I think that I use the same method that Robert described for transcribing, basically playing the track over and over and grabbing a few notes at a time intill you can assemble the whole phrase or song, etc.
The basic idea is to immerse yourself into the sound, feel, and phrasing of the part that you're trying to copy. Play only a few notes at a time and don't try to learn too many notes at once. Just start with the first few notes and try to copy everything that is going on. When you get enough of the notes under your fingers then practice that phrase until it feels comfortable. Slow it down, etc.
The other part that really makes these transcriptions part of your playing is to try and understand where the notes are coming from. Try to analyze "why" they sound good? Ask yourself some questions as your going through the process:
- What key are you playing in?
- What scale are the series of notes based on?
- Do the series of notes outline a chord that might be happening behind the solo?
- Is there anything in the solo that makes it stand out, such as a repeated phrase ?
- Does the solo use chromatic passages to connect notes in some interesting way?
Writing out the solo can be a chore, but I've found a really good program to help. It's called "G7", made by Sibelius. I've been using this for a while to write out things when I feel the need to. This program write out tab and standard notation at the same time. It also has a little guitar neck that you use to enter the notes from the screen, which is helpful when you want to use specific fingerings in the tab, etc. Here is a link to it:
http://www.sibelius.com/products/g7/index.html
-- Jim
