This guide assumes you're able to read standard treble clef/bass clef music notation and are comfortable with key signatures.
Basics
Step one with doing a Mandachord transcription of a song is to figure out how to play the song, in its original key, on a "general" musical instrument.
If the only musical instrument you have is the Mandachord itself then you're really working blind. You might be able to make something happen, but it's going to be a struggle most of the time. You really need something handy that you can play in any key signature, and be proficient enough with it to play basic melodies. I highly recommend some kind of piano/keyboard, but you do you.
I can usually just listen to a piece of music (over and over again) and figure out notes by ear. But if you don't have a good ear then there are other options to try. Often just Googling the name of your song plus "synthesia" will give you a link to someone who's already figured out the notes and made "piano hero" style video showing how to play it. If the part you're interested in is a guitar or bass guitar part, and you know how to read guitar tablature, then you might have more luck searching for the name of your song plus "tab".
You can only put eight seconds of music into the Mandachord, so you typically don't want to sit down and figure out how to play an entire song just to find one small section. With enough practice you can tell just by listening if a section is likely to fit into the Mandachord's scale, but it takes a lot of practice. I try to focus on the chorus of a song, some other section that repeats, or any section with a strong, clear melody.
About the Mandachord
The meter of the Mandachord is fixed at four measures of 4/4 at 120 beats per minute, with each measure separated into sixteenth notes. In my experience the meter is a problem more often than tempo is. But by far the biggest hurdle is the limited note choices.
The notes available on the Mandachord are the first five notes of the D Minor pentatonic scale. Both melody and bass have the same five notes. In order from bottom to top, they are:
Most songs are not in D Minor (or the relative key of F Major), so you should get comfortable with determining what key a song is in, and picking out the above pentatonic scale in that key, whatever it is. I've found it's much easier to work in the song's original key as long as possible.
Dealing with percussion is typically much easier than the melody or bass, but you should still be familiar with what's available on the Mandachord. For all instruments except Adau, the three percussions notes are basically:
Top: bass drum
Middle: snare drum
Bottom: hi-hat
Adau percussion is it's own separate thing. Ironically, the default percussion is probably the hardest to work with and make it sound good.
Now that we have the basics, let's get down to lesson one.
The best case scenario
The best case scenario is when a song's melody fits exactly into the Mandachord's range, scale, and meter. Melody is the most important part; your ear tends to focus on it. It's the first thing I try to figure out when I'm looking at putting a song into the Mandachord. If it fits perfectly then it's a winner, even if the bass and percussion aren't quite as perfect.
Here are three case studies provided by @NisuTHUG. The first one is the mythical best case scenario. The other two have some minor issues that we'll have to work through, but nothing major.
Case 1: Maria/I Like it Loud (Scooter) @1:46
Spoiler
Listening through this, the part at 1:46 immediately jumps out at me. The melody goes like this:
It's in G# Minor, which is a pretty gnarly key to work with. Here's what the pentatonic scale looks like in that key:
All the notes in the melody are present, and in the same octave. And the melody fits nicely into four bars of 4/4. That's a home run!
We're already pretty much set, but let's take a look at the bass line as well. It goes like this:
This definitely does not fit on a Mandachord. However, you generally have a lot more leeway with the bass. This one is just a simple, alternating octave pattern. With a bass line like that, the notes in the upper octave tend to stand out more, so we can just omit the lower ones and still get the same feel. With that change, it reduces to two notes. They easily fit within the first two notes of the G# Minor pentatonic scale:
With the melody and bass figured out in the original key, this is usually the point where I open the Mandachord screen. The Mandachord is not in the same key as this song, so the individual notes will sound different. I usually enter the notes with the game sound off to avoid confusing my ear. As long as I keep in mind where each note is in that key's pentatonic scale, then I know which note it is on the Mandachord.
If that's a little too much then you can first transpose it yourself into D Minor before going to the Mandachord. Here's our melody and bass, transposed from G#m to Dm:
This is also where I start thinking about which instruments to use. I don't have any firm rules on this; I usually just go with what feels right. In this case, the melody is on the slow side and has some reverb in the original song, so I'll go with with Alpha. For the bass I'll use Beta, mostly because I'm trying to get out of the habit of using Druk bass for everything.
The last thing I worry about is the percussion, because it's typically the easiest. In this case it's almost trivial. There's just a bass drum on the beats and hi-hat in between each one. The Alpha percussion is a pretty good match for the sound of the original song. In the original you can hear a little bit of snare-like sound at the end of each measure, but doing that with the Alpha snare is too overpowering, so I just doubled up the hi-hat. All four measures are identical; percussion is almost always where I use the Mandachord screen's 'Copy Notes' function.
The original is a bit faster than 120bpm, so the Mandachord version sounds slower but is still easily recognizable.
