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Jazz Solo Transcription: the 5 Ws and an H Part 1
Jazz Solo Transcription: the 5 Ws and an H Part 1
Date Posted: September 12 2011
Written By: Frank Portolese
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Sooner or later, those who seriously study creative music will receive, and eventually act upon, some very good advice. Whether the pursuit is improvisation, arranging or composing, someone in the know is going to encourage the advancing musician to transcribe the music of others. Transcription is a great way to learn the nature of “jazz line,” that is, the peculiar combinations of scale motion, arpeggiation, chromaticism and rhythmic concept that are unique to jazz phrasing. Should you be doing it? A no-brainer? Yes, but not so fast.
The first thing to know is that it is a huge amount of work. It wears you down. Figuring out a six note phrase can take a half-hour. Even experienced musicians find the process time consuming and arduous. Things come up unexpectedly and the solutions are not obvious. Without a good approach one can try hard and long and end up with nothing. There is an old journalism school maxim that says discovering the truth is about getting the “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” of the story. In part one of this article, we will explore the Who, What, When and Where of jazz solo transcription. (The Why and How will be explored in part two, next issue.) To get the maximum benefit from the experience without wasting time or effort, take some time to think about what is involved.
Who?
At first, stick to transcribing those who play your own instrument. Guitarists should transcribe guitar music and tenor players should transcribe tenor sax music (and not alto). Smooth, flowing lines on one instrument can be awkward when played on another. It will be easier to hear and to play when listening to a familiar instrument. While all the instruments share a common jazz language, the music is not identical across the board. Sharp keys are more comfortable among the strings, flat keys among the winds. Arpeggiation is easier on some instruments than on others. Breath control is not a factor in piano or guitar music. Horn players do not visualize. Singers don’t finger anything. The way in which an instrument is put together influences the traditional approach to that instrument. So, at first and for a while, use transcribing to explore how players on your instrument interpreted, developed and contributed to the language of jazz.
Much later, transcribe and learn jazz solos played by players of other instruments, starting with Charlie Parker solos. This should be put off until the transcription skills are in place and have actually started to result in improved powers of improvisation. The language will make more sense since much of it was created and codified by Bird. Everybody quotes those lines to this day. Another reason to single out Parker is that his rhythmic approach is a singular and supremely sophisticated one. This alone will up anyone’s game.
What?
Stay away from live recordings generally. They are too long. Look for studio recordings, two or three choruses tops, something that can be finished. A player in a studio situation tends to organize the solo better. He or she thinks through what needs to get played, and, through multiple takes and editing, ends up with something worth hearing. Crowd noise, lack of balance and soloists who stretch out on live recordings are all obstacles to transcription.
When?
When will you know you are ready? Is the tune memorized? Are the changes and the tonalities understood? Can you make it through the chord changes on piano? Finally is it possible to improvise a basic solo, perhaps not a Grammy winner but competently and with the absence of wrong notes? The more of these questions that can be answered in the affirmative, the more prepared the player is to get something out of the exercise.
Transcribing means writing. Even good readers may be surprised at how hard it is to write legibly. An experiment: take a piece of staff paper and write out a line of clefs, a line of beamed eighth or 16th notes, sharps and flats, note heads, rests, tied notes, bar lines, etc. Should the stems go up or down, and are they perfectly vertical? Do you write the accidental first, and then the note, or the reverse? How do those beams look? Now look at your work and ask yourself if you would want to read that while the recording light is on. Compare your penmanship to published music, and start cleaning it all up. The other option is music notation software. There is nothing wrong with using Sibelius, Finale or others, as long as they aren‘t the free sample versions and the effort is made to learn the ins and outs. It’s just as involved as learning to hand-write, but it is worth learning and doing if the player can afford it.
Where?
Out of all the music that is available, where does one start looking to find solos that will be game changers? Start by asking your private teacher, someone who knows your abilities. Ask other players who sound good which solos helped them. Choose very carefully, based upon a very wide knowledge of recordings. (If you do not possess such knowledge, develop it). Two Gene Ammons records in a collection will not make the listener an expert on Gene Ammons. Develop a broad range of experience with the records, starting now.
By the way, transcribing won’t really teach technique, although it will reveal some technical obstacles to be conquered. If a trumpet player just loves Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan, they had better be a pretty technically accomplished player before trying to learn “I’ll Remember April” or “Moment’s Notice.”
Next issue we will explore the Why and How of jazz solo transcription.
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