Wynton Marsalis Discussion Forum

what are some good jazz trumpet solos to transcribe? im really starting to expand my transcription work and i need some good songs that will give me the true essence of jazz trumpet playing.

thanks

RBK

     

Good things to start with are any solos from Miles “Kind of Blue”.  Also check out Chet Bakers stuff.  Oh Yeah,  Blue Mitchell is another cat that you can really learn the language from!

     

thanks man any specific songs?

     

For a beginner transcriber, I would recommend transcribing Miles on “So What” and “Freddie Freeloader”. 

I agree with Chet and Blue Mitchell as well.  A great Chet album is The Original Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker.  It’s easy to find (iTunes, etc.)

 

As far as Blue Mitchell goes; I really like “Blue Soul” tons of great solos (Nika’s Dream; Polkadots and Moonbeams, etc)

 

Don’t get frustrated; it takes a lot of work to become good at transcribing!

     

i transcribe usually just 2 or 3 notes at a time after i have figured the rhythm out for the whole song. is there a better way to transcribe? Ive heard of transcribing in phrases, but is that necessary or helpful?

     

2 or 3 notes…..1 note…..whatever you can get.  The more you do it, the more you’ll recognize common phrases.  One bit of advice is to not get hung up of a phrase that is giving you too much difficulty.  This doesn’t mean neglect each phrase that challenges you. Instead, you should move forward in the solo and try and “fill in the blanks” later on.

     

I want to transcribe some of Mr. Marsalis’ solos, but so many of them are way over my head! what are some of the “intermediate” solos i can transcribe?

     

Try some of the solos on the Mr Jelly Lord recording! Not TO hard..:-)

     

alright so i have another question. when i start a transcription, should i continue it till the end? i have like 7 transcriptions of songs like “mox nix” and “razor rim” but i have only 3 choruses or so each. is it a musical sin to not finish, or should i not restrain myself and let myself explore music in new songs whether or not i finished the last one?

     

if you have quick time on your system, you can download your tunes that you want to transcribe into quicktime,or open the file you want, click on the song that you want to play, which will bring up the quicktime player, then go to the toolbar at the top, click the window option which will drop down and choose SHOW AV CONTROLS which will bring up the control window where you can control the speed of the song without changing the pitch of the song you want to transcribe.

happy transcribing… tip: use your ear alot, try not to transcribe exactly what your hearing, you have to develop your own style!!!

     

i have smartmusic for that application. i was really asking if it was important to learn a complete solo as opposed licks i like. thanks you, though.

RBK

     

I think that Wyntons solo on the very thought of you is easy if im not mistaken. I would also recommend Blue Mitchell playing Blue Friday. its fairly difficult (it took me awhile) but once you know it youll never forget it and you can refference to it in any Bb blues setting. You should Google search free jazz trumpet transcriptions and click the first one that shows up. Its a great site! i use it all the time!!

     

you guys have been a lot of help. i appreciate that. here’s another question for you…

what rhythm changes tunes has wynton recorded? im looking for some really hip licks i can play over rhythm changes.