learning to read

[Keh]

Long time lurker, first time poster, etc..

Anyway, I decided I want to learn how to read music. I've started working on the lessons at www.libster.com and then I caught RHCFlea's thread at Switching from Tabs to notation and I decided to try transcribing pieces of Rage Against the Machine's "Know your Enemy". I have basically transcribed the two main riffs of the song and I have attached a .GIF showing them.

I'm almost positive all the notes are correct, however I am not certain I have notated it properly as there are a few accidentals and I've written them all as sharps. I'm also not quite certain of the rhythms in the second riff.

If anyone who knows the song can take a look at it and let me know how I am doing, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

[Angus]

Keh,

I like the idea of transcribing songs you like to get into reading music! Hopefully it'll keep you at it.

However...there are quite a few problems with the transcription. Let's start a few bars at a time, though.

Could you give a "verbal" explanation of bars 1 and 2, so I can figure out what you meant to have in there? The problem is that you will NEVER have an entire bar of notes connected like that in common time. Without knowing the song, I can't just give you the answer.

Good idea, but just needs some help! Do you have a teacher? If not, not only do I suggest it, I demand you get one! It'll make everything easier.

Edit: I forgot...you don't have a key signature! This is a must, and will remove some of those sharps. Know how to do this?

[Keh]

Keh,

I like the idea of transcribing songs you like to get into reading music! Hopefully it'll keep you at it.

Angus,

Thanks for the reply!

However...there are quite a few problems with the transcription. Let's start a few bars at a time, though.

Ok. Below I'll try to explain what I meant.

Could you give a "verbal" explanation of bars 1 and 2, so I can figure out what you meant to have in there? The problem is that you will NEVER have an entire bar of notes connected like that in common time. Without knowing the song, I can't just give you the answer.

When I listen to the recording of that first riff, the rhythm I hear is a sixteenth note followed directly by a string of notes that last as long as an eighth note should, so we have a sixteenth note followed by a note that starts on the "e" of 1 and lasts until the "a" of 1 (which I believe should make it an eighth note), then there is a note starting on the "a" of 1, lasting until the "e" of 2. I'm not sure if there is terminology for this but I would call it an eighth note offset "forward" in time by a sixteenth note. What you see in the GIF is the way Finale Notepad decided to draw it when I placed a 16th followed by a string of six 8ths followed by 3 more 16ths to close out the measure.

The riff appears first around 1:02 mark and it is just mirroring the guitar.

Please let me know if I'm not being clear.

Edit: I forgot...you don't have a key signature! This is a must, and will remove some of those sharps. Know how to do this?

Nope, I knew when I started that I should figure out what key the song is in. I got stuck when I looked at some of the notes in the song and saw that twice there are 3 notes a semitone apart (B, C, C#, and E, F, F#). I didn't think this was possible in the major scale, and I didn't feel like blindly trying other scales, so I figured I would just try to transcribe it anyway and skip the key. I guess I should mention that I assume the key signature comes from a scale of some sort.