Mac, one other thing - so much of what you wrote above is how I started to learn for the class- even though it wasn't taught directly.

For example, Gary Burton posted an unrecognizable solo snippet of "What Is This Thing Called Love?" for the first week assignment and asked us to analyze his solo and to do our own solo.

I had no idea it was a standard - no attribution was given as to the writer, etc. until someone in the class forums posted some YouTube links to some old and current versions of the song.

All of the sudden, even without playing it - I knew the melody and was able to 'write out' how I would play it in my head. I will see if I kept a take from my first attempts before hearing the lyrics and melody. It was awful. After studying the chart while listening to many different versions, I tracked this straight through after perhaps 5 runs practicing. Not perfect, but the method you described is exactly what I did: https://soundcloud.com/rockstar_not/what-is-this-thing-called-love

My Songs, photos, writing,etc.
My Sound Cloud