How to Transcribe Music

Music is an art that requires listening. And this is the most important idea when learning and instrument. Transcribing is learning by listening. You listen to the music and then learn how to play it. This is the best approach to learning new music because it allows you to internalize the music. Transcribing requires thinking, it requires that you understand the music instead of simply reading notes. Most famous rock musicians and other contemporary genres learned the majority of their licks and information by listening and learning the music of their favorite artists.

Transcribing is difficult at first. First listen to the song you want to learn all the way through. Listen for possible licks that you want to learn or certain parts of the song that you enjoy. Next isolate the part of the song you want to learn. I like to remember the spot in the song on my ipod so I can repeat over and over until I get it. Then start small. Try to distinguish the first note of the lick, or the first chord of the the song by testing all the notes on you instrument. Eventually, you will hit the root, 3rd or 5th and you will know the chord. Then move to the next part. It will take lots of practice, but this approach is much better than squandering your time learning to read music. You do not need to learn to read music to play guitar, or piano or other instrument for that matter. You simply need to listen to the music. You only need to learn to read music if you want to play classical music, and, if you do, then by go ahead and learn. Transcribing is far better though.