The finished product:
Spoiler
Between the slower temp, different instruments sounds, and different key, nobody's going to mistake this for the original version of the song. But it's a close partial match, and your brain is very good at turning a partial match into recognition.
Someone who's familiar with the original song should be able to recognize this without having to be told what it's supposed to be, which is the only criteria for success that matters.
Case 2: Deep Blue (K-391) @2:00
Spoiler
I listened through the song and found something promising at 2:00. Here it is:
It looks complicated, but it's mostly just repeating the same note several times, then moving to a different note and repeating that. You don't need to actually write a rhythm like this in standard Treble Clef notation in order to put it into the Mandachord, but you do need to figure out the rhythm in enough detail that you could if you wanted to.
Anyway, the key is in E Minor. Here is the corresponding pentatonic scale in that key:
Now we have a little bit of a problem. Here's the melody again, but with notes that are not in the pentatonic scale marked in red:
That C is the sixth note in the E Natural Minor scale. However, it's not there in the E Minor pentatonic scale. We can't do this melody perfectly. It's a shame, since it's just that one little section that's off.
Here's where you have to make a judgement call; either decide it's unworkable or find a way to work around it. In this case, I figure the rest of it is good a enough match that I can just replace it with the nearest note and still get decent recognition. The nearest available note would be the B, the fourth note on the Em pentatonic scale. Here is the updated melody with that change:
Here's where being able to actually play a musical instrument helps, because I can try out this change out immediately. It's noticeable, but not that bad.
On to the bass line. Here it is:
Uh-oh. For comparison, here's the nearest Em pentatonic scale:
And here's the bass line again. Notes missing from the pentatonic scale are marked in red, and notes that aren't missing but are in the wrong octave are marked in orange:
The red notes are the C again, just like we saw with the melody. Let's just do the same thing we did before and replace it with a B.
The orange notes are the E, an octave higher than where the Mandachord has it. We usually have more leeway with the bass line, so let's just move those down an octave.
Here's the result:
It's different, clearly. But it still sounds close, has the right rhythm, and with the melody already a decent match I don't think it hurts recognizability.
Now to start entering it into the Mandachord and picking some instruments.
The melody has a lot of notes, which usually means you need either Beta or Gamma so they don't run together. In this case I think Gamma sounds closer.
The bass has a fair number of notes, too, and in the original each note is pretty short, so I can't avoid Druk in this case. A busy Druk bass line tends to overpower a Gamma melody, so I'll back off the volume on it a little bit.
The percussion doesn't seem to have any audible hi-hat, just a slightly syncopated snare and a bass on each beat. The snare sound is pretty short, so I'll go with Delta, which has a nice, sharp snare. After putting that into the Mandachord and listening to it, I noticed the Delta bass drum gets kind of lost, so I added in the hi-hat on the beat to emphasize it. All four measures of percussion are identical, so I used 'Copy Notes' again.
The finished product:
Spoiler
This would be pretty difficult to get Metronome buffs with. But the point of this exercise is to get something that's recognizable, not easy.
Case 3: The Fallen (Franz Ferdinand) @0:11
Spoiler
I listened through the whole thing before finally settling on the opening riff. I actually looked up the guitar tablature to make sure I had it right. It's a little hard to convert to piano because it's a guitar part and it includes a slide. This is really something you have to experiment with until you find something that sounds right. If you can't play it on a piano then you won't be able to play it on a Mandachord. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:
It's in C Minor. Here's the C Minor pentatonic:
And here's the melody again, with problems highlighted:
Ab is the sixth note on the C Natural Minor scale, but it's not there in the pentatonic. The missing sixth comes up a lot. In this case, it goes by pretty fast so we can probably get away with replacing it with its nearest pentatonic neighbor, the G:
On to the bass line. Again, I consulted the tablature to make sure I had it right. There are two slides here, so it's another challenge to get it working on a piano. Here's what I got:
This time there are no problem notes. It all fits perfect into the first five notes of the C Minor pentatonic.
Now to start entering it into the Mandachord. For a rock instrumental, instrument choice is a no brainer: Druk across the board.
The percussion is basically a repeated drum break. This can get annoying in practice, but I just went with it.
After listening, I dialed back the volume on the bass and percussion so you can hear the melody a little better. The Druk melody is a little mushy with fast notes, but I still think it's more appropriate here than then any of the other ones. I also removed the last note in each measure from the bass; trying to simulate that particular slide from the bass tablature didn't sound right.
The finished product:
Spoiler
I'm a little less happy with this one. If I were to use it myself then I'd probably make the percussion part a little less busy, and probably lose a few notes in the melody to make it easier to get metronome buffs.
Other cases
Here are some other ones I've done that fall into the 'Best Case Scenario' category:
Question
Buff00n
This guide assumes you're able to read standard treble clef/bass clef music notation and are comfortable with key signatures.
