Get a Good Piano Transcript
A good piano transcript is essential to your learning and growth as a musician. But how do you get one that’s exactly correct? The reality is that it takes a lot of work to transcribe music exactly. Even if you do the best job of it, there’s still a chance that what you end up with won’t be completely accurate. But, it’s possible to make sure your transcription is very close to what you hear when the artist played it. Let’s explore some tips to help you achieve that!
First, you need to invest in a good pair of headphones. This will allow you to hear the different frequencies, tones and instruments better when transcribing. I recommend the Audio-Technica M50 headphones which are relatively inexpensive and have excellent sound quality.
Next, it’s important to listen to the piece of music you are trying to transcribe for an extended period of time. This will help you get a sense of the rhythm and structure. It will also help you to weed out any mistakes you may have made in your transcription. A tool like Grammarly can automatically recommend spelling and punctuation corrections for you, making it much easier to avoid errors that might be difficult to spot otherwise.
How to Get a Good Piano Transcript
Once you have listened to the piece of music several times and you have some idea of what you want to transcribe, start by playing it on your instrument at the same time as listening to the recording. This will help you to hear what you are transcribing better and is also helpful in working out the timings, as each note has a corresponding duration – a whole note being the longest and then a half note followed by a quarter note. This is especially useful when you are transcribing a piece of music that has been written in a time signature other than your own. Using a tool like Transcribe! that has a built in metronome can be very handy here too.
Another great tip is to slow the music down when you are transcribing it. This will give you a lot more time to work out what you are hearing and will force you to think about the music in relation to its key. Many transcription services have this feature. Finally, it’s very important to keep checking your transcription against the original recording. This will help you to see if you have got the chords and melody right, and to check that what you have written down matches what is actually being played on the instrument.
Finally, don’t be afraid to start small and work your way up. For beginners, it’s best not to try and transcribe a complex solo or song at the outset – this will only lead to frustration and possibly putting you off the process for good! Instead, start with something simple such as a diatonic tune.