OK, from what I've heard, one of the keys to jazz improvisation is to transcribe solos of people who can actually play. I had never really tried to transcribe a solo before. I've mainly just learned licks and stuff by ear. And the other day I tried to transcribe a solo for the first time. I tried transcribing the Cannonball Adderley solo from "Flamenco Sketches". I didn't think it'd be too hard, but was I ever wrong. I didn't have any problem with getting the pitches down, it's just the damn rhythms. I assumed it was in 4, but I kept wanting to make everything triplets and that made me wonder if it was in 6/8. It was pretty frustrating. All I got down was the first couple of licks. And even then, when I played it, it wasn't that close to what Cannonball was playing, rhythmically.... Now, here's what I'm thinking the problems were: A. It's a Cannoball Adderley solo, B. It was my first attempt, C. My first attempt was a Cannonball Adderley solo, D. I should've picked something easier... I'm pretty sure that was it... And, any suggestions on how to transcribe solos would be greatly appreciated. My main problem is transcribing the rhythms...

As with any language, writing and reading go hand in hand. If you're not a good reader who's used to seeing complicated jazz rhythms written out on paper, you'll have difficulty translating the rhythms that you hear to rhythm on paper. Perhaps the starting point should be to determine the meter. Is it a "three" feel or a "four" feel? This step tripped you up pretty good, didn't it? "Flamenco Sketches" is indeed a "three" feel. It's in 6/8 or you could write it in 3/4. When you attempt to write it in 4/4, as you have found, you end up with a flurry of quarter-note triplets.

I can't say very much about rhythm in a limited space other than what I said above: try to read more. I might add that it's helpful to have equipment that enables you to slow down what you're hearing. The newer digital equipment often enables you to do that without altering the pitch. With the older analog equipment, you'd find youself opting to cut the speed in half, which also drops the pitch an octave--OK for transcribing most instruments but not very satisfactory for transcribing lower-pitched instruments like trombone, which tend to sound rather muddy when you drop them an octave.

Does transcribing solos to paper enhance your ability to improvise? Yes, but I think not so much as memorizing a solo by ear. So if this is your goal, you may be beating a dead horse.

It was that bass line that threw me off about the time. Not to mention Cannonball Adderley's somewhat misleading accents... and I did have some software one time that I could slow stuff down with. I used it to slow down a really badass Joshua Redman lick.

Just heard an interview on radio with Andrew White. In the Washington, DC, area, he's well known as a tenor player, but nationally and internationally he's better known as a transcriber. He's transcribed every solo of John Coltrane that he can get his hands on--some 650 to date! And keep in mind that some latter-day Coltrane solos went on for 10 minutes or more. All this he publishes indedendently.

When he was asked what made Coltrane so special, so unique, he cited his distinctive tone and his unpredictability. He also remarked that there were technical matters too complicated to get into. (I suspect that he was referring to Coltrane's ability to find chord extensions and to use substitutions and nondiatonic chords.)

I wish I could have heard more, but I was late for a rehearsal, so I has to split.

Not to pull this off topic, but what was that sofware you mentioned? I know a guy who's looking for something like that as a practise aid. Many thanks,

Greg

It's called CoolEdit. (It costs money, but I got it off KaZaa illegally... shhhhh) It's like a .wav editing thing. I've really only used to record some guitar stuff, but it has lots of cool effects. I'm not sure of exactly what they call the effect that lets you slow something down without effecting pitch, but it has it. You can cut and paste a snippet of a wav file(or mp3) into a new file, and then slow it down with the effects. It's best to do it in short pieces unless your computer is superfast. It's crazy how slow you can get it down to. You just do the effect over and over. I got a 2-3 second lick stretched out to about 9-10 secs. The bends he played sounded really weird that slow.

Sweet! thanks for the info, I'm going to look into that.

Greg

A good online site discussing tonality, chords scales, modulation etc. is Andy Milne's website; andymilne.dial.pipex.com/

Well, well... I found the transcription for the Cannonball Adderley solo from "Flamenco Sketches"...

http://www.geocities.com/farrell_vernon/AdderleyFlamenco.PDF

Notice the "Notation is an approximation"

If you find yourself having problems reading and recognizing jazz rhythms ( hence being slow at transcriibing them ), you might check out some drum methods like Ted Reeds "Syncopation " and Steve Houghton's "Studio and Big Band Drumming " for excercised to help you in these areas.

Also, there are several transcription aids on the market ( both tape and digitally based ) that will take a passage and slow it down at pitch ( like a sequencer ) for ease in transcription.

Bill Evans once said,he didn't like to copy
others' solo.Rather he would think and learn about
what did these masters think,or feel,when they were
engaged in a somewhat awesome riff.
I feel it is indeed a method goes hand in hand with
the way of transcription.
It is a real hard job as a transcriber,I suppose.