Ever get stuck on a note when transcribing?

[stanron]

Originally Posted by TBman

Ok, so what is the correct term? Is it "notating?" It can't be "arranging" because I'm just writing down someone else's arrangement.

Nothing wrong with notating if what you end up with is notation. If what you end up with is tab then tabbing would be more accurate.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by TBman

Ok, so what is the correct term? Is it "notating?" It can't be "arranging" because I'm just writing down someone else's arrangement.

"Notating" means literally "making notes", or "making (something) into notes". In the musical sense, it means writing notes down on music manuscript.

IOW, strictly speaking, a "musical note" is not a sound at all. It's the written symbol representing the sound. (This is a useful distinction, because we are used to thinking of the sound itself as the "note" - and that gives the written symbol too much weight. It infects the sounds with unnecessary written factors; almost as if the note symbol comes first, and the sound second. To give a musical sound a name and a written symbol makes us think we understand it better - in fact it reduces our understanding of it, IMO.)

So, "transcription" means "representing (musical) sounds in notated form".

However, a perfectly good broader meaning of "notation" is any method of converting musical sound into some kind of written symbols. Different cultures have different types of written symbols for sounds, so tablature ought to count as one of those. IOW, tab is a "form of notation".

If you want to make a distinction between tab and traditional western music notation (five lines, blobs and stems, and so on), the latter is sometimes referred to as "staff notation" - even though tab also employs a 6-line "staff".

IOW, there is no proper distinction in language here. It's clear what "tab" means (there are different forms, but they're all the same idea), but when it comes to "notation" and "transcription" there are obviously overlaps, blurred edges.

Personally, if I was to say I'd "tabbed" a pece of music, I would mean I'd written it down as tab only. If I'd written it out as traditional staff notation (with or without tab too), I'd say I'd "transcribed" it. I might add "notation and tab" if I wanted to make it clear I'd done both.

An additional issue is, what do we call it if we just learn the chords to prepare a chord chart? That's also "transcription" of a sort (converting sound into writing), even a kind of "notation", if we accept chord symbols as as a form of notation. But if I'd just written out a chord chart, I wouldn't call that a "transcription". For me, the latter implies note-for-note details.

[Andyrondack]

Don't forget that dictionaries only give the meaning of words as they are commonly used which can and does change over time.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Hi Barry,
Since you're probably doing both at the same time (TAB + Notation) you can always say you're "tabanoting".
It's my entry for new words in 2021!

[macmanmatty]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

It's faster for me to find the note somewhere on the fretboard (various locations if need be) and see if I find one in a playable location along with the other notes that are to be played along with it.
Transcribe to guitar means applying music played on another instrument(s) to be played on the guitar or perhaps going from one tuning to another. Often things cannot be transcribed note by note
and be playable.

Unless you're talking about playing songs in the exact same octave as written why could transcribed songs not be playable?

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by macmanmatty

Unless you're talking about playing songs in the exact same octave as written why could transcribed songs not be playable?

Several situations would make a note for note transcription not even possible let alone playable. Of course you can
change the notes played to make it possible to score and play on a guitar.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

Don't forget that dictionaries only give the meaning of words as they are commonly used which can and does change over time.

True.
Dictionaries do get updated of course, usually every year, but then they rarely concern themselves with jargon terms which are particular to certain professions, or to the ways certain cliques adapt common terms for their own private purposes.