Learning Transcriptions
-adam
There are no comments, leave a comment.
yes, i'd love to receive them. i know from experience how difficult and time consuming this is. could they be scanned and sent by e-mail?
regards,
ron
unfortunately, these are copyrighted transcriptions that i purchased, so it would be illegal for me to distribute them. i wasn't asking if people wanted them (although if i could give them out legally, i certainly would), i was asking if they were worth me spending the time to learn.
-adam
they are worth it
why do you say that? it seems to me like i'm learning to play something simply by memorizing it. how does this help me learn to play my own music?
-adam
it is not the memorizing of what bill evans did, but analyzing what he did that has value to your own understanding of how to make jazz.
by learning the transcriptions, you learn what bill did in the various melodic and harmonic contexts of these tunes. the value to you comes with putting this information together in term of your own learning.
is that clear?
-- ipgrunt
so one can just jack what they like and incorporate it into their playing
only if you like what bill evans is playing that is
if these are transcriptions you made, yourself, on your own initiative (i.e., listening to the record and saying to yourself, "i like that sound, i wonder what that is"), then you could play it if your instructor wants you to. i don't see how it could hurt you, beyond possibly wasting your time. if you can't analyze the solo, though, in terms of looking at the harmony and how the melody is constructed, you *will* be wasting *all* of your time, though. just plain common sense.
if they are just random transcriptions which you received and only later learned to appreciate the sound of -- i don't see the point. it's an "eat your peas" approach -- your teacher might not have known what to do with you, so you should counter by learning a different transcription you made yourself, from a record you are really into. more than a few people, i imagine, put off transcribing a parker solo (bird of paradise, or just friends, or old folks) because it wasn't in the omnibook, and "well, i've got all these other solos to work through first, so it can wait," which is retarded. no one could argue with that, and you'll continue to respect your teacher by substituting a better assignment and letting him know you're capable of moving to the next level.
but this is all just common sense, and i suspect you already knew this and were looking for some confirmation. i don't think very many people, outside of very good players, here and elsewhere, know about transcribing for oneself, and there's a lot of admiration for "the overall method for the way that jazz is taught
today," (which is horrible, and has been ever since the 1950s), so you should expect lots of glurge about studying something else or doing what someone says without thinking about it first.
Are you in the Pacific Northwest looking for a jazz jam? Check out our weekly Bellingham Jazz Jam!
Jazz Piano Notebook Series
Volume 1 of this educational jazz piano book contains 15 jazz piano exercises, tricks, and other interesting jazz piano techniques, voicings, grooves, and ideas Scot Ranney has picked up over decades of playing on stage.
Being a pro jazz pianist requires good ears, experience, and a bag of tricks that create the kinds of sounds people expect to hear from a jazz pianist. The entries in this book will give you some of those tricks.
"Latinesque"
Volume 2 has 14 jazz piano exercises and tricks of the trade, and quite a bit of it is Calypso jazz piano related material, including some Monty Alexander and Michel Camilo style grooves. Jazz piano education is through the ears, and books like this help connect what you're hearing to what you want to play.
Volume 3 contains 12 jazz piano exercises and explorations by the acclaimed jazz piano educator, pianist, author, and recording artist Tim Richards.
Tim wrote the well known "Exploring Jazz Piano" and "Improvising Blues Piano" books and has several others to his name.
Tim has a new book out Beginning Jazz Piano (Pts 1 and 2)
Many of Tim's books now come with free access to interactive sheet music ONLINE, which permits slowing down of the backing and performance tracks, as well as the option to loop passages for practice purposes.
Tim now also has online VIDEO courses for his books, including Beginning Jazz Piano, Improvising Blues Piano and Exploring Jazz Piano Vol 1:
buy pdf version Tim Richards' Jazz Piano Notebook Volume 3 -
Volume 4 is by Jeff Brent, a jazz pianist, composer, teacher, and author of "Modalogy" and other acclaimed jazz theory and education books. In this book Jeff shares detailed analysis of transcriptions of live performances. He covers everything from the shape of the songs to the tricks and licks he uses in improvised lines to the ideas behind his lush chord voicings.
Most Recent Discussions
Articles
Piano for Adoption Scam
Aprender Jazz en Piano
BEWARE: FREE BABY GRAND PIANO SCAM
Oh Tannenbaum for Jazz Piano
Volume 5 of the "Jazz Piano Notebook Series" is Available!
LearnJazzPiano.com File Downloads News
more...
Top Sheetmusic Picks
Jazzy Christmas Arrangements
Cocktail Piano
Best Songs Ever, 6th Edition
Christmas Medley
Moana Songbook
Late Night Jazz Piano
Jazz piano education is cool.
Rock on. Follow your passion.
Sign In
LearnJazzPiano.com Copyright © 1995-2026 by Scot Ranney • website software and design by scot's scripts
LearnJazzPiano.com is For Sale - Serious Inquiries Only