In this bass lesson, you're going to learn how to transcribe - how to hear something
in a song and then figure out exactly how to play that on your bass.
Hi, I'm Luke McIntosh and if you've ever wanted to ditch the dodgy tab sites and figure
songs out for yourself, then stick around for this video - I think you'll like it.
[Video Intro]
If you've never heard of transcribing, it's a simple concept.
You're just learning music or parts of a song from a recording by ear.
It's super useful because it means you can learn songs without having to rely on other
people to teach you, plus you can avoid all of the really dodgy sites with questionable
tabs of everything.
You can even write your own or correct all the terrible ones you find all the time online.
Imagine the whole world that this can open up for you.
You can listen to any song, and learn any part of it!
Love a bass line?
You can learn it through transcription.
Like a guitar lick?
Transcribe it and play it on your bass!
Love the sound of a vocal melody?
With transcribing, you can play it for yourself.
I want to show you how you can get started transcribing any sort of music or parts of
a song, plus exactly how I do it myself.
To do that, we'll be looking at a melody rather than a bass line because those are
generally easier to hear.
If you want my specific recommendations for deciphering bass lines in recordings, check
out my video all about that.
I'll put a link in the description.
But right now, let's head over to my computer and I'll show you exactly how to get it
all done.
Alright - let's dive in.
The song we'll be looking at today is called Strasbourg St. Denis by Roy Hargrove.
This is a song that I've played a lot, but I've never actually learned the melody to
it.
I played it at a gig last week and it made me want to learn it properly.
So the first thing you want to do when you want to figure out a song from a recording
isn't to jump straight to your bass and try to figure out the notes.
The first thing you want to do is just listen - that's step one.
Listen intently and actively to whatever you're trying to transcribe.
So let's do that right now.
I've got the melody cued up in Transcribe! here so let's give it a listen, and we'll
be trying to play the melody that the saxophone and trumpet are playing.
Here it is.
[plays recording] There's much more to this song, but for now, let's just focus on that
first phrase.
Ideally, you'd listen to the song or phrase enough that you can still hear it in your
mind when you turn the song off.
Of course, if you haven't heard it in a while, you might not always hear it in the
right key, but as long as you know it well enough that you can hear it in your mind,
you'll be fine.
So step two, after listening is figure out just one note in the phrase - and that'll
usually be the first note.
So what's the best way of doing this?
It's by using your secret weapon when it comes to transcribing - your voice.
Yes - I want you to try and sing the thing you're trying to play.
Now don't worry - you don't have to have a wonderful singing voice.
All you need to do is be able to match the pitch of the recording in any octave.
If you've got a really deep voice and the melody is really high - that's fine.
Just sing it down an octave or two and vice versa.
Sometimes matching the pitch of the first note will be easy.
For example, if the first note is very long, it's going to be easier than if the first
note is really short.
In this recording, the first note of the melody IS really short, so it might be a bit trickier,
but let's give it a try.
[plays recording] We're just looking for that very first note.
Hear it go by really quickly?
Now if you really struggle with finding the first note, you can do a couple of things.
First of all, you can slow down the recording.
On Transcribe!, this is really easy.
You just go up here and select say 50% and the recording slows down a ton meaning every
note lasts twice as long, which in theory, should make it twice as easy.
[plays recording] You can do similar things in programs like Audacity and Garageband as
well.
But are you hearing the first note yet?
Now if that's not enough and you still can't make out the note, you can also just isolate
that one note in particular.
If I just highlight this part of the waveform, we'll get this.
[plays recording] Now this is JUST the first note of the melody - nothing else.
Can you sing that note?
It's this [sings note] That's our first note of the melody.
So we've listened intently, we've sung the first note, step 3 is to figure out what
that note is on the bass.
Notice all this work we've done before we even involve our basses?
This is very different than hearing something for the first time and immediately trying
to figure it all out.
If you're experienced and have worked on your ear, you can do things that way, but
if you're starting out, I'd definitely recommend following the first 2 steps.
But let's figure this note out.
Remember, this is the note we're looking for.
