I share his views exactly, but I have to say that the beginning of his article made me laugh. In my world, reading and writing music doesn't exist. In my opinion it's the least important aspect of music, unless your goal is to become a classical or TV studio musician. For me, transcribing has never meant writing anything on paper. It's about learning phrases from the masters, and then getting those phrases (and more importantly YOUR mutated versions of those phrases) into your playing so that they sound as natural as using the word "and" in a sentence.
I could write down 10 phrases from a Coltane record in about 10 minutes, which is nothing more than an exercise in writing music. Better to memorize one phrase and work on it for a few weeks, along with my permutations of it, so that it becomes a natural part of my vocabulary.
The point isn't to play the phrase note for note, but to play it in different keys, different modes, and different rhythms, thus eventually making it into your own idea. Fuck writing it down - what possible good does that do? I guess if you're an excellent reader, it's a way of creating a reference library, but I record things I transcribe. I'd rather remember them by ear than read them off paper.
I've mentioned musicians like Scott Kinsey, who has a problem playing a gig without a chart in front of him - don't go down that road. When students ask me if they should spend a great deal of time learning to read, my answer is an enthusiastic NO. Better develop your ears and learn how to memorize music - in the real performing world, it's 100 times as important. If I went to a Tool concert and saw them reading charts, I'd walk out.
When I played in Jean-Luc Ponty's band, I memorized all the music before the first rehearsal. My fellow musicians were still reading charts well into the tour. Jean-Luc told me that I learned his music faster than any musician he'd ever worked with. That's because I never bothered with reading his charts.
Bruce Foreman leads the band Cow Bop - they play a lot of seriously difficult unison lines together. He doesn't allow the young musicians he hires to audition by reading charts. In his words - "if they want the gig bad enough, they have to memorize the music". I love that old school approach.
One last point - reading does help you to learn the notes on your instrument, but you're supposed to know that anyway. My reading sucks, but I've put a lot of practice time into learning the notes on the fretboard. Many guitarists think they can play over chord changes without learning this, relying on scales and patterns. That's like wanting to be an airline pilot, but not wanting to know what any of the buttons do. If you find learning to read fun, it's a good tool to help you learn your instrument.
Joined: 15 Mar 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:17 am Post subject:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Scott, I agree 100%.
"Better to memorize one phrase and work on it for a few weeks, along with my permutations of it, so that it becomes a natural part of my vocabulary."
In my experience I see some students that learn a phrase or an idea and expect it to become part of their vocabulary overnight, probably in part due to the immediate gratification style society we are living in.
I find it often takes me a long time for an idea to transform into something that comes out in a way that sounds natural when I'm not thinking at all, but I'm okay with that. Well, I don't really have a choice.
Do you also see some students that expect these things to come to fruition immediately?
"My reading sucks, but I've put a lot of practice time into learning the notes on the fretboard. Many guitarists think they can play over chord changes without learning this, relying on scales and patterns."
Yep, it never ceases to amaze me how many somewhat experienced players I meet that don't know the notes on the neck and have "gray areas."
Thanks for your comments.
Oh and I'm sure you've heard this already, but just in case you haven't this Jaco BBC Radio program (now on YouTube) is really cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU4UIQKbuOA _________________ TrueFire Instructor
Bogner-Xotic-D'Addario-Hell Parts-Moody
http://www.robgarland.net
Great Jaco documentary! I recently heard some bootlegs of him with Wayne Cochran - awesome!
Yes, many of my students believe their work is done when they can play the lick they've transcribed - and it never rises beyond a lick for them. I tell them to work with that idea for at least two weeks before learning another one, so that they can play seamlessly into it and out of it, and adapt it modally for use over different chord types, and also change it rhythmically so it sounds different from the way they learned it.
Most of my advice falls on deaf ears because they don't want to work, they just want a new lick to show off.
It also takes me a long time before a new idea becomes a natural part of my playing. But if was easy, everyone would do it, right?
For most of my students the whole neck is a grey area. But I have most of them convinced that in order to really play through changes, they have to know their instrument like a piano, which is difficult since we guitarists have to learn piano times 5. I understand their frustration because it's so much easier for them to learn finger patterns, but I make them work for two hours a day, up and down each string through chord changes until they're able to identify every note and which interval it is to the chord. I'm seeing some progress with some of them so I feel like I'm earning my money.
Joined: 15 Mar 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Los Angeles
Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 6:55 pm Post subject:
"For most of my students the whole neck is a grey area. But I have most of them convinced that in order to really play through changes, they have to know their instrument like a piano, which is difficult since we guitarists have to learn piano times 5. I understand their frustration because it's so much easier for them to learn finger patterns, but I make them work for two hours a day, up and down each string through chord changes until they're able to identify every note and which interval it is to the chord. I'm seeing some progress with some of them so I feel like I'm earning my money."
Great advice, thanks Scott. _________________ TrueFire Instructor
Bogner-Xotic-D'Addario-Hell Parts-Moody
http://www.robgarland.net
Scott, this is so refreshing to hear. I completely agree with you. I remember thinking ten years ago or so that I need to learn the fret board like a piano, and it was a long journey, now I play with notes and not shapes and it's a different world. A cool side effect is I've taken up learning a few new instruments and I can play the same things in violin and sax within months as guitar because it seems the same in my head and all I have to really do is work on my sound.
I can also vouch for the fact that transcribing without learning and playing the notes a bunch really has no benefit except for the ability to write down music. By actually mimicking the greats and messing with lines you actually get something amazing out of it. _________________ www.timmirth.com www.youtube.com/redsidevisible
It's refreshing for me to hear that someone gets it! Too many of my students are so into instant gratification that they'll never hop on a long journey of any kind. They don't seem to be willing to do the work, no matter how great the reward.
If a student tells me he really wants to learn playing over changes, I tell him "OK, go learn the notes on your E string and come back when you have it." I never see some of them again.
On the transcribing subject, I once had a guy walk into my room who wasn't in the guitar department of the school, but wanted to jam with me. I'm not supposed to teach students from other departments, but I asked him what he was working on, and he said he's been transcribing Hendrix for 7 years. So I jammed with him, but stopped him after he'd been soloing for about 3 minutes and hadn't played one phrase that sounded anything like Jimi. I said to him "I don't get it. You don't sound anything like Hendrix." I asked him what he meant by transcribing and he said he'd been writing Jimi's licks down, but not learning them on the guitar. I told him "congratulations, you've learned nothing from Jimi in 7 years, but you're a great librarian." Not totally the kid's fault, but definitely the fault of some idiot teacher who thinks it's more important to read and write music than to sound good.
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