It’s great to transcribe solos. You work on your ear training, focus on the player's characteristics such as
time feel, sound, articulation
. Playing along the recording, you practice your
instrument, intonation, phrasing control
and more by trying to emulate the soloist's playing.
But you also need to
understand
what you are playing, know what to make of this transcription and
how to incorporate elements in your own playing
.
I realized I needed to analyze the melody (identifying scale degrees) and simplify the phrases to understand how these phrases were built. This is what I call “
zooming out
”, to the quarter note and half note level. The
half note level
shows you the
targeted notes on beats 1 and 3
, the
quarter note level
shows you the targeted notes on each beat.
Here are a few things to remember when you practice a transcription:
1. Analyze the melody. Identify the scale degrees. Is this D the 9th of C-7, the 13th of F7, the flat 9th of Db7?
2. Identify what are the targeted notes on beats 1 and 3 (half note representation of the melody).
3. Identify the targeted notes on each downbeat.
4. Identify patterns, approach notes, II V phrases etc… and practice these in 12 keys!
5. Sing the phrases