The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Part 4:
Accompanying
The real test comes when you play your chords against the original recording.
Be especially careful to match where your chords change with where the chords
change in the original song. It’s not uncommon to accidentally skip a chord
change or two, so listen closely to make sure you picked up on all the changes.
Writing It All Down
If you’ve followed the exercises carefully, you’ve ended up with a complete tran-
scription of the melody and chords for a specific song. Congratulations! It’s a
lot of work, I know, but this newfound skill is one you’ll use again and again as
you progress in the music field.
You can further develop this skill by transcribing other parts of the song, not
just the melody. If the song has a horn section, try to figure out and transcribe
each individual horn part. If there’s an orchestral backing, work on transcribing
the string parts. If there’s a fancy rhythm section, isolate and transcribe the
rhythms played by each individual percussionist.
Further developing your transcribing skill is especially important if you choose
to pursue the fields of composing or arranging. You can certainly challenge
yourself by transcribing an entire big-band arrangement for your high school
jazz band, a full choral arrangement for your church choir, or a string quartet
for your community orchestra. There’s value in this skill—and a great sense of
accomplishment when you get it right.
The Least You Need to Know
◆
Ear training is necessary for those times when you don’t have written
music to work with—or when you want to figure out a song you’ve
recently heard.
◆
The key to transcribing a song is to listen, process what you’ve heard, and
then document what you’ve processed.
◆
To accurately analyze a piece of music, you have to learn how to actively
listen—to isolate and then remember the individual parts of the song.
◆
As part of the ear training process, you must develop your intrinsic tonal,
interval, and rhythmic memory, so that you can remember and replicate
the pitches, rhythms, and melodies you hear.
◆
Once you’ve transcribed the entire melody, you can more easily figure out
the song’s key signature and its underlying chord structure.
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Chapter 12:
Transcribing What You Hear
Exercises