The Secret Behind Every Jazz Solo

[KirkP]

Just curious- how do you all feel about the fact that Jim Hall did only two solo transcriptions in his life? ...

He probably meant he only completed two transcriptions in the literal sense (writing them down). I'll bet he analyzed a lot of solos without writing them down. He may have done less of this than his peers though. Jim Hall seemed very intent on pushing boundaries through his own imagination and experiments, rather than deriving ideas from the playing of others. (This is just a hunch.)

[GuyBoden]

He probably meant he only completed two transcriptions in the literal sense (writing them down). I'll bet he analyzed a lot of solos without writing them down. He may have done less of this than his peers though. Jim Hall seemed very intent on pushing boundaries through his own imagination and experiments, rather than deriving ideas from the playing of others. (This is just a hunch.)

I agree, because Jim Hall's very early recordings sound like he's listened and learned a lot of Charlie Christian.

[tyjbeck]

My 2 cents... transcribing an entire solo, then going back, and learning every phrase in 12 keys and in 3 positions is slowly changing the way I hear and play. You can practice the same with comping and the melody as well. You almost don't need to do anything else.

[whiskey02]

Transcription books are all completely useless. They can't convey the most important aspect of music, which is the time feel.
It's so ironic that in one of these useless books a Farlow solo looks, superficially, like a Billy Bean solo.
They couldn't be further apart. Bean could groove in time like few ever have and Farlow couldn't play in time to save his life mostly.
Full time transcribers are non players from everything I've ever seen.

I can never tell if you are just trolling or if you're actually as ignorant and clueless as you make yourself out to be. To be honest though, I don't think you are CONSTANTLY trolling, so?

[GuyBoden]

My 2 cents... transcribing an entire solo, then going back, and learning every phrase in 12 keys and in 3 positions is slowly changing the way I hear and play. You can practice the same with comping and the melody as well. You almost don't need to do anything else.

Great stuff

Here's a very, very informative step by step method of Transcribing by Dave Liebman:
David Liebman: Educational Articles

[pamosmusic]

Great stuff

Here's a very, very informative step by step method of Transcribing by Dave Liebman:
David Liebman: Educational Articles

Gosh man ... I read that article a few years ago and forgot about it. That's a gold mine. There's so much "make it your own" and "it's all about vocabulary" and "the answers are in the recordings" sort of one-liners out there it's hard to pin someone down and have them really explain what they do, why they do it, and why they think you should do it too

[GuyBoden]

Gosh man ... I read that article a few years ago and forgot about it. That's a gold mine. There's so much "make it your own" and "it's all about vocabulary" and "the answers are in the recordings" sort of one-liners out there it's hard to pin someone down and have them really explain what they do, why they do it, and why they think you should do it too

I think Dave Liebman's transcribing technique is based on Tristano's method.

Keep up the good work, I'm a believer too

[christianm77]

OK, I have a problem with the word transcribe. It means different things to different people. I like 'learn solos by ear.'

True transcription - writing down solos won't necessarily teach you any music. It will improve your ear and hone your notation skills, no bad things of themselves. It also gets it on the page where you can analyse it using what ever flavour of theory floats your boat. Again, no bad thing per se.

However, working out how to play solos on your instrument is something else entirely, as is memorising a solo so that you can sing it or play it without accompaniment. That'll teach you all sort of different things.

People like Wolf Marshall, inadvertentley have caused more harm than good. The market exists because people want short cuts. TAB and 'hot licks.' So we have players unused to using their ears, or reading notation. The second is forgivable, but limits your options. The first is unacceptable in a serious musician. We've all been there :-)

But if you only transcribe a handful of licks and maybe one solo, and get the maximum value out of a small amount (perhaps by doing several of the things I mentioned), that's great. If you know all the Bird solos in all 12, that's also great. There are examples of world class musicians who have done both.

[christianm77]

Finally, revisiting old transcriptions and listening to the solos you worked on a few years back can present a stark idea of how your hearing and perception of music has progressed - really interesting, I think.