Let me first make some general comments.
There is a tremendous amount of total BS floating around
in regards to jazz education. It is not confined to big institutions
but occurs just as much if not more in private lessons.
It's not very benign.
In most cases it destorys a persons chance of every achieving
anything. This is one of the reasons why almost without exception
famous jazz musicians are self taught. In other words they figured
things out on their own and no outside source was able to ruin them
along the way.
One of the things that turned my life around as a jazz musician was
when I started studying with RIchard Hindman. He's not famous but
he plays as well as anyone I've ever heard and has a lot of credits
as a sideman in his career (was Stan Getz's pianists for a long while,
Rich COles Pianists, is known by so many top players. He's definitely
a musicians musician. So often I'll meet some famous player and tell
them I study with Dick and their eyes will light up and they'll tell
me what a wonderful player he is. Anway, enough commercial).
My point is that this guy can play .
I would start repeating to Dick all this rubbish I had heard from
other sources, other teachers, books, etc.
Dick would just say, hey man I can't do that either.
So here are all these stupid things I've heard that people are supposed
to be able to do and practice and this great player is telling me
that they have nothing to do with playing and that he can't do any of
those things either.
I have to tell you that I just didnt believe him.
However, as I went to more master classes and asked other great players
about various things I realized he was just being honest and so were
these other top players that make their living making music and not
selling music lessons.
You have to realize that music lessons are a business.
Many music teachers just teach their students to become music
students .
That way they come year after year and pay for lessons.
At 04:13 AM 2/4/97 EST, you wrote:
>Reed, I am somewhat confused by your comments that you can only learn
>solo's via accurate transcriptions.
>In an earlier append you stated that your transcriptions, played by top
>players, would sound
>exact IF they had heard the solo you transcribed.
These are semantic nits.
You always have to hear music if you are going to play it.
Even classical players have to do that.
For example, the ornaments (trills, etc.) of classical music are
different in each era and among different composers. You can't
tell that from the score.
If you have never heard Chopin's music before, you can't play it
correctly. Nobody can.
You have to understand the style and period of any score you play.
However given that, my transcriptions have the correct notes, rhtyhms,
length of notes etc so that someone who has heard the piece or the
player or whatever will accurately reproduce things.
Top players eyes light up when they play my scores.
For example, guys go nuts over my transcription of "COnfirmation" because
they've heard the recording and they know that's it. (BTW, I did
post my manuscript for one of the choruses to this discussion list
a while back).
>This seems to indicate that you acknowledge that transcriptions fall
>short of representing
>what a player is doing. Is that so?
>My experience has been that playing with a solo is the only way to get
>the true feel.
>Transcription is a valuable exercise but I believe the best you can
>attain is just a sketch of
>what is really going on. Actually playing with a solo (under the auspices
>of a good teacher, for students)
>is the real transcription of notes, and feel. What do you think?
>Finally, I do think that you can memorize a solo fully. In fact,
>involving the other senses,
>the touch and feel of your instrument, and the actual audio output, aids
>this process.
>This is why singing is so valuable. The physical aspects of singing
>making remembering much easier.
>
I don't say that singing solos or listening to a recording
is a bad thing to do.
I say that this whole idea of transcribing solos accurately by singing
with the record is ridiculous.
It's the kind of wives tail that is repreated endlessly until people
believe it's a fact.
Then the student has something that he/she can be ashamed for the rest
of their life because they can't do it but everyone else says you
should be able to.
All the same time, they are not transcribing because they are approaching
it in a way that doesnt work.
>BTW, I apologize for not having snippets from your earlier appends on
>this. I hope I got your points
>correctly. I hadn't intended to get to much into this discussion and
>didn't keep those earlier appends.
>Could use an accurate transcription I guess....
>Pete.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com