Hey there folks, As I've been getting back into the habit of transcribing on the computer, I've started going back into my archives of transcriptions that I've done by hand and converted them over to pdfs. Once I got the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil I was able to transcribe digitally while still using the handwritten process. I found that this was hugely beneficial to the memorization process.
There is a bit of research that suggests that handwriting your notes (especially in cursive) is a creative problem solving process that deepens the memorization of what you write. I believe this applies to printing music on the staff by hand as well. That said, this is an opportunity to proofread my work from times in the past and publish something a bit more standardized for people to use. Below you can see the two versions, handwritten and published for comparison.
Subterranean Homesick Alien was one of the first songs that I fell in love with when I was introduced to Radiohead in High School. They are easily my favorite rock band in existence. This tune has some quirks in it. The chord progression is relatively simple and repetitive. The verse takes a G major chord and moves an additional tone down one note at a time. G7 G6 G (b6) to G. The G (b6) I think of as C minor over G. (C Eb G). That Eb is the b6 of G.
The chorus is also straight forward in its harmony. One of the charms of this song is the fact that it uses a 6 count. There is a lot of room for interpretation here. See if you can hear when the rhythm section is implying 4 over 6 by using dotted quarter notes to have 4 pulses per measure instead of the standard 6.
There are some neat articulations in Colin Greenwood's bass line as well. Listen for the slides into notes and the one grace note hiding. Despite the fact that the line isn't rhythmically busy, Colin says a lot with basic rhythmic variations.
This band has done some really profound things in their time. They've released albums for free. They've published all of their live recordings to view for free on their library. Radiohead has covered a huge amount of ground throughout their career. I hope you take the time to listen through their catalogue.
You can download the sheet music here.
As always, take your time, enjoy the process and keep playing.
Christopher
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