transcribing melodies in your head to sheet music

[Katelyn]

Hello, Katelyn with a random thought here.

Today, I heard these cool guitar rifts in my head on the way to the store. Sometimes I can imagine random melodies in my head. but I either forget them or cant fully transcribe them.

But I'm not so good at transcribing them to paper or my DAW. I can't listen to music and identify the notes because mentally I recognize notes only in reference to the others around them.

What can I do to train my brain to right away recognize if a series of notes is say D and E and A, as opposed to my normal thinking of "first note is one tone below second, and third note is 4 tones below second note" ect?

[Frantz]

Like most of us, you have relative pitch but not perfect pitch. I suggest you google those terms.

I believe you are either born with perfect pitch or you are not. So you won't be able to recognize the exact pitches of your mental melodies without a keyboard or something to check the notes against. (I am sure there could be a healthy debate on whether perfect pitch can be learned.)

In any case, transcribing to sheet music is so 20th Century. Sing your melodies into your phone like the rest of us.

[Katelyn]

I either dont get what your sayng, or record my imperfect voclaizaiton oe melodies rom guitar in head to voczliatons to vie f**k I CANT TYPE srort il trt im whem im focinfg sober be back in many hours

[khanyz]

A slow/osmosis method of learning pitch recognition is to tune instruments with a reference tone (such as pitch pipes etc.), in the same order if using multiple tones, before using a tuner. When I started out playing bass I always tuned to a reference and nearly always started on the D string (except in some orchestras). I can now recognise it and so get other notes relative to it, though not straight away, it takes me a couple of listens.

[Atza]

That's a tall order, I don't seriously believe that either Mozart or Bach could do that (though they are said to have been able to do so). What you can do is as soon as you get a melody in your head pull out your phone and record it-its 21 century

[BertKoor]

The quickest way not to forget is indeed get out your phone, start the Voice Recorder and sing/whistle.

Then the transcribing... Doesn't matter whether you do that to staff notation or directly into the piano roll of your DAW I think.
There's two purposes why you do it:
1. Record it so you don't forget it
2. Use it in songs / tracks / compositions

Point one is already covered by the Voice Recorder, not?

Point two: transcription takes practice, and probably lots of it. Sit down and do it, you'll get better. It really helps if you can play an instrument such as the piano or guitar. Can you? If a melody is written in staff, can you play it with the aid of the notation? If a melody is just in your head (and you haven't forgotten it) can you then play it? Both of these are skills, and aquiring a skill takes practice!

I know that my imagination has less limitations than my fingers, for sure! And even BB King often said that in his imagination he'd play much much better, but his technical skills were not sufficient. And you know he only improvises and never notes things down.

Just my 2 cents, dunno whether it helps you...

[fmr]

That's a tall order, I don't seriously believe that either Mozart or Bach could do that (though they are said to have been able to do so). What you can do is as soon as you get a melody in your head pull out your phone and record it-its 21 century

Mozart, reportedly, heard a piece played in the organ at Sistine Chapel, which score had been kept secret. When back hom,e, he transcribed the piece from memory, and only got two wrong notes (and was mad because of that). So, he not only had absolute pitch, apparently, as he also had a prodigious memory.

Nevertheless, many famous composers did not have absolute pitch, and that didn't prevent them of being masters in their art. Actually, I think relative pitch is more important.

Of course, being sober also helps

[Katelyn]

This is where it gets tricky: I'm kind of tone deaf... or at least, I have very poor control and perception of my own voice's tone and pitch. When I play things back it never sounds exactly how I hear it. I don't really wanna get into personal stuff but it's related to a neurodevelopmental issue. I've done it for drums though, that works fine since pitch/tone isn't really needed for beatboxing.

The thing about just pulling out a keyboard would work, other than the fact I am usually either not home or in the bath when I get these darn melodies in my head.

The reason I said transcribe to sheet music is, because if I'm out in town, writing is all I could really do to record it. I guess one thing I could do that just occured to me is write down the relative pitches and then slide them around on the DAW's piano roll when I get home until it sounds right.

Of course, being sober also helps

I have zero recollection of that second post of mine lol I need to be more careful I'm still feelin' the hangover

[jancivil]

I'm skilled at transcription. I do not have absolute pitch. Now, if it's guitar-centric, I have a good chance at recognizing keys based in the open strings as though I enjoy some facility. Or if I've been working on my music and I'm remembering pitch and I know what those are. But away from these situations, I'm more or less in the dark. So I developed good relative pitch over the yrs.

I developed a way to write down a melody from my head, away from DAW or any instrument, by syllables like solfege. This is, the relationships are, true in any key. I use saregama which is more convenient to me, first of all because I'm less likely to be coming up with a major key tune and I'm actually conversant with the variants (flat/sharp) but not so much with solfege in the European model (ie., my default is not major). And I developed a way to indicate the rhythms. So I'm in a cafe and I want to capture the tune on a napkin, I have a system...

[Frantz]

The reason I said transcribe to sheet music is, because if I'm out in town, writing is all I could really do to record it.

Are you so drunk that you forget to bring your phone with you?

[Katelyn]

The reason I said transcribe to sheet music is, because if I'm out in town, writing is all I could really do to record it.

Are you so drunk that you forget to bring your phone with you?

I don't really see how this post is anything but a jab. I already addressed why I thought writing was a better idea than just recording my voice.