Trans-scribble

To Read, or Not to Read Music? That is not the question. 

Aural learning is inseparable from Pop, Jazz, Bluegrass and many other popular styles. Several famous artists of these genres could not read music, including: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Jose Feliciano, Ronnie Milsap, Andrea Bocelli, Aretha Franklin and Doc Watson. Although it is obviously not necessary to be able to read music to play in these styles, it can be beneficiary. The real question is: how do we use our reading skills to better our Pop/Jazz/Bluegrass, or in this case, Blues playing?


In his video, Jazz: Anyone Can Improvise, Jamey Aebersold says that most jazz artists have a book of "licks" or virtuosic runs that they have written down and practice in all keys. My Jazz Improv professor also discussed this - "If you are listening and hear something neat that you would want to learn, figure it out and write it down." The book I am using for the Improv Class (Creative Jazz Improvisation, by Scott D. Reeves) includes written examples of famous performers improvisations for students to practice.

For my lecture recital, I have been transcribing two pieces: I Used to be Your Sweet Mama by Bessie Smith and In the Cluster Blues (and the violin improvisation solo) by Mark O'Connor. I thought I was skilled at dictation and aural skills because I was so quick at it in my undergraduate, but conducting these projects made me think again. They have taken hours and hours. I listened to Bessie Smith probably over a hundred times and Mark O'Connor in excess of 300 times if I were to guess.  Yesterday the bassist from my Jazz Trio e-mailed me to bring to my attention a few mistakes I had made (he figured I would want to correct them before my lesson). It is like a never ending project! I feel like this man below. 

Although it has been a lot of work, I would recommend transcribing to anyone learning to play the Blues (or any other aural-based style). If you are listening and hear something you like, trans-scribble it down! This was extremely helpful in learning the style because I was listening so intently with so many repetitions. Transcribing helped my memory also, because writing and visualizing the notes was yet another way to internalize them.

As a side-note: Musesore is a free music writing program for Macs that you can download http://musescore.org. I highly recommend it - I used it for my transcriptions.