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 or just plain wrong!).

hmmm…yeh…that’s one way of looking at it…

…but how about this: transcribing songs will actually make you more “musical”. Seem a bit far fetched? Read on…

The “Science” part

Well, it’s not really “science” (as I’m not gunna start handing out bunsen burners or making you wear those crazy goggles…), but this is the theory why figuring out songs will actually make you more musical. First, you have to think of your brain as being a bit like a computer. Actually- to make this more accurate- make that several computers, with several computer users all typing away, all working towards the same goal (as your brain is much, much more powerful than just one PC…).

Now, say your fretting hand is controlled by one guy and his computer, and your picking hand is another. Obviously these two guys need to be able to communicate and work together for you to be able to play guitar. Now, how do these two people know if they’ve managed to co-operate effectively? Well, there needs to be a third guy controlling your ears- listening to the sound that you’re actually creating and deciding if it’s good or not. You’ve also probably got some part of your brain actually remembering the song you’re playing, and another just thinking “Yeah, this rocks!”.

There’s a lot going on already, huh? Yet I’ve only been talking about the act of playing guitar. There’s probably a million other things going on in your head that you may or may not be aware of!

Sometimes, the more people you can have working on a project, the faster (better, and easier) it can be done- the same is true with your brain: the more different parts of your brain you can focus on to guitar playing, the better, and easier it will become. Makes sense, right?

So how do you do this? How do you get more of your brain involved in playing guitar? You need to do different activities- things that require a slightly different skillset, but are still musical things. Did you ever wonder why some people can play several different instruments really well? The same thing is happening with them- each new instrument actually becomes slightly easier to learn because you’ve recruited more and more people into your brain’s “music department”.

The “Transcription” Guy

Learning to tab stuff out and practising your transcribing skills, actually hires and then trains up your brain’s “transcription guy”. He’ll talk with the “listening guy” and pretty much write down (in your mind) what you’re hearing. From there he can do two things: talk to your “writing guy” to get you to write out the tab, or talk to your “composing guy” to allow you to come up with new melodies on the fly (based on what you can hear).

…and before you know it, you’re improvising a solo based only on what you just heard…

So where’s your “transcription guy”? If you don’t have one yet, maybe it’s time you hire one?

Rob.

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