Scott Henderson Discussion

[Andy Logan]

I started transcribing about a month ago...and im finding it pretty hard going to be honest. My sight reading is still pretty crummy too...im really slow.

What stuff is best to transcribe for a newby like me?


...'course....i dont even know if what im transcribing is correct I could be totally out and wouldnt even know it,
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Im playing all the RIGHT notes.....NOT NECESSARILY in the right order....

[clovis]

I'm about to get setup with another jazz teacher to work on my site reading and transcribing skills. I would suggest finding a really good jazz teacher (if you're playing jazz) to help you with that. Also, David Liebman did an instructional video on transcribing. I'm about to buy that as well. It's available through Aebersold music.

John
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http://www.johnredden.com

[Tim Goynes]

Hey Andy,

I think some good players to transcribe if you're just starting with it would be guys like David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and guys like that--basically, players in the rock/jazz vein that have really good melodic sense. Hendrix and Beck seem like pretty obvious choices, but they're still very much worth checking out.

As for sightreading, I thought I'd share a little tip I came across that REALLY helped me out. Take a blank sheet of staff paper, and without paying attention to notes or melodic contour, quickly make 24 dots with a pencil along the staff. Then, fill the dots in so they actually look like notes, add ledger lines where they might be needed, etc. So now you have a totally random line to read, so here's what you do:

First, set your metronome at a slow tempo, and read the line as quarter-notes.

Then, with the metronome at the same tempo, read it as eighths...then eighth-note triplets....then finally, sixteenth notes. (The reason you made 24 dots is because eighths, triplets and sixteenths divide evenly into 24)

The idea behind all this is to train you to look at GROUPS of notes, instead of the *next* note. So, for example, if you're reading it as eighth notes, look ahead at the next group of two notes while you're playing. Likewise, if you're reading triplets, look ahead at the next group of three notes, and so on. This is good because, say if you're reading sixteenth notes at whatever tempo, and tried to read the notes one at a time, you'd probably fall out before the measure was over, whereas if you look at the GROUP of notes, it's much easier to read.

Anyway, hope this helps!

Regards,
Tim G.

[Andy Logan]

Hey thanks chaps. Ive actually lined up some lessons with a cool jazz player to help out with this stuff.

I'll give that a shot tim...that sounds like a cool way to practice.
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Im playing all the RIGHT notes.....NOT NECESSARILY in the right order....