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jonnie
Member
- Messages
- 62
- Location
- Ireland at the mo'
Hi Chris,
This is a very late response ( quite a few years ) but I believe forum threads form a knowledge base that is often useful to others at a later date.
I agree with others here that slowing down with software is a big help, in particular targeting short problematic sections and looping them at different speeds - I use Sound Forge Audio Studio which came for free with Sony Vegas Movie Studio.
I think the greatest benefit to your transcribing ability is your own tone development and that is why someone like Wilton is going to be tough because he is out there on his own platform.
I suppose I do spend time transcribing but without paper and pen, I don't write it down because I want to approach it fresh every time so for me transcribing is playing along to the track but really transcribing is
the secondary process - whats really on my mind is tone - sometimes I try and play what the player is playing other times I find complimentary lines but really tone is the start the finish and the middle of the exercise. I feel that tone leads everything else in playing - all other aspects of playing get easier when tone gets fuller has more focus and projects - good timing wont improve your tone but good tone will improve your timing - it will simply be easier and more obvious whats wrong and correction may even be subconscious when it can really and easily be heard, in addition attack and air control are more likely to be optimal when tone is good.
If this sounds back to front then I guess I am saying that by the time someone manages to get a tone not necessarily "like" but comparable in their own way with Wilton Felder then they will also be playing the same notes as him and it will be easier to hear when they hit the same note when the tones are in the same league - ( ok I know few people will sound as good as Wilton but if I say that every time it will be repetitive ). I am not saying that improving tone is a long winded exercise so there is time for everything else to improve I am saying that improvements in tone bring about improvements in all other aspects of playing.
The difficultly I feel in transcription is that when there is a big gap between a player's own tone and the other player then it will be harder to compare notes with his - this does not mean tone mimicry or "clone players", a players tone might different to Wilton's but when it has similar depth, focus and harmonic richness then it will be so much easier to hear the interval between the guess note and the target note - it will simply be easier to hear when its wrong and then its just a matter of moving up or down.
Magically give a player the same kind of tone as Wilton Felder and I suggest overnight he/she would improve dramatically in transcribing Wilton Felder without any special effort or training.
Someone like Wilton is not playing single tones - each of his "notes" is a big harmonic package with all kinds of wonderful overtones, bends and nuances in there - it sounds great but makes it more difficult to compare against a thinner tone.
I would say slow the track down and go through the motions of transcribing but really be thinking more about tone - the tone will lead the transcribing ability not the other way around. If the track is played slowly enough then really the issue is only that you are a tone or a semitone out from the thing you are hearing - what can be easier than moving up or down until you find the target note? The fly in the ointment, the thing that stops it all being that simple is when you are comparing radically different quality of sound and harmonic.
Easier to transcribe classical guitar from classical guitar, more difficult to transcribe electric guitar from church organ even if they played single notes and not chords - different harmonic overtones - much more confusing.
