Be careful of the "Omnibook".
I've transcribed several of the solos myself.
On "Confirmation" the solo was so far off as to be totally unuseable.
For me, one of the main points of doing transcriptions is to get insight into what is going on.
Every note Charlie Parker plays makes incredible sense. At no points in the solo is he hemming and hawing. This tells you what level he was playing at to have that quality and level of purpose over 32 bars. Charlie never really felt comfortable playing more than one chorus, even though he was such a great improvisor. Contrast that with many of todays players that arent be fit to shine his shoes and they see no problem with taking 5 choruses.
That tells you alot about the level of preparation he went through, before he got up on the bandstand.
This is the one common feature of all the great imporovisors.
Bill Evans, Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, Chet Baker, Clifford Brown, Stan Getz, Cannonball Adderly... all have this same feature in their solos. The quality level is amazing.
I've transcribed them all and their solos are like written compositions.
Not having accurate transcriptions robs you of realizing what these guys were really doing.
In order to play like that you have to start very simply and sincerely, making every note and idea be meaningful. Bill Evans says this on his instructional video. He also says that people always are in a hurry to achieve the final product and so approximate it with alot of confusion. Unfortunately this confusion will never become the real thing. People then layer confusion on top of the confusion.
The lesser players have a lick here and there or the occasional idea, but the entire 32 bars of whatever is just stream of conciousness with no overall meaning.
If you try and play the solos in the omnibook, many of them make no sense at all and it's not because Charlie Parker doesnt make sense on the record.
If it werent for copyright rules, I'd post my transcription.
If you compared them you would be amazed.
Also, if you listen to the recording you would hear instantly that mine is exactly what is being played. It's been checked by Don Haas who is a great transcriber and also has perfect pitch.
Transcription books, especially alot of the older ones, are not to be trusted at all.
Bird is more than just too hard for beginning transcribers. Bird is a level 8 solo (on a scale from 1 to 10). Partially because of the speed and partially because of the quality of the recordings.
Level 10 is McCoy Tyner on his first two trio records. Try transcribing his solos on "Star Eyes" or "There is No Greater Love".
You will have enough trouble doing Chet Baker. Take my word for it. (Chet is the closest to a level 1 solo I can find).
reed
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Date: Fri, 15 Nov 96 16:04:01 PST From: goldberg@eng.adaptec.com (Jules Goldberg x2152) Subject: Re: Chet Baker
Sax players in the Chet Baker class are Stanley Turrentine, Clifford Jordan, and Junior Cook from the '60's and late '50s. Simplicity always sounds good. For these people, medium tempos are the best. I think Cliffords solo on Horace Silver's 'The outlaw' (Blue Note 1957 Furthur explorations by the horace silver quintet) is simple enough for basic transcription, and he really says something. Also Stanley Turrentine's recordings with Shirley Scott are just as good. A good example is 'secret love' which is on the impulse lable. (I don't know the record title.) Is it still available? (I have no idea.) Junior's solo on 'sister sadie' is also great. It is on horace Silver's 'blowin' the blues away.' (Blue Note 1959)
I have some of Chet Baker's mariachi brass record. This was his answer to Herb Alpert. He plays simply, but sometimes it sounds as if the A&R man told him to stick with the melody.
have fun transcribing jules
If you want to transcribe music, it is much easier to first sample it into your computer, and use a program with a good graphical interface to listen a few notes at a time, etc. Generally, you will be able to get adequate software for free, and you are already staring right at the expensive part. Here's how to do it.
First, get SoundHack right now. This program can be used to do recording off of the microphone input of a later mac, or to import tracks or parts of track directly off audio CD. Be sure to use the mono option, as many other programs seem to get screwed up by stereo, especially older ones. SoundHack has about a zillion features, but no good playback editor or console. Other than importing, you may wish to use the 'phase vocodor' function, which lets you slow down a song or sample without changing the pitch. The resulting playback has an echo-y, metallic tone, however. This operation is also mind-bendingly slow (like it takes 100 seconds to process a 1 second sample), although if you pay the shareware fee, a PowerPC native version is provided, which should be much faster.
To listen and edit, the best (free) thing out there seems to be Sample Editor. It has labling, variable rate playback (with corresponding pitch change), and various other goodies.
Wayne sez -
And for you Mac fans, I use DigiDesign's Sound Tools for similar results. It will slow tunes down without changing pitch. But as Berry states, you can only go so far before you lose quality. Still, for transcribing solos -- we are light years ahead of where we were when I was in school (don't ask when that was!) :)
One negative: Digidesign AudioMedia II card (or PowerMac) required. For an 030 machine (such as my Mac IIsi), the NuBus card was $400, and the AudioMedia card (included SoundTools software) was another $1,200. Not a cheap option.
