Transcribing Vocal Harmony "Note-For-Note" - Any Tips?

[Wolf]

Wow - I haven't posted here in ages. I'd love to say that all this down time has been due to some extreme shedding on the bass, but I'm affraid for possibly the 2nd time ever, life is actually getting in the way

...but let's get back to the issue at hand:
I'm having a *very* hard time transcribing vocal harmonies note-for-note. Just now I've been racking my brains trying to jot down the intro to Beach Boy's "Girls On The Beach", an dI can't seem to pry the vocals from the occasional keyboard or bass note. It's too dense, and the articulations are not consistent enough for me (I usually have an easier time with keyboard parts), so I was wondering:
How do you do it? I've seen some books touting exact vocal transcriptions of similar works, but I'm beggining to suspect that such a feat is beyond the reach of the common man!
Will someone kindly toss me bone here?

Thanks in advance,
Ort

[Eli M.]

Notate the chords and melody, and transcribe what you can hear. Then fill in the rest based on what's missing from the chord and what would make sense in terms of voice leading.

As this is not classical choir writing, remember that the voices may cross and you may find doubled notes.

Hope this helps,
E

[Chili]

once i've found the key, i just listen and find the notes, nothing really special, like i would when trying to figure out a guitar solo or bass line etc.

[Wolf]

Hmmm...
Perhaps I didn't explain myself properly. My problem is not with identifying vocal lines in general, just seperating prticular voices within a 4-part close harmony vocal arrangement (especially when it's littered with rythm guitars). I want to eliminate the guess work - I want to get to a point where I can just hear it! Has anyone actually tackled this?

[Deacon_Blues]

I'm not much of a transcriber, but here's how I'd do it:

First I'd find out the chords over the part I want to transcribe, including all alterations of them. That limits the choice of notes. Then I'd try to identify each voice separately for the whole part, one voice at a time. I think this is easiest if you start with the highest (or lowest) pitched voice, and then move down (or up) to the next one until all harmonies are done.

Hope this helps a bit.

[JimmyM]

You will find that the vast majority of harmonies move in a parallel fashion, meaning when one voice goes up or down, so do the others. That should help you figure out what voice is singing what in most harmonies. But when they don't, then piecing it together in a fashion like Eli said is a good way to go.

[Wolf]

Well, thanks guys. I finally pulled myself together - sat down (with one finger on the rwnd button and tried to see what I can make of this. What I ended up with is a very disjointed arrangement, which rarely makes use of all 4 voices. I'm guessing there's just alot of doubling happening there. Perhaps I should try my luck at something more traditional... Barbershop perhaps?