Sometimes, I like to just jam out. Here’s a little clip of just jamming, nothing too cerebral. The two choruses starting at 6:48 need to be transcribed and made into a throwaway blues head. This was done with just a metronome set for 108 for 216 bpm. The ten minutes (that’s the Youtube limit, sorry) gets you 45 choruses in this clip. I actually taped about 39 minutes or 175 choruses. No stunt pianist was used.
read more of fun jam
Transcription is an immensely profitable activity. Both figuratively and literally–if you can produce good charts, you’re not a sideman, you’re a “music director.” But it’s a great way to study music. Transcription is a learnable skill. And lucky for us, there are better tools available today than ever before to assist.
In this post I run down my repeatable method for doing a transcription. I’ll also hip you to some excellent software to help out.
read more of advice on doing transcriptions
I just ran into this 1974 interview with György Ligeti (one of the composers I admire deeply). The interesting thing about it is how he discusses his composition process. He develops his mental image first before notating any of it even at the sketch level.
read more of interview with Ligeti
The dominant chord is the most important chord. Hence the name. But you may be wondering:
what’s so important about it?
read more of dominant chords
The transcription in this post is Miles Davis’ solo on the Kind Of Blue version of So What. A lot of people talk about how this tune is the beginning of modal jazz and so forth. I think that misses the real significance of So What.
read more of transcription: So What
Here’s the real secret–when I give a musical “secret” away, I don’t lose it. In fact I’m pretty convinced that you don’t really know something until you teach it to someone else. Then it’s really yours.
Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard, is not a music book. But it is full of powerful advice for musicians. Leonard brings his experience as a student and teacher of Aikido to the examination of how we learn, and what the learning process holds in store for the learner. If you struggle at times with the desire to practice, you should read this book. If you would like to make your practicing more effective, read this book. If you’ve ever thought about quitting your instrument because you aren’t good enough, you should read this book. If you’ve ever looked for a shortcut to getting really good, you should read this book (hint: there’s no shortcut to getting good in the book).
read more of book review: Mastery
This isn’t new, or hot, and you’ve probably seen it because you’re bound to be hipper than I am. But I really get a lot from Kathy Sierra’s blog Creating Passionate Users. And quite specifically the “Crash course in learning theory” post. I try to do these things here and on my other sites. I’ve done a lot of them instinctively, but having a great catalog of techniques like Kathy has assembled is a real boost.
Here we’re addressing a special case of learning, but this place is all about learning. And make no mistake, I’m doing my share of the learning.
When musicians learn a piece of music, they don’t commit a detailed image of the score to memory, in order to visualize the piece. So what the heck is stored in the brain instead?
David Huron has a lecture (available on the web) where he asks the following yes/no question: “Does the word ‘but’ occur in the lyrics to the song Row, Row, Row Your Boat?” Go ahead and figure it out for yourself, I’ll wait for you…
read more of mental representation of music
Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain, explores the way the brain processes and perceives music. Who should read this book? Anyone who is interested in how music affects people. This includes serious listeners as well as performers. Things like learning a piece of music and hearing a piece of music performed are described in terms of human brain physiology. Lots of information from studies of the brain helps justify some of the assertions the author makes. If you’ve ever wondered how some music can affect you so powerfully as to make you shudder or get “goose bumps,” then read this book. If you’ve ever wondered about the differences in the way a musician percieves a performance and how the audience perceives it, then read this book. If you’ve ever pondered whether there’s even such a thing as innate musical talent, then read this book.
read more of book review: Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy
