Improvisation on Nothing…

Here’s an interesting video from a Jazz musician called “Stefon Harris”. I wont spoil it too much, just to say that he gives some good insight into how improvisation really works. You see, there are no mistakes in improvisation, as long as everyone is listening and aware of what’s going on around them. Everyone just [...]

January 9, 2012 at 8:00 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments

How to Transcribe Rhythm

I had to wait a while to release this post because if you want to transcribe the rhythm of a piece, you first have to understand how time signatures work, and also have a good grasp of the different note durations. If you understand all of the above, then it’s time to read on… Counting [...]

June 30, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Developing Your Ears | 2 comments

How to Transcribe: Chords

So, here’s the next issue of the “how to transcribe” series (where I basically explain how you can get better at tabbing stuff out and figuring out songs…). We’ve already covered the lead sheet method and how to start figuring out the tune or melody. This week, we’re going to start working out the chords. [...]

June 16, 2011 at 3:42 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments

Transcribing: Melody

The dark art of transcription, a.k.a. “tabbing stuff out” has baffled many aspiring musicians for many years. Well, if you’ve come here looking for the answers then you’re in luck! I’ve broken down the process of transcribing into what I might end up calling “The Lead Sheet Method“. What is the “lead sheet method”? Well, [...]

June 9, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to, Practicing and Practice Routine | No comments

How to Transcribe: The Lead Sheet

So in this next part on tabbing stuff out and transcription, we’re going to look at the “Lead Sheet”. Firstly, what even is a “lead sheet”? …and how does it help you to transcribe? Well, it doesn’t directly tell you how to transcribe, and nor does it improve your skills. However, if you read on [...]

June 3, 2011 at 4:44 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments

Transcribing: Jamming the Key

So, as I promised, this series is going to help you when you want to tab stuff out. One of the easiest ways to start is to simply “jam” over the song as a backing track. Sounds kinda simple for something that’s supposed to be so difficult, right? First, read the pages on the major [...]

May 26, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments

Why Transcribe?

Well, this might seem obvious to you: you want to transcribe because you want to “figure out” the guitar tab for a certain song, right? Of course, that’s only after you’ve checked google (or your favourite tab site) for someone else’s work (which has the potential to be wildly inaccurate, sound nothing like the original [...]

May 19, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Developing Your Ears | No comments

How to Transcribe

Have you ever been in the situation where you’re scouring the Internet for a guitar tab- an accurate guitar tab- of one of your favourite songs only to be unable to find it? It sometimes seems like some of the best songs are either not tabbed out at all, or -maybe even worse- the only [...]

May 12, 2011 at 6:00 pm | Developing Your Ears | No comments

Alternate Tuning Notes

As an addition to my last post on how to tune, I created another page with sound files of the tuning notes for standard tuning (accessible from the menu, above, under “TUNING”). If you read the previous post, or watched the video, you probably realised that in the video I talk about downtuning the low [...]

March 17, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Developing Your Ears, How to | No comments

Guitar Lessons: How to Tune Your Guitar

I’ve just recently added a new tuning section to the site on tuning and to (celebrate?) this I’ve also recorded a YouTube Video on tuning your guitar. NOTE: this is an updated video. Click here for the original video. In this video I take you through two methods for tuning your guitar, both of which [...]

March 16, 2010 at 11:00 pm | Developing Your Ears, Equipment and Maintenance, How to | 2 comments

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