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Now, just for the hell of it, I am going to try to transcribe some Amos Garrett and see how hard that is !
“Midnight at the Oasis”... yes!
That's one of the greatest solos in electric guitar history!
And here's a guy who has has it all transcribed, pretty damn good too...!
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
And he’s got a dOpe guitar
@Twang - Well, if you do transcribe it well and write it down, it's possibly another source of income and an easy way to remember years later for one so adept at reading. So I'd disagree that writing it down is completely missing the point.
@Lango-Django - In my experience, you never sound like who you listen to when you learn enough vocabulary... even if it's pulled from them. Listen to Django, sound more like Fapy/Stochelo/Angelo, etc. Just like listening to Van Halen made a bunch of hair-rockers in the 80s. So as long as you're not transcribing a bunch of Louis Armstrong, you'll probably not sound like Django ;)
Well on one hand I heard Stochelo say in a documentary about him that he sometimes regrets not learning to read music and Nonnie joined to say he agrees too. Because he said sometimes they get hired to play with big band gigs and it would much easier to be able to just have the sheet handed to me and play the gig. He said they usually only need to go with somebody through it once and they're ready but still it would save everybody an effort if they could read. Nonnie was nodding his head as Stochelo was saying that. I was just digging for it on YouTube but couldn't find it.
On the other I'm by convinced that you should learn to play music by ear and then learn to read if needed and desired. A friend, very good trumpet player, who holds a PhD in music education told me that western music education has got it wrong. Exactly because the kids aren't allowed to play music through playing music and playing with the music. The emphasis is immediately on theory including the music reading skills.
I played in two bands where one of the members were highly skilled classical musicians who wanted to learn to play jazz. Like top of their game good. They could not make any music without the sheet in the beginning. Like none, period. Both took a couple of years to not be completely reliant on the sheet and still would occasionally use the sheet to look at the melody in order to choose the direction to improvise. I was amazed then and still am. If somebody told me that before I knew it I'd say that's crazy, impossible.
Regarding transcribing I've yet to hear from a highly skilled improviser that didn't transcribe a bunch in the beginning at least.
But interestingly you mentioned @Twang that mostly you wanna make sure you're doing it in the most efficient way. My student (one of the two :) asked me that just a few day ago and I kinda asked myself the same thing just a few days ago. After I posted that Bistro F video and recording, (which I've never before tried to record the whole thing, only played it with a band) I wanted to fix parts where I fumbled and that led me to change fingering that I realized are much better to play more clean even though I looked at that carefully when I was *key word* transcribing the song first time. And I thought I picked the most economical way to play it. And it still may be that but now a few parts are much easier to nail them.
So what's the answer? Well I decided on this, it may be a little philosophical but it's like whenever we reach a crossroad in life, or are faced with an important life decision, if we knew the best road to take or could make a perfect choice every time we'd all be kings of whatever we're trying to do. So you pick a direction and be flexible to admit at some point that there's a better way to go about it. I find comfort in what Hal Galper said once, that whenever you woodshed something it doesn't just improve that one area, it reflects at everything else you play.
PS @MichaelHorowitz why is it that whenever you're writing a long post and if you're changing anything written previously the forum engine will jump the page all the way to the top of the post, kinda PITA to scroll down every time you add a comma or need to correct anything
why is it that whenever you're writing a long post and if you're changing anything written previously the forum engine will jump the page all the way to the top of the post, kinda PITA to scroll down every time you add a comma or need to correct anything
@Buco I haven't noticed that....it could be your browser but I'll fiddle around with it.
@Lango-Django indeed- and Juan Sandman is doing great, I am so sad we can't travel, I would have totally been in France for the festival (and likely Hildeshiem or a visit to eastern France) it it had happened. And again - thanks so much for doing that!!
@Twang Always Question. It's a very important aspect of self review in life/music!
@Chris Martin That is a surprising admission coming from a player at your level man! I always figure the cats that sound good have already transcribed a bunch!
One final comment - I've said this here a lot - but after learning/transcribing and integrating ideas - don't forget to transcribe yourself. I will often record an 'exact' backing track (bass, guitar, sometimes click or drums, occasionally piano and horns if I can get anyone - with my own oddball arranging/chords/whatever) and sing a solo or 20 over them with the tape rolling, and then later put this on guitar. A true way to examine your own voice as an improviser. (note that I am still mostly a rhythm player, and this is just to further understanding and for other genres . . . )
Theory/Academic music education vs Transcribing/Ear playing is an age old debate and there is really no one answer other than do both!
You actually don't need a whole lot of theory to understand Gypsy jazz/Swing, it's all pretty much music theory 101 which you could learn pretty easily from some basic text books or an entry level theory class. While I've tried to encourage a more hands on approach in my books, knowing why certain things work does give you a much deeper understanding of what's going on. With that knowledge you can apply things you've learned by ear from Django or others in a much more systematic way. For example, Django played a large percentage of his lines out of a pretty simple "box" position on the guitar. What makes his ideas awesome are the subtle choice of notes and rhythmic placing. With some theoretical knowledge you'll understand why what seems like the same pattern can work on major, dominant, and minor chords.
What I really appreciate about the classical world is the strict technical training and highly refined performances. As jazz guitarists we have a lot of freedom but so often that results in not paying enough attention to really honing technique and achieving a consistently high performance standard. If you study classical guitar, there's a very clear path to follow to success and if you put in the work you'll likely get there. With jazz guitar, even basic techniques are not standardized and it's easy to spend countless hours playing something incorrectly. However, the strict pedagogy of the classical world does stifle creativity so there's always a trade off.
The flip side is that Gypsy players really get the phrasing and beauty of the music from learning it by ear. If you just sight read Django's solo for Minor Swing it would sound pretty funny 😀
I think practical transcribing is combining two processes. The first is being able to sing along with recorded solos. The second is being able to play what you sing [or sing what you play] on your instrument. Knowing where the tones are located. Together this gives you the ability to place the notes from the solo you are imagining. From someone else's solo or your own improvising. I can read music, but don't use it because I think it misses a crucial part of the equation--memorizing. There's a certain "real-time" analysis of music I can't do when its from a written page. Not to say it isn't useful. I think its very important to take a detour from a solo you know, and be able to get back to it. A good practice exercise is to add different 1 or 2 bar options or be able to blend parts of 2 solos together. Its all about making instant choices which expands your ability to improvise.
There is a shed load of stuff to think about here, many thanks.
I heard somewhere that creativity is a muscle and, like any muscle, if you want to develop it then it needs regular exercise.
If I couldn't read music I wouldn't have a job. I teach guitar for an organisation that makes it a basic requirement of the job.
You lean on what you can do well. Developing formal music skills requires hard work over a long period of time and all this time you are not developing musical creativity. Your muscle is weak and undernourished and when you start on the road to become an improvising musician, it's hard. You keep trying to draw on music skills that are next to useless when it comes to improvising. You almost have to start again from scratch which is quite humbling.
You're right, Firefox does it which I usually use but not Chrome.