Note by Note

Lesson goal: be able to transcribe any series of pitches
What you will work on this week is transcribing a series of pitches. We will not concern ourselves with rhythm yet.  You will start with one note at a time.

One note

1. Listen to the note.
   
2. Mentally conceive the note. (imagine what the note will sound like or recall what the note sounded like) Take a second or two to do this – do not skip this step.
3. Sing the note. Yes, you need to sing. If you have trouble singing the note you can work on the following exercise:
   i) Play any note on your instrument (better if it is in your vocal range).
   ii) Let go of the note.
   iii) Try to sing the note.
   iv) Use a tuner (soundcorset is a fine app for this) to help see what note you are singing and how you are off.
   You may be surprised to see that you are singing a 5th or 4th away – this is normal. Doing some interval identification ear training with 4ths and 5ths and 8ves will help you understand when you are doing this.
   If you are having troubles start humming very low in your vocal range and gradually glide up into the note.
   It is vital that you can do this as a connection between the minds ear and your instrument is essential.
   Demo 2.1 Matching Pitch
   
4.  Find the note you are singing on your instrument:
   Make a guess.
   Note: At first the guess will be random and only later on when we transcribe a melody, we will compare the note we are looking for to the previous note we found so that we can make a more educated guess about where the note is.
   If you are right cool you found it!
   Otherwise either:
   Brute force: sing the note again (make sure not to sing the note you guessed – you can always go back to step 1) if you lost the note) guess the next immediate higher note if your right cool you found it! Otherwise sing the note again and guess the next highest note (one semitone higher) – repeat until you find the note you are looking for. (could take up to 12 guesses)
   Demo 2.2 Brute Force
   
   Finesse: sing the note again and compare it to your first guess. Was it higher? How much? Did it a form an interval that you are used to hearing from ear training? Is it related to a tonal context? This Finesse method can never really be formalized as it involves different questions for each person. However the advantage of trying to use it is that you will eventually begin to guess more accurately as your assign and refine personal mental labels and associations to what you are hearing. Getting into these deep thoughts and asking these kinds of questions whilst using this method is the heart of learning from transcribing.
   Demo 2.3 Finesse
   
   
5. Write it down.
   For this week it is fine if you would rather write the notes as letter names instead of on the staff – for ex A B C# F Gb etc… Also don’t worry yet about which octave the note is in.

Good! Now we are ready to transcribe a melody.

A whole melody

1. Listen once to the melody you want to transcribe. Take some general mental notes such as the melody starts out low and then goes high or the melody is mostly smooth and has few leaps or the melody has a pattern in it etc… just take notes of what things stand out to you. This will make remembering the melody much easier.
2. Find the first note. If after you hear the whole melody you can’t remember the first note than you need to listen to a smaller part of the melody.
   This is where we will learn our first three transcription techniques: pausing, looping and slowing down the music
   
3. Write it down
4. Listen to the melody again. Pause it wherever needed to get the second note in your ear. Try first to find the second note using the Finesse method (comparing it to the first note you found). If you fail use the Brute Force method.
   Note: If you can transcribe more than one note at a time sure go ahead, but do not miss out on learning and practicing these fundamental techniques and methods.
5. Write it down. 
6. Find the rest of the notes and write them down as in 2) – 5) checking periodically by having the melody play and reciting what you have transcribed in your mind’s ear (audiating it) or physically playing your transcription on your instrument.
7. Check your melody at the end by playing it along with the recording. Also double check that you wrote down the notes you intended to. 

Assignment 2.1 (in shared folder)

This week you will work your way up to transcribing any series of pitches. You will do this with exercises at 7 levels. The first few levels should be easy and shouldn’t take too long. It will at some point become evident when you will start needing to use Brute Force. Be it as early as level 1 or as late as level 7, this is an important point that informs you of the importance of being fluent in both Brute Force and Finesse. 

Note: I have made two sets one for male voices spanning Bb2 to E4 and the other for female voices spanning D#3 to C5 so choose whichever set best coincides with your range. 

level 1: using only notes C D E F G starting and ending on C, 1 octave
This should be pretty easy. Since you know what notes to choose from you will likely not need to use any Brute Force or pausing techniques. However, do so if need be.   

level 2: using notes C D E F G starting on any one of them, 1 octave
Here the difficult part will be to find the first note. After that the next notes should be easy as in level 1

level 3: using notes from the C major scale, 1 octave
Again you only have one octave to deal with so the choices are pretty limited.

level 4: using notes from any one key, 1 octave
This is the hardest step and so for the first 2 exercises I will tell you the key – that way if you know some theory you will be able to know which notes to choose from so it will be like level 3 just using a different pool of 7 notes. For the rest of the exercise though you are on your own. If you are able to determine the key of the melody just by listening to it that is great and it will help you to restrict your search. Otherwise, do not worry too much about what key the melody is in (we will learn to find the key of a piece of music in later lessons) and try instead to find the pitches using the techniques and methods outlined in this lesson.

level 5: using notes from any one key
Be careful of some big jumps in the melody – it may help to go note by note for the big jumps. 

level 6: Introducing chromatic notes, 1 octave
Now the only restriction is the melody will be contained in 1 octave. Try not to let the chromatic notes throw you off completely. Try to use the Finesse technique as much as you can but if you are really stuck on a particular note you can use Brute Force. 

level 7: anything goes
These melodies are tough! If you can do these you have mastered the techniques and methods taught in this lesson! 

Assignment 2.2

Transcribe:

cello in Yo-Yo Ma – Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: IV. Sarabande
Assignment 2.2.1

Or

flute in Eric Lamb – Flute Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013: I. Allemande 
Assignment 2.2.2

 

Or

violin in Oliver Colbentson & Erich Appel – Melodie in E flat major (Tchakovsky Op. 42)
Assignment 2.2.3

Don’t worry about the rhythm or the key signature even – just write down the pitches in the order that they are played.

Assignment 2.3 

This is assignment is more personal and is aimed at making a connection between your mind’s ear and reality. Take a simple song that you know really well – ode to joy, twinkle twinkle little star, happy birthday, oh when the saints go marching in, mary had a little lamb, frère Jacque, a national anthem – and write out the melody notes in order. Don’t worry about the rhythm just the note names in the order that they come – whichever key works for you.
Demo 2.5 Figuring out a Melody you Know Well