W7
2.1.1
This is a long shot, but there’s a song from a film I’d like to try and compose as a melody. The problem is the lyrics are the melody, so short of learning to read and write music so I can pick the notes out myself I don’t know of a method.
I tried the vocal remover, but as I say the lyrics form the melody, so this method just resulted in 3 minutes of silence.
Is there anything in Audacity that would help me turn those lyrics into a melody?
Thanks, Trebor, but perhaps I didn’t explain myself very well.
I’m looking to transcribe the notes from the song, so that I may replicate the melody myself, using virtual music software. I don’t see anything in the spectogram that would help me do that.
short of learning to read and write music so I can pick the notes out myself I don’t know of a method.
Do you know any musicians? 
A musician wouldn’t be able to just listen and identify the notes (except for the very few who have perfect pitch) but with a little trial-and-error he/she could find the starting point (or key) of the song and begin to play-along “by ear” Then he/she could figure-out the noites being played.
If you can get your hands on a keyboard you may be able to “plunk out” the matching notes yourself (slowly, taking it in small bites). It’s also possible to slow-down the tempo without changing the pitch. It won’t sound great slowed-down but the notes and the relative timing will be correct.
I don’t see anything in the spectogram that would help
Analyze → Plot Spectrum can display the note wherever (in the spectrum) you place the cursor and the peak(s) in the spectrum should represent the note, but you’d have to zoom-in to highlight and analyze one note at a time, and presumably there are chords being played (multiple notes at once) so it can be difficult to identify the root of the chord.
There are applications that “try” to convert audio to MIDI but as far as I know, they don’t work very well with chords or multiple instruments.
P.S.
There is a chance that the pitch will be “off”. That is, it may not match the “notes on a piano”. That’s common on PAL (European) DVDs because they simply speed-up the 24 frames-per-minute from the film to 25FPS for the video. If it’s the PAL issue you know how much to slow it down, but if there’s another cause you’d have to use trial-and-error.
Or worse… If it’s an Far Eastern movie it may not use the Western musical scale at all!
I do, as it happens. She teaches the piano 
Thanks for the reply
Thanks again, trebor. That’s a start, but still looks a little daunting. I know nowt about music, so what the next note up from F5 would be in that example I’d have no idea. Unless I’m missing something and it tells you the note?
Just noticed this. I’ll have a play.
