Transcribing (can we cheat a little?)
Pedro Batista ( PBATISTA@colep.mailpac.pt )
27 May 97 17:01 GMT
One thing I've learned from this list is the importance of trancribing.
I can't say that I've done it, yet, but I pick phrases from solos I hear and
recreate them on the piano. I haven't yet ventured on a complete solo
transcription, but I'm becoming more serious about it.
Now, I have much more trouble in trancribing the rhythm, than the notes, but
I belive that for solo analisys, the most important are the tones and their
relation to the harmony, being the rhythm somewhat negletable, once you know
which tones fall on each chord.
Also, I can't pick all the notes, when, for instance, Bird starts
machine-gunning his sax, but I can pick most of the slower parts, so as a
starting point, sometimes I try to figure out what is happening by
experimenting on the piano, even if the result isn't the original notes.
Do you think this aproach is too limitative? I mean even a handfull of
Bird's notes well trancribed is bound to have some value, right? Does that
compensate for the cheating?
Pedro