Journal Entry
Sitting in the kitchen in the Berkshires. Looking out upon the meadow. Coffee and granola, 11:30 am. It's cold and windy today, albeit sunny. Pluto is sitting by the front door eagerly awaiting Julia (she is not on the way). Listening to Rubber Soul. Even when it's pre-bloom in Spring, it's beautiful here. Tranquil, quiet. Room to think.
Last night I downloaded Transcribe!, a program for music listening and transcription that is widely recommended. Picked out the bass and melody to the song "Return to Hot Chicken", which seemed like a good place to start. The inspiration for this was this post by Jake Worth last week. In summary:
Last night I downloaded Transcribe!, a program for music listening and transcription that is widely recommended. Picked out the bass and melody to the song "Return to Hot Chicken", which seemed like a good place to start. The inspiration for this was this post by Jake Worth last week. In summary:
- Find a song you like (start out on the easy side). You'll need a downloaded file, no streaming.
- Drag the song into Transcribe! which includes tools for slowing down and looping sections of the track. Use the built-in tone generator to help find the notes.
- Work through each section of the song, listening closely and experimenting with your guitar to find each note on the fretboard. Figure out what the guitar player is doing, but also find the bass notes, the rhythm section, even the vocal melodies.
- Write it all down in a tab, by hand.
- After you have enough of the sections of the song down, put the song into a playlist called "Guitar Practice". This is now part of your repertoire of songs to practice to!
What I love about this practice methodology is that it's practical. The barrier to entry is this: Find the first note of the song. Then the next, then the next. Continue until you have the whole piece accounted for. This trains your ear, your knowledge of the fretboard, and most importantly: it teaches you how to use the guitar to play music.