The Transcription Step Most Jazz Players Skip

By Eric • PRO • Transcribing • Horace Silver

There’s a common saying that any great improvisation boils down to one thing: “playing what you hear”. And over the years, I’ve found this to be true…

1. Introduction
2. Horace Silver, Opus De Funk
3. Finding Musical Clues
4. Figuring Out the Chords & Progression
5. Solo Techniques: 3 Phrases
6. Horace Silver Phrase #1
7. Horace Silver Phrase #2
8. Horace Silver Phrase #3
9. Your Transcription Journey

The more you can let go and access the music inside of yourself, the more personal, expressive, and natural your playing will be. Simply put, this is where is where the heart of improvisation lies.

But getting to this point of creative flow doesn’t just happen automatically. It takes a specific type of practice to unlock it, one that begins with transcribing language.

We’ve all heard of transcription and memorizing solo lines, but it’s the steps after getting the notes that are crucial to ingraining the musical details off the record…

Remember, our goal is not just to memorize lines or repeat them note for note, it’s developing the ability to create your own ideas using the blueprint you’ve absorbed from your favorite players.

This means having a practice process for turning what you hear on recordings into something that you can actually play on your instrument, transforming the sounds of your favorite players into real-world techniques that you can creatively use in any key.

In today’s lesson for PRO members we’ll explore the nuts and bolts of this invaluable process in the practice room…

Horace Silver, Opus de Funk

The solo we’ll look at today comes from the record The Horace Silver Trio with Art Blakey on the track Opus de Funk. Listen to the eight bar intro to Silver’s tune…

There is a ton of valuable language in this solo, but the process will be the same with any line or player that grabs your ear, whether it’s a single Freddie Hubbard line or a solo from Chick Corea.

It all starts with absorbing the sounds from the record into your inner musician, and eventually on to your instrument. The goal here is to slowly learn the line by ear, as long as it takes:

The line:

Horace Silver opus de funk

Now you have the notes – but this is just the beginning of the process. To truly understand the concepts, gain technique, and utilize these ideas creatively you need to go even further…

And as you’ll see, it’ll be the difference between having one line in one key for a single musical situation vs. absorbing musical concepts and techniques that can be applied to any solo.

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