I also often find that I can focus on specific instruments or voices via their “position” in the mix – I can focus on the guitar part that’s at the top in my left ear for instance.

Other transcribing tips

• If possible, loop the playback of a section you’re working on so that it plays repeatedly
• Use shortcuts in your playback device to move swiftly throughout the song
• Raise or lower the pitch of the music if you find it difficult to determine the pitches.  There are multiple software programs that can do this (see Tools section below)
• Use your musical knowledge and common sense.  If you can’t hear a section of a piece, take a look at what’s missing harmonically via process of elimination.  ie. if you know that there’s a C major chord on beat 1 of the bar and you’ve only notated a C and a G, then it’s very likely that one of the missing parts is playing an E
• When all else fails – have a bash! Play around with possible options for missing notes or chords and see what fits.  I play along with the recording on a MIDI keyboard, or piano by guessing the missing notes or chords and see what works
• Work with two screens – position your audio playback tool on one screen and your notation program on the other

Transcribing Tools

Audio Playback

Transcribe! (paid)

I’ve only been using Transcribe! for a short time, but I’ve found it to be invaluable.  It was recommended to me by professional arranger David Pritchard-Blunt (former musical director of Australian Idol).  Transcribe! does not do the transcribing  for you – it is a specialised program for playing back audio files that allows you to do the following:

• loop any section of the audio track with a couple of clicks
• identify and label (annotate) sections of a song so you can jump between them easily
• transpose instantly without changing the speed of the song
• slow down or speed up instantly without changing the key of the song
• playback a video with the audio file. Sometimes seeing a video of the performer can make it easier to transcribe a piece – you can see what their hands, fingers or bow is doing.

It can also “guess” chords and notes at any given point in the audio track.

Transcribe! is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and there’s a free 30-day trial period.  After the 30-day trial, you’ll need to buy a license in order to continue to using the program ($50 for a single copy, discounts for multiple copies).

Audacity (free)

Audacity will do most of the things that Transcribe! does and in fact, I’ve been using for quite some time as a transcription tool so if you’re looking for a free option it’s a good choice.  However, it’s the ease of use that makes Transcribe a worthwhile investment. I would advise downloading the latest beta version of Audacity (rather than version 1.2.6) because there are some extra effects included which will come in handy (such as the “Vocal Remover” effect).

Band in a Box – Audio Chord Wizard

The old workhorse Band In A Box is not a playback tool as such, but it does have a rather nifty chord analysis feature in recent versions.  Called the Audio Chord wizard, it allows you to import an audio file which can then be analysed by Band in a Box.

iTunes

In addition to being a useful playback tool when you’re working on your computer, iTunes allows you to organise your music so that it’s easy to find and allows you sync it to your mobile playback device.

Notation

Although I now use software to notate my transcriptions, once upon a time I did everything with pencil and manuscript paper.  It was free and transportable, but difficult when it came to formatting and layout or copying and pasting!

Notation tools of choice:

• MuseScore (the best free option )
• Sibelius (paid)
• Finale (paid)

Instrument

Lastly, an instrument such as a keyboard, piano or guitar comes in handy because you can use it to playback bits you’ve transcribed for the purposes of “proof-listening” or to work out logical progrogressions of chords for parts you haven’t yet transcribed.

And how about you?  Do you have any transcribing tips to share?