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HERE COMES
the bride …
“Amazing Grace”
A-MAZ-
ing grace …
“We Wish You a
WE WISH
you a merry Christmas …
Merry Christmas”
Tritone
“Maria” (from
MA-RI
-a …
West Side Story
)
Perfect fifth
Theme from
Goldfinger
GOLD-FIN
-ger …
“My Favorite Things”
RAIN-DROPS
on roses …
(from
The Sound of Music
)
“Twinkle Twinkle
TWINKLE TWINKLE
little star …
Little Star”
Chant of the Wicked
YO-EE-
oh …
Witch’s guardsmen in
The Wizard of Oz
Minor sixth
“Sunrise, Sunset” (from
IS THIS
the little girl …
Fiddler on the Roof
)
Major sixth
“NBC” chime
N-B
-C (first two notes)
“Jingle Bells”
DASH-ING
through the snow …
“It Came Upon the
IT CAME
upon the midnight clear …
Midnight Clear”
Minor seventh “There’s a Place for Us”
THERE’S A
place for us …
(from
West Side Story
)
Theme from
Star Trek
Doo-doooo
… (first two notes)
Major seventh
“Cast Your Fate to
(first two notes of the melody)
the Wind”
“Somewhere Over
SOME-
where
O
-ver the rainbow …
the Rainbow”
Octave
“Somewhere Over
SOME-WHERE
over the rainbow …
the Rainbow”
“A Christmas Song”
CHEST-NUTS
roasting on an open
fire …
DESCENDING
Minor second
“Joy to the World”
JOY TO
the world, the Lord is
(Christmas carol)
come …
“Spinning Wheel”
RIDE A
painted pony …
(Blood, Sweat and Tears)
Chapter 12:
Transcribing What You Hear
161
Interval
Song-Specific Phrase
Major second
“Three Blind Mice”
THREE BLIND
mice …
“Mary Had a Little
MA-RY
had a little lamb …
Lamb”
“Yesterday” (The Beatles)
YES-TERDAY
, all my troubles seemed
so far away …
Minor third
“Jesus Loves Me”
JE-SUS
loves me this I know …
“Hey Jude”
HEY JUDE
…
(The Beatles)
Major third
“Swing Low, Sweet
SWING LOW
, sweet chariot …
Chariot”
“Good Night Ladies”
GOOD NIGHT
ladies …
(from
The Music Man
)
“Summertime” (from
SUM-MER
-time, and the livin’ is easy …
Porgy and Bess
)
Perfect fourth
“Born Free”
BORN FREE
…
“My Girl”
MY GIRL
, talkin’ ’bout my girl …
(The Temptations)
Tritone
European police siren
Perfect fifth
Theme from
FLINT-STONES,
meet the
The Flintstones
Flintstones …
“Feelings”
FEEL-INGS,
whoa, whoa, whoa,
feelings …
Minor sixth
Theme from
Love Story
WHERE DO
I begin …
Major sixth
“Over There”
O-VER
there …
“Nobody Knows the
NO-BOD
-y knows …
Trouble I’ve Seen”
Minor seventh “Watermelon Man”
Water-
MEL
-on
MAN
Major seventh
“Have Yourself a Merry So
HAVE YOUR
-self a merry little
Little Christmas”
Christmas now …
Octave
“Salt Peanuts”
Salt
PEA-NUTS
, salt peanuts …
(Dizzy Gillespie)
Exercise your interval memory the same way you did your tonal memory. Start by
listening to a song and picking two adjacent notes in the melody—the first two
notes are often the best to work with. Wait a few seconds; then try to sing the two
notes. Verify your accuracy by playing the song again.
Once you can internalize the interval, try to determine what interval it is that
you’re singing. Is it a second? A third? Is it major or minor? Determine the inter-
val, and then try to reproduce the interval on your instrument. Once you can accu-
rately play the interval, you can verify the specific interval you guessed. (For
example, if you find yourself playing a G and then a B, you know you’re playing a
major third.)
