kiat Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Have learnt some great tunes (mainly soul/pop, early funk) from transcription, tab and by ear - but sometimes I can't find anything online so learn by ear. Am tempted to do a transcription, though I have zero formal music theory and only know what I see in transcriptions and the play along type books I have. So as I convince myself to do one ("Say a Little Prayer" likely the first), I'm wondering what other players have done. If you've written a transcription, what was your first one? (sneaky thought: might help extra transcriptions surface! ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doddy Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I can't remember what my first transcription was,but start off with something simple(especially as you've got no training). Try to find a simple melody to write out and then work out the chords. Then,as you get better,look for more difficult tunes or solos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 [quote name='kiat' post='1144679' date='Feb 28 2011, 05:28 PM']Have learnt some great tunes (mainly soul/pop, early funk) from transcription, tab and by ear - but sometimes I can't find anything online so learn by ear. Am tempted to do a transcription, though I have zero formal music theory and only know what I see in transcriptions and the play along type books I have. So as I convince myself to do one ("Say a Little Prayer" likely the first), I'm wondering what other players have done. If you've written a transcription, what was your first one? (sneaky thought: might help extra transcriptions surface! ;-)[/quote] Go for it, you'll learn a lot from having a crack & that's no bad thing. I've fumbled my way along with regards to 'transcriptions', started with tab & have progressed a bit towards just using notation. Tux Guitar is a good (and free) way to get to grips with it all. The first hurdle you'll hit is note duration. Text-based tabs don't really bother with this, so you're left groping for the phrasing in each bar. Trial & error worked for me, & it's still a work in progress. Tux won't let you write an 'illegal' bar - it automatically decides how long the last note is, & if you find it completing a bar with a dotted 64th the odds are you've got something wrong earlier. It (and the commercial Guitar Pro) allow for MIDI playback of the score, which helps a lot in figuring out those fiddly tails & that. Next up will be Time Signature. Sometimes it's obvious (like 4/4 vs 3/4 or 5/4), other times it's not at all obvious (e.g. the apparent interchangeability between 6/8 & Triplet-feel or 'swung' 4/4). Key signature follows on, but omitting it for simple arrangements probably won't bring about the apocalypse. I've yet to finish the first bassline I set out to transcribe... thought I'd go for something dead easy that everybody knew, so I picked Willie Dixon's line in Johnny B. Goode. Bad move. The 'proper' line to this badly overplayed classic is absolutely mental - WD scarcely plays the same thing [i][b]once[/b][/i], let alone twice I keep coming back to it, & one fine day I'll post the results. I've posted a few in this thread: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=97180"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=97180[/url] & there's a recent one here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=122564"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=122564[/url] Make of them what you will. I've also [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f66/old-school-rock-n-roll-r-b-tabs-680702/"]cross-posted them on TalkBass[/url] in their 'Tablature' sub-forum, and on Finnbass - some of the responses have been very helpful in sorting out quirks in the notation. Pete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 Thsi was my first although this is NOT the transcription I did at the time but an up-to-date corrected version. I chose it because it was within the range of the bass and didnt' have anything too fast or difficult to execute on the bass. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=48470&hl=song+for+strayhorn"]Song For Strayhorn[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eight Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Think my first ever was Asylum Choir by Motorhead (on guitar as a kid). Can't remember what my first bass one was... I do a lot. Just for the training. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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