If you want to really understand what’s going on in songs you hear, there are few more effective training methods than transcription.

Taking the time to transcribe a song, working out the pitches and rhythms played by each instrument and how they all fit together is a truly powerful way to move your musical expertise and aural skills forward.

Transcribing a song by ear can seem like an overwhelming process at first though! Most guitarists do not approach it systematically. Often, people pick a random riff or lick in the song and just try to learn that first. Generally, taking a more structured approach makes the whole process much easier.

Here are 7 important tips and tricks to help you transcribe:

1. Tools

Good news: There really isn’t that much you need to transcribe a song, apart from your ears!

The CD containing the song is usually the best choice to transcribe from. Music file formats (like MP3s) can sacrifice audio quality to make the file size smaller, so if you use a file make sure it’s a high quality version – or you may be making your job harder than it needs to be!

All you really need is a media player that lets you jump to any part of the song you want. There are also specialist song transcription programs which can be a better choice. Most of the tools are not really necessary unless you are transcribing a song with 10+ simultaneous tracks, but other features (like being able to bookmark parts of the track) can be quite convenient and speed the transcription process along.

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Enjoy singing your favorite tune at the top of your lungs in the privacy of your own car? Having such wonderful self-confidence in a less-than-stellar vocal performance can be exhilarating, but developing accurate pitch is an essential part of ear training. You can practice pitch by recording your voice. Recording your voice allows you to be the Simon Cowell of your own personal American Idol.

You can easily record your voice with Audacity, a free sound editor available at Sourceforge. Audacity is currently available in two flavors, the original Audacity ’1.2.6a’ and the new beta version Audacity ’1.3.12 (Beta)’. Audacity is available for both Macs and PCs, as well as other operating systems like GNU/Linux. To record your voice or an instrument in Audacity, you will need:

• a computer
• a microphone (a built-in microphone or a USB mic will do)
• and preferably a pair of headphones

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