Music: Practice & Theory

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Creating notation for a piece of music based on a performance recording. This can also refer to rewriting music for a different instrumentation than what was originally intended.

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What are some good techniques (tips and tricks) to practice Melodic and Rhythmic dictation that isn't really basic? [closed]

I find that a lot of the techniques I use to practice melodic and rhythmic dictation are good but often stay at a really basic level. I want to get better at it but it's hard to stay focused when you ...
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42 views

Improving (piano) aural transcription

Every once in a while I try to figure out how to play a song on piano. I can get the melody, rhythm, and I can usually figure out the chords, but I have a hard time figuring out which chord notes are ...
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50 views

Transcribing and Ear Training with speakers or headphones

I have these really good JBL Studio monitors that I use in with my DAW. But I have a hard time using them with my ear training/transcribing. I don't know what it is but I seem to be able to pick out ...
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94 views

What is the function of a C major triad on a B minor song?

I'm transcribing this short piece called Vampurity by Shinji Iwai (it's a soundtrack to one of his movies) as a mean to: learn how to transcribe analyse and try to comprehend the piece. Here's the ...
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2answers
93 views

Composition by Hand: Workflow, habit, and handwriting [closed]

I have been composing using the computer for over two decades. However, I think this is not a very productive approach and I now wish to compose more often. To my understanding, very little is known ...
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1answer
47 views

Notation app to edit lyrics and single staff with notes [closed]

Is there a musical notation applications that makes it easier to transcribe the trumpet part for rock and roll song? I've used Musescore (free app) for editing music notation and printing sheet music,...
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1answer
94 views

Tips on how to transcribe string parts from a song by ear

I am a huge fan of ballad type music and want to get better at writing for strings but have not been able to find some scores or transcriptions of songs that I like so I have decided to try ...
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29 views

I could use some help analyzing a transcription I made of the disciples 2 menu theme

I've been transcribing some songs recently, however I feel that I am somewhat limited in actually approaching the analysis of the songs after I have transcribed them. I have attached a photo of my ...
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3answers
113 views

Transcription Beats per minute

For a personal project I was trying to transcribe a part of the flute solo in this piece. However, I am unsure at what speed I should transcribe the piece. I could either transcribe the piece at 250 ...
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1answer
25 views

Help With Transcription of Vocals for “Broken Lungs” by Thrice [closed]

I have the lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drum parts for this song. I cannot, however, hear what note Dustin starts singing on so I can transcribe it. What is the very first note and/or ...
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1answer
173 views

Transcribing from Orchestra to Piano [closed]

I was wondering what the standard procedure for transcribing an orchestra piece for a solo piano. Obviously, the large number of parts being reduced to a single instrument results in certain ...
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60 views

Advice on arranging an orchestral work for piano duet?

So, I am starting again with my arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite. I was debating whether or not to do the whole ballet but I decided on the Suite because it is shorter and more widely known than ...
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121 views

Can I write my own book of transcriptions? [closed]

I want to write my own book of transcriptions of jazz solos from the 30s. Are those copyrighted? Am I allowed to do this? Are works from the 30s public domain? What is public domain? Can a solo/...
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120 views

Workarounds for 10th intervals or larger when arranging for piano

So I figured that The Four Seasons might be easier to transcribe than The Nutcracker Suite (fewer lines, only real difficulty reading it is I have to translate between alto clef and treble clef ...
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1answer
100 views

Transcribing Nutcracker suite, running into difficulties

Obviously, going from an orchestral score to a piano duet score is hard in general. But I am running into some difficulties with transposition. 2 instruments I am transposing are Bb clarinet and A ...
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4answers
133 views

How can I find simple guitar chords to fit a melody line?

