Re: Transcribing audio to manuscript

[William R Brohinsky]

Stephen, 

I have to admit to some confusion as to what you mean by transcribing
audio to notation. Are you talking about line-by-line transcription of
parts, or reduction to piano staff, done by listening to a recording? Or
are you assisting someone who 'composes' music but doesn't know how to
notate? (NB: if this is the case, get them to record it!)

I also had no formal education in piano reduction. I was a guitarist
first, though, and I attempt to 'hear' most music I'm notating with my
left hand. What this actually means is that I try to feel my hand
playing the music. With guitar parts, this is amazingly easy; I've even
been able, in a supermarket, to tell a friend that the guitarist in the
muzak was capo'd up five, and what chord he was playing. The friend had
perfect pitch and verified that I was calling it right. With other
instruments and such, it helps to find the key. And like most guitarists
who spend a lot of time accompanying other people, I can transpose very
easily, so it isn't hard to go that way when I have to notate in a key
that is different from 'the original'.

Anyway, if I have your meaning right, there is nothing that beats having
a strong familiarity with a 'fixed pitch' instrument, be it keyboard or
fretted, so that you have a strong mind-hand relationship between
notation and physical location on the instrument, and between
location/string and pitch sound. And having the source recorded so that
you can go back and relisten, too.

For celerity, it is very useful to drill. Get scores for symphonies that
you have on recordings, and aren't terribly familiar with. (terrible
familiarity doesn't hurt, really, but the idea is to take stuff you
don't know 'to paper', rather than learn the symphonies). Or, if you
know someone who is a very accurate reader, get them a sight-singing
book, have them sing each example/exercise, and notate it. Start with
them telling you key and signatures, eventually work to where you can
identify anything by ear, including original key, and then to where you
can notate to any key despite the original key. (No, IMHO and
experience, skipping the identify-key step doesn't make the latter step
easier!)

And finally, for the benefit of improving transposition ability, take up
recorder. Start with soprano, then learn alto as a whole, separate
instrument. (I. e., don't look at an e, and say, oh, F recorders are a
fifth lower, so I'd want a in soprano fingering, to get the e on an
alto! That defeats the whole purpose!) Then, get a D voice flute and a G
alto (or just force yourself to learn the soprano with d as the putative
lowest note, and the alto with g as the lowest note.) You'd be amazed
how this will help, far more than the banned Bb and Eb instruments ever
do, where all the music is written so that you play whatever you're
holding as if C is the fundamental note of its scale!

You can do this with violin, really, as well (the transposition drills),
but its usually more mechanical, and requires a fret-attitude:
transposition by a fourth up requires playing on the violin in fourth
position, but pretending you are in first position, sort of thing.
Guitarists used to barring will do this naturally. I was saved from it
by recorders, shawms, and viols, though, as described above.

I gotta go: if I've missed your point, please elaborate!

raybro

Stephen Allsopp wrote:
> 
> Since I first got lilypond going, I've been learning how to use it by 
> transcribing audio into .ly files. This takes me back to my early music 
> studies, except that then I had to do it by hand!
> 
> Those musical studies are a long way behind now, though, and - while I'm 
> pleased to have the ability to be able to do this at all - I'm conscious of 
> the fact that I'm probably not doing it in the best/most efficient way: on 
> the other hand, never having been formally shown how to do this (as a string 
> player, I was spared having to learn piano staff notation, etc., etc), 
> reducing to piano score, for example, becomes quite a tricky task.
> 
> Do others on the list do similar stuff, and does anyone have any tips on how 
> to make the task quicker, easier and/or more accurate? Or pointers to 
> books/web pages on the subject?
> 
> I'm aware that this isn't _strictly_ a lilypond issue, but this is about as 
> suitable a forum as I think I'm likely to find...
> 
> --
> Stephen Allsopp  address@hidden
> 
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