Basics
Step one with doing a Mandachord transcription of a song is to figure out how to play the song, in its original key, on a "general" musical instrument.
If the only musical instrument you have is the Mandachord itself then you're really working blind. You might be able to make something happen, but it's going to be a struggle most of the time. You really need something handy that you can play in any key signature, and be proficient enough with it to play basic melodies. I highly recommend some kind of piano/keyboard, but you do you.
I can usually just listen to a piece of music (over and over again) and figure out notes by ear. But if you don't have a good ear then there are other options to try. Often just Googling the name of your song plus "synthesia" will give you a link to someone who's already figured out the notes and made "piano hero" style video showing how to play it. If the part you're interested in is a guitar or bass guitar part, and you know how to read guitar tablature, then you might have more luck searching for the name of your song plus "tab".
You can only put eight seconds of music into the Mandachord, so you typically don't want to sit down and figure out how to play an entire song just to find one small section. With enough practice you can tell just by listening if a section is likely to fit into the Mandachord's scale, but it takes a lot of practice. I try to focus on the chorus of a song, some other section that repeats, or any section with a strong, clear melody.
About the Mandachord
The meter of the Mandachord is fixed at four measures of 4/4 at 120 beats per minute, with each measure separated into sixteenth notes. In my experience the meter is a problem more often than tempo is. But by far the biggest hurdle is the limited note choices.
The notes available on the Mandachord are the first five notes of the D Minor pentatonic scale. Both melody and bass have the same five notes. In order from bottom to top, they are:
Most songs are not in D Minor (or the relative key of F Major), so you should get comfortable with determining what key a song is in, and picking out the above pentatonic scale in that key, whatever it is. I've found it's much easier to work in the song's original key as long as possible.
Dealing with percussion is typically much easier than the melody or bass, but you should still be familiar with what's available on the Mandachord. For all instruments except Adau, the three percussions notes are basically:
Top: bass drum
Middle: snare drum
Bottom: hi-hat
Adau percussion is it's own separate thing. Ironically, the default percussion is probably the hardest to work with and make it sound good.
Now that we have the basics, let's get down to lesson one.
The best case scenario
The best case scenario is when a song's melody fits exactly into the Mandachord's range, scale, and meter. Melody is the most important part; your ear tends to focus on it. It's the first thing I try to figure out when I'm looking at putting a song into the Mandachord. If it fits perfectly then it's a winner, even if the bass and percussion aren't quite as perfect.
Here are three case studies provided by @NisuTHUG. The first one is the mythical best case scenario. The other two have some minor issues that we'll have to work through, but nothing major.
Case 1: Maria/I Like it Loud (Scooter) @1:46
Listening through this, the part at 1:46 immediately jumps out at me. The melody goes like this:
It's in G# Minor, which is a pretty gnarly key to work with. Here's what the pentatonic scale looks like in that key:
All the notes in the melody are present, and in the same octave. And the melody fits nicely into four bars of 4/4. That's a home run!
We're already pretty much set, but let's take a look at the bass line as well. It goes like this:
This definitely does not fit on a Mandachord. However, you generally have a lot more leeway with the bass. This one is just a simple, alternating octave pattern. With a bass line like that, the notes in the upper octave tend to stand out more, so we can just omit the lower ones and still get the same feel. With that change, it reduces to two notes. They easily fit within the first two notes of the G# Minor pentatonic scale:
With the melody and bass figured out in the original key, this is usually the point where I open the Mandachord screen. The Mandachord is not in the same key as this song, so the individual notes will sound different. I usually enter the notes with the game sound off to avoid confusing my ear. As long as I keep in mind where each note is in that key's pentatonic scale, then I know which note it is on the Mandachord.
If that's a little too much then you can first transpose it yourself into D Minor before going to the Mandachord. Here's our melody and bass, transposed from G#m to Dm:
This is also where I start thinking about which instruments to use. I don't have any firm rules on this; I usually just go with what feels right. In this case, the melody is on the slow side and has some reverb in the original song, so I'll go with with Alpha. For the bass I'll use Beta, mostly because I'm trying to get out of the habit of using Druk bass for everything.
The last thing I worry about is the percussion, because it's typically the easiest. In this case it's almost trivial. There's just a bass drum on the beats and hi-hat in between each one. The Alpha percussion is a pretty good match for the sound of the original song. In the original you can hear a little bit of snare-like sound at the end of each measure, but doing that with the Alpha snare is too overpowering, so I just doubled up the hi-hat. All four measures are identical; percussion is almost always where I use the Mandachord screen's 'Copy Notes' function.
The original is a bit faster than 120bpm, so the Mandachord version sounds slower but is still easily recognizable.
The finished product:
Between the slower temp, different instruments sounds, and different key, nobody's going to mistake this for the original version of the song. But it's a close partial match, and your brain is very good at turning a partial match into recognition.
