Transcribing And Learning Rhythms: Lesson 2

Example 6
These following 4 Steps will help you to learn the rhythm of your phrase. Remember only
transcribe one phrase at a time. Patience is key to this as when you start to burn out you lose
focus and stop hearing things properly. This will end in frustration and lack of growth. There
is no time scale on learning things properly. The better you get the quicker it will happen.
You can’t force yourself to be a master of anything; you are where you are in terms of
growth. Time, Practice, Passion and Patience will make you a master.

1. Decide on the phrase you are working on and listen back a few times until you can
sing just the rhythm of the melody back without listening along to the music.
2. In your mind slow the phrase down dramatically.
3. Try clapping your hands like in the technique I showed you above or use a metronome
at a slow tempo to give you a pulse to sing the musical phrase you are trying to figure
out. From there you can really break down the rhythm of the phrase and figure out
where the rhythm lies on and against the down and up beats.
4. Next play only the rhythm you have learned by only using one note on your bass.

In this following video I am demonstrating these 4 steps to learn the rhythm of this melody. I
am using the pop tune called City Scape, which we used earlier to establish the Key.

Once you have done these 4 steps you are ready to add the pitches.