writing

How do you tell the listener that what you're playing is important?... you repeat it.

If you're not using repetition, you're telling the listener that what you're playing is not worth remembering.

If it's not worth remembering, then it's forgettable.

Who wants to play music that's forgettable?

John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" uses the same device as Slim Harpo's "Baby Scratch My Back"... the main lick happens before the bar, with the final note landing on the downbeat of the bar. There are two more cool elements in "Boom Boom"...

1) The main lick only changes it's resolution note, to match the chord change.

2) There's a call-and-response happening. In the opening, the band responds to the main lick on the guitar. When the vocals enter, the band and guitar play the main lick and they go back and forth. continue reading...

Now take a listen to the head of Little Walter's "Off the Wall." Your clue is that A (the main theme) is two bars long. Note how it's treated on the IV Chord (Bars 5 and 6), this is important to our discussion tomorrow.

I've now added what I feel are two important elements to a basic hand transcription... bar lines and chord changes.

By placing a vertical line after the last note of a measure (which in turn is before the first note of the new measure) you're helping to give a basic visual reference of where you are in time. Though you're not providing standard rhythm notation, which would show you exactly where you are in time, this is a good intermediary step when playing by ear. continue reading...

I hope you enjoyed the challenge of the first part of our transcription process. Here are the answers to Friday's questions...

1) Harmonica Key: A

2) Key you and the band are playing in: E

3) Where he starts in time: The 2" is on the "and" of 4, with the 2 draw on the downbeat of the next bar. So, he's playing a 1/2 beat pickup to Bar 1. continue reading...

This is my process...

1) Transcribe everything at full tempo, without picking up the harmonica.

2) Slow the music down moderately (around 15-20%) and proofread my transcription carefully as I listen. This is very handy, I'll inevitably find little fixes (such as dips, slurs, pulls that were very soft, etc.).

3) If it's a very fast song, I'll do this again at around 40% slow. continue reading...

It’s very common for students to come in after transcribing a bit of music to have parts written, that they're supposedly reading from, but they actually play something slightly different. For example... they may write 4 5+, but actually play 5 6+. To fix this, slowly play out of rhythm (one note per tap of the foot will do), what you wrote. This will stop your muscle memory, which is commonly linked to rhythm, from guiding you towards playing by ear, not what you wrote on the page.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Another great value of having a recorder handy is to document your progress when songwriting. After a session of working out ideas for a new instrumental I'll grab my iPhone and use the memo app to do a quick recording of my performance (solo or with a jam track). It's common for many days to go by between writing sessions and it's very easy to forget prior progress. I start a new session listening to my past recording, sometimes even playing along to it. I stop the playback and then get to work. continue reading...

It can be a great challenge to study an artist's song and remember the order of the choruses and the fine elements they contain. It's common to hear complaints by students that songs take a tremendous amount of time to memorize well enough not to have a simple mistake lead them astray and cause a wreck. continue reading...