5727 33rd Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Musician Tips - Jazz Solo Transcriptions
One of the ways I have learned to hear, play, write, and love jazz is through transcription. A teacher gave me an assignment to write down a solo from a record and share it with an improvisation class. I figured the blues was a good starting place so I picked Lou Donaldson playing "Wee Dot" with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. The hours of repeated listening, scribbling notation a bar or sometimes a note at a time was a humbling "private lesson" with Lou’s tone, melodic creativity, swing, and expressive energy. The more I worked on the solo, the more fun I had. After more hours of re-copying the music for legibility, then hours of playing along with the record to proofread and pretend to be on the stand with the Messengers, I brought the transcription to my teacher. In return, he gave me Coleman Hawkins’ solo on "Body and Soul." I was hooked.
I haven’t been fortunate enough to study face-to-face with Miles, Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Steve Lacy, David Murray, and many other great improvisers. But I have been able to learn from them, across time and space, by putting my curious ear right where the microphone was, then echoing their creative thoughts through the bell of my horn. While transcribing is not spontaneous composition, it provides another way to glimpse the magic of jazz expression by a master.
The practice of transcribing is not new and not everyone agrees that it is the best way to learn the jazz vocabulary, so I’ve included some interesting excerpts from other improvisers on the subject.
Jerry Coker in Improvising Jazz (Prentice-Hall, 1964)
Just as the young composer learns much about his craft by listening to music while following the score, the beginning improviser can progress more rapidly by reading a transcription of an improvised solo while listening to the recording. If no transcriptions are available, you will have to transcribe them yourself, beginning with relatively uncomplicated solos and gradually trying more difficult ones. We cannot emphasize this practice too much; it will benefit you in two important areas: (1) it will develop your ear and pitch memory to the extent that you will eventually be able to transcribe your own ideas while you are improvising; and (2) by studying the solos and styles of already proficient improvisers, you will gain a deeper understanding of the improvised solo and will discover various methods and ideas for the handling of improvised material.
Miles Davis in The Autobiography, (with Quincy Troupe, Simon and Schuster, 1989)
I couldn’t believe that all them guys like Bird, Prez, Bean, all them cats wouldn’t go to museums or libraries and borrow those musical scores so they could check out what was happening. I would go to the library and borrow scores by all those great composers, like Stravinsky, Alban Berg, Prokofiev. I wanted to see what was going on in all of music. Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery, and I just couldn’t believe someone could be that close to freedom and not take advantage of it.
Bird would play the melody he wanted. The other musicians had to remember what he had played. He was real spontaneous, went on his instinct. He didn’t conform to Western ways of musical group interplay by organizing everything. Bird was a great improviser and that’s where he thought great music came from and what great musicians were about. His concept was "fuck what’s written down." Play what you know and play that well and everything will come together--just the opposite of the Western concept of notated music.
Freddy Hubbard in Notes and Tones (interviewed by Art Taylor, Perigee Books, 1977)
What did you do to develop yourself as a trumpeter?
Listened to other musicians. By hearing what they play, I can judge what I would like to play or not to play. It’s kind of weird. Like when I listen to Clifford Brown, I say wow, he does some beautiful things, and I get so many ideas which I can take and formulate into my own. I listen to all kinds of cats, like Eddie Gales, Don Cherry, Miles, Dizzy, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman. My whole thing is listening to music. I don’t practice as much as I listen. I found out that practicing is not what jazz is all about. I’ve always been thought of as very technical, and I don’t practice. It’s just like a natural feeling. Some things come to you like technique, but soul is another thing! Being able to play like Louis Armstrong or Miles is different--it’s something you have to feel. I don’t want to play like Louis or Miles, but I can learn so much from them.
Eddie Harris in Jazz Cliché Capers (Wardo Enterprises, Inc. 1973)
In my opinion if a musician wants to become one hell of a soloist, he should first go out and buy two albums of twenty of the top artists in the world of jazz. Make certain that the albums purchased feature the artist soloing extensively. This has nothing to do with reading music and learning your instrument; I think you should purchase books for that. If you do not like the way a certain musician who plays your particular instrument sounds, and he’s popular, by all means purchase two of his recordings because he’s popular only because of one thing--that one thing he does better than anyone else. I think you should copy the solos from each record--note for note; by this I mean the "so-called mistakes" also. The "so-called mistakes" the artist made on the record are things I think you should do also--reasons being that many times a soloist meant to do something that you thought might have been a mistake. If you would copy in this manner, I think you will play so well that a professional soloist who was born with the knack of putting things in their proper perspectives will be able to outplay you. On second thought, if he hasn’t cultivated his inborn gift, you will still more that likely solo better than he. When you have accumulated a variety of researched knowledge on the subject, then you can speak with authority.
There are soloists who will only copy the one professional soloist to their liking. this means that the copier can only show great strength in the subjects that the one person he is copying has shown interest. The reason for a younger musician copying a professional note for note is to get a concept. It’s the same as a child learning to talk, he repeats his elders word for word. As a child meets new people, he repeats them word for word. After accumulating lots of different sentences and opinions, he formulates his own sentences and ideas.
After about twelve years of copying the top twenty guys on your particular instrument, you should be able to construct your own ideas of a constructive solo. A musician who solos who has not copied from recordings of other artists may find himself soloing just like a certain recording artist without knowing it. The funny thing about it is the copier thinks he’s the original player of this style.
© 1999 Steve Griggs, All Rights Reserved