Barry,

No offense taken; sorry if it came accross that way.

Ultimately, material to be used for improvisation has to be internalized, regardless as to how it's done. Some melodic material is more familiar and easier to transpose by ear than others. Diatonic Maj. scale, bebop licks, blues riffs, etc. might fall into that category.

Once you get into melodic minor, and less familiar symmetrical scale, chromatic and intervallic patterns, for example, it becomes a bit more difficult to "hear" right away.

With today's availability of notation software, it becomes easier and less time consuming to have a phrase transposed accross the keys and range of your instrument, ready for you to see, play, hear, feel and internalize, than spending time fumbling around trying to find it, and writing it down anyway so you don't forget it!

Once you have it transposed, you don't necessarily have to rely on the page, but it's there to refer to, any time you need it!

All I can say is; it's worked for me, and I'm thankful for it.

I understand what you are saying and now agree with what you are doing. I'm an older style Bebop player.  I play and learned as you first described, more Diatonic and modal Bebop playing (Sonny Rollins, Dex. Bird...some Trane ..ect.) If I wanted to get into the post Bebop Jazz thing I would profit from your advice......Thanks for responding....Kelsey