After many years of teaching guitar, I real- ize I have been holding out on my students. A student will bring in a recording and ask if he/she can learn the chords or a solo to a certain song. I’ll listen and decide whether the student is ready for this material and if so, I’ll write out the chord progression or transcribe the solo into tab or standard notation for the student. The process may take only a few minutes, but transcriptions may take up one entire lesson or more. Although I ask the student from time to time whether he hears a slide here, an open string there, a IV chord here, I do most of the work.
The sad part is that while the student goes away happy, I haven’t really helped him become a self-sufficient musician. For those of us who learned to play before the current education explosion, learning to play was a slow process of trial and error—breaking down the licks on record- ings one-by-one or maybe asking a good player to show us a lick or phrase. Although this kind of learning is slow, the concepts and techniques have time to sink in really well.
OK, I’ve decided to come clean. Here are my tricks of transcription. I’ll start simple and build from there. Let’s say we are trying to learn a Tony Rice song and solo from a CD.
Tools: a. Pencils and Standard Music or Tab paper OR Computer Notation pro- gram.
b. CD player
c. Adjustable speed tape player or digital “Lick Grabber”
d. Guitar tuned to standard pitch A. KEY and POSITION
Listen to the entire song to determine the key and position the guitarist is using. Modern recordings generally use standard tuning, but older and non-professional recordings may not be tuned to A 440. Flatt and Scruggs tuned high on many of their early recordings to achieve a bright tone. Listen for the characteristic sounds of each instrument for clues as to the tuning. A
stray open, ringing string on any instrument may be just the clue you need. In G posi- tion, guitars and banjos sound the same capoed at the third fret or fourth fret, but ddles and mandolins sound very different played in Bb and B. Use your guitar to nd matching notes and chords. If you think you have found the key, let’s now focus on the guitar part.
On stereo recordings, the guitar may be louder on one side. Even if the guitar is placed in the middle of the mix, the ddle or banjo may be panned hard to the left or right. Use the balance control to nd the place where the guitar is heard the best. Listen to the recording again and try to “hear” what position the rhythm guitar is playing in. The “G” shape, for example, has a characteristic sound no matter where the capo is placed. In other words, even capoed at the 4th fret, a “G” chord sounds like a G chord because of the order of intervals in that particular chord shape. Also, use your guitar sense. If you think the song is in the Key of F, where would it most likely be played on the guitar? The possibilities are many, but let’s look at the more common ones:
1. Open (non-capo)- While open F is possible in bluegrass music, it is unusual. Certainly, Tony Rice could do it, but it is much more common in swing styles. If you hear ringing strings in the chords on the recording, chances are there is a capo somewhere.
2. First Fret Capo - E position - The great open E sound is unmistakable.
3. Third Fret Capo - D position - D position is also readily recognizable and is a popular way to play in F. (Be aware that guitarists sometimes tune down the E string to D when playing in this position.)
4. Fifth Fret Capo - C position - Lots of pickers use this for “Beaumont Rag.” Most folks can hear the sound of C position.
The last note (and the highest note in pitch) strummed in a chord (often the rst string) is a good clue of the capo position. If you keep hearing the A note (rst string,
fth fret) every time an F chord is played, chances are the capo is at the third fret. B. CHORD CHANGES
Before you tackle the specic chord changes of the Tony Rice song, let’s look at Joe’s General Chord Progression rules. These may be very obvious to many of you, but it has to be said:
1. Songs usually start and end on the I chord. If it’s in G, the last chord is almost always G. The rst chord is often G too, but there are many exceptions. For instance, in the key of G the rst chord of “John Hardy” is C.
2. If the last chord is I, (which it almost always is), the next to last chord is most often a V chord. In the key of G, D or D7 is often the next to last chord.
