Reflections: The Art of Transcribing Music

kalianieg
Nov 12
5 min read

I learned a lot while working on a piece called Luna de Xelajú. Luna de Xelajú is known all throughout Guatemala. Many people consider the song to be the second anthem of the country. This popular waltz was written by Paco Pérez in 1944. Xelajú is the name in Kʼicheʼ for the Guatemalan city of Quetzaltenango. It is said this piece was written to his lover at the time when she left for Mexico. This song has been sung by many, played in different styles and even used as inspiration by other artists for their songs.

Evoking an emotion of longing and nostalgia under the moon's light. It is a sad piece that is playful in a way when it speeds up making you want to waltz across a moon lit stage. I knew I wanted to play the song after hearing it. There are a few videos and sheet music that I’ve come across of Luna de Xelajú. All are a little different with each composer's style of interpretation. My favorite is this one I’ve found on YouTube. Luna de Xelajú. It’s a simply arranged piece with enough variance so you won't get too bored. Unfortunately for me I cannot learn by seeing. I need to read the notes and after many months of trying to memorize the video I have decided to transcribe the piece myself.

Every beginner pianist's journey is learning to play simple tunes by ear. Sometimes all it takes is one note which can trigger a memory of a song. Causing you to want to decipher the song that contains that one note. One of my very first play by ear piece was The Pink Panther theme song. It's a popular song that many recognize, and it is easy to recall the song without listening to the audio. I remember being so proud that I learned the long without the help of a song book. I then looked up a tutorial on youtube and realized I was a few notes off on some of the parts. You can’t trust your ears when you are a little tone deaf. My big ego was shot down but that didn’t stop me from learning more songs by ear. Nowadays my foundation to any song is listening for what key the piece is in. My knowledge of music theory is limited, and all the technical terms confuse me, but I love how by just knowing the basics you can replicate a song. It is freeing and fun and who cares if it sounds perfect or not. Having the ability to create something is just amazing.

Things I learned:

During my transcription of Luna de Xelajú I was faced with the problem of sharps and flats. I was all over the place putting sharps here and flats there. I realized it did not look organized and would later cause confusion. So, I needed to make sure I stayed consistent in some areas, so it doesn’t get confusing. Later in the music when the song picks up, I realized that the key also changed so instead of a bunch of sharps on the page I was able to change the key, and it made reading the piece a little cleaner and easier to follow.

Have you ever read a piece that looked visually unpleasant, and the choice of notes seem confusing. I know I have! I once owned two piano music sheets of the same song in the same key just written differently. For example, instead of using different octaves to play higher notes like the first arrangement, the other piece played various high notes outside the staff. Making it more difficult to know what those notes were at the top of my head. So having that in mind I realized that making a good transcription of a song takes an artistic eye to arrange the piece in a way that is easy to read and visually appealing.

My third lesson was learning when to use ties and dotted notes. I had to make sure to make the notes stay consistent and to be able to keep the rhythm of the song. At the end of the day, it's a personal song and I can write it how I best understand it. Though If I were to share my transcription to a friend, I would want them to read and understand what I wrote. In some cases, favoring ties helps with the notes to flow much better than having a dotted half notes every wear cutting into the beats

Music Memory:

My first transcription of a song for a school band was in high school. I definitely bit off more than I could chew because I thought I had enough knowledge to basically compose the song which included a base guitar, an electric guitar, piano and drums. It was very simple and basic, and I think that is what helped everyone learn their parts. I would have loved to make it more creative but writing the music and learning my own part and practicing all together before the event was more than I could handle but I did it. The best thing about transcribing and creating your own version of a song is that a part of you lives in the transcription. Your style and your love is sewn into the notes like a love letter. If only it was easy, as I have mentioned I didn't really put the effort into properly learning music theory. So, a lot of my work is trial and error. At the end of the day it's only a hobby of mine. I don’t think it really matters much to me but would make things easier. Sometimes after transcribing a song I will jazz up simple parts to make it sound fuller and rounder. Through the years I’ve transcribed lots of music I wasn’t able to find music sheets for and sometimes I don't actually learn to play the piece. Just knowing I wrote it was fun enough and then I will move on to something else. I have many written pieces for piano and guitar. Some have been lost with time and others are stored away in a folder. Piano is my first love and playing it makes me happy. My dream is to one day teach children to love instruments too, just like my music teacher did. Her vibe was fun and energetic and made learning fun.