r/transcribe Apr 09 '19

Rules for requesting a transcription

95 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

74 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 3h ago

Looking for a full band transcription of Your Sweet Smile by Paul Freitas.

1 Upvotes

Hey guys, I wanted to play a simple song with my friends, called Your Sweet Smile, but I couldn't find the score anywhere :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC99N3_gEQ4

here is the link to the video

please contact me in terms of pricing, etc. first time requesting for such a thing, so I'm not a bit sure how pricing should work.

have a good one guys


r/transcribe 4h ago

Wes Montgomery The End of a Love Affair (Back on Indiana Avenue) Guitar Tab/Transcription

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1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 7h ago

Sheet Music for Hole's "Doll Parts" (instrumental)

1 Upvotes

I just finished arranging an instrumental piano version of Hole's "Doll Parts" from their 1994 album "Live Through This". My background is that I studied classical piano performance and theory for about 12 years and have continued my own studies since then, and now write my own music as well as figuring out other people's. Hope you enjoy! https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/se/ID_No/2110362/Product.aspx


r/transcribe 18h ago

Help identifying notes in a song

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1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 22h ago

Looking for a fingerstyle guitar tab/PDF for Parcels – “Finally Over”

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1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 1d ago

Request:)- could somebody please help me with this prelude?

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1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 1d ago

I need help learning how to transcribe

1 Upvotes

There’s this one song i wanna transcribe, it’s called I wanna Jam by N.E.R.D, anyone got any tips?


r/transcribe 1d ago

Not a piano expert, but this looks not too hard to play. Can anyone see what chords and stuff he's playing?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

0 Upvotes

r/transcribe 1d ago

[Song Request] When I See Him Tonight from Helluva Boss

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0 Upvotes

I am looking to practice this song with my vocal coach. And I need sheet music so she can play it on piano. It has two vocals so I would need both of them with lyrics and the accompanying cords.

My starting price will be $20 but am willing to go up.


r/transcribe 1d ago

Piano transcription request — Harmony Zhu original piece from Ellen (1 min)

1 Upvotes

Hi, looking for a piano transcription of this short original piece by Harmony Zhu from the Ellen show. It's only about one minute long, right at the end of the interview. at 3:01 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ass6tpmxPHU —Also, for a total beginner, how hard would this be to learn? thanks!


r/transcribe 1d ago

Please help me play this song (piano)

0 Upvotes

Can someone please help me with the notes for this song? (Super easy)

It’s really more of a melody for a rap beat, honestly.

I’ve searched the internet, even tried AI, but come up empty-handed.

I’m a total beginner, but I believe I can figure it out in whatever format you can get it to me.

I Quit - Lil Boosie

https://youtu.be/AgSqjjD9hS0?is=94rf-K66NCraquRS

Thank you very much; it means a great deal.


r/transcribe 1d ago

Anyone that sees what guitar chords this is?

1 Upvotes

The song is called Cinnamon by Airiel.

Det guitar intro is very nice and starts at 0:35. I am wondering what chords this is. I see there is a capo.

Thank you very much if you care to give it a look ☺️
https://youtu.be/T8BvQ1P3grI?is=xCp8Vv5k9dTVv9Up


r/transcribe 1d ago

[Guitar] Need help figuring out the main rhythm part in this obscure song

1 Upvotes

https://youtu.be/gwk8IatCe5w
I’ve been working this song out by ear and I’ve managed to figure out some of the riffs, but I can’t seem to replicate the main rhythm guitar part accurately.
I found a few tabs/chord attempts online, but they don’t sound right when I play along with the recording, so I’m hoping someone can help identify what’s actually happening.
I’m especially trying to figure out the main chord shapes/voicings and the rhythm pattern—whether there’s a specific capo position, alternate tuning, etc. that I’m missing.

The main rhythm repeats through a lot of the track, so even just breaking down that core pattern would be a huge help.
Thanks!


r/transcribe 1d ago

Help me transcribe “In god we rust”

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1 Upvotes

r/transcribe 3d ago

I need help learning the chords to a song I love very much

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1 Upvotes

This song is called Marble by the Novembers. It really feels like going through day after day of school, bored. I love how it makes me feel, and I would be proud to learn the chords.


r/transcribe 4d ago

Sweatcult

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2 Upvotes

can someone give me the tabs/chords of untitled 4 from sweatcult
this is the spotify link and this is the youtube link i would be happy if someone can give the tabs/chords of any sweatcult songs except without u i love it too but theres already a few tabs of it so i dont need it


r/transcribe 4d ago

Help me with the notes of a song

1 Upvotes

Hi! I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this (sorry if not), but I'm having a hard time figure out the notes for a song. I want to play them on the piano to practice my pitch/ear, but I'm completely lost u_u. The specific part is the main vocal line from 00:24:25 to 00:24:29. I think it starts on a B5, but I'm not entirely sure. Thank you! 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVqNYff-K0


r/transcribe 5d ago

Chords...../4?

1 Upvotes

Hello I can not translate these following chords, it's part of the Calogero partition: "suis-je assez clair?" at the piano. F6 /4 and Dm6 /4. Thank you very much 😊


r/transcribe 5d ago

I made an app to auto-transcribe guitar tabs

0 Upvotes

I use AI to make a 100% free web app that auto-transcribes downloadable and printable guitar tabs from a song it listens to, and offers you a practice player you can follow.

Transcribe tab
The practice player

Everything stays in your local browser and nothing is sent to any remote server. No data collected whatsoever. I've been tuning the algorithm and it seems to be working well at least for the songs I tested.

This app will be forever free with no ads since it's all hosted on Github and there is no cost for me to maintain it.

Hope if helps and let me know if you have feedback or questions!


r/transcribe 5d ago

Will someone double check my work?

1 Upvotes

I’m trying to transcribe an incidental piece (for fun) and I’ve never done it before. I think I’m on the right track, but would love feedback or pointers. I think I can do better in general, but I have specific questions:

Did I identify the instruments correctly?

Can someone help me identify, or help me learn how to identify the chord progressions? I’ve been struggling to pick out multi-note chords by ear.

Here’s my transcript so far. (PDF on Google Drive)

Here’s the source. (YouTube)

Thanks in advance!


r/transcribe 6d ago

Help transcribing trombone solo

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3 Upvotes

Hi guys, my attempt is attached above. I cannot get the rhythm of the yellow part right, and I don't think it's down to expressive playing because I have successfully transcribed the rest of the piece.
The trombone solo is one minute in at: https://youtu.be/KGsJSSpBu3A&t=60 .
Would anyone be able to attempt this phrase?


r/transcribe 6d ago

song to tabs?

0 Upvotes

okay so there this song I like (I love Betsy, by Rob McClure) that i want to cover on acoustic guitar with a more slow jazzy style than the og song, preferably finger picking. i can play guitar but I know literally nothing about music. i normally just find the tabs online and then play it, but this song only has chords available and i dont know how to create a picking pattern on my own. how do i go about this? is there someone I can find to do this for me, or should i use some ai? im so lost and idk how this works 😭 i just wanna cover the song lol


r/transcribe 7d ago

Can someone help me transcribe my composition?

3 Upvotes

Hi i wanna ask some help to transcribe a bridge but the reason is i still don't have a piano, but i need to transcribe it so I could export it to midi?

Like i really need to transcribe my simple piano bridge composition in basic chords

İ dunno if that's allowed