3. Many bluegrass tunes use a I-IV-V progression which, in the key of G, is G, C, and D. Learn the I, IV, V sequence in every key you play in. A large number of bluegrass and old-time country songs use these three chords in different orders. 4. Many older mountain songs have a single progression for the verse and chorus (i.e., “Pig in a Pen”).
5. If the verse and chorus are different from each other, chances are the chords will do something new at the beginning of the chorus. If the song has been loping along in G during the verse, look for a C (IV) or D (V) to start the chorus. These are not the only possibilities, but they are very common.
6. If the progression moves to a major chord other than I, IV, or V, try II or VI. In the key of G, an A (II) chord sometimes shows up (“Good-bye Old Pal”) or occasionally an E (VI) or E7 (“Salty Dog Blues”).
7. If a minor chord appears, it will often be a II minor, a III minor, or a VI minor. In the key of G, these are Am (II-) as in the “Beverly Hillbillies Theme,” a Bm (III-) as in “Dixie Hoedown,” or an Em (VI-) as in “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”
Here are the chords and numbers in the key of G:
71 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine July/August 1999
G (I): usually played major
A (II): usually played minor, sometimes major
B (III): usually played minor, sometimes major
C (IV): played major, sometimes 7th D (V): played major or 7th
E (VI): played minor, sometimes major F# (VII): rarely in bluegrass, sometimes as major (Ex. “Sitting Alone in the Moon- light”)
Using these rules as a guide and your ear as a tool, play the CD and pause the recording at the first suspected chord change. Sing the rst note of the song at the place of the change and try to nd the appropriate chord. When you think you have found it, double check with the recording and then move on through the piece. Once you have made it through a verse and a chorus, most of the work is done.
C. THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR 1. Most bluegrass songs use the chords of the verse for the solo section (breaks) but some use the chorus and others use both.
2. Be aware that some songs have a “bridge” which may occur only once and may be unrelated chordally to the rest of the song.
3. If a song changes key or modulates, it usually moves up in pitch one whole step or two frets (G to A). Half-step modula- tions (one fret) also occur (G to G#). To modulate to a new key, musicians often use the V chord of the new key. To get from G to A, you might use an E7 (the V chord of A).
This skill only develops through practice, so promise yourself to learn at least one new song a week from a recording.
D. TRANSCRIBING SOLOS
After you have determined the key of the recording, the position the guitarist is using, and the chord changes, you are now ready to start breaking down the solo. There is a possibility that the soloist is capoed differently than the rhythm guitar. Bands with two guitars and multi-track recording make this possible, so check that the solo guitar sounds like it is in the same position. If this checks out, move on.
I use a two speed cassette recorder for most of my transcription work. The
desired passage is recorded at full speed and then played back at “slow” speed which is approximately one-half the “fast” speed. The result is that you then hear the passage half as fast and one octave lower than it was originally recorded. The trick is that you have to hear the octave drop and adjust for it when you search for the note on your instrument. I switch between speeds often to check that I am still in the right octave. If the solo moves to the fth and sixth strings of the guitar, it gets harder to distinguish the individual notes. I’ll save my tricks for this problem for the end of this column.
As a teenager, I used a four speed record player to slow down recordings. Thirty- three and a third RPM records can be played at 16 RPM with the same resultant octave drop. A little ne tuning of my guitar to the record and I was on my way. South Plains College Creative Arts Director John Hartin told me of the lick stealing technique he used as a kid. With guitar in hand and a standard record player on the oor, John would place his foot against the side of the record. With careful pressure adjustment, he could slow the turntable down enough to understand the fastest licks. In my twenties, I bought a reel-to- reel recorder and used the seven and a half and three and three-quarters speeds to slow down the licks. Somewhere I still have piles of tapes lled with solos—no songs, just solos.
Digital technology has produced machines and computer programs capable of slowing music down without changing pitch. This technology continues to improve, but for now I’ll stick with cassette tape. The basic techniques are the same no matter what system you use.
