I try to focus on the chorus of a song, some other section that repeats, or any section with a strong, clear melody. 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. 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. 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'. 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. But if you don't have a good ear then there are other options to try. I can usually just listen to a piece of music (over and over again) and figure out notes by ear. I highly recommend some kind of piano/keyboard, but you do you. You really need something handy that you can play in any key signature, and be proficient enough with it to play basic melodies.

You might be able to make something happen, but it's going to be a struggle most of the time. If the only musical instrument you have is the Mandachord itself then you're really working blind. 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. This guide assumes you're able to read standard treble clef/bass clef music notation and are comfortable with key signatures.

How to get stepmania songs in 2017