Art Blakey transcription for ya!

[Matt]

I played my jury for my music minor today at school. For the jury (basically a final exam in which you perform music in front of a panel of music professors), I recently transcribed Art Blakey's drum solo from Hank Mobley's "This I Dig Of You," at the suggestion of my jazz band teacher. I've compared it to a couple other ones I've seen on the Internet, and mine is pretty good. I did it with a pencil - no Finale this time. I thought since I had it, I might as well share it with you guys since someone here might want it. I'm on dial-up at home and the scans aren't perfect, but hopefully the resolution is still alright.







In addition to this, I played a coordination/independence exercise you guys can try. It's really frustrating at first, but you can get it if you'll focus and spend some time with it. I played a 2 - 3 son clave on the woodblock with my left foot, played the standard songo (I think) bass drum pattern (1 e & a 2 e & a....), and played a cascara pattern on the cowbell with my right hand (1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a). After a couple bars of that, I kept that going while reading through Exercise 1 (rhythms using quarters and eighths) in "Syncopation" with my left hand, on snare drum.

[zambizzi]

Very cool, man! Thanks for sharing. So, did ya kill it or what?

Do you happen to have a Finale transcription of this, by any chance?

[Matt]

It went alright. I haven't been working on this very long, so I was still figuring out how to actually play the thing this morning! I did alright though, and they seemed to like it. I don't think they're very strict on non-music majors anyway, though. I was a percussion performance major my very first semester, but I switched to business administration and and am minoring in music. No Finale version yet - just the handwritten version. And I realize the second page is tiny right now. I'm working on it.

[ilanten]

hey.

good work on the transcription!

what is the tempo of the original version?

[Matt]

I didn't include the B.P.M., because I had a hard time picking one out! Right before the solo kicks in, the song is at about 250. Blakey speeds up a lot when the solo starts, though, and doesn't really keep a steady tempo. Simply, it's fast.

[FunkyJazzer]

I always have respect for good transcribers. Did this take you long? And did you use any software or devices to slow it down? (Come on be honest, you won't lose any respect :D)

Thank you very much! I'm in the middle of a bunch of Tony licks from Seven Steps To Heaven and I've done the first 15 bars or so of Brian Blades playing on the live version of Joshua Redman's Jazz Crimes that's kicking about on YouTube.

Nice one man!

Lloyd.

[oops]

Ooh very nice.

I love a bit of Art Blakey. The great thing about his solos (in general) is that he keeps the hihat going the whole time. Gives it a sense of motion and something to balance the rest of the parts against.

[Matt]

FunkyJazzer, yeah, I definitely slowed it down - no shame in that! I used a great program I found online called Audacity. It's freeware! It's amazing what it can do for free - imagine Cakewalk or Protools, but with crappy effects and without all the cool plugins. Almost like Garageband, too, I guess, but without any midi capabilities. It's good for this kind of stuff, though - you can independently change pitch and tempo, or change them both together the normal way.

As for time, it didn't take that long, actually. I spent a few hours on it over the course of two or three nights. It really wasn't that hard to figure out after I slowed it down, because as you can see, it's mostly a whole lot of constant triplets, with the hi-hat on 2 and 4, and very little bass drum. The only hard parts were the couple of places where he seemed to go out of time. It's like he would just start hitting some stuff for a second, and then play a 2/4 bar to kick himself back into the pulse. I noticed that a couple of other people who have posted the solo online have interpreted these spots in different ways.

I did the first chorus of the piano solo near the beginning, too. I thought about learning it on vibes or something, but my mallet technique is kind of pitiful now that I never play them any more so I figured I'd just stick with my strong points.

For the record, I'm not really much of a "jazz" guy - I didn't grow up listening to it or knowing anyone who did, and I don't get many opportunities to play gigs that require any jazz chops. But I definitely have a respect for it - it seems to have some of the best musicians, and the music will make you question everything you thought you knew about theory. I played drums in my school's jazz ensemble last year, and I'm doing piano in it this year (funny how that worked out) - and I have a TON I need to learn - wow.

[FunkyJazzer]

Yeah well done man, keep working at it.

If you want my advice, start using the software Transcribe! 7. It's incredible. It costs £40 but you can download a trial version off the website that lasts 31 days. The trial version is a fully-functioning version. I'd spend £40 on it easy though, it's so worth it.