Figuring out song tabs

[Luke]

Hey @craiginker - did you check these out?

How to Transcribe (Learning music by Ear)

The word “Transcribe” can have several different meanings. It can mean re-writing a piece of written music in a different key, or re-writing sheet music into harmonica tabs, but the way that I’m using it in this post is to mean learning something by ear, without the aid of anything written at all. Some people, like my wife, and other super-gifted people, write down the music they learn. But I just figure it out by ear, and memorize it. (It takes me so many tries to figure it out, but the time I…

This Tab is Wrong

[This Tab is Wrong] Harmonica tabs serve a minor role well. As we communicate with each other, they help us to describe which particular holes to draw or blow, and in which order, when playing a particular riff, scale, song, or technique. But, contrary to the popular belief of many beginner harmonica students, HARMONICA TABS ARE NOT THE SUPER-HIGHWAY TO HARMONICA MASTERY . What’s Wrong with Tabs? They convey no sense of rhythm , arguably the most impactful component of music! T…

I recommend trying to sing the first note, then try and find that note on the harmonica. Then try to sing the first two notes, and then play the first two notes on the harmonica. Rinse and repeat…

Personally, I have found singing the numbers of the major scale, and then figuring out the numbers of simple children’s songs to be really helpful in the process of ear training.

Twinkle Twinkle 1 1 5 5 6 6 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1
Mary Had a Lil Lamb 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 3 5 5

To be clear, I’m talking about the INTERVALS of the major scale, NOT harmonica tabs.

I talk more about ear training here:

Ear Training

Recently I wrote a post about Transcribing (learning a song by ear) and the subject of Ear Training naturally arose. Our ability to learn songs by ear is aided or hindered by how well developed our ears are. Depending on our genetics and our upbringing we may have a great natural propensity toward being able to hear and recognize the intervals that a melody is composed of, or if you’re like I was at the beginning you’re just TOTALLY STUCK AND DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START! So for thos…

Of course, if you’re really just wanting to learn a specific song, and not so interested in these processes, just let us know the song, and maybe we can help!

Hope that helps!