How To Turn Your Favorite Tracks Into Playable Sheet Music
Somehow time keeps moving at an incredible pace and after what seems like only a day or two it has now been another week since I wrote the last newsletter entry. Similar to my last post where I was inspired by a discussion with someone in my Arranging 101 course about conga notation, this week there has been another fantastic conversation which I think a lot of people may find helpful. You’ve seen the title so you know that this time around we are talking about transcription, but not of improvised solos, instead we are looking at the process behind listening to a big band record and working out how to translate it to sheet music.
Like many jazz musicians I was introduced to transcribing pretty early on in my musical journey. I’m pretty sure most teachers recommend transcription when a student starts showing interest in jazz and while in high school this was exactly what happened to me. However, I never really wanted to learn how to improvise and my teachers didn’t explain the other uses of transcription. I tried it a few times, listening and jotting down a couple of the most transcribed solos of all time such as Miles Davis on So What, but it always seemed like a chore. Eventually I began to understand why transcribing was important and saw that it allows musicians to learn how to capture the sounds of others, whether that be in their playing, writing, and even other areas like production. However, it wasn’t until I finished high school that I realized transcribing could be fun.
Without the pressure from my school teachers, I started listening to a bunch of different music and learning bass lines to my favorite tracks. Quite quickly I noticed that it was actually enjoyable and satisfying to transcribe something when you had the freedom to choose what it was. Around the same time I was given the opportunity to record a few tracks informally with my small group. I had just found a video of the Manhattan School of Music Afro Cuban Big Band playing a random track which I became obsessed with. Although I had no clue what was being played I did recognize a Manteca quote somewhere in the song (the track was Machito’s Wild Jungle for those interested). I thought it might be fun to challenge myself and transcribe that specific moment as some kind of quasi arrangement of Manteca. The results were pretty average but that was technically the first time I tried to transcribe a part of a big band chart, albeit only the lead trumpet line and bass part.
For the next few years I dabbled with transcribing large ensembles, but for the most part avoided it as the process seemed extremely daunting. Instead I spent the bulk of my time learning how to arrange for big band and writing charts. Whenever I needed anything transcribed, I’d lean on my friends who had better ears than me. However, eventually I was faced with the fact that I would need to learn how to transcribe full ensemble tracks.
Coming out of my stint as a cruise ship musician, I was approached by one of my cruise clients who was wondering if I could write a set of big band charts for their upcoming tour with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. I enthusiastically accepted even though what was required was for me to transcribe their existing 9 piece show (with barbershop quartet type vocal parts on top of the band), and then create big band charts which captured the same spirit while also demonstrating the great qualities of a big band. To cap it all off, they needed about 12 charts in a 7 day turnaround. If I wanted to do a good job and deliver everything on time, it meant getting comfortable pretty quickly with transcribing full band parts.
Like most things, I threw myself at the challenge. In order to maximize my time, I got a friend to help out with the formatting so that I could purely focus on the transcription and arranging process. I’m sure the transcriptions weren’t perfect but the client seemed very happy with the work and it looked like their tour went smoothly. Although I had never really leaned into transcription in the past, this specific opportunity showed me that there was a demand for transcription within the arranging world, it also helped me prove to myself that I could do it.
Following on from my initial plunge into transcribing ensembles, I was given the opportunity to lead the house big band at a local club. As there weren’t really any professional ensembles in Melbourne which focused on playing the traditional repertoire for big bands like Basie and Ellington, I figured it might be fun to feature the music of an arranger each month. At the time I was obsessed with Quincy Jones so I decided who better to feature for the first performance. What I quickly realized though was that almost all of the wonderful big band charts he wrote back in the 50s and 60s were very difficult to find online and almost all of them were unavailable. However, coming off the back of the Glenn Miller project, I decided I would transcribe all of the tracks for the first concert.
What I quickly realized was that there are two ways to approach big band transcription. The first is where you try to be as accurate as possible to the original and capture everything you hear. With this first method, you are limited to how good your ears are and the quality of the recordings you are dealing with. It can be great for personal study and analysis as it can yield more accuracy in the final transcription, but as both the limitations you face are highly variable, it is quite likely that the end result can also be quite wrong. As I intended to perform these transcriptions live, I knew that relying purely on my ears and the quality of old recordings was far too risky to guarantee a good result so I leaned on a slightly different approach.
Having spent a number of years understanding the mechanics behind big band arranging, I was familiar with a lot of commonly used techniques and could execute them well. So instead of relying purely on my ears, I started to take educated guesses when it wasn’t obvious what was happening in the recording. With so many horns playing at once, it can be almost impossible to work out what the inner voices are doing unless everything is closed mic’d and panned nicely, something older recordings typically don’t do. So to deal with the problem, I just listened to the lead lines and overall quality of the chord that was being created by the horns (or rhythm section) and then filled in the gaps with voicing techniques I knew would work for a big band horn section. When it came to actually hearing the specific chords and extensions, if I couldn’t work out what a specific chord was I would often lean into the various harmony techniques I knew and then would trial a few options until I found something that made sense with the context. Was it entirely accurate to the original arranger's intention? Probably not, but it did mean that the transcriptions could be used practically and I felt confident that the concerts wouldn’t be impacted negatively by the charts.
As with everything, the more you transcribe, the easier the process is and the more accurate you get. If you’re interested in being a professional arranger, transcribing full band charts is a fantastic way to learn what others did and I would highly recommend it even if you have never done it before. To help you out, here is a quick list of processes I go through so that you at least have a starting point to work from:
Transcribe the bass line (helps imply which chords)
Transcribe lead lines & most prominent instruments (anything that seems obvious)
Transcribe the chords being played by the rhythm section instruments (only if you can hear them)
Look at how the bass line, lead lines, and rhythm parts work together and how they might start to imply some sort of harmony (this will help you rule out certain options)
Listen to the horn section parts and see if it reflects the harmony you’ve come up with (make changes as you work out specific color notes that you hear)
Apply voicing techniques to the sections and see if it matches what you are hearing (sometimes you won’t be able to tell no matter what technique you try)
Transcribe the drum part
Try not to doubt all of the choices you’ve made and know the true value of transcription is just trying to do it. Accuracy will come as you develop your ears and learn more about the common techniques used to write for big band
Thanks again for checking out my weekly newsletter. I didn’t think I’d be talking about transcribing big band recordings this week but it is something that seems to come up a lot and is a skill people are wanting to learn. Who knows which direction I’ll go with the next newsletter entry but based on the last two weeks something tells me I’ll be inspired by a conversation sometime in the week.
Until next time,
Toshi