I’ve been asked many times, for advice and hints on transcribing music. Here are some Q & A’s first. I’m thinking about doing a step-by-step pictorial someday on that…Meanwhile, hope this helps. Please feel free to post more questions here ok? 🙂
Q: I’m thinking of doing some transcribing. Can you give me some hints on how to start please?
A: Ok…simple transcribing, which I will call Stage 1. Listen to the song with earphones, while sitting at your piano or keyboard. Stop and rewind as often as you need while you write down what you hear, starting with the melody. If you are using a manuscript sheet, write the notes of the melody as just black noteheads, without any rhythm. If you want to just use letternames on an exercise paper, write the melody notes in lower case, not capital letters. Then, go through it again, listening for the lowest note in each chord. Write the chord changes at exactly the correct note, above the melody notes. Chord names should be in capital letters. Here’s a picture of a simple ‘transcription’ I did for my student:
Joyce Music 