Not sure if it’s been mentioned elsewhere, but I find it useful to try humming the first note. Then (while still humming) start hitting the open strings until you find the one that is closest below the note you’re humming. After that, you can play the frets on that string to match the note. Just make sure your guitar is in tune!
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Finally got around to this lesson after having transcribed a few riffs already. I already know #1 and #3 so I’ll try to do the other ones this weekend.
Any advice on software to use here? I have the songs in spotify, ideally I would somehow have the ability to go from there to variable playback speed & playback from a specified spot
Also for song three, it’s sounds 20 cents sharper than the hinted starting note - does anyone else here this?
I’ve been recording the song into audacity from Spotify. Just using the computers speakers and microphone. Not super high fidelity but enough for transcription. Then once it’s in audacity you can loop the playback, slow it down etc.
I asked a question on another thread about this a while ago, look here: What software do you use for transcription?.
I settled on Transcribe! and downloading tracks from youtube.
Yes, me too. As soon as the higher pitched riff comes in, low F actually sounds better to me than E as starting note
Got them all without hints 
Though I knew Satisfaction and Another One… already.
Pretty Woman was indeed a bit tricky, I got a note 1 semitone wrong for the first time, but noticed my mistake. However, Black Night was surprisingly easy, probably the quickest I managed to decipher a riff. 
Got them all now. This definitely gets easier with practice, I got Black Knight and Pretty Woman with no hints in one session 
.
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I’ve just started, with Satisfaction.
Somewhat to my surprise, I had no problem finding the intervals, but it took a few tries to find the right starting note.
Once I had the right notes, it still didn’t groove for me, so I added some additional challenge to figure out the timing.
That was tricky - 3 syncopations in 2 bars of music! But I was eventually able to write in the count as well.
This is something I’ve always had trouble with. It’s like the part of my brain that hears rhythm really doesn’t want to talk to the part that counts.
Any suggestions on how to get better at this?
Good job on Satisfaction. I got the intervals and rhythm, but had the starting note wrong - it was after that I learned to use Transcribe! and obsess a bit on that first note that I ended up getting the others. Doing more transcribing makes it easier.
When you say get better at this - do you mean at transcribing in general, at rhythm, or at writing rhythm in notation?
Specifically, to be able to write out the count under a tab.
For example, Satisfaction (spoiler alert!), I came up with:
| 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + | 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + |
with the bolded characters representing where the notes land.
But I struggled with the second bar…took me ages to realize that the 1st note was on the “and of 2”. It was like I couldn’t feel the 1 and 2 at all.
I think writing the rhythm / notation is pretty tricky. Especially for off-beat riffs.
I’ve found using guitar pro helps a lot, because you can play back what you’ve tabbed to check the rhythm. A bit fiddly and a bit of a learning curve though.
Yeah, it certainly is for me - it feels like trying to do long division with Roman numerals. And conventional music notation does a particularly bad job of showing syncopations and rhythmic patterns.
The approach that has worked best for me is to have things laid out on 1/8 note grid, divided up into bars. Then I can map the notes to downstrums, upstrums, and air strums, and do perfect slow practice. Some kind of slow down software is super helpful for this process .
I used an early version of Guitar Pro many years ago, and also found it helpful…it was good feedback for if you had got things right or not.
But I can’t help thinking there must be a better way. Or…there’s some basic skill with rhythm that most musicians are either born with or pick up instinctively…that some of us just don’t have.
I have managed to transcribe black night pretty quickly which is v satisfying! But have learnt the other riffs ages ago reading tab books and online tutorials! apart from pretty woman . Anyone got any suggestions of other song riffs that are ok for someone like me whose new to transcribing ?
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Hello everyone!
I just transcribed Black Night by Deep Purple and I noticed that, although the notes are right, they are in a different part of the neck.
More specifically, I played the E note on the 2nd fret of the 4th string instead of the 7th fret of the 5th string.
After I played them both I didn’t notice any particular tone difference.
How “wrong” is it to play it this way and how can I distinguish such small differences?
Thanks in advance!
It not wrong at all. You can’t they are the same note. 2nd fret D string is the same note as 7th fret A string. Different spots on the neck are more comfortable to play than other spots. For example you’ll finf it easier to bends notes up at the 7th fret than the 2nd. This is why most electric guitar parts are higher up on the neck. When you start playing the e B G string up higher on the neck you’re getting into higher octaves that are only on those string but from the open to 12 fret you will find the same notes in multiple spots.
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this girl on youtube - Rachelf created tool for youtube to loop videos, check her latest video on youtube and you will see her learning song from it and you can use it too, it’s free to use 
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Hey, i find this one quite challenging. Especially to hear out the low notes. But i think Justin made a Mistake for the Hint of Another One Bites The Dust.
Listening i could hear it descending at first, also online tabs said too it goes from A, G then starts the repeating E.
Can anyone confirm?
Excellent Challenge. YES 
