1. Decide if you want a draft
Working purely by ear trains your ear more. A draft gets you playing sooner. If you want a draft, know what you're getting from our own engine:
| Clean file, 64 known notes | Found | Written in total |
|---|---|---|
| Solo guitar | 63 | 150 |
| Full band | 24 | 174 |
So a solo played alone gives you most of the notes, plus some extras to delete. A solo over a full band gives you far less: many of the notes will be wrong. Find the cleanest version you can: an isolated track, a live acoustic take, or a stereo file with the guitar panned to one side. BeatMap's MP3 to tab converter has an optional switch for that last case.
2. Cut the solo into phrases
A solo is sentences, not one long word. Listen to the whole thing and mark where the player breathes. Each phrase becomes one loop. Start with the easiest phrase, not the first one. Premier Guitar suggests the same order.
3. Loop short and slow
Make the loop just a few notes long. Listen several times before you touch the guitar. Slow it without changing the pitch. Half speed is a fair start. Fast runs may need less.
4. Sing it, then find it
If you can sing the phrase, you've heard it. Now find the first note and the last note on the neck, and fill in the middle. Knowing the key helps: most solo notes come from one or two scales, so try those first.
5. Find the position
The same note lives in up to five places on the neck. Pitch alone won't tell you which, so use these clues:
- Tone. A note high up on a thick string sounds darker and fatter than on a thin one.
- Reach. Players favor the efficient route. If your version needs big jumps, it's probably somewhere else.
- Open strings. A note that rings under the others might be open.
- Video. When you're stuck, a live clip can settle it.
6. Add what makes it a solo
This is the part no draft will do for you. BeatMap writes notes and frets only, and doesn't mark any of these, so add them by ear:
- Bends. A bent note can show up in a draft as a different note, a higher one, or two notes. If a note is out of the scale or hard to reach, ask whether it's really a bend from below.
- Slides and hammer-ons. Listen for notes with no pick attack.
- Vibrato. Slowing down shows its speed and width.
Then play with the record at full speed. Master each trouble spot before moving on. As TrueFire's guide puts it, don't learn your mistakes.
New to this? Learn a song without tabs covers the basics, with a worked example.