Someone who's familiar with the original song should be able to recognize this without having to be told what it's supposed to be, which is the only criteria for success that matters.
Case 2: Deep Blue (K-391) @2:00
I listened through the song and found something promising at 2:00. Here it is:
It looks complicated, but it's mostly just repeating the same note several times, then moving to a different note and repeating that. You don't need to actually write a rhythm like this in standard Treble Clef notation in order to put it into the Mandachord, but you do need to figure out the rhythm in enough detail that you could if you wanted to.
Anyway, the key is in E Minor. Here is the corresponding pentatonic scale in that key:
Now we have a little bit of a problem. Here's the melody again, but with notes that are not in the pentatonic scale marked in red:
That C is the sixth note in the E Natural Minor scale. However, it's not there in the E Minor pentatonic scale. We can't do this melody perfectly. It's a shame, since it's just that one little section that's off.
Here's where you have to make a judgement call; either decide it's unworkable or find a way to work around it. In this case, I figure the rest of it is good a enough match that I can just replace it with the nearest note and still get decent recognition. The nearest available note would be the B, the fourth note on the Em pentatonic scale. Here is the updated melody with that change:
Here's where being able to actually play a musical instrument helps, because I can try out this change out immediately. It's noticeable, but not that bad.
On to the bass line. Here it is:
Uh-oh. For comparison, here's the nearest Em pentatonic scale:
And here's the bass line again. Notes missing from the pentatonic scale are marked in red, and notes that aren't missing but are in the wrong octave are marked in orange:
The red notes are the C again, just like we saw with the melody. Let's just do the same thing we did before and replace it with a B.
The orange notes are the E, an octave higher than where the Mandachord has it. We usually have more leeway with the bass line, so let's just move those down an octave.
Here's the result:
It's different, clearly. But it still sounds close, has the right rhythm, and with the melody already a decent match I don't think it hurts recognizability.
Now to start entering it into the Mandachord and picking some instruments.
The melody has a lot of notes, which usually means you need either Beta or Gamma so they don't run together. In this case I think Gamma sounds closer.
The bass has a fair number of notes, too, and in the original each note is pretty short, so I can't avoid Druk in this case. A busy Druk bass line tends to overpower a Gamma melody, so I'll back off the volume on it a little bit.
The percussion doesn't seem to have any audible hi-hat, just a slightly syncopated snare and a bass on each beat. The snare sound is pretty short, so I'll go with Delta, which has a nice, sharp snare. After putting that into the Mandachord and listening to it, I noticed the Delta bass drum gets kind of lost, so I added in the hi-hat on the beat to emphasize it. All four measures of percussion are identical, so I used 'Copy Notes' again.
The finished product:
This would be pretty difficult to get Metronome buffs with. But the point of this exercise is to get something that's recognizable, not easy.
Case 3: The Fallen (Franz Ferdinand) @0:11
I listened through the whole thing before finally settling on the opening riff. I actually looked up the guitar tablature to make sure I had it right. It's a little hard to convert to piano because it's a guitar part and it includes a slide. This is really something you have to experiment with until you find something that sounds right. If you can't play it on a piano then you won't be able to play it on a Mandachord. Anyway, this is what I ended up with:
It's in C Minor. Here's the C Minor pentatonic:
And here's the melody again, with problems highlighted:
Ab is the sixth note on the C Natural Minor scale, but it's not there in the pentatonic. The missing sixth comes up a lot. In this case, it goes by pretty fast so we can probably get away with replacing it with its nearest pentatonic neighbor, the G:
On to the bass line. Again, I consulted the tablature to make sure I had it right. There are two slides here, so it's another challenge to get it working on a piano. Here's what I got:
This time there are no problem notes. It all fits perfect into the first five notes of the C Minor pentatonic.
Now to start entering it into the Mandachord. For a rock instrumental, instrument choice is a no brainer: Druk across the board.
The percussion is basically a repeated drum break. This can get annoying in practice, but I just went with it.
After listening, I dialed back the volume on the bass and percussion so you can hear the melody a little better. The Druk melody is a little mushy with fast notes, but I still think it's more appropriate here than then any of the other ones. I also removed the last note in each measure from the bass; trying to simulate that particular slide from the bass tablature didn't sound right.
The finished product:
I'm a little less happy with this one. If I were to use it myself then I'd probably make the percussion part a little less busy, and probably lose a few notes in the melody to make it easier to get metronome buffs.
Other cases
Here are some other ones I've done that fall into the 'Best Case Scenario' category:
Thanks!
Thanks to @NisuTHUG for requesting a tutorial and giving me three good case studies!
If you made it this far, then thank you for reading! If you would like to see more of these then let me know. This one is just scratching the surface.
(If you want to request a song then please do it on my other thread)
Edited by Buff00nformatting
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