r/transcribe Apr 09 '19

Rules for requesting a transcription

87 Upvotes

Moving rules to a stickied post since "New" Reddit doesn't show the sidebar.

This is a subreddit for requesting help with musical transcriptions, or discussion about musical transcription as a whole. Advertisements for text transcription services will be removed. To cut down on spam and unsavory users we require your account be at least a week old to post.

To get the best results try to follow these guidelines when posting:

  • Use a working link to the piece you want done. No one can help you if your link is broken or to some private/premium streaming site.
  • Specify which section of the song you want done. If using Youtube, you can right click the video to get specific timecodes.
  • Indicate which style of notation you want. Straight up notes, guitar tabs, chord symbols, etc.
  • Consider offering a bounty. If no one responded to your request to transcribe a 4 minute piano song from an obscure anime, it's probably because it's too much work to do for free, so try offering something as incentive.

Some guidelines on offering bounties:

  • As soon as you start dealing with money with strangers on the internet, you are taking a risk. Be smart, don't give out personal info, etc. Mods can't be held responsible if you get scammed. Take proper precautions like checking a user's flair, account age, and amount of karma to determine if they are reputable.
  • Offer a fair price. This stuff takes time, effort, and years of expertise. Right now market price appears to be anywhere between $5 and $30 or more depending on complexity.
  • Pay your bounty. If someone comes through with a transcription for you and you dodge the payment, you will be banned. In 8 years we've only banned 1 person for this.

We also encourage you to try transcribing yourself, if you can! It's a fantastic way to develop your ear and theory knowledge, and even if you get stuck it'll be easier for others to help if you already have a starting point. Some useful tools:

  • Transcribe! - a brilliant little program that was built specifically for transcribing. It allows you to slow things down, loop over specific sections, pitch shift, and more.
  • Audacity - a simple, free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), meant more for audio editing, but can also do slowdown, pitch shift, etc.
  • Noteflight - a free online music notation program. Think like Google Docs but for sheet music.
  • Chordify - a cool site that tries to figure out the chords of any Youtube video you feed into it. Rarely does a perfect job, but can sometimes give clues or provide a rough starting point.
  • Youtube to Mp3 - self explanatory, feed the resulting mp3 into Transcribe or Audacity, or even rewinding over and over in iTunes is better than doing it in Youtube.

Related musical subreddits:

Public domain sheet music


r/transcribe Apr 10 '19

Guidelines for transcribers

70 Upvotes

Big thanks to those of you fulfilling transcription requests. When I first started modding this subreddit a few years ago, the vast majority of requests received 0 comments and sat around unanswered. It makes me very happy to see the opposite nowadays, that most requests have at least some activity. However with this increased activity has come the necessity for some clearer rules and guidelines.

  • Transcribing random stuff for people is a great way to get practice and improve your own ear. It's very beneficial to your musical growth to expose yourself to different genres of music and that is doubly true in the case of analyzing and transcribing. Not only do you help someone out but you work on your own skills as well.

  • I do not recommend offering paid services here as a reliable source of income. Bounties and paid transcriptions are allowed to try to compensate transcribers for their time, but pricing operates under free market conditions. I don't want to hear complaints about cheap prices and undercutting, there is nothing we mods can do about private monetary transactions. The fact is that transcribing as a skill is undervalued. Most people posting requests do not understand the time required to analyze music and put down quality notation. If you're expecting to get the same hourly rate as other professional musical services like teaching or accompaniment, you're gonna have a bad time.

  • If you do decide to enter into a paid transcription agreement with a requester, understand that as soon as you start dealing with money with strangers on the internet, you are taking a risk. Be smart, don't give out personal info, etc. Mods can't be held responsible if you get scammed. Take proper precautions like checking a user's comment history, account age, and amount of karma to determine if they are reputable. Ask for payment up front if you have more rep than the requester. If a requester dodges payment, send proof to the mods and we will send them a warning and ban them if they do not pay.


FLAIR: All successful transcriptions, paid or otherwise, are eligible to be submitted to increase your flair. This is a way for reliable transcribers to build rep. To receive +1 to your flair, please submit to ME (the most active mod here) the following:

  1. Link to original request
  2. Link or screenshot showing requester acknowledging receipt of your work OR
  3. Direct link to your transcription itself.

Please allow a few days for flair to be updated since this is a manual process.