Alternatively, you might want to try SlowTune, available from Lark in the Morning, which is not free. If anyone has actually used it, please post a review.
THere's a limit to how far you can go, but I find that by stretching about 20-30%, and then looping a section while I play along I can pick off the parts I need.
If you sample at CD quality, you WILL use up tons of disk space and memory, and if you downsample to a lower resolution you can't stretch as much before the sound gets awful.
Cool-Edit runs on Windows PC's and can probably be found in most shareware archives.
--berry
There will be a head-on comparison of the RiffMaster, the Akai Riff-O-Matic, and possibly the Encore, in the Winter issue of Just Jazz Guitar (the best journal in the history of the universe). Bob Patterson will be doing the honors.
It or some subset of it will also appear on Bob Patterson's web page, Jazz
Guitar Online.
http://www.jazzguitar.com/index.html
Jim
Maybe this model is improved over what you tested. The stop note works great, and gives a really fine-grained playback loop. And you can shift the loop forward or backwards in very tiny increments. It has 2/3 and 1/2 spd, a 3-level filter, semi-tone (+/- 6) and fine-tune (+/- 50 cents). Its very intuitive to use. All in all it appears to be a huge step up from using a 1/2spd tape recorder.
But I didnt know there were other units, if the slo-mo encore ii is better I'd rather have that! So please let us know the result of your call re: the discount.
One big drawback of the akai unit for me is that, altho its tiny, it wont run on batteries. It would have been cool to be able to plug it into a walkman and study on the train or whatever.
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Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 08:20:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Philip Cibley <cibleyp@is2.nyu.edu> Subject: Re: discussion-l Digest - V01 #13
Re: Riff-o-matic. I think you'd be better off getting a used reel to reel tape machine with the ability to record at 7 1/2 ips and 15 ips. to take off solos record at 15 and play back at 7 1/2. It will be half as fast and an octave lower. For bass lines record at 7 1/2 and play back at 15. It will be an octave higher and twice as fast. A 1200 foot reel of tape will give you an hour of recording time at 7 1/2, and you can find decent used machines for anywhere from $250 to $700 or so. All in all, a lot cheaper than a sampler and you get a lot more than 30 seconds of recording tim time.
Phil Cibley
I'm going to double check the price with them on Monday. I thought it came out to $400 and some change.
The phone for the Slo Mo is 512-847-8605 for outside the US.
It's worth checking out the Riff Master too. It's $149.95 and even has a bunch of features not in the Slo Mo. It goes to 1/4 speed and may have some freeze note feature (I can't remember).
I havent heard it yet but they do have some audio samples at their web site. They just bumped the amount last night on their web site but I am talking to them about discounts for the discussion-L group.
I think Ridge RUnner (the SLo Mo folks) actually sell both. I just found that out. I may try talking to them about discounts for that product.
They will all give trial periods and usually will extend the period if you ask in advance.
Riff Master gives 2 weeks but I think it actually might be a USA consumer law that they have to accept returns in saleable condition up to 30 days but I'm not sure.
I tried the other less expensive model Akai RiffaMatic last summer and was not too impressed. It's $199 and not nearly as good as the slo mo.
For jazz solos, you want to be able to slow things down as far as possible. The Slo Mo goes to 1/6 speed (which I've used alot).
Someone sent me some private e-mail saying that he thought that 1/2 speed is probably good enough for jazz.
Unfortunately I don't think he's ever transcribed so that's just a theory that isnt true.
The Akai only goes to 1/2 speed. reed ------------------------------
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 15:54:44 -0800 From: reed <reed@justjazz.com> Subject: standalone transcription devices - update
I've negotiated a special price for the "Encore II Digital Slo Mo" . The price as advertised in Guitar Player Magazine is $699.95.
They are giving it to members of discussion-L for 30% off which makes the price $400 .
You have to mention "Dept RK" or "Reed Kotler" when you order it. The phone number is 1-800-FRET-PRO .
This is the model I use. I have used the original model and the new one.
I am also noticing another new product called "Riff Master" which sells for $149.95 . If it works as advertised it is a great bargain. Check out their website, which has samples etc. at http://www.gbase.com/rifftech/ .
Their phone number is 1(888)-RIFFS-4-U .
Both companies will allow a trial period. I think Ridge Runnner (Slo Mo) will charge $15 or something if you return it and I think they give a month trial. The "Riff Master" folks will give a 2 week trial .
reed