How Do I Become a Piano Transcriber at Home?
Piano Transcriber at Home
Regardless of whether you’re a professional musician, an amateur composer, or just looking to supplement your income, learning how to do transcribing is one of the most valuable things you can do for your musical growth. It’s a great way to improve your listening skills, and it also helps you better understand how a piece of music is put together. It’s a skill that can be applied to any genre or style, and it will make you a more well-rounded composer, arranger, and ensemble player.
Transcription can be a difficult skill to master, especially if you’re not used to working with audio files. You’ll need to spend a lot of time alone with headphones on, listening, rewinding, and internally debating notation choices. It can be a difficult task to fit into your daily routine, but even finding 10 or 15 minutes to work on transcription can make a big difference.
Before you get started, you’ll need a few tools. You’ll need a computer with a good internet connection and transcription software. A MIDI-compatible digital keyboard can help, too, because you’ll often be using it as an input device for the software. You’ll also need a foot pedal to control playback, and some transcriptionists prefer specific types of pedals, but most will work just fine.
How Do I Become a Piano Transcriber at Home?
When you’re first starting out, it’s best to find some simple music to transcribe. It could be a simple melody, or something more complicated like the chord progression in a song. Aim to transcribe as much of the music as possible, without worrying too much about accuracy. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to take on more challenging projects.
Another important skill to develop is an understanding of intervals. This will help you listen more closely to the notes being played, and it’ll also be helpful in determining what key a piece of music is in. Try listening to a few notes of “Twinkle, Twinkle,” for example, and figure out what intervals are involved. You can also practice scales to help you learn these intervals, such as solfege.
A final thing to keep in mind when transcribing is that in most genres, including jazz, a lot of what’s being recorded was improvised or interpreted freely, and it may never have been notated before. It’s essential to remember this as you’re working, and to try to focus on clarity of the notation rather than literal accuracy. If you can’t transcribe a passage clearly, it’s better to set it aside and move on to something else than to force yourself to struggle with something that’s not coming out right. Finally, always ask to be paid for your work. Don’t work for free; it cheapens the profession and gives people the wrong impression that music transcription is easy to do.