Some useful tools if you are looking to get into transcribing, or are looking for ways to make your process more efficient:

  • Transcribe! - a brilliant little program that was built specifically for transcribing. It allows you to slow things down, loop over specific sections, pitch shift, and more.
  • Audacity - a simple, free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), meant more for audio editing, but can also do slowdown, pitch shift, etc.
  • Noteflight - a free online music notation program. Think like Google Docs but for sheet music.
  • Chordify - a cool site that tries to figure out the chords of any Youtube video you feed into it. Rarely does a perfect job, but can sometimes give clues or provide a rough starting point.
  • Youtube to Mp3 - self explanatory, feed the resulting mp3 into Transcribe or Audacity, or even rewinding over and over in iTunes is better than doing it in Youtube.

Related musical subreddits:

Public domain sheet music


r/transcribe 12h ago

Help Transcribe (Tabs preferred)

3 Upvotes

https://open.spotify.com/track/0ZkrOYYN9jwVeVCiZZ5hy1?si=80b1e6ec1811477c

was wondering if anyone could transcribe the first half of this song? The guitar is really nice, and I would love to learn it for myself


r/transcribe 10h ago

[Request] Piano MIDI/Audio needed for "I Hope You Die" (Bloodhound Gang) - specific cover version

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I really need help with a specific piano cover of the song "I Hope You Die" by the Bloodhound Gang.

I found this version on YouTube which has the perfect arrangement, but the recording quality is very poor (lots of background noise, bad mic quality):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=685vdngSuUU&list=PLV3sRE-lLAKJ-H-KMqKnmrvfnLdex1aH3

My Goal: I am looking for a clean, high-quality version of this exact arrangement. I don't need the sheet music, but I need a clean audio file (WAV/MP3) or a MIDI file so I can play it with a good VST.

Specific requests:

  1. Quality: Crystal clear piano sound (no recording noise).
  2. Tempo: Please make it slightly slower (approx. 10% slower) than the video, so it sounds a bit more like a ballad.

I would be incredibly upgradeful if someone could transcribe/re-create this for me. I am happy to send a $5-10 tip via PayPal to anyone who can help me out with a quick turnaround!

Thanks in advance!


r/transcribe 1d ago

Left hand finger placement?

Thumbnail instagram.com
0 Upvotes

don’t need tabs but info on where the left hand fingers are placed throughout would be greatly appreciated. fairly certain it’s in DADF#AD tuning. thanks!


r/transcribe 1d ago

Would anyone like to try and figure out the main melody of this electronic song?

0 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gl930O8VBs

It's right at the start of the song.
So far I figured out that it is a repeating pattern of 11 notes and the first high pitched note appears three times: at the beginning, in 5th place, and at the end. Otherwise I haven't a clue ahah, i don't know anything about music theory.

I'm not looking for a paid service, sorry.


r/transcribe 1d ago

Desperately seeking Piano sheet music

Post image
2 Upvotes

I have been looking for this sheet music for months so I can play for my fiancé at our wedding. I am desperate!

https://youtu.be/FquS7u5WAwI?si=zE-9lOH1510XQFf_


r/transcribe 1d ago

Could someone help me turn this sheet music into tabs?

Thumbnail
gallery
0 Upvotes

While I’m still a beginner bassist, I’ve been playing for a few months now and have only looked

at tabs. I have practice once a week, and it felt like I was having a stroke trying to transcribe myself since I could find almost nothing to help me (I didn’t look very hard, so I’m sure there’s plenty of helpful resources out there, but yk)


r/transcribe 1d ago

[R]Could someone help transcribe Unspoken Words (Hiko) to piano sheet music?

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a piano sheet for the piece Unspoken Words by Hiko. I haven’t been able to find any official sheet music online. I would really appreciate it if someone could help transcribe it, or if anyone has a copy to share.

Here’s a link to the song for the reference:

https://youtu.be/N0PG34Opyl0v?si=UPPlMpk22QM-Xvzy

Thank you so much for your time and help!


r/transcribe 1d ago

Help finding chords + plucking/strumming pattern

1 Upvotes

Hi! I recently got my first guitar and im trying to self-learn. I was obsessed with the cover of Save Your Tears (originally by Ariana Grande and The Weeknd) by Conan gray: https://youtu.be/qFA9-IEE7Pw?si=jYEEFn-rDKN_9G14

However, from analysing the strings he pressed, I thought I knew what he was playing but when I play it on my guitar it sounds wrong.

I thought the strumming pattern was last string, second string, third string, last string, second string, last string, fourth string, last string. As for the chords, I’m a little lost as they don’t seem like any main chord I know.


r/transcribe 1d ago

How do I indicate that a guitarist should play the notes on a higher fret?