I worked out that the melody line to "Joy to the world" is basically just up and down the D major scale. In fact the first line "joy to the world, the lord is come" is literally the descending melody ...
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748 views

How to add extra notes to the original music sheet

I am learning guitar by myself. I see that the tab composer usually adds more notes that are not in the original sheet to make song more impressive. Please look at the notes in the circles in my ...
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69 views

Help with transcribing? I don't exactly know what key and chord can this be [closed]

I'm trying to transcribe one of the tracks from Anachronox: I'm very beginner at transcribing and my ears need much training as well. I think I wrote the melody and,...
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2answers
827 views

Transcribing as music and relative pitch practice?

I've read some good transcriptions recently and watched transcribe videos from 8-Bit Music Theory on YouTube and I was thinking if it's considered to be a good relative-pitch / interval / music ...
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2answers
298 views

Why can I not “find” the notes for Eminem's Mockingbird?

I am trying to put together a piano arrangement for Eminem's Mockingbird, and so much of the emotion comes from the rap lyrics. I'm trying to sound out the melody to his vocals, but no matter what I ...
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1answer
110 views

The “tunelessness” of birdsong in a “Peanuts” comic strip?

Charles Schulz was a very careful transcriber of music into Peanuts. Many passages are identifiable (lots of Beethoven, no surprise). However, Schulz could not read music himself -- thus copying from ...
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3answers
561 views

“Along the way” ear training in your daily routine

I am an amateur musician, not good at ear training. But I want to improve, unfortunately my time is limited as music is just a hobby. So in this post the author suggests doing ear training in your ...
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2answers
156 views

Problem with playing music by ear

When I was learning to play piano, I only learned how to read notes and all those rules so I can play a piece of music if I have sheet music, but I don't know the music theory at all... But I really ...
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1answer
94 views

What are the common problems when it comes to ear training and how do I fix it?

I can think of a few, first in formost, there is 2 different type of struggles transcribing in real time which requires you to hear and identify chords and melody and improvising, which requires ...
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1answer
98 views

How can you musically notate a certain type of vocal performance?

I've been listening to some Roxy Music recently, and was struck by the style of singing where much of it is not actually sung - I mean there is a pitched component, but it doesn't really belong to the ...
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264 views

How do train yourself to transcribe in real time?

One of the things I have done is scale degree training where you play a cadence and play any note to see if you can identify that note. I can probably be as accurate as 98%. 90% if you add chromatic. ...
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161 views

Tense and painful to pop 5th finger, why?

I started practicing the Lizst transcription of Beethoven's 5th symphony today and it is harder than it looks. Some chords I just have to arppegiate because my hands aren't big enough to play it as ...
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1answer
140 views

Does this look bad? Is is incorrect?

There are parts in this tune where I think it looks nice to use two voicing (to avoid excessive ties) and other parts where it looks good to keep it simple. Question: does it look bad to alternate ...
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3answers
103 views

Transcribing Background Parts by Ear

I have a song that I'm trying to make into a MIDI, and I have most of it down, but there's small part at the end that I can't pick out, no matter what I do. The problem is that it's strings playing ...
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1answer
86 views

Community dedicated to music transcriptions [closed]

Do you happen to know any e-community related to music transcription? Many times I have doubts about parts of my transcriptions and it would be nice to seek others' opinion.
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1answer
115 views

Practical audiation suggestions related with a specific song

In order to enhance my very poor audiation I want to begin transcribing songs and so I've started with a supposedly easy one (and I believe it really is), counting the number of voices, the ...
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2answers
150 views

Low-level harmonic transcription practice [closed]

What are some of the best pieces for me to practice transcription, given that I can already easily transcribe melodies, and with some difficulty can recognize simple chords in isolation, but find it ...
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2answers
126 views

How to hear the pattern and the chords - guitar?

Any tips about how to hear the picking/strumming pattern and the chords out of a song? For example, I am trying to get the picking pattern and the chords out of this song - luckily you can slow the ...
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120 views

Training set for automatic transcription of singing [closed]

I'm making an automatic music transcription system for singing so that you can convert your voice to midi. To train the system, I need WAVs of singing that are perfectly synched to midi files. Does ...
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2answers
548 views

I have perfect pitch but have trouble identifying the note of human singing and the note I hear in my head. Any suggestion on how to practice this?

