Originally Posted By: rockstar_not
...Not unlike learning intervals by well known intervals from pop and famous tunes.


Scott, once the modes are more familiar to you through the kind of practice, exercises and mental programming you are presently working on - which doesn't take all that long actually - if you put that newfound hearing ability of identification to work by transcribing tunes that interest you, the art and practice starts to really blossom.

I've found that a lot of aspiring improvisers and composers, when confronted with the word, "transcribe" seem to think that transcribing means putting all the notes heard on paper.

While that is certainly true in the definitive sense, one can also transcribe by ear by simply working with the target song via repeatedly listening to the recording and finding the correct notes on their instrument, perhaps only a phrase or two at a time.

TIP: Once you have found the correct notes, timing and phrasing on the instrument, you won't really KNOW it until you also practice SINGING it. Or whistling it. Connecting the human voice, regardless of whether we are singers for real or not, to the piece is essential IMO.

The important thing is to find the correct notes and exactly match what is heard on the recording in that area.

I've known some who have an amazing ability to use the short and even long term memory rather than the written sheet for these things. Personally I have used BOTH methods, depending upon complexity of the piece at hand, the goal I have or the need at the moment, for example, a complicated passage that this old brain must have on paper where I can jot the note numbers on the sheet for analysing and practice purposes can represent a shortcut around the complexity of the piece. Other tunes, like Pop and such, that may not be necessary.

As the video fellow demonstrates, a lot of the popular stuff is actually a single-mode exploitation anyway.

Band in a Box's abilities are very helpful to me along these lines, for if I have laid out the target piece there, chords and Melody, I not only have an autoaccompaniment playback for practicing with, I also can print out those Lead Sheets and use them as worksheets to jot down things like the note numbers, chord numbers, mode identification, etc. for practice and study purposes.

Keep up the work, Scott!

"Send me a player who transcribes!"


--Mac

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