| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Transcribing voicings | |
| tangman06 -- 06/30/2007, 15:40:52 -- #35647 | |
| Hey guys, I'm transcribing Bill Evans's solo on Nardis, and I'm having trouble with the left hand part. I also want to transcribe his comping for Scott Lefaro. So far I can get the top and bottom notes of his voicings pretty easily, but that stuff in the middle is tricky. Any suggestions for transcribing voicings? | |
| 7 -- 06/30/2007, 18:04:51 -- #35647 | |
| First an article on transcription (in general): Tips on Transcribing Practical advice on doing transcriptions. http://www.Jeff-Brent.com/Lessons/transcr.html You say that you can get the top and bottom notes pretty easily. Hopefully you're talking about the top and bottom notes of the left hand. Most LH jazz piano voicings contain no more that 4 notes, and often only 2 or 3. If you can determine the number of voices in the LH voicing, you're well on your way towards figuring out the other one or two notes on the inside. Your first goal is to try to determine which of the five qualities of chord it is (major, minor, dominant, half-diminished or diminished 7th). Often you can make an educated guess based on the key of the piece and the current tonal center. An educated guess, is much better than nothing at all. Use logic to attempt to determine the other components of the chord. With major quality chords, there is often a 6, a nat7 or a 9 thrown in. With minor quality chords, there is almost always a b7 and generally a 9. With dominants, you can have 3 different kinds of 5ths and/or 3 different kinds of 9ths, but the third and the b7 are almost always present. Both half-diminisheds and diminished 7ths tend to be played with just their four basic notes. Once you have made your educated guess, play the chord you think it is against the chord in the recording. If there are no clashes, you may have guessed right. If there are clashes, figuring out which of the notes you're playing that doesn't go with the recording will tell you which note to avoid and possibly suggest the correct option. Much of this process is trial and error. In addition, the ear will sometime play tricks on you - making you think that you're hearing something that isn't really there. One last tip, DON'T BEAT YOUR HEAD AGAINST THE WALL! If you've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure something out and you JUST CAN'T GET IT, walk away from the project and come back the next day with fresh ears. "Ear fatigue" IS real. Any sound engineer will tell you that. | |
| dalty52 -- 07/03/2007, 04:45:02 -- #35647 | |
| "Both half-diminisheds and diminished 7ths tend to be played with just their four basic notes." I disagree with this. A lot of the time, the 11th is played in place of the b3 on half diminished chords(i.e. C,F,Gb,Bb or the 2nd inversion of this). Also, for diminished chords, it is common for the top note to be substituted for the note a whole step above(i.e. Eb,Gb,A,D). There are a lot of other ways pianists play these chords, but these two are very common. Jazz Guy, when I was studying with Danilo, he had me play random chords and try to sing all of the notes of the chord. So, like, I would just plop my hands down on the keys and hold the voicing while trying to sing the notes from bottom to top(or top to bottom). You should really try this. It is amazing what it will do for your ears over time. It helps train you to focus on one individual note at a time within the chord, which translates to an easier time transcribing voicings! | |
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