transcribing people

[saxophone_volume1]

who would you suggest for me to try and transcribe as my first time at actually writing it down. I can usually play along but dont usually bother to write it down but i think now is as good time as any to get into the practice.

Do you guys use slow down programs or just listen intensely ALOT to the recording. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[PB]

The way i use to do it is: listen to it, sing it, play it, write it. My first choices were Wardell Gray, the early Dexter, J. Griffin and S.Stitt. The most I learned from are Stitt and Wardell. Both are easy to transcribe because they play so clear on time and both play so beautiful and logical stuff. DO YOU PLAY ALTO??? Maybe Carter, Hodges and then Parker and Stitt.

[Andrew]

Phil Woods is pretty good to learn from as well.

[MPL]

I've done both. I've transcribed many solos the old-fashioned way: by listening to them over and over until I could play the notes. I usually write them down with the chords so I can see what the players were trying to do over a given progression.

Last year I bought some transcription software for my Mac that allows you to slow down CD playback to any percentage you want without changing the pitch. That makes it easy to figure out the most difficult phrases, particularly when you're listening to someone who plays a lot of notes.

Some will say this method is blasphemy! I say it's a better use of time. Either way, I still have to try to play the transcription myself, at the original tempo along with the recording, in order to start internalizing the phrases. The software makes the act of transcription simple, but doesn't make me any more able to play the music. I still have to practice!

[Tears June]

If the song is not too difficult, catch note by note is not difficult. However, how to put all these notes & rest in RIGHT theory on the notation paper is another thing. That is most difficult for me.

[BayviewSax]

My first solo transcription was Coltrane from Blue in Green. But I've always found Joe Henderson to be a pretty good starting point. He seemed to master the art of playing interesting while maintaining simplicity. Just my $.02.

[scale_master]

Are there any transcriptions of Phil Woods solos available somewhere?

[alsdiego]

On the subject of transcribing... has anyone else noticed that it's much, much easier to internalize a phrase if you copy it by ear, and don't write it down? Maybe it's just me, but when I transcribe by ear, I seem to learn the relationship between the sound and my fingering, whereas, when I write it down, it's just notes. Any thoughts? I recall reading that many of the "old timers" learned by listening over and over to records, until they "internalized" the particular solo in their own playing.

Al

[BayviewSax]

I definately agree, but what I've experience is that over time I come across a sheet of staff paper with some scribbled notation and can't remember (or sometimes even figure out) what it is. The other thing is, as father time greets you more and more, you tend to forget things there, sonny!

Besides, even if you never use it, it's always a good exercise to write something out.