• Make sure that the recording equipment you use is accurate – with CDs and more digital forms of media this is less of a problem. I used to transcribe from a basic cassette player though, and would often come up against issues such as batteries going flat, tapes getting chewed up and the like.
• Take it one step at a time – don’t try to do too much in one go other you’ll never get anywhere with it. Take the solo a bar at a time, or if required a note at a time. This will ensure that your solos are accurate and of a high standard
• Slow the track down if required – I used to use minidiscs for my transcriptions and the player I had came with a facility to reduce the speed of the recording. This brought with it obvious problems over pitch, but it was easy to resolve simply by transposing the keyboard I was using to align with the drop in pitch. There is much software on the market now that will reduce the speed of an mp3 or other audio file without affecting the pitch. Check out Transcribe or for the iPhone, the Amazing slow downer (which I do not have a copy of, but hear great things about.
• Buy ‘Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice’ by Gardner Read, which goes into some more detail about the finer points and more advanced rules involved in notation. And no, I’m not on commission.

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