5 Tips to Transcribe Like a Pro with Levi Clay [3 free tabs]

We’re delighted to be speaking with Levi Clay, a professional guitarist and respected educator, he’s also been a longtime Guitar Pro user. In this interview, he opens the door to his world, sharing his journey, influences, and insights to help you improve and take your playing to the next level.

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How did you discover the guitar, and what made you start playing?

“I was around music when I was a kid. My grandfather was a semi professional guitarist in his youth and my grandmother met him when she was put in a duo with him as she played the piano. By the time I came along they’d both long since stopped playing, but his old acoustic guitar was always around and he kept his love for Django.

Sadly I didn’t take much interest in music until I was about 13. It’s a massive shift from where I am now, but I was really into Blink 182 and The Offspring. The thing that got me real serious was my girlfriend’s Dad (who also played) gave me an issue of Total Guitar magazine where Noodles from The Offspring, Joe Satriani and Mick Thomson interviewed each other. That was the moment I went from playing to be cool to playing because I had to.”

I know you also play piano, which instrument did you start with, and do you have a preference between the two?

“Oh, guitar all the way! As I just mentioned, I started playing guitar at 13, and I didn’t take up the piano until I was 32. Obviously I’ll always be a guitar player at my core, it’s all I’ve known for most of my life. Having said that, I gig more on the piano now and most of my practice time is devoted to the piano because it’s just given me a deeper access to music and ear training.”

Did you take music lessons, or are you self-taught?

“I’ve never liked the “self-taught” badge. I grew up really poor, so I didn’t have a teacher in the traditional sense. I would be given old magazines (we didn’t have the internet!) and I would learn everything in them. Then when I started earning money from a paper round, I subscribed to Guitar Techniques magazine. I was self guided, sure, but I would never call myself self-taught.

Every columnist I read was my teacher. Shaun Baxter, Guthrie Govan, John Wheatcroft, Jamie Humphries etc. I experienced my first 1:1 lessons when I went to college (Colchester) where as part of the music program you got a teacher… but the only teacher they had was a classical teacher, Adrian Johnson. So during that time I did classical guitar. I enjoyed it, but I was a rock guy who couldn’t give it the discipline it deserved to go all the way.

From there I went to London to the Guitar Institute where I had a lot of 1:1 time, both with guys at the school who taught my course, and privately with the great Martin Goulding. But again, to not pay tribute to the great guys who influenced me during that time like Max Milligan and Iain Scott would be dishonest.

On the piano/organ I’ve taken lessons with some amazing guys like Tony Monaco (B3 legend!) and Noah Kellman (amazing LA jazz dude!)

And that’s before mentioning the HUGE library of books I have from countless incredible authors who have all helped shape me. Mick Goodrick. William Leavitt. Randy Vincent. I could talk about teachers all day!”

Play Leaving London by Levi Clay!

What are your main influences?

“Those that know me know I play a lot of styles of music. You might know me as a rock/metal guy, a blues guy, a country guy, a jazz guy, or maybe you’ve seen my soul band in Glasgow. I play so many styles of music, not because I have to, but because there’s a genuine love and passion for so many styles of music. I will say this though, I mentioned why I started but I think (like many guitarists) I lost sight of that in the pursuit of knowledge and technique. In the last 5 or so years I fell back in love with songs.

Now I listen to a lot of great music and I can’t even tell you who plays guitar in the bands because it just doesn’t matter to me. So, dude in Lake Street Dive (I know I could have Googled but it would undermine the point!) hats off to you, I’ve listened to you play several times a week for a long time. You guys are awesome.

Oh… and musical theatre. Big musical theatre guy.”

You’re deeply involved in guitar education, having written 21 books, and taught millions of guitarists via Youtube, what do you enjoy most about teaching music?

“Anyone who has taken lessons with me, or follows my teaching will know that despite it being cliche, old sayings are often true. It’s amazing to get messages from people, or sit down with someone and help them get to the next level in their playing. Help them overcome the things they’ve not been able to with someone else. I’ve been so lucky in my life/career in that I didn’t start with much, but I came across so many people who were so generous and helped pull me out of what could have been a very dark life.

