How to transcribe

In music, to transcribe is to listen to an already-composed song or piece and write it down as you hear it, with the correct key, time signature, notes, rhythms, instrumentation, etc.- everything exactly as it appears in the original.

So how does one transcribe? While it is a very difficult process, and it takes some practice- I'm no professional by any means- there are a few tips and tricks that I've learned.

1. Figure out the key
The basis for any song, unless it is on unpicthed percussion, is the key signature, therefore, it is the first piece of information you need about the song you are going to be transcribing.

Finding the key is actually much easier than you might think- just listen to the song, and ask yourself if it sounds major or minor. A major song will sound happy and light, whereas a minor song will be scary and sad. Most songs will be easy to identify as major or minor, with the exception of some jazzier songs that are very chromatic.

After you figure out if its major or minor, figure out the tonic. Another word for the 'starting note', the tonic is the note that the rest of the song is based on- it is "Do" for you Solfege people. To do this, take the first chord of the progression, or the chord that sounds like home base, and find what note sounds best when you play it with it. You can use a pitch giver or any instrument, but I find that online pianos work nicely. Then, once you find that note, write out itself corresponding scale, either major or minor.

2. Listen for instrumentation
Next, you want to find out every instrument that plays in the piece, if you want to write down note-for-note and fully transcribe the piece, without arranging or compensating the instrumentation. To do this, simply listen to the song on endless repeat, and keep listening until you are absolute 100% sure you hear everything that is going on in the song. Keep a list as you go. This may be a bit more complicated for full-on orchestra pieces, but eventually, you will hear everything.

 For less common instruments that maybe you can't figure out what they are exactly, first figure out what instrument family the sound is coming from- is it percussion, strings, woodwind, or brass? Maybe an electronic synth? Next, eliminate any sounds that you know it CAN'T be. Then, taking the style into consideration, do some research. A modern pop song isn't going to use bagpipes: a Mozart Concerto isn't going to use electric guitar. Think logically- what other instruments does it sound like? A hint- if you can't tell what it is in a modern setting, it's probably some synth or guitar setting. In a film soundtrack or world music, it will probably be an ethnic instrument- most likely a unique instrument or a flute or percussion instrument of some kind. Keep looking, and maybe ask others- eventually you will find the instrument or something that sounds pretty darn close.

For every different instrument you hear, you will need to write a part.

3. Figure out the time signature
The rhythmic pulse of the song, a time signature helps dictate how the music is subdivided. Some signatures are REALLY easy to hear, like 3/4 time, or really anything that is simple time, like 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4. Fortunately, most modern songs are almost exclusively in one of these three signatures, with the rare few being in compound meter.

Perhaps the next easiest to hear are 3/8, 6/8, 9/8, and 12/8- which have a triplet-like pulse that is either grouped by 1, 2, 3, or 4 respectively. Cut time (2/2) is also very easy to hear; if a song sounds like a fast 4/4, its probably cut time.

You might encounter 5/4, 7/8, and 5/8- they are also easier to hear- they are irregular and if you know a song in one of them, you can fairly simply hear it in other songs. While I don't know any 5/4 or 5/8 songs off the top of my head, "I am the Doctor" from Dr. Who is in 7/8. The biggest help I can be for the others is listen to how the beats are grouped- it will either be 3+2 or 2+3.

The rest of the time signatures are where things start to get a little messy. Rarely will you encounter ones that aren't any of the previously stated, especially in modern popular music. But for those of you that are a bit more ambitious and want to take on the most notorious style of music for time signatures: soundtrack music, you very well might encounter something along the lines of 3/2, 4/8, 6/8 + 2/4, or my personal favorite- 27/16 ("L's Theme" from Death Note). For those particular pieces, the best I can offer you is listen for one measure. When you hear a measure, listen to whether it sounds completed or unfinished- if it has a 2, 3, 4, (5), 6, 9, or 12 on top, it will sound completed. 5 will sometimes sound completed, sometimes not. If it is some crazy number like (5), 7, 15, or yes, 27, it will sound like the music is almost skipping a beat. Next, listen for the bottom number, which will always be a 2. 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64. Rarely, and I mean very rarely, will you get the 32 or 64, but they do exist. Put two and two together, and you have a time signature.

4. Bassline
To write the bassline, listen for the lowest sounding note in the chord. Oftentimes it will be more of an ambiance than an actual, extremely audible thing. Listen for when it changes, and using your online keyboard or pitch giver, find those notes, and write them down. You will, 9 times out of 10, start to hear a pattern. Then, write in the rhythm with those notes, and you have the bassline.

5. Chord Progression
Remember the bassline from step 4? Now you are going to determine the actual chords for that moment in time. The note in the bass sometimes is the root, sometimes it's not. For the easiest way to find the chord, listen for how many notes are sounding. This should be very easy to hear unless it is a jazz piece, which uses all sorts of funky notes not stacked in triads- if it's a jazz piece, just write part by part and skip this step. For other songs, use the determined chord progression to help you in voicing the other parts- unless it is an accidental or a non chord tone, it will be within that chord.

6. Melody
I actually like to write my melody first, even before the bass. Since I am a flutist, I naturally tend to hear the melody's pitches. Write the pitches the same way as with the bassline- by using something that provides the pitch and comparing. You might be able to hear the intervals between pitches, like octaves or fifths or any of the others. If you think you hear a melodic interval within the melody, write it in and check it- you are probably right. Look out for instrumentation- the melody may move between different instruments, especially in an orchestral setting. The only hard thing about the melody might be the rhythm, especially for modern popular music or jazz, which tend to have some of the most complicated rhythms in all music. If there is a tricky rhythm, try memorizing it and singing it slowly back to yourself, listening for the beats as you go.

7. Accompaniment
There will most likely be other parts that aren't the melody going on, such as fanfares, chords, runs, harmony, counter melodies, or any other number of lines. For these, listen to how many there are in the piece. In most cases, another instrument will be doubled on it. Write these the same way as the melody- by comparing pitches and slowing down for rhythms. If you happened to pick a piece with a lot of runs, listen for the starting and ending note of each run, and dictate the scale starting on that note of the key that the song is in. If it doesn't sound right, alter the missounding pitches until it is correct. I say this because as a flutist, I can safely say that every run is either a scale or based on a scale.

8. Finishing the piece
At this point, add in any other parts that may be missing from the score. The biggest culprit is percussion. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how to write a part for drumset. But for other percussion instruments, the only thing you have to write is rhythm.

Once you are confident that you have the piece completely written and it sounds correctly when played back digitally (I write my music using a program called MuseScore), try publishing it online or sharing it with others! There will be somebody out there who appreciates all the hard work you put into writing your piece and will maybe provide you constructive criticism.

Just remember, transcribing isn't easy and takes a lot of practice. So just keep at it, and you will improve and greatly benefit yourself musically as well. Many people, including myself, see transcribing as a stepping stone for composing. So go out and be the next Mozart!