Transcribing Tips

[moosetication]

Originally posted by Henry II:
Well, then expand my vision for me. What else besides playing the best that you are able, makes you the best musician you can be?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think this is a terminological difference. "Musicianship" is broader than "performer" and includes composition, arrangement, theory and other disciplines. This seems to be reflected in the way higher education establishments distinguish between music degrees and performance degrees.

Your aspiration seem to be the "best player" possible - an entirely laudable, honorable and desirable thing to want to do, and not something I am trying to criticize in any way. But I think there is what my old English teacher would call a "nice distinction" between "best musician" and "best player."

As for what transciption brings to your playing? How about new ideas, expanding your vocabulary? A better understanding of what the original composer or player was trying to achieve? The ability to capture an idea and communicate it to others?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 23, 2005 04:19 AM: Message edited by: moosetication ]</font>

[Henry II]

I have a friend who is a big band leader (trumpet). He has 1,000's of authentic big band arrangements, some he actually paid for, some he stole [img]wink.gif[/img] (He's got some killer Airmen of Note charts), and 100's of which he transcribed by ear from the original recordings. I can understand why he did it. First because he could. Perfect pitch was, no doubt a prerequisite. Not many have the ear to transcribe an entire big band arrangement with all the horn, trombone, trumpet and rhythm section parts from a record. He also has one of the most comprehensive big band libraries in the world.

Having said that, it just seems to me that there are more efficient ways for a drummer to accomplish the goals you guys are talking about.

Nevertheless, not being one to shrink from a challenge, I am going to transcribe something. Maybe something from Milestones, I was just listening to that. I'll have to do it by hand, or learn how to use Finale Notepad. I don't think it has any notations for stick shots, you know, Philly Joe's stuff. Well, we'll see how it goes.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 23, 2005 05:00 AM: Message edited by: Henry II ]</font>

[Vdrummer]

HenryII,

Notepad doesn't have notation for stick shots or cymbal x-noteheads. But if you send me your email, I can send you a file you may be able to edit them from. I don't have notepad so I'm not sure if that'll work.

Brad

[Henry II]

Originally posted by Vdrummer:
HenryII,

Notepad doesn't have notation for stick shots or cymbal x-noteheads. But if you send me your email, I can send you a file you may be able to edit them from. I don't have notepad so I'm not sure if that'll work.

Brad

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks VD, I'm going to have to notate it by hand first anyway. When I'm ready to work it out on notation software I'll E you.

[Vdrummer]

It's definitely faster to do it by hand. Have fun!

Brad

[no_bells]

HenryII-I would have to disagree with your statement that having perfect pitch is a prerequisite to transcribing big band charts. I'll admit that I have never tried to transcribe a big band chart but I did take big band arranging as well as having written 1 big band arrangement and several multi horn charts when I was in school. If one is very familiar with the typical big band vocabulary it would'nt be impossible to do without perfect pitch

I"ve transcribed a couple of choruses of some of my favorite horn players and I have no special ear. A friend of mine has transcribed Coltrane, Steve Grossman, Dave Liebman solos without his instrument and perfect pitch. What he does have is decent relative pitch and an ability to identify intervals which can be learned. All one would really need is to have the ability to write down single moving lines.

If you were to apply that thinking to a typical big band arrangement, all you are really transcribing are sections with the horns: chorus, backgrounds in the solos, shout chorus, and maybe soli section( harmonized solo). All you would really need to write is the melody or top voice of each section. After that figuring out what the rest of the instruments are doing is pretty easy if you are familiar with the laws of harmony, voice leading, chord scales and instrument ranges. It's even easier if you know what voicings the arranger typically uses ie Duke, Basie, Gil Evans etc. It's easier because there are a limited amount of ways you can harmonize a single moving line without it sounding muddy or too dissonant. Plus, a few of those instruments are doubling notes of the chord or are playing unisons, so that narrows down the possiblities even more. Being familiar with how those ways are constructed and how they sound makes it easier. Having perfect pitch makes it a hell of alot easier to do it, I just think that one can transcribe without it.

BTW-those 4's on Billy Boy are just begging to be trancribed. [img]wink.gif[/img]