When I hear a note played on an instrument, its name (like A, Bb, etc.) immidiately pops up in my head. But when I hear human singing nothing like that happens. So I'm wondering how should I practice ...
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1answer
114 views

Best approach/technique/workflow in transcribing harmonically complex music?

I sometimes find musical gems that I'd like to jam with but upon discovering that sheet music for them don't exist, I take on a transcribing challenge because it's such a good exercise. I don't have a ...
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2answers
275 views

How to transcribe close 3-part vocal harmony?

What are some good ways to figure out what notes are being sung? I can always tell when more than one note is being sung, but telling the difference between 2 and 3 separate pitches is very difficult ...
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291 views

What is Chris Potter playing here?

NB: This is all in Tenor Sax key (Bb), not Concert I've been mulling over the following excerpt of a Chris Potter solo on the tune "Just One Of Those Things," I find it probably the most harmonically ...
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2answers
488 views

How can I to learn sight-singing, transcribe, and sight-reading?

I'm curious what the best route would be to become proficient in sight singing & ear training, along with polishing my technique on my preferred instruments (guitar & piano). I have a broad ...
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1answer
863 views

Confused by overtones when transcribing music

I noticed that sometimes when I'm transcribing a song in which the recording quality/mixing makes things hard to hear, I can sometimes be confused by the timbre of a musical part. For example, if the ...
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1answer
192 views

Why did Anna Magdalena Bach write funny accidentals sometimes?

I'm checking BWV 1004 for a project I'm working on. I sometimes see that Anna Magdalena Bach wrote some veeeery strange flats. For example... Bars 113 and 114 from Chanonne. Bar 113 has on the bass ...
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1answer
446 views

I can hear the melody, but I can't hear the chords (Lift Every Voice example)

I have been charting chords to gospel songs lately. I did fine on a few but I came up short on "Lift Every Voice" by James Weldon Johnson, version in the key of G. The intro lick is a good example: I ...
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1answer
184 views

the right way to notate enharmonic notes [duplicate]

Hi I'm in the middle of transcribing Cappella music. The melody is in 'G# minor'. I have in succession F natural and then up to F#. My question is how should I notate the F natural, do I notate it as ...
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122 views

Are theremin's pitch hand positions unique?

I don't know much about theremins, and wondered about this: given a constant volume, I would like to know if I can produce the same note with different hand positions or if all notes have a specific/...
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1answer
1k views

How to notate a slide in vocal singing

I am transcribing Capella music. I came across singing from D# to B like a slide transcending without steps. How do I notate such a occurrence? Do I draw a line like a guitar slide? Or is there ...
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1answer
284 views

Lili Boulanger: Prelude in D-flat major: manuscript interpretation

I've found two type-settings of the prelude: One via IMSLP One via youtube The original manuscript/facsimile is also available via IMSLP. I'm not sure if I can trust either typeset versions. While ...
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78 views

transcribing a pause smaller then a measure

I'm transcribing Cappella music. When sometimes there is a small pause less then a measure before starting again the next theme or further melody. My question is how do I notate such a pause.
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233 views

Horowitz' improvised run during performances of fantaisie-impromptu

I'm hoping this is the best place to ask how to play the decorated run that horowitz improvises towards the end of the second section in his performance of Chopin's fantaisie impromptu? I can't find ...
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2answers
1k views

Standard staff size

I am looking to "design" and print some staff paper. Is there any standard regarding the distance between lines and spaces in a staff, and regarding the distance between staves themselves? I will ...
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3answers
220 views

How to write sheet music without having pitch reference?

As someone who doesn't have perfect pitch, I always need to have an instrument around to write sheet music for a song. If I know the key already I can figure out melodies but not more complicated ...

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