Re: New Lester Young Transcriptions
A few comments:
1). I agree wholeheartedly that one should take their own stuff off the recording. I provide these as a reference. After transcribing it yourself, you could compare to mine, see where we differ and why, etc.
2). Along with comment #1, the whole point is to be able play the solo and capture Pres's nuances. I find Pres to be one of the hardest guys to notate. If you try to capture exactly what he plays, you wind up with an unreadable score (for example, if you notate a delayed entrance with a 32nd note rest, etc). The transcriptions I published aim for readable scores (at the expense of absolute rhythmic accuracy). You have to listen to Pres to hear what a fabulous time sense he has, hear how long he swoops up to a note, etc.
3). The point of playing the solo in multiple keys is not just to be able to regurgitate rote licks in any key . I think it forces one to really understand how the notes are relating to the chords and to the key. It would be possible to learn the solo in the original key through rote memorization and muscle memory. Play in 100x and your fingers will know to press these buttons at this time. But take it up a half step and now you have to know that that line Pres is playing is outlining a dominant chord ( and that it isn't just any dominant chord but maybe it is VI heading to ii, etc).
-- Scooby
"... trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes." -- Charlie Parker
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