Transferring a riff from my head to my guitar

So I play drums (and some guitar) and like to contribute some ideas to my band's guitarist. As the title states, I need help transferring stuff from my head to a guitar/paper. The only solution I can find is to magically obtain perfect pitch (which would be freaking amazing!) but so far it isn't working. I could likely recreate the notes I hear in my head with my voice, it would just be somewhat inaccurate.. I would try using the mic on a tuner to identify notes but it never seems to work quite right, and it doesn't help me at all with octaves, etc. Is there some kind of software that would help me identify a note and it's place on, say, a piano to get an idea of where it is octave wise? This is the only rational answer I can come up with.. any other ideas, or suggestions for software? Thanks!

 

Try Guitar Pro 5 or 6, works amazing!

I also work with that with my band, just so we can compose music.

 

As far as I know, GP won't let me identify notes inside of my head.. in my specific case it wouldn't be so helpful.

 

You could start by deciding if it's a high pitch or low pitch.

 

Thanks, I got that down., for the most part. I can't decipher whether a note is higher or lower within a half step, sometimes a little more.. I'm a drummer remember? I could guess and check my notes, but I need somewhere to start. I can't hum a pitch and decide that it's going to be an F# and hum another and decide it's a C.. especially if I want it to be right. If it's within a step or two of the right note, then I can tell if a sequence of notes is in key or not and if the pitches are correct, but again, I need to find that starting place.

 

Yeah, I know how you feel. It can be hard to get that right pitch and chord to play sometimes that you're thinking of. There is this guy MegaMatt I think that's his name, on this forum and he's in a band. He might know some software or something that could help you out, and give you some advice. This could be a little beyond me lol.

 

MegaMatt? Well hopefully he'll see this thread, and reply if he can help at all. Thank you.

 

With GP5/6, when entering a number on a string that indicates the fret, it plays the actual sound like a guitar would. This way you can still identify the pitches, and if you do this long enough, you'll learn something out of it too!

 

Yo, pretty much the best advice I could give would be to take your guitar, imagine the first note of the riff and keep going through the frets on the guitar (trial and error) until you find the match. Jot the fret down somewhere (keep in mind there are many different octaves, if the note sounds right but you want it in a lower or higher pitch, go up or down 12 frets, or a string and 7 frets, or 2 strings and 2 frets, etc). From there decide if the next note is lower or higher than the one before, and keep doing trial and error, jotting the notes down as you go. You could do this in Guitar Pro as well. If you can't find the starting note, try picking a note on the fretboard and re imagining the riff starting with that note. Sorry if this isn't much help, I'm a self taught guitarist and don't really have much ability in teaching, but logically this process will work.

One thing to keep in mind is that the key of your riff doesn't exactly have to be completely accurate when you're figuring it out, the most important thing is the progression between notes (for example, going from 2 on the A string to 3 on the E string is the same progression as going from 5 on the A string to 6 on the E string). If you're having trouble finding the key of the riff, disregard it and figure out the progression, then find your perfect key afterwards. If that makes any sense at all.

 

Yeah, it all makes a lot of sense. I might as well be tone deaf though, that method works but it takes a long time, especially for the longer riffs. Thank you though, I guess that's the way I'll have to go for now.

 

No problem, glad I could be of some help. The more you practice the easier note recognition will be. I've been playing guitar for 3-4 years or so and I'm just starting to recognize some specific progressions strictly based on songs I've learned in the past, and hearing the same note differences in other songs or songs I've written. I still haven't been able to recognize the keys of notes yet though. It's all about time and practice