Transposing "By ear"

Hey,

I've been told by a really good jazz musician that I should transpose 'by ear' and not write stuff out in other keys; I practice sight reading, and sight transposing by various intervals every day, but it seems that to *learn* a head in another key, it would be beneficial to just write it out instead of having to 'think' the notes and learn it technically at the same time. Regardless, what is transposing by ear? I can sing an idea, and then sing it around the cycle of 5ths either direction without any huge difficulties; I don't see how your ear will ever tell you how to read an Eb chart, so could someone explain what musicians mean by 'transpose by ear'?

Thanks!

Chris

[derek]

Who said that to you? Sounds like a great goal for later on, but I am not sure who starts out transposing by ear on the fly. After a few years of playing jazz, you begin to see and hear the repeating progressions, and can pull that off.

Traditional jazz is mostly a series of ii Vs or ii V Is, and move in predictable ways, such as in 4ths, 5ths, etc. When you know a tune really well, say Autumn Leaves, then it isn't too tough to play it in other keys, as you internalize the progressions. Like all things with jazz, it takes a ton of work, and never comes as quickly as we want it to, but it does come.

[bako]

There are 2 basic ways to sight transpose.
1. You look at the notes and move it by a designated interval up or down.
2. You see the structural intervallic relationships and you reassemble the same stuff in a new tonal center.
A third possibility is to sight sing the music in your mind in the new key and play it at the same time.

I am guessing that musician was referring to transposing a song that you already know to any key by ear. (Just a guess)

One way to practice this would be to create a list of songs that you know and choose one. Make up cards for each note and choose one. That is your starting note for that song. Play it in performance mode, this is about real time transposition without figuring it out first.

Wouldn't it be your knowledge of solfege, intervallic relationships, or chord function that is assisting you to transpose and not your ear? If you know a certain melody, lick, arp, etc. and you can sing it around the cycle without reference pitches for each tonic, aren't you transposing by ear? Doesn't the instrumental part of knowing the notes you're transpoing involve the brain more?

[bako]

Descriptive knowledge is great and even stronger when linked up with the ability to hear the sounds and fingers that can instantly translate them to the guitar. I believe they work together and all involve the brain.

It is possible to sing in all keys just by the sound but it is also possible to do so with full awareness of pitch, intervals, chord function, etc.

[ejwhite09]

Originally Posted by CC323

Hey,

I've been told by a really good jazz musician that I should transpose 'by ear' and not write stuff out in other keys; I practice sight reading, and sight transposing by various intervals every day, but it seems that to *learn* a head in another key, it would be beneficial to just write it out instead of having to 'think' the notes and learn it technically at the same time. Regardless, what is transposing by ear? I can sing an idea, and then sing it around the cycle of 5ths either direction without any huge difficulties; I don't see how your ear will ever tell you how to read an Eb chart, so could someone explain what musicians mean by 'transpose by ear'?

Thanks!

Chris

What they are telling you it seems to me, is long story short, if you build your ear so well, you won't even need to know how read an Eb chart.

[TommyD]

How come, whenever people mention how easy it is to transpose tunes, they mention nice easy progressions like Autumn Leaves, or What Is This Thing, but never Stella, All The Things You Are, 'Round Midnight, or Desafinado?

tommy/

[franco6719]

"One way to practice this would be to create a list of songs that you know and choose one. Make up cards for each note and choose one. That is your starting note for that song. Play it in performance mode, this is about real time transposition without figuring it out first."

Good idea! Simple. Why didn't I think of this before? That's the good thing about this site.

[ejwhite09]

Originally Posted by TommyD

How come, whenever people mention how easy it is to transpose tunes, they mention nice easy progressions like Autumn Leaves, or What Is This Thing, but never Stella, All The Things You Are, 'Round Midnight, or Desafinado?

tommy/

to be honest, i think people mention those, because they are easy and a lot of people today don't realize you have to start easy to get hard. (for instance is I see one more post titled 'how can I get great at guitar without spending lots of time ). But those tunes you should be able to figure out, to put in perspective that it's ok if you can't figure out a charlie parker tune by ear.

[ejwhite09]

http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/too...ner_songs.aspx

[Reg]

I'm a pretty good jazz musician and can transpose by ear, the problem is that I can't remember every tune or arrangement of. So I don't mind reading charts and transposing them as I read. It's just another part of sight reading. Mechanically transposing, as BAKO mentioned from memory works very well also... up a 2nd, down a 4th etc... Different methods work better for melodies as compared to changes. For changes I think in Roman Numerals or areas of function when transposing from memory. You pretty much need to know a melody to transpose it. All these skills are part of being a jazz musician... Best Reg

[fumblefingers]

Originally Posted by CC323

Hey,

I've been told by a really good jazz musician that I should transpose 'by ear' and not write stuff out in other keys;

Chris

I'm not sure what you mean by "stuff", but:

1. transposing a melody or head like you mentioned should be fairly easy once you know the head in the first place. singing around the cycle is a good drill. so you are already doing this.

2. if you are playing and not singing the melody then moving it around on the fretboard should also be somewhat straightforward, although a few fingerings may change for you.

3. transposing the changes is a more challenging task.

A. IMO you would approach this primarily from a functional perspective. meaning, you would consider the function of the chords relative to the original key of the tune, then transpose functionally while in the new key.

B. you could also assist this thinking by using intervallic differences. (hmm, let's see. if the new key is down a fourth from the original then a Bb7 in the original key would be replaced by a F7 in the new key). and so on.