Playing the saxophone What, how and why are you transcribing?

[Jeanette]

I am probably gonna get a stake to the heart for saying this but I am transcribing the following songs...

No we wouldn't allow that here I don't like the sight of blood. 🙂

Jx

 

[kevgermany]

Play what you want. Have a joke about the jazz is the only way fans

 

[Lizengar]

Play what you want. Have a joke about the jazz is the only way fans

Someone took Kev before he could finish his sente...

 

[kevgermany]

Someone took Kev before he could finish his sente...

You're right, was my phone. I meant you should have a joke about people who think Jazz is the only acceptable music for sax.

 

[Matabayahsi]

You're right, was my phone. I meant you should have a joke about people who think Jazz is the only acceptable music for sax.

They get along quite well together jazz and sax though 😀 But I definitely agree that you can play any type of music you want on any instrument best example being blues on bagpipes I guess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zvRV9DSNzM

and for he main question(about transcribing)
I am transcribing candy dulfer`s pick up the pieces/sax a go go but not the solo parts just what the main brass orchestra plays. It is jolly fun! and I would like to use the phrases in my solos is my reason to transcribe. I slow down the song if necessary on ableton and transcribe it on my little midi keyboard then write the notes/transpose on a piece of paper and play it the next day of practise!

Actually with all of us transcribing shouldn't we start a thread or section of what everybody transcribes so it is a nice sharing platform for everybody?
if possible not with dots but with letters 😀
because some of us might not be able to read them dots and it would be very disrespectful of them if we have whole section of something they can't understand. I wonder who those people are
yeah it is me

 

[Jules]

Just dug out my copy of Dick Heckstall Smith’s Autobiography- which shipped with a very good CD of live recordings. I’m currently transcribing a particularly lovely ballad from that called Aquamarine… nicely lyrical and a few tricky bits to keep me on my toes a bit (trying to ‘warm up’ my altissimo and make it sound less belligerent)

 

[Reed Warbler]

😀 But I definitely agree that you can play any type of music you want on any instrument best example being blues on bagpipes I guess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zvRV9DSNzM

Whatever next, opera on spoons? Bebop on Swanee whistle? If this is blues I must be colour blind!

 

[mkjordan]

There are people who practice for years to sound like a tortured cat!

And if they're good enough they even get onto Eurovision:

A tortured cat sounds better than that! (& better than most of what goes on Eurovision)

 

[griff136]

I'm transcribing a Bb blues by Bobby Wellins - he payed at our college and I recorded the gig on my zoom.

My method is to get phrases memorised by singing them. then I try playing them along with the recordings, then I write the rhythm and pitch out. then play them again - when they're right, I put them into Sibelius.

I'm doing it for the practice. Plus I like the way he plays the blues.

 

[Micheal Murray]

Hey guys whats up!! This thread has really taken off and is awesome! Sorry for being inactive for so long. Here is what I am working on currently, Coleman Hawkins solo on Blues for Yolande. Absorbing history is essentially what I am doing at the moment and I really really dig his playing so much! Also been checking out plenty of Charlie Parker, Paul Desmond, and Ben Webster. Anyway, I was listening to his solo and he does this sort of screaming or really high pitched squeeling effect while playing the high notes on his solo around 2:34. I was wondering has anyone any idea how he produces that effect? Been racking my brains trying to figure it out, is it a growl of some sort or something all together?

Thanks! Hopefully we can get this thread revived!! Love reading what everyone has been working on, very interesting and insightful!

Peace out,
Micheal.

 

[Micheal Murray]

Whoops messed up the link, here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-B1_nhsjzA

 

[rhysonsax]

Hey guys whats up!! This thread has really taken off and is awesome! Sorry for being inactive for so long. Here is what I am working on currently, Coleman Hawkins solo on Blues for Yolande. Absorbing history is essentially what I am doing at the moment and I really really dig his playing so much! Also been checking out plenty of Charlie Parker, Paul Desmond, and Ben Webster. Anyway, I was listening to his solo and he does this sort of screaming or really high pitched squeeling effect while playing the high notes on his solo around 2:34. I was wondering has anyone any idea how he produces that effect? Been racking my brains trying to figure it out, is it a growl of some sort or something all together?

Thanks! Hopefully we can get this thread revived!! Love reading what everyone has been working on, very interesting and insightful!

