Practice This! is an educational project of Earshot Jazz with sponsorship from The Seattle Drum School. Each month in Earshot Jazz a new lesson by a different local jazz artist will appear for students to learn from and for non-musician readers to gain insight into the craft of improvising.

Practice This!
July 2007
Mark Taylor on Transcription

Click here to listen to Mark's Practice This! audio clip.

A very important part of practicing jazz is the process of transcription, which is basically learning, note for note, an improvised solo from a recording that you like. The most important part of that is “something you like” – it should be a recording you have listened to a hundred times, something that really inspires you. Most people have a recording or an artist they gravitate to and if you take the time to lift, or learn part of what they play, you usually find that it’s not just a really interesting sequence of notes that you want to use for yourself, it’s the way those notes are played.

There are many transcription books on the market that you could buy, and you could put those written transcriptions in front of 10 different people, and they would play or interpret the same written notes 10 different ways. If you really want to practice style, transcribing is a great tool. When you transcribe something for yourself, you have to learn the notes and beyond – things like sound and articulation (which notes are short, which are long or accented, which are “ghosted”). It’s a very important part of learning how to phrase as a jazz musician. You can get bogged down with patterns and scales and all the nuts and bolts of playing an instrument and forget the bigger picture of playing music which is to convey something to the listener. For most musicians, style is the way they get their message across.

Most of us musicians have a very strong opinion about what is great music and what isn’t. People are turned on by different things in music and it’s good to try to mimic the players you really like – not for the sake of mimicking them, but to have your own playing informed stylistically by them. When you sit down and try to play eight bars of someone’s solo that you really love, exactly like that person, it gives your playing depth, stylistically.

Transcription books are fine, but when you read a transcription out of a book, it’s only part of the information that is present on the recording and I, for one, tend to forget transcriptions that come from a book rather quickly. When you sit down and learn it for yourself, note by note, without writing it down, that sticks with you forever. You almost never forget it and you have learned so much more as well. The term “transcription” literally means to write down, but when you hear musicians talking about transcribing a solo, they are usually referring to the act of copying (or “lifting” or “stealing” and sometimes “eating”) a recorded improvisation without writing it down.

Transcribing can be an intimidating process for young students because it really takes a lot of effort and you have to get your ears in shape (which is why it’s a great thing to do!). The best way to begin a transcription is to have a realistic goal in mind. If you begin with the idea that you must learn a complete three-chorus solo, you will get frustrated at how long it takes. Start with just eight bars. Try to play the first eight measures exactly like the recording, with all of the inflections and nuance of the artist you are copying. Like most things, the more you do it, the easier it gets. It is work and it’s a difficult process that requires attention to detail. Start with a little bit at a time. It gets easier every time. Just listen and play, then do it again and again until you have it. Good Luck!

Seattle based saxophonist, Mark Taylor, is a major voice and integral part of the Northwest jazz scene. He can be heard regularly around the Seattle area with the Jim Knapp Orchestra, Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Matt Jorgensen +451, Frieze of Life, Randy Halberstadt, Victor Noriega, Thomas Marriott, Steve Korn, and his own trio and quartet. Having performed locally with Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Quincy Jones, Maria Schneider, Bill Holman, Lee Konitz, George Cables, Ernestine Anderson, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, John Fedchock, Ingrid Jensen, Chuck Israels, Eddie Daniels, Pete Christlieb, and others, Mark has established himself as an invaluable asset to the local music scene.

From 1998-2000, Mark resided in New York City while he earned a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. During his stay, Mark performed around NYC, in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and elsewhere as a member of The Delegates and various other groups. Highlighted by appearances with the Grammy-nominated Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Mark’s stint in New York also afforded him the opportunity to study and perform with some of the very best in the business including Dick Oatts, Jim McNeely, Bob Brookmeyer, Garry Dial, David Liebman, Don Sickler, Steve Turre, Sir Roland Hannah, Bob Mintzer, John Riley, Steve Slagle, and Ted Rosenthal.