When I first started teaching transcribing the biggest mistake I found was that students let their brains rule their ears when in fact it MUST be the other way around. Our ears are very perceptive (more than we give them credit for!) and you must learn to believe them.

So the exercises in this lesson are based around the Minor Pentatonic Pattern 1 (same as last lesson) but this time I am adding in other notes that do not belong to the scale, so you have to find them!! It's a little more tricky but is a lot more like "real life" transcribing, because doing a transcription you never really "know" what will be played and it's quite incredible how often there are notes completely unexpected that sound great!

You will also hear simple drums, rhythm guitar and bass lines on the tracks, so you have more things going on that you have to learn to ignore. After some time transcribing your ears will develop a filter and you will be able to focus in on what you want to hear. It's a great skill and one that will open your ears to listening to music in a much deeper way.

We're also developing the rhythmic elements too, as well as "Half Notes" (2 beats each, hollow headed note) and "Quarter Notes" (1 beat each, solid note head) we're also using now "Eighth Notes" (1/2 a beat each, solid note head and with a tail, or if there are two or more Eighth notes the tails join together). If you want to get into reading and writing rhythms you might want to check out the ebook Understanding Rhythmic Notation.

It's quite possible that these will take you a while longer than the last ones, that is OK, I'm trying to make the lessons harder each time and we got a lot of ground to cover :)

START HERE

Download the pdf worksheet - Simply click the PDF link in the right column (under the ad!) or below on smaller screens.

Transcription Exercise #106-A

We have now bass and rhythm guitar, and notes based "around" the minor pentatonic so make sure you let your ears open to find those other notes!! Keeping with nice simple rhythms here. So even with these having most of the notes from the pentatonic scale (and you don't have to move out of position) you don't know what the notes are going to be and you will have to trust your ears. Take your time, be confident with your transcription before you check your answers.

Transcription Exercise #106-B

Same note choices as the last exercise but we introduce the 8th note rhythm here to get things a little more interesting!

Transcription Exercise #106-C

Another exercise like the last one, but a little faster and little more trickery! Pay attention now won't you ;)

Transcription Exercise #106-D

Now we got 8 bars, twice as long), still the same note choices, a little more going on in the backing track so hopefully a little more challenging.

Transcription Exercise #106-E

Another 8 bar seq but more going on harmonically and rhythmically to make it a little trickier and more interesting for you! Note that in that last bar there is "tied" note, which means the last two notes are tied together... you will only play 4 notes in that bar... more on ties in Understanding Rhythmic Notation if you are keen to get into them...

Further Transcriptions

Another 2 transcriptions for you below, one 8 bar tune and one big 17 bar solo, both based around the A Minor Pentatonic but with lots of spice thrown in too!

Transcription Exercise #106-F

8 Bar trickster here with some interesting notes to keep your ears in check!!

Transcription Exercise #106-G

This is a monster 17 bar solo to work out, using more interesting rhythms and is lot more like a "real" solo with phrases and melody! There are a few notes that "tie" over the bar lines, so remember that you don't play the second note (where the tie ends).

* Please note that some of the rhythms are written in a way that I would normally find unacceptable (correct but not clear as I think it should be) but for these exercises I want you to see one note head for each note you need to write so am avoiding the use of ties within bars. Just so'as y'all know, right!

Answers? Download the answers here... but not until you've given it a good go :)