He didn’t write the solo down (the “scribe” part of “transcribe”), but he learned to play a significant chunk of a Miles Davis solo in front of an audience, phrase by phrase. I remember seeing a Jaleel Shaw clinic almost ten years ago in which he demonstrated the process of transcribing. Even if you are good at it, it’s a slow process. Transcribing is a slow process, particularly in the early stages. They have a great time, but most of the kids don’t want to be professional musicians, and that’s ok! From my perspective, there are seven problems with transcribing: 1) Transcribing is extremely time-consuming. I perform regularly, but my day job is teaching jazz to junior high, high school, and college kids. My job is to make kids fall in love with the music and to succeed at their own levels of talent and commitment. Understand that my perspective is of a jazz musician and music educator in the trenches. ![]() With all these transcriptions under my belt, you wouldn’t think that I would question the effectiveness of transcribing. Although, I did notice that my ear was actually noticeably stronger after the two big band transcriptions I did in my late 20’s. People say I have a good ear now, but it’s hard to say that’s just the result of transcribing jazz. So did writing out 4-part German chorale harmonies by ear on college music theory tests, not to mention just playing a lot of jazz. The transcribing helped my ear, but so did the Suzuki violin lessons I took in 3rd grade. Was she right? Or was it an effective use of time for me? It’s generally not wise to say your mother is wrong… so I’ll sidestep it and just say that transcribing those early solos probably helped set a foundation for me to train my ear…but so did all the other things I was practicing and listening to. In my mom’s mind, the time spent transcribing those laborious bars of music wasn’t worth the small increments of progress. I say unfortunately because I do think transcribing is good for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t transcribe much for the next 7 years or so. My mom, a classical piano teacher, stepped into our piano studio and posed the question as to whether transcribing that solo by ear was the best use of my time, given all the school work I had, not to mention the classical piano festival coming up… Not that I have a lot of time for transcribing now…įor the Bill Evans solo piano transcription, I remember putting in about 12 hours of work into that solo, learning around 2.5 minutes of the solo piano piece. Horn solos are super fast for me to transcribe now, after doing a couple big band charts. Here’s another example of a Miles Davis solo I’ve transcribed. The 2nd big band transcription was easier than the first because I had already done it once before. Those big band transcriptions took about 40 hours apiece. In my mid-to-late twenties, I did a fair amount of transcribing, including the two big band transcriptions that were performed by groups at the Great Basin jazz camp. ![]() I later did quite a bit more transcribing in my twenties. ![]() I didn’t do a ton of transcribing in high school, but I remember doing at least those three solos. ![]() Solo piano is NOT easy to transcribe, and it’s generally much more difficult than transcribing a horn solo. I also remember doing a Carl Fontana trombone solo, and a Bill Evans solo piano arrangement of All the Things You Are. The first solo I transcribed was an Ellis Marsalis piano solo. I did my first few transcriptions in high school. First of all, I have done quite a bit of transcribing over the years. But is it really an effective practice tool for everyone? In a word, no.īefore you gasp at my sacrilege, hear me out: I’m not anti-transcribing. Transcribing (learning licks and solos by ear) has become such an accepted sacred cow of the jazz education world that few bother to question its effectiveness.
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