Tremendous Transcriptions with Decadent Dolphins and Backhanded Bulldogs

Snoop Dogg with Dolphins

The Nationalist Dolphin

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen! It's that time of year at my schedule where all the Jazz band kids at my school have to do a transcription. Usually only 12 bars from a 12 bar blues song with the head and the actual solo. In my jazz band we have to learn to play the changes on piano for our song; I'm sure that in Varsity it's only harder and more time consuming.  

Maybe it is a hassle to do the transcription but it improves us all as players of our respective instruments. For example when you are listening to the soloist you have to be able to tell what note he's playing while keeping track of the rhythm. Not all of the notes are sustained for long at all. Maybe you are trying to transcribe one of Andy Martin's solos and he goes into a 5 bar nonstop 16-note run, and there, you are pretty much hopeless unless you are now all of the jazz specific scales by heart or you have a program that can slow the song. But, when you transcribe you develop your musical ear so you can decipher notes better and be able to listen to something and play it right off the bat. When you get to that point its really cool and you can show off to all your friends. 

Transcription improves your solo vocabulary. If you want to be a good soloist or even if you just want cool stuff to play over changes then transcription is what you want to do. There are hundreds of solos over an f blues by talented and famous musicians that you can listen to, transcribe, and play over some changes at your school or even at home with some changes you can play on your laptop. 

The last thing is that the best players have done tons of transcriptions. There's a trumpet player at my high school named Luca and he is an amazing soloist. He's transcribed every solo that clifford brown has on the internet and if you listen to Clifford or you know how he plays, Luca has an identical solo vocabulary and tone quality. If I wanted to sound like Andy Martin or JJ Johnson I would listen to them all the time, transcribe everything that they've put out. At the end of it my solo vocabulary would be dramatically different and expanded, my tone quality would have changed to a point and I would be able to show off all his works and name them. 

That's all I have to say about transcriptions for this post. I hope that you guys liked and potentially learned something from it. Also if you want an easy way to transcribe you can go to Noteflight, it makes the process of transcription phenomenally easier then just using a pen and musical score paper because you don't have to rely on your handwriting and what you believe a note sounds like in your head. It writes it out so it looks professional and it plays the note for you so you can check if its the correct one.It plays back what you wrote with your choice of instrument to play it along with a choice of swing or no swing. 

Sorry, but I had to say it. Have a nice day or night. Look forward to a post about marching band and this bulldog.

Bulldog in a Toddler Swing