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Click here for Transcription FormThis form replaces your lesson with a transcription. You also have the opportunity to join the Standby Pool if anything comes up before I complete your transcription.
Minimum notice: the day before your cancelled lesson Before filling in this form, please think of a MINIMUM of 3 songs you want transcribed (so I can pick the most suitable). The more the better! What is a Transcription?A transcription is where I spend you lesson time writing out the sheet music for a song or part of a song for you. There may be a song or riff that you've been wanting to learn.
Transcriptions/Arrangements for YOU!More often than not, the sheet music I give to you is figured out my myself, aurally, then written out as sheet music by myself (it's called a transcription).
In many cases I have spent time simplifying the music to suit the ability of the people learning it (this is called arranging). Often I will have three levels of difficulty for the same song. This is laborious and I can normally only transcribe songs that are common enough so that many students will play the same song. But there are just too many! When replacing your lessons with my Transcription Service, the music you receive will always be arranged specifically for your playing/reading level. Here are a couple of common scenarios:
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A huge amount of behind the scenes work goes into preparing music & learning resources for my students, but it would be an additional full time job to transcribe/arrange every song request to every student's ability.
Choosing the Transcription option allows me to fulfill requests that are on your Song Wishlist, arranged for you at your playing level.
Can't You Just Download Sheet Music From the Internet?
Contrary to popular belief, you cannot simply Google a song and obtain free and accurate sheet music for guitar or ukulele. Websites such as Ultimate Guitar are peer to peer. The material is extremely inaccurate because it is transcribed by amateur musicians, and written in awful formats, like ASCii TAB (see below). It can be somewhat useful, but if you are experienced enough to know when it's inaccurate, you'd probably be able to figure out the music yourself anyway.
Free Internet Tablature 🤮
ASCii tablature, free from the internet.
Paid Sheet Music 🤯
Often you can purchase an official transcription for around $8.99 per song (often you can't find what you need). "Official", paid, transcriptions usually include too much unnecessary detail and can be impossible to decipher, even for experienced players. For licensing reasons, the "official" sheet music is supposed to be written exactly as it's recorded (I mean every single detail, including unintentional noises & musical debris). But despite the unnecessary expectation of them being surgically precise, they are often way-off. Some of them aren't even written out by guitarists/ukulele players. Sometimes I will use these for my students if there's no other option, but they take some explaining, to put it lightly.
Another point to note: The original artists have no involvement in writing out the official sheet music and I would imagine they'd have trouble trying to play their own music the way someone has chosen to write it out.
Another point to note: The original artists have no involvement in writing out the official sheet music and I would imagine they'd have trouble trying to play their own music the way someone has chosen to write it out.
Below is an example of paid sheet music. It's not terrible, but it's quite hard to read. Pay attention to the tablature for the strumming part - it is telling you to play some strings and not others on certain beats of the bar (wayyyy too much detail). They have also written what is actually an artefact of guitar playing where you lift your fingers off the strings half a beat early to transition to the next chord. Why on earth would you write this? These kind of transcriptions just hinder people's ability to learn.
Yellow, by Coldplay. An example of paid sheet music that is too detailed. There are 7 pages of this! I have sheet music that is (unnecessarily) 24 pages long!
MUSIC IS HARD ENOUGH TO PLAY, IT SHOULD BE AS EASY AS POSSIBLE TO READ!!!
My Own Transcriptions/Leadsheets 😎
Below is an example of the rhythm guitar part of "Yellow", which I have simplified for a student who chose my transcription service.
You don't need to see the vocal line and all of the guitar overdubs to play just one of the guitar parts! The whole score for the rhythm guitar part is only two pages (called a lead sheet or a chart). With strummed parts, it's wiser to avoid using tablature (all of my students are eventually taught to read strumming rhythms).
You don't need to see the vocal line and all of the guitar overdubs to play just one of the guitar parts! The whole score for the rhythm guitar part is only two pages (called a lead sheet or a chart). With strummed parts, it's wiser to avoid using tablature (all of my students are eventually taught to read strumming rhythms).
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What if the Song I Want Doesn't Include Guitar or Ukulele?
Students often request a song that doesn't include a guitar or ukulele part. The absence of strummed instruments is common in many songs. However, if it has chords (most music has chords!), it can usually be "arranged" for guitar or ukulele.
Below is an example of a song that I have arranged for ukulele. The original song does not include any ukulele at all.
How Do I Request a Transcription?
In the absence form, there is an option to select a transcription. You will need to add additional information and list as many songs as you can, just in case I already have the one you want or if it is too hard for you. Keep in mind that I will only spend your lesson time transcribing, so you may only get part of a song (we can always continue doing this in your next lesson). I'm reasonably fast at doing this, but it can depend on the song difficulty as to how much of the song you will get.
What if I'm Unable to Play the Transcription Without Help?
This is okay. We can always cover the material in your next lesson. The idea is that you're going to learn a song that you wouldn't have otherwise been able to choose. Make sure you have a go and playing it though!