Below is a video lesson from JustinGuitar on the importance of transcribing music. Justin is probably the best online guitar teacher out there, so be sure to check out some of his other lessons.
In the above video, Justin touches on how important transcribing is. I guess I can consider myself lucky, because when I started learning guitar there was no internet around. It would only be a couple of years later that I had access to YouTube, but by this time I had already learned to play proficiently.
The great thing about transcribing, which comes naturally to me by now, is it’s a lot quicker to work out music by ear than reading it off tablature. Another benefit is the ability to jam with other musicians and “trade” licks on the spot.
The main idea with learning to transcribe is to be able to hear melodies in your mind and then replicate them on your instrument. This means that you can truly express who YOU are and not some other guitar player.
Finally, I would like to touch on a small issue I have with transcribing, which is the fact that you may end up with same notes, but played on a different area of the neck. This is why I recommend that you cheat a bit and have a look at where the original artist played the notes AFTER you have finished transcribing. Your best bet for doing this would be to check out a live performance or video lesson from the original artist. This is the very problem with internet tabs. The notes may be correct but they are usually tabbed in the wrong areas of the neck. This is actually something that you shouldn’t be too worried about, but I thought I’d mention it.
If you found this interesting, you may also want to check out Anthony Wellingtons 4 levels of awareness.
