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WHY TRANSCRIBE? - purpose/advice???

2K views 11 replies 11 participants last post by  saxoclese 
For years I worked from Transcription books and results were not great. Nothing really stuck. The last 4 years, I've been steadily learning solos from recordings then posting them on my YouTube Channel. Once I've learned something, I try to pull 2 or 3 nice lines to work through all 12 keys. I find that transcriptions are not so much WHAT to play but HOW to play passages. It's all the nuance with regards to timing, pitch, articulation, etc... The stuff that is nearly impossible to write down. I leave each solo with something I can use in my own playing. It's really odd sometimes what sticks.

Two Side Items I've learned about Transcribing:

1) I ONLY transcript stuff that I like. I've tried to force myself to work on solos that were supposed to be 'good for me' but it was torture.

2) I try to be careful not to pick solos that are overly technical. Some difficult stuff is challenging but I found myself on at least 3 occasions derailed by some super human playing beyond my physical world. It's a bummer but at 52 years old, I know when my fingers have thrown in the towel.
 
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