How to transcribe

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Hi everyone,

I’ve started writing my own music on harp and am wondering if anyone give me some guidance w/ transcribing my songs into sheet music. I’ve mostly played guitar and some of you may know, guitar tab is a lot different than sheet music. But for the most part, I would eventually (probably not for a long while yet..) like to write more complicated and lengthy pieces and I know that I’ll need and want to turn it into sheet music. I have some musical background but for the most part, its with guitar (and even then I didn’t learn a lot of theory from my teacher). I know very basic theory and I’ve told my teach that I would like to start putting more focus on theory, for this purpose.

I’m on here asking if any of you know of some good reference websites or have suggestions of sites I could look into? I can’t take lessons right now (for personal reasons) but I’m hoping to start up again in another month or so. But I’ve just written a song and would like to begin to transcribe it.

Thanks!
Tracey

[patricia-jaeger]

Tracey, once you have finished putting your song on manuscript paper with pencil, and adding any dynamics, fingering, title and so on that should appear on the finished page, decide whether you want to transcribe it into music notation yourself, or ask someone else with music notation software to do it. It could be a music composition student at a College of Music for example. Consult the professional Association or Union of Musicians to ask what a reasonable fee per page would be. If you do it yourself, you would need such software in your computer, and there are now quite a few to choose from: Finale, Sibelius, and others with more limitations as to what they can do. I got used to Sibelius, and the Educational edition is less expensive if you are a teacher, which I am, at a community college for many years. Now once it is in print and you see the first proof, make any changes, after playing it through to make sure no mistakes are there. Let at least one other harp player play it also to give any suggestions you may want to consider. Do you want a cover? Text only, or also a picture? Microsoft Office Publisher software is helpful for that. Find out whether a nearby printing company will print music for people. One such place in the U.S. is the Office Depot chain of stores. Do they stock paper that is the size and weight you wish, or can they suggest a store that can supply this, which you then carry to the place where it shall be printed? Do you want to bring the best print copy of music and cover, or put all that as a PDF on a small “thumb drive”, that the printer can transfer electronically into his equipment with which to work? These are just a few ideas to start you thinking. The music software that you buy will have a helpful book that comes with the product, giving you much more detail. Mine has 590 pages (!!!) and it is also online, once it is purchased. Happy publishing, Tracey!

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Wow, thanks for the lengthy and insightful response! I hopefully in the (very) distant future could use your advise but honestly at the moment, I’m just struggling with the very first part- actually taking my song and putting it on a music staff lol. I lack theory and I know thats something that I would really like to learn more so that I understand it and how to write my own music but for now, I have a 5 minute song and I want to write it down lol.

As someone with an understanding of basic theory, I’m just wondering if there are any references anyone could recommend on learning how to put my song onto paper, anyone?

[tony-morosco]

Tracey, yes, the term “transcribe” can be used to mean a few things. So what I am gathering from what you wrote is that you are trying to take the music you are writing in your head and while actually sitting at your harp, and notating it down on paper.

You will need some music theory for that. There are several good books out there that might be helpful. You want both basic theory and music arranging. Even though you are already arranging in your head a good book on how to arrange will clarify for you how to notate what you are arranging.

I suggest two books. They are both from The Complete Idiot’s series of books. Unfortunate titles, but they are actually excellent books.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory and The Complete Idiots Guide to Arranging and Orchestration.

I’m assuming you already know how to read notation, but even if not the first book will teach you as it explains the theory.

As a general guideline what I do is I first focus on the melody line only. Write out the melody line note by note. No chords or grace notes or anything extra. Just a line of single notes as you would see with flute music.

Next I figure out the chords. If you are doing this on the harp and already playing the arrangement then just look at the notes in the chords or base line you are playing and figure out what the chords are from that. This is where the music theory starts to become important.

You first need to figure out what key you are in, and the time signature, and you need some basic theory for that. Knowing the key helps you figure out the chords, because certain chords will be more common in certain keys. But you also need theory to be able to recognize when you might be playing a chord in an inversion. Sometimes the chords are a bit tricky to figure out. But once you do everything becomes much clearer.

Also understanding chord leading and common chord progressions will help you figure it out. Knowing what chords often follow other chords can help you figure out what you are actually doing when you figure things out to play on the harp.

And if you haven’t figured out the bass part yet and have just written a melody line then understanding Chord theory will help you figure out what chords will sound best in each measure based on both the key of the piece and the notes in the measure.

Once you know your chords you start filling in everything else. You fill out the treble part by adding in all the other notes you are playing. Just play it measure by measure and write down what you are doing.

Then fill out the bass as well in the same way using the chord progression you figured out already as a guide.

From there you can add tempo markings, dynamic markings, any effect markings, as well as lever or pedal changes if there are any.

They key is to break the music down to it’s parts and start with the simplest version of those parts. Start with just the actual notes in the melody line. Then the chord progression. Then the rest of the notes, and then each set of markings handle by their category one at a time.

Mozart may have been able to hear a whole orchestra in his head and be able to write down every note in each measure as he went along, but most of us mere mortals need to tackle it in manageable chunks.

Oh, and remember, the eraser is your friend. Play what you have put on paper and listen. If it doesn’t sound right at some point you can just erase what you wrote there and fix it.

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Thank you Tony!!! Thank you SO MUCH for your help!!! I’ll definitely pick up those two books and take your advice 🙂

[haromagik]

I like to do my wriitng/arranging on the computer. That way you can make changes easily, copy patterns you are using in different places, move things around, just like you would in a Word document. And you can print out a beautiful copy of your music with everything lined up just right. I use Finale. You can get a free download of their most basic program, Notepad, at http://www.finalemusic.com/products/ That is where I started, and have since upgraded several times, but Notepad does a surprising amount. Good luck!

[tracey-kjonegaard]

Wow thanks so much! I’ll definitely look into this as well!

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