Music Lessons

For the last couple of months, I’ve been learning how to notate some of the music I’ve written. It’s a challenge. For decades now, untrained musicians and songwriters like me could create music using recording equipment. Nothing ever needed to be written down.

But here I am now, ever-closer to the end of my life, with a long list of songs I’ve written that only live in recorded form. I’ve wanted to see them in print. Not all of them, just the ones I think someone else might like to play or sing someday. Seeing them on paper satisfies a need of mine to leave something tangible behind.

I started with “Lorelei,” a song I shared here a few months ago. Thankfully, my recording software doubles as transcribing software.

At the top of this screenshot, you’ll see the lead vocal I sang in the form of a sound wave. Below it, another window that represents what I sang being played on a keyboard. Each block represents the pitch I sang and its duration. If it extends over one beat on the grid, I’ll see a quarter note on the corresponding score; two beats and I’ll see a half note. The software simply translates the blocks into notes and rests.

My job is to make sure I played it correctly and edited those blocks in such a way that the software reads them correctly. That usually means simplifying or ignoring things like how I might sing ahead of the beat or behind it, or if I might naturally slow down or speed up at times. Decisions need to be made, and future players will have to interpret what’s on the page.

My teachers are Siri, Claude, and a human named Rob, whose YouTube tutorials are excellent but too dense for when I need a quick answer to a maddening lay-out problem. Let’s just say I’m learning how to converse with Claude and Siri, learning how to phrase specific questions, when to realize their answers are wrong. It’s a lot for this almost-sixty-eight-year-old brain, but I’m getting there.

Writing my songs out like this gives me a sense of completion. And I love the possibility that someone, somewhere, sometime in the future might find one of them and try to sing or play it. Maybe they’ll write additional verses, change the tempo or the key. Play it for a friend.

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Press the arrow to hear “Lorelie”

This score is the whole of “Lorelei” the way I sang and played it - vocals and piano.

This score is the first three pages of the vocal parts, assuming a pianist, a guitarist, an accordion player, whomever, will want to create their own accompaniments.

It’s pretty much a thrill to see one of my songs this way. If you’re interested in giving “Lorelei” a try, let me know. Tell me what key you want to sing it in and I’ll send a file you can print.

And if you know my music and there’s a song you’d like to play, let me know. I’ll give it a shot. Here’s one called “Tree” from a CD called Parachute that I transcribed after “Lorelei.” Should have started here. A simple piano part is much easier for Siri and this beginner. In time, I’ll post more on my website.

thank you