I’m kind of training myself to transcribe music (and learning musical notation in the way) so I’ve wanted to learn all that by transcribing a pop song. (Also, i’m doing this because of a karaoke project i want to make)
The problem is, i’m at the chorus and idk how it should be transcribed, should i use slurs at the “healthy, not me” or are these glissandos? Also, are grace notes ok in this part?
Since i can’t upload audio, let me say that the source of the transcription is the chorus of “good 4 u” by Olivia Rodrigo
Any other tips are welcome too
[EDIT] Yeah i know it’s missing a note in “Not” in the first picture… It should be making the glissando to the next note… I’ll add it if needed
[EDIT 2] Maybe i can send a better reference of what i want to transcribe… Here’s some gameplay of Rock Band which transcribes the vocals i want into a MIDI of some sort
I’m relatively new to this also, but here’s my take…
I looked at 2 transcriptions I found, listened to the chorus a few times, and tried what you had on my piano vs what the transactions had.
I think it’s better without a slur or glissando. The “hap-py, heal-thy” doesn’t seem to have any legato in the recording, not quite staccato, but the notes sound articulated separately in the B - E - B - E to me.
The transcriptions just have those 4 notes as 1/4 notes, and I feel that is correct.
+1 to this.
As someone playing jazz for 8+ years, my two cents on the glissandos/vocal slides is that they should only be marked if the slide should occur every time. Otherwise, keep them omitted.
Transcriptions are hard to make, but it looks like you’re doing a pretty good job so far!
Hi, I am a musician (thought almost entirely with using bass clef). I’m not sure I understand what you are transcribing. Are you trying to change the song into a different key, or are you just trying to write out the song as it would be in sheet music?
And just for full disclosure, I am not familiar with this song, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of it how it’s written
I’m trying to transcribe it just as it is, no key change. I have the isolated vocal track of this song i’m trying to transcribe as a reference, shame i don’t have a way to send it
ok here’s an update of the chorus transcript so far. is it ok? too much apoggiaturas?
Why is it beamed to the metre instead of the lyrics? Is that a modern thing? I only work with old music and its always beamed to the text.
Glissandos should be fine to indicate a vocal swoop I think. Slurs would usually indicate no break between the notes, rather than a swooping of pitch between the two.
Well there’s a swoop thing in the backing vocals of the chorus (which i haven’t started transcribing yet bc i’m still doing lead). There’s some back vocals going “Ah ah ah” and then swoop up at the end of the chorus. The problem would be, how should i notate that if the ending note is not definite?
Back to the lead vocals, I think this is not the case so i think i’ll want to use the slurs. What i’m still not sure is of the use of the grace notes… i can send a video as a noting reference if it works, hold on i’m editing the main post
You could probably leave off the ending note if the glissando to indicate indefinite final pitch. A lot of this stuff doesn’t have only one right answer, there are a couple different ways you could tackle it.
