The Key to Transcribing Music By Ear

Transcribing music is an important skill for musicians of any level. If you’re a casual musician, you’ll likely want to transcribe music for your own reference, as well as to share with others. If you play in a band, having a piece of music accurately transcribed in notation or tablature format can save a lot of time and confusion. If you write your own songs, you’ll probably want to transcribe them in some form as well. And for advanced musicians, transcription is an even more important skill, as you may be required to provide detailed transcriptions for large ensemble settings; many college and university music programs involve this type of exercise at some point.

Guitarists know that there are millions of tabs and chord charts available online, but they’re also probably aware of how inaccurate the vast majority of these are, making them a waste of time for those interested in performing these pieces. Of course, there are also those songs that you just can’t seem to find.

So, it’s clear that no matter what sort of musician you are, the ability to transcribe music accurately is extremely useful. How is this skill acquired?

The key to transcribing music is ear training. Ear training will give you the skills you need in order to transcribe with confidence and accuracy. Through ear training you’ll gain pitch and interval identification, so that you can understand the notes you’re hearing.  You’ll learn how to distinguish all different types of chords from one another, so that you can get the melody and harmony down. Ear training also helps musicians get a feel for rhythm, so that, when it comes to transcription, you can be confident of putting everything where it needs to be.

The benefits of ear training include allowing musicians to transcribe music accurately, which in turn has its own extensive set of benefits. Being able to transcribe music will not only make you a better musician but will also improve your music improvisational skills on the long run. If you ever find yourself wishing you could transcribe music yourself, the solution isn’t far off. Ear training is the key.