If you are working with a cassette player or a digital “Lick Grabber,” you should transfer the solo section from the CD to cassette or into the “Graber’s” memory. Listen to the solo several times at full speed. Transcribe as much as possible at full speed. Play the rst few notes of the solo and try to sing them. Now look for those notes on the guitar. Try for the rst note only if necessary. Once you think you have the rst notes, play the music at half speed and try playing along. Any mistakes should be obvious. Make adjustments and move on. If you are writing tab or music, write down these notes in whatever notation form you are using. (Some players prefer to memorize as they go. It takes longer, but you will know the solo when you nish.
Many times I write as I go and then I’ll have to learn the solo from the paper at a later date.)
If you are new to tab or music writing, don’t worry too much about getting the music into proper measures with correct time values. Just get the numbers on the right tab line or notes on the staff. This music is just for you and you already know how it sounds. You just want a reminder of where to put your ngers!
Continue note-by-note or phrase-by- phrase until you reach a logical stopping place. Play what you have done so far over until you can play it without stopping and compare it to the full speed original. You may hear subtle differences that you missed at rst:
1. Are there left hand techniques such as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends? 2. Do some of the notes seem to ring longer than others indicating open strings?
3. Do the notes sound thin and tinny like unwound strings or more fat and dark like wound strings?
Make any needed adjustments and rest your ears. A few minutes of hard listening
will really tire your ears and brain. If you reach sections you just can’t gure out, skip them and continue with the easier parts. Many times I’ll get stumped and quit for a day. The next day, the notes sound incredibly clear and obvious to me.
Continue until you have completed the solo. Congratulations! Right or wrong, you have begun.
E. OTHER ISSUES
Now that you have one under your belt, let’s look at some issues. As any given note can be played several places on a guitar, nding the right one can be a big job for the transcriber. I have sometimes written entire phrases in two or three positions and learned each one to see which one made the most “sense.” Sometimes using questions 2 and 3 above help me hear where the notes are being played. A combination of positions might be the answer. Slides and open strings are often indications that the guitarist is shifting position.
If you are studying one particular artist, some things may start coming easier. After transcribing ten Tony Rice solos (or learning them from someone else’s transcription), you will have a sense of some of Tony’s favorite “places” on the neck. Armed with this knowledge, you may develop an intuition about where a given Tony solo is headed. This kind of insight into how a player is thinking is one of the invaluable benets of transcription work.
After you have nished with a section or the whole solo, try to get some feedback from a musical friend or a guitar teacher.
What you want to know is: “Does this (me) sound like this (the recording)? As you develop, you can trust your ear more and more, but early on, you should get some feedback. Don’t get discouraged if your transcription is way off base. Ear skills can be improved with work. Its funny that ear skills are among the most important skills for improvising musicians and yet there is very little instructional material available. I’m afraid we teachers would rather keep you coming back by doling out licks and solos instead of giving you the tools to do it for yourself. (Give a man a sh, he has a meal; teach a man to sh, he has a liveli- hood.)
F. ADDITIONAL TIPS
1. If the original recording used a capo and I want to slow it down just a little, I use the variable speed feature to drop the pitch a whole tone or more and adjust my capo accordingly. Example: If the original recording is capoed at the second fret and played in G position (key of A), I can adjust the recording to play back in G (one step lower) and remove the capo from the guitar to play in G. This is especially helpful on bass runs that turn to mush at half speed. 2. If necessary, I will retune the guitar one whole step or more lower. This way I can take a song in G and lower its pitch one whole step to F. With the retuned guitar, I can still play along in G position.
3. By combining the effects of the variable speed and half speed controls, I can nd a place where the music is slower and the low guitar notes are understandable. Then I tune the guitar accordingly. The two most helpful positions are : (1) Full Speed, minimum variable, and (2) Half Speed, maximum variable.
4. Some modern guitarists, mostly in rock music, tune their guitars down a step or more for a bigger sound.
73 Flatpicking Guitar Magazine July/August 1999