How to Prepare a Transcription Project
My step-by-step breakdown for developing a transcription project.
Learning an entire recording can be tedious and exhausting, but use these steps to effectively and efficiently learn an entire recording note-for note.
Step 1 – Start Small: familiarize yourself with your chosen recording by taking repeated listens, knowing the overall form, and end this step with making a road map — this will make total memorization that much easier.
Step 2 – Playing While Passive Listening: continue to listen to the recording while following along with your map and instrument in hand. As the song passes figure out any material that sticks out to you the easiest, only the material you can immediately hear.
Step 3 – Attack with Passive Listening: take this step (if needed) to slow down the recording. Using your map, take the tune section-by-section and begin to actively learn the music. Restrict yourself from writing anything down!
Step 4 – Memorize, Memorize, Memorize: repeat the previous step as many times as needed until each section begins to blend, and you are not missing musical material. Begin progressively increasing the recording speed.
Step 5 – Performance Speed + Refine: by now you should be nearing performance tempo, using this as a way to figure out fine details lost in altering the recording speed. Refine your transcription by learning the intangible aspects of the original player; how do they get their sound? How do they fit in the band? Where is their beat? Where did they make their shifts? What position where they in? Etc.
Step 6 – Final Memorization + Notation: you should be performing the transcription with precision and accuracy, as if you were the original performer. Put your instrument down and (preferably by hand) notate the entire transcription from memory. All of the previous steps were to engrain the transcription into your personal sonic library, and to better inform your playing when on the bandstand. Once completed transfer the completed notation digitally using notation software such as Finale or Sibelius.
Step 7 – Record + Perform: double check all notation for complete accuracy. Get a band together and record your completed transcription, as well as perform the project live — this was no small feat!
Step 8 – Analyze: make a final analyzation of the entire performance. Look for patterns in the person’s playing. Learn and understand how the player develops from start to finish. Learn how the player navigates the harmony and form, their use of rhythm. The ultimate goal of a transcription is to learn from the masters of the music and make their material part of your language.
Video/Audio Recording and Editing: Diego Rubio