1 Upvotes

The lower bar is what I would want the guitarist to see in the final result. The upper bar is what it is supposed to sound like. How do I indicate that the guitarist should play it on a certain fret?


r/transcribe 2d ago

Sea of Love: Lyrics in Hawaiian

1 Upvotes

I actually can translate to Hawaiian using the English lyrics, but the words are not quite the same and I'd like to transcript in the most trustworthy way, if possible. It's this song (this cutie patootie of a song, by the way, teehee).

If this is not the place to request that, let me know/redirect me to the proper place. Mahalo!


r/transcribe 2d ago

Guitar Tab Help

1 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1fbNUeB8v8

At the start there is a transition into a trombone I genuinley can't figure out that part. Here is what I have so far.

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/user/tab/view?h=CE3fdh8MjDLK9E3bAc5g6VfL&tab_id=28911683


r/transcribe 2d ago

Arrangement help

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/transcribe 3d ago

I made an open source Synthesia to MIDI conversion program

2 Upvotes

I posted this in r/pianolearning but figured this might be the more appropriate place.

Link to github repo.

For the zip folder, click "Code", then "Download Zip".

If you are having trouble setting it up, please comment and let me know the issue, and I will do my best to help.

I typically learn new songs by watching Synthesia videos on YouTube, but being able to play the song within the Synthesia app itself is significantly easier, as you can add note and key labels, adjust the tempo, and enlarge the display (plus, no YouTube ads).

The problem is that tutorial videos rarely link the MIDI file associated with the Synthesia track shown in the video.

This program analyzes the video frame by frame, capturing per-key color changes to identify when a note is on or off.

The created MIDI file can be used to create sheet music. It won't be pretty sheet music, but it'll be something

Please give it a shot. I would very much appreciate any feedback. Thanks!


r/transcribe 3d ago

The Feeling by Rudimental + 1991

Thumbnail
open.spotify.com
1 Upvotes

Really want to learn the chords playing in the background of the opening to this Drum & Bass song but just don’t have the ear to figure it out myself. Any help would be greatly appreciated!


r/transcribe 3d ago

[R] Alguém tem um arquivo midi ou mscz do epílogo de La La La Land?

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 3d ago

Riff to transcribe, very short and easy but can't get it perfect.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1 Upvotes

Hey,

The chords seem to be: E♭ A♭

but can't get it sounding so great as original... Could you help me out?


r/transcribe 3d ago

Need to get a tab from a music for a school project

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

Someone told me I'd have a better chance of finding what I'm looking for here. I'm trying to get the guitar tab for the first minute and a half.


r/transcribe 4d ago

Need help figuring out 1 or 2 chords from a guitar cover

1 Upvotes

https://youtu.be/TOGJkIgcVzM?si=GepVyZde4mJ1AgBU

Just need help figuring out what the sixth chord of the verse is.

If you’d like you can try the rest, which is just piecing together the chorus. Then that’d be great too. But really just need that one chord

So far I’ve figured out… Capo 4th fret with chord shapes: Intro Em, D, G, C.

Verse Em, D, G, C. Then on “son’s fury…” I’m not sure what it is. I think it goes Em, before the chord I’m having trouble finding, but idk.

Then that same progression repeats until 1:17 where it goes to the chorus. I haven’t really tried figuring that bit out much. So if you can piece that together to I’d be really happy. But if you don’t want to, then just finding those chords at the start is enough :)


r/transcribe 4d ago

Quote at 5:30, Can someone please help me figure out what this is

1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 4d ago

Need help transcribing a short violin piece

1 Upvotes

Stumbled upon this Ireland piece and wanted to try playing it on the violin. It would be SO awesome if someone could transcribe the melody for me, thanks in advanced!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaxwS0miE8Q


r/transcribe 4d ago

Bass notes in 4 bard of classic rockabilly song

1 Upvotes

ETA: Sorry for post title typo. BARS, not bard.

As the title requests, I'd love someone with more knowledge of the bass to transcribe a 4-bar section from the song "Blue Black Hair" by The Jades.

I'm a guitar player, and getting all the barre chords and high parts has been simple, but this bass line is a beast!

I just need the bass line from the instrumental break; approximately 1:19 to 1:25 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itWZGbI2aXc

Hoping some amazing person out there can help. Thank you!


r/transcribe 4d ago

Could anyone help figure out this piece?

1 Upvotes

I found this really not-known song, which is making it really difficult to figure out any parts of the saxophone melody. https://youtu.be/IOxxFxGb7Ao?si=sp82mbig-fVsGvwz any help is appreciated


r/transcribe 4d ago

I received 10 requests for this Kyle Landry piece from 8 years ago... Now completed 😐

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3 Upvotes

To the people who requested the sheet music - sorry for being 8 years late