It wasn’t money that gave me a career, it was education. If I can help people become better and have better lives, is there any better feeling? It keeps me going! Over the last decade, my work had reached millions of guitarists through books, Youtube, and structured online teaching, but the real magic is getting to put faces to some of those success stories. Getting to know you guys!”

Where do you see the biggest gap between beginner/intermediate players and advanced musicians?

“Oh that’s easy! So on my site (GuidedPracticeRoutines) I work with hundreds of players and there’s this very obvious divide in players and it’s about helping them overcome that. Beginner/intermediate players don’t learn to play the guitar, they’re remembering how to play the guitar. It’s not really an understanding, it’s a memorization task.

Can they remember all the tab and move their hands in the right places to play it? Many people never overcome that, and that’s fine. But for me, the thing that pushes you into that next level is when you’re learning music and how it works. I can teach you an idea like closed voiced triads, we can practice them together, we can apply it to an etude etc… but if you panic when I say “ok, now you pick a song and apply the concept to it” then you’ve not really learned the concept yet, you’ve just remembered the exercise.”

Play Too Little Too Late by Levi Clay!

How long have you been using Guitar Pro, and which version did you start with?

“I got Guitar Pro 5.2 when I was in college. In school we were doing a lot of Bach chorals, counterpoint, and film scores… so it was Sibelius, but the guitar isn’t an orchestral instrument, there’s so much more we do in terms of techniques that I don’t find engraving software caters to guitar in the way Guitar Pro does. And it’s just got better and better as each version has been released.”

You’re widely regarded as one of the leading voices in guitar transcription. How do you approach transcribing a piece? What separates a “good” transcription from a truly great one?

“My background in classical and formal education might have given it away, butI’m a reader. While I create tab online for people, that’s about accessibility (because music isn’t to be gate-kept by those who can read), but when I’m actually creating work, it’s a simple process. Listen.Sing. Write. We can all do the first one. Some of us need work on the second. But the third one is where people struggle. Because I can read, there’s no trial and error when writing out what I heard.

I hear it, I can see it (because reading is seeing it and hearing it right?), andthat’s the separator between a good and great transcription. It’s important to remember that transcriptions are a learning tool, and they should make learning as easy as possible. Notation has conventions. So things like key signature, multi-voice writing, enharmonic, and correct use of ties to make reading easy all matter to me. You can learn to transcribe without knowing all that, sure… but when someone who understands the conventions sees it, i loks lyke ur riting Likethis, ifyo u C wat i meen?””

What’s your favorite feature in Guitar Pro?

“Oh the audio import feature for SURE. I don’t use it as a way to listen to the file. I load the audio in when the job is done. But being able to sync the file to the audio and deal with things like tempo accelerating, or free-time pieces is a complete game changer. I don’t know how I would be able to make some of the Youtube videos I make without it!”

Play Good Time Girl by Levi Clay!

Can you share five tips for editing scores like a pro in Guitar Pro?

“Just five??? Man, I’ve taught this software to SO many people I could give you 20! But ok, let’s try five!

• So first up, get in Stylesheet and read EVERY little option, know what they are, work out what you want and create a default template. Are you going to be using dynamics? If you’re turning off notation, disable “Display circle around half and whole notes in tablature“, disable “Indicate where the string is touched for artificial harmonics in tablature“, disable “Hide useless rests on standard notation” etc. Let the program do some of the work for you with stylesheet presets!
• Learn about beaming to make your transcription easier to read for readers, and look like the real deal. (It’s the Editing palette) 
• Sextuplets are ok, stop having bars and bars of 16th note triplets!!!
• Design mode is your friend. Organize your measure per line so the music isn’t too cramped (again, we want it easy to read!) but make sure new section start on new lines if you can.
• You want to use as little ink as possible. Give the person as much as they need, and no more. If you’re using notation, put a key signature in, it will eliminate tons of accidentals in the score which will help space things much better.
• And a bonus one… learn to notate bends so they’re both clean, but accurate to the intention!”

Time to play!

We hope you found this interview with Levi Clay both insightful and inspiring. Don’t hesitate to post your questions in the comments and let us know your first impressions!