[sings note] Now because I've played this song before, I know the bass line starts on
a Bb, so let's see if the melody is the same as the bass note.
Here's our target note [sings note] and here's the Bb [plays Bb] Oh ok - so these
2 notes aren't the same.
(singing) Our target note is here, but the Bb sounds like this.
The Bb is too high, right?
So our melody note must be below it.
Let's try just going down chromatically and see if we can find it.
It doesn't seem too far away.
[sings] OK - there it is.
This note is actually an Ab - not a Bb.
So our first note of the melody is an Ab - awesome to know!
From here, we just follow the same process - listen, sing and play back.
As you get more and more advanced, you'll be able to hear multiple notes, maybe even
entire phrases that you can just plug in to your bass and off you go, but you can start
slow.
You know the first note, now try to figure out the 2nd note.
We can isolate the first 2 notes [plays recording] Is the 2nd note higher, lower or the same
as the first note?
It's lower, right?
So let's find that one.
[sings, then plays] There it is!
So from the Ab to the F. Once you know how the process works, you can keep going one
note at a time but since I know the sound of this song pretty well, although not how
to play the melody, so let's see how I can go with the rest of it.
This whole first phrase sounds very pentatonic-y to me, so let's see if it's just coming
down the pentatonic scale.
[plays melody with recording] Oh ok - it's not straight down the pentatonic - although,
I'm pretty sure the notes are all just Ab major
pentatonic - same as F minor pentatonic - but we've got a few jumps back and forth.
[sings, then plays] Ok, so we're doing a few back and forths before going all the way
down to the Eb, then up to the Bb, then back down to the Ab.
Now once you get to the point where you're getting pretty good at transcribing, you may
have to consider writing down the notes as you go so you don't forget - especially
if it's something that's a little more complicated.
You also have to consider how you're going to play everything on your bass.
Chances are you'll have multiple ways to play almost everything on your bass.
If you're transcribing something that wasn't originally played on bass, like we're going
here, you have to consider which octave you're going to play it in and how exactly you're
going to play it.
For example, if we started this melody down here.
[plays melody in low octave] This wouldn't actually work, right?
We haven't got a low Eb we can go to.
We also haven't got a higher Ab to start on up here, right?
Unless you've got more than 24 frets on your bass of course.
So we have to start in this middle register.
But even then, we can start on the G-string like we've been doing [plays melody] You
could potentially start on the D-string, but it would mean you have to move around and
shift positions, but that's a possibility as well.
And what works for me may not be great for you, so you'll have to make your own mind
up about how you play some of this stuff.
The other important thing to consider is the small details of what you're transcribing.
Things like which notes are more emphasized?
Which ones aren't?
Are there any articulations you need to be looking at?
Are the notes long or short?
Should you pluck every one?
Or use hammers and pulls?
Let's look at Strasbourg once more and see what they do on the recording.
[plays recording] To me, in this recording it sounds like every note is being articulated.
Everything is standing on its own.
To mimic that kind of effect on bass, that means plucking every note and maybe making
them a fraction shorter than you might ordinarily do.
So this [plays articulated notes] vs. this [plays longer notes] Hear how the first one
was closer to the sound of the original recording?
These are the little details that will make a huge difference.
So that's the basic process for transcribing and figuring out music, melodies, song, riffs
or licks by yourself.
Step 1, intent, active listening.
Step 2 - finding just the first note and singing or humming it.
Step 3 - find that note on your bass, then rinse and repeat.
When you get more advanced, you can start to think in terms of multiple notes or even
entire phrases, but every step of the way, you should be considering where exactly on
your bass you want to play everything and of course HOW you're going to play it.
On easy songs, you should have no troubles with this process, but if you need a little
bit of extra help, I use the software called Transcribe!
It's what I was using in this video.
If you'd like a free trial, just click the first link in the description and give it
a shot.
I use it all the time and recommend it to pretty much all my students.
Thanks so much for watching.
It's good to have you with me.
I'm Luke from Become A Bassist and I'll see you another video soon.
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