Rafael Trujillo

Writing out tabs

Added 2024-03-06 21:23:47 +0000 UTC

This is the song called Actual Proof and it’s originally composed by Herbie Hancock. I interpreted it in a completely new way on my EP.

I’m done with transcribing the whole thing finally. So I’ll add it to the rest of the tabs here on Patreon later this week. Most of my solos are improvised when I record them. I do a lot of takes lol, to make sure I get the best possibly result. So a lot of times, an improvised solo or section becomes part of a written out solo. So when I play that live I adapt some of the stuff I played on the recording or sometimes even just learn what I played on the recording and literally transcribe my own solo.

The solo from that particular song was probably the hardest one to transcribe because it was also the one that was improvised a lot compared to other solos I recorded.

And now, this might be helpful for you too (to make sure nothings gets lost). These are my steps to tab songs/solos out:

- Check tempo of the piece

- Check time signatures

- Notate all the notes (fingering doesn’t matter at this point. I just wanna be done as fast as possible and go through everything in detail later)

- Tag the parts and get the right form (A, B, C, Verse, Chorus, etc)

- Double check all the time signatures in between and tempo changes if there are

- Get the right rhythm on the tricky parts (sometimes you don’t get it that fast on the first run when there is a fast lick with mixed quintuplets or septuplets in it.)

- Double check all the notes by listening to the tab and the track simultaneously

- Double check the rhythm by listening to the tab and the track simultaneously

- Write down all the chord symbols

- Grab a guitar and check all the fingerings

- Notate all the little phrasing details, being as precise as possible (Bendings, trills, etc)

- Double check chords (sometimes they get lost while editing)

- Double check everything by reading through and listening to the track at the same time

- Check layout and make sure everything is visible

- Export files with a FINAL name

It’s a long list but I figured out that’s the most efficient way for me personally.