Part 4:
Accompanying
162
Hearing Rhythms
Lesson 4, Track 27
We’ll set aside pitches for a moment and instead focus on note durations—in
other words, your
rhythm memory
. Use the same technique as you did before,
but this time listen to the rhythm of a song’s melody. Start by figuring out the
time signature of the song and breaking the melody (in your head) into meas-
ures. Now pick the first few beats of the melody’s first measure. Stop the play-
back, fix that rhythm in your head, and then pound it out with your hand on a
table. Repeat this process until you can hold the rhythm in your head for half a
minute or longer.
Once you can repeat a short rhythmic phrase, it’s time to up the ante. Try re-
peating the rhythm for an entire measure; then two, then four, then for the
entire melody. Always check your accuracy by pounding the table in time to the
original song.
With the entire rhythm of the melody committed to memory, use the theory
you’ve learned and try to transcribe the rhythm. Start small, a beat or two at a
time. Make sure the rhythm you write is mathematically sound; for example, if
the song is in 4/4, all the notes have to add up to a full whole note. (That means
four quarters, or eight eights, or two quarters and four eights, or whatever.)
Once you’ve written down the entire rhythm, play back the song again, this
time reading the rhythm you’ve written. If you notice a discrepancy, correct it;
otherwise, repeat the exercise with another song; this time one that is more
rhythmically complex.
Hearing Melodies
Lesson 5, Track 36
Now that you can hear individual notes, intervals, and rhythms, you should be
able to hear and transcribe complete melodies. All you have to do is put together
everything you hear, in the right order, to develop your melodic memory.
Although you can piece together a melody one note or interval at a time, it’s
easier if you try to grasp the big picture first. That means figuring out how
When you first start listening to intervals, you should focus on the relative
distance between the two notes. Is it a wide span between the pitches?
If so, the interval is a larger one; maybe a fifth or a sixth or something
even larger. Is it a narrow span between the pitches? If so, the interval
is a smaller one; maybe some sort of second or third. Narrow the possibilities
down as much as possible before you determine the precise interval.
Tip
Chapter 12:
Transcribing What You Hear
many measures long the melody is, and how it’s broken up into phrases. Once
you can dissemble a melody into its component parts, you should focus on each
part separately.
On what pitch does this part of the melody start? On what pitch does it end?
On what pitch does the middle of the phrase end? If you try to pinpoint indi-
vidual parts of the melody, it should be relatively easy to connect the dots and
fill in the empty spaces with the proper passing and neighboring tones.
Once you’ve written out the entire melody—including both pitches and rhyth-
mic notes—remember to verify your accuracy by playing back the melody
you’ve written. Compare the melody you play with the melody you first heard;
the better you get, the closer they’ll match up.
Hearing Keys
Once you can notate a melody, you should be able to determine what key the
song is in. For example, if your melody incorporates a B
—but no other flat or
sharp notes—it’s a good guess that the song is written in the key of F. (As you
probably remember from Chapter 4, the key of F has a single flat.) If the
melody has an F
and a C
, you’re probably in the key of D.
Another way to determine the key is to fix the home pitch of the melody. If the
melody keeps resolving to G, chances are you’re in the key of G. (Unless, that
is, the melody is minor—in which case, you could be in the key of G minor.)
Test your guess by using your instrument to play a major scale in the designated
key, while the original song is playing. If all the notes fit, you’ve guessed right.
If not, try a related key—a key one or two steps away on the circle of fifths.
Hearing Chords and Chord Progressions
Lesson 6, Track 41
The last piece of the puzzle concerns the underlying chord structure. You need
to hear when the chords change, and what they change to.
When determining chords, it helps to listen to the song’s bass line. If you listen
to the notes the bass is playing, 9 times out of 10 the main notes—all embellish-
ment aside—will be the root notes of the underlying chords. For example, if you
know the song is in the key of C and the bass player plays, in successive meas-
ures, C, A, F, and G, it’s a good guess that the chord progression is C-Am-F-G.
You should also listen carefully to determine whether you’re hearing a major or
a minor chord. Remember, major chords are happy sounding; minor chords are
a little sad.
Once you’ve figured out the chords in the song, you should test your chord
transcription against the melody you’ve previously transcribed. Make sure the
notes of the melody fit within the chord structure; if not, you probably need to
rethink a few chords.
163
If you’re having
trouble hearing the
chords, you can
always try to figure
out the chords from the
notes of the melody, which
you learned how to do
back in Chapter 10.
Tip
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