Peace out,
Micheal.

Hi Michael,

I've only just seen your post. "Blues for Yolande" has been one of my very favourite songs and performances since about 1980 when I bought the LP "Blue Saxophones".

A few years ago I got Curtis Swift of Saxsolos.com to transcribe it for me - cheating I know but it was beyond my transcribing abilities back then. You can buy Curtis' transcription for a couple of $ via his website.

That phrase of Hawk's that you mention really grabs the attention - friends of mine have compared it to the sound of overcoming a bad case of constipation. I think he is just overblowing but with tremendous control and great feeling, probably helped by his recent change to a Berg Larsen metal mouthpiece. Before that time Coleman Hawkins never really sounded like he "got" the blues, but around the late 50s he made a few really soulful blues recordings (including this one).

Rhys

 

[rhysonsax]

Back to the original topic.

(1). Over Christmas I transcribed the head and tenor solos from a tune I have loved for a long time. It is Hank Mobley's "The Turnaround" from the album of the same name.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVuqP6o5mik


This has a simple head played by Hank Mobley and Freddie Hubbard over a bluesy 16 bar A section, with a one chord 16 bar bridge, a 2 bar turnaround and then a repeat of the A section. That is a 50 bar form in total, with Mobley taking a great two chorus solo, Hubbard and Barry Harris taking one each and then the head and a coda with Mobley soloing over the bridge. That means I transcribed 50 bars for the head, 100 bars for the tenor solo and another 29 bars for the coda.

(2) My process for transcribing is described in this thread: Improvising - Transcribing

In doing this latest transcription I have refined my transcribing process a bit. After I had completed my first attempt and written that into Sibelius, I used Trasncribe! software to export sound files of each four bar chunk, looped 12 times over. I then tried to play along at full speed with Hank Mobley and that way easily found quite a few errors which I corrected.

(3) I chose this tune because it really appeals to me for its great feel and fluency. I also got a better appreciation of just what an amazing player and improviser Hank Mobley was. His playing is so precise and tasteful but also rhythmically varied and melodically interesting. It is fascinating to see what he plays against fairly simple chord changes and also to appreciate some of the personal characteristics of his playing, in terms of range and articulation. Just how can he be so inventive at speed ?

If anyone would like to see my transcription and check it or use it, just send me a message.

Rhys

 

[zonedout]

Before winter I was transcribing sax solos out of rock tunes

 

[jbtsax]

I am beginning to do a different kind of transcribing than I have done in the past. This time I am learning to play improvised solos by ear, and not writing anything down. It is challenging because I have to remember previous sections as I go on to learn new ones. My first effort has been the bridge of Easy Living by Phil Woods. I'm finding that I am learning a lot about style and articulation along with the notes by doing it this way.

 

[Jeanette]

This time I am learning to play improvised solos by ear, and not writing anything down. It is challenging because I have to remember previous sections as I go on to learn new ones.

Does that mean previously your improvisations were written down?

How did you write them?

Jx

 

[rhysonsax]

I am beginning to do a different kind of transcribing than I have done in the past. This time I am learning to play improvised solos by ear, and not writing anything down.

Shouldn't we find a different term for that ? After all, the word "transcribe" means write down !

Rhys

 

[Nick Wyver]

How else do you do a solo transcription apart from by ear?

 

[rhysonsax]

How else do you do a solo transcription apart from by ear?

I think John's point is that he is getting it, by ear, into his memory and on into his playing but not doing the writing it down stage.

There have been attempts to develop software systems to recognise pitch, timing etc on a recording and to automatically or semi-automatically write that down as MIDI information and/or notation. But not very successfully so far, as far as I know, and with little benefit to the musical knowledge or abilities of the person involved. My guess is that this will get done better and better in the future.

Rhys

 

[jbtsax]

Does that mean previously your improvisations were written down?

How did you write them?

Jx

I write out transcriptions using pencil and music staff paper while using "Transcribe". For each phrase or segment I like to first just put in the note heads and then when they are correct, I go back and add the stems to the notes and work out the rhythm, adding rests etc. Figuring out the rhythm is often harder than getting the right pitches.

If it is something I want to keep or share with others, I take my handwritten transcription and put it into either Finale, or BiaB. This is my most ambitions transcription to date, the piano intro on the duet I played with Rhyson on the tune Sunny Side.