Jump to content
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO ALL OUR HARMONY CENTRAL FORUMITES AND GUESTS!! ×

Solo to Singer's Melody?


Recommended Posts

  • Members
Posted

I've been listening to my Punk Goes Acoustic 2 cd lately, and I've been itching to figure out how they do these simple solos that sound like what the singer is singing, but in guitar form.

I know thats vague, but I don't know how else to describe it.

for example, John Mayer plays Slow Dancing In A Burning Room in this youtube clip, and instead of singing the lyrics, he puts the lyrical melody into his guitar playing @ 30 seconds or so:

And yes, that IS his Signature Two-Rock amp he's playing

 

But is there anywhere I can find how to do this? Do I have to play my music through a tuner and look for each word's note?

I can't figure it out by ear, I've tried and It just eludes me...

:cry::cry::cry:

  • Members
Posted
I can't figure it out by ear, I've tried and It just eludes me...

:cry:
:cry:
:cry:

Unforunately, that's all it is. Not only would the tuner thing be unnecessarily difficult, it probably wouldn't even work (at least with my tuner). Keep trying to figure out the melody by ear, and eventually you will find it. And the more melodies that you find, the easier it will become to find melodies, see? In music, nothing is easy - you must practice.

  • Members
Posted

By the way, I've played one of those Art & Lutherie cherry acoustics before, it was pretty nice :thu:. It certainly was a good looking guitar!

  • Members
Posted
By the way, I've played one of those Art & Lutherie cherry acoustics before, it was pretty nice
:thu:
. It certainly was a good looking guitar!



Yeah, that guitar is amazingly good for the price i paid: (200 canadian, a couple years ago, when the canadian dollar was $0.60 US)
It might its action lowered, and I hate the Ernie Ball Earthwood strings I have on there, but with Elixrs it's amazing, and I couldn't be bothered at the moment about the action.

But i'll keep trying to figure it out by ear
it seems so simple, but then I'm ownd by my own tone-deafness

  • Members
Posted

Yes, it's no Martin (that's my favorite brand anyway :p), but for the price I thought it was a very nice guitar. Elixirs are also my favorite strings, I've tried other coated brands and they just didn't do it for me.

 

Anyway, good luck transcribing the vocal melodies. It will get easier, I promise. It's one of my favorite ways to practice :).

  • Members
Posted
Yes, it's no Martin (that's my favorite brand anyway
:p
), but for the price I thought it was a very nice guitar. Elixirs are also my favorite strings, I've tried other coated brands and they just didn't do it for me.


Anyway, good luck transcribing the vocal melodies. It
will
get easier, I promise. It's one of my favorite ways to practice
:)
.



haha ok, thanks
:lol:

  • Members
Posted

Yeah, learning it by ear is the only way you can do it. It will get easier with time and practice.

Trying to transcribe vocal melodies for the guitar is fun, and can really help improve your phrasing as well.

  • Members
Posted

Dear JoeyJoJo,

 

There's a movie called 'How to figure out recordings' available on the net. PM me if You need help to get it. It describes the process of transcribing music (writing down the notes played by instrument such as guitar, violin, voice, keyboard etc...) in an easy way.

 

But there's really not much to it. You listen to notes one-by-one (pausing after each) and try to sing them, while singing try to match it on Your instrument. That's the whole process, except You need to also check the articulation and dynamics, but that's much easier. It also helps if You know how to check rhythmic values (note duration), so that You can write it down the melody in standard notation, or just type it into Guitar Pro.

 

You can find some tips on transcribing (tabbing in this case) here: http://www.riversofgore.com/pit/showthread.php?t=481. Look m_pl for my reply.

 

Good luck with transcribing (I find it to be the most entertaining for me I think, connected with music),

Michal

  • Members
Posted

when im writing songs, alot of the time i will make the vocal melody with the guitar, and do a completely different solo..

jojo, its quite simple depending on the key of the song, and your tone of voice. i usually pick the note of the first chord on the g string, then follow your voice from there... that the best starting way i can describe it... goodluck.

  • Members
Posted

Maybe it would help to start with simple melodies. Something like Happy Birthday or Simple Gifts to start. When I'm figuring out a melody, I usually sort of "warm up" my ears by noodling around with the scale in the key of the song. I get to a point where I'm instinctively connecting a certain pitch with a certain position on the fingerboard, then the song seems to come a lot easier.

If you know what key the song is, you can probably figure out where it hits the tonic note. Usually, a melody in the key of C will end on a C note, and so on. Then you can work backwards to figure out the other notes. It's often a process of trial and error.

Good luck!

  • Members
Posted

Maybe it would help to start with simple melodies. Something like
Happy Birthday
or
Simple Gifts
to start. When I'm figuring out a melody, I usually sort of "warm up" my ears by noodling around with the scale in the key of the song. I get to a point where I'm instinctively connecting a certain pitch with a certain position on the fingerboard, then the song seems to come a lot easier.


If you know what key the song is, you can probably figure out where it hits the tonic note. Usually, a melody in the key of C will end on a C note, and so on. Then you can work backwards to figure out the other notes. It's often a process of trial and error.


Good luck!

 

 

That's a great way to do it.

  • Members
Posted

For me, the program Transcribe has helped tons in terms of writing out songs, you can slow down a song while maintaining the pitch, as well as highlight as large or small area as you want and loop it, which helps with practicing at slower speeds or figuring out any single notes giving you trouble. Also, the frequenices of whatever notes you highlight will appear above a vitual keyboard, where you can test the note against, to see if it matches up. I found it as a torrent, if you have trouble getting it, PM me.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...