How to listen to a song. Please Help!

[KeyofB]

Can someone give me tips on how to listen to songs and play them verbatim  I really need this info.

Thanks in Advance,
Brian

[bug]

How do you take down the words to a song?The techniques are similar. Some people say they hear the bass line best. It is usually loud in gospel music. The electric bass is predominant. Some singers say all they hear are the voices. If that is you, then you want to listen to the lead voice or the soprano voice when the choir sings.Listen to two or three notes and stop the recording. Sing the pitches back. Find the pitches on your instrument. Rewind the recording. Play the recording. Do your pitches match those on the recording? If they don't, keep repeating until they do. This is tedious work, and requires a lot of patience. Make sure you are in a private place where you won't have any distractions. Be well rested and alert. Some people write all the words out and make notations on the paper, above or under each word or syllable. Some people don't sing the pitches at all. They play them directly on their instrument. Find what works best for you. If you can figure out three pitches, then beloved, you can figure out the next one or two. Take one step forward, then take two steps backward. Rewind the recording. Play a few more notes, find those. Rewind, go back, check yourself, does it sound right? Everyone hears differently. Some people are more passive listeners, some are more active. Try to highten your awareness of what you are listening to. Slowly but surely one or two pitches, turns into a complete song. You will imitate all the pitches of either the melody or the bass. From here you will listen to the pitches between the bass and the melody. This is the harmony. It is learned by imitating also, except you have pitches on top of and below each other. Harmony is a little more demanding, however there are some rules that will help you when you are not sure of what you are hearing. The harmony parts will usually be close together. One, two, three, or four notes between them. You will have to use your intuition. Does it sound right? If it sounds right, then it is right. It helps if you have a name for every sound. You may not be that advanced. Listen, think, remember,play.

[Davelong]

To transcribe a song I cheat - I use a little machine that slows the speed of the song down to 1/2 tempo without changing the pitch.  It can also isolate a nano-second of time and play that back, loopstyle, to help me to really zero in on any harmonies that I might have missed when listening back at real time or 1/2 time tempo.  This feature is really great, because my ear can be fooled in real time tempo. I usually try to transcribe writing the notes on a full score in my "Finale" program, doing one part at a time  - usually the bass first.  (I'm a bass player - so that is usually the easiest for me) The Finale program is really great because after I've written it down, it will play it back for me - all parts that I've written - and then I can easily check all parts by ear.
It all takes a long time! but the results are usually excellent.  It's also a fantastic way of training my ears.
Hope some of this is helpful in some way.

All the Best!

[hayat]

Davelong, I have a transcriber, too.  But I'm still having difficulty hearing chords.  I have been trying to play by ear for many, many, many years and it is so frustrating for me.  I thought the transcriber would help me a lot.  But I'm still struggling.  I think my problem is that I have difficulty hearing lower tones.  I can easily pick out higher tones but the lower the tone, the harder it is for me to discern.  Any suggestions?

[ProMaestro]

Those are some really good techniques.  I never thought of all those ways..well I just guess I never thought about any other way than the way that I do it.  I just listen for familiar progressions  and then throw the chords in.  That way, I can just go ahead and play the song in every key.  It's kind of hard because you have to know a lil music theory, how to play in all keys, and have a good eartraining to hear chords and progressions.  But after a few practices, you will be able to hear any song and be like, "that's the key of Db or whatever and I hear the 7-6-3-2-5-1 progression!" 8O    :lol:      :wink:

[bug]

I really had to think long and hard about this. I want to be as concise as I can in my explanation.

I admire all the new devices that technology has provided us. It helps us to be all that we can be. If you can afford to buy these things or can use them free of charge by all means use them.

Unfortunately I had to transcribe music before such tools were available. I just had a brain and an ear. Ultimately that 's all that we have. My brain and ears are always with me.

Identify the first note. Identify the key. Establish the key. What is the relationship of the first note to the key? Establish the relationship. Use the play control, listening to a bit of the phrase. Only as much as you can retain in memory.Stop or pause, notate, then reverse just that much. Listen again as you proofread your notation.Once you have these note on paper, or on your instrument and you are sure it is accurate there is no need to listen to that note or group of notes again.In this manner you proceed at your maximum speed, yet take as much time as necessary to achieve accuracy.

When you encounter a difficult passage, pause or stop immediately!  

after a particular pitch or interval so you may concentrate only on that sound. Remember the sound. If necessary, sing or hum that part until it is firm in your mind. Proceed at your own pace, gradually increasing the number of notes you are able to retain. This is tedious work for professional transcribers. You who do this part time because you love it will be challenged too.