US-style transcription method

Born in 1987 in the canton of Thurgau, Andreas Häberlin now teaches at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, USA. He has won numerous prizes in Switzerland, where he studied composition and theory at the ZHdK, and internationally, including a sponsorship award from the Canton of Thurgau in 2016. In the USA, Häberlin has worked with greats such as Michael Bublé and Barbra Streisand and has made a name for himself as a film music producer.

Now he is publishing his first book with the promising title A Music Transcription Method - Notating Recorded Music by Ear before. The title only partially lives up to its promise. In the four parts «Preparation - Process - Interpretation - Resources», the author meticulously and scientifically addresses the predominantly digital approach to music transcription, with a large number of references to the relevant literature. Online, he provides an extensive collection of self-recorded music and score examples for the book - but the assignment to the individual chapters is not immediately obvious.

You could say that writing down existing music requires outstanding skills in ear training, understanding rhythm and harmony. However, the proposed methods do not go into any depth, but presuppose the aforementioned skills. The chapter on «Orchestration» remains very general; Häberlin presents the Creative Software Sampler Cube and at least mentions the instrumentation teachings of Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov in the corresponding bibliography. Numerous technical aids, from midi devices and notation software to digital audio workstations, are presented. In addition, there are rather banal instructions to adhere to the deadline set by the client - and to make sure that you don't disturb the neighbors when playing music.

Andreas Häberlin: A Music Transcription Method - Notating Recorded Music by Ear, 178 p., € 50.99, Routledge, New York and London 2025, ISBN 978-1-032-84254-7