Complete Transcription: Bill Evans - 'Medley - My Favourite Things, etc.'

Bill Evans, piano (from 'The Solo Sessions, Vol.1'), recorded January 10, 1963. Recording cited for educational purposes only.
Transcription by William Hughes
drwilliamhughes.blogspot.com.au

[@musamor75]

Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. A lot of this and that, and gratuitous quibbling. How about congratulating this fine gentleman on his transcription? If you think you can do better, do it, and SHOW IT! Or else please refrain from making senseless comments. This transcription gives a generous insight into Evans's harmonic thought, and especially to his often used mirror phrasing. At some point you have to group the notes into series, or else it would be incomprehensible. I wonder how many of you could actually play part of this even half decently. I take my hat off to Mr. Hughes.

[@ConstantGoddard]

Hey, what is 'mirror phrasing'. I have never heard of that.

[@greob]

This is a great resource to analyse Bill Evan's style. Thank you.

[@chenyanhao676]

Njul um, nice dp?

[@Dabaiko]

Amazing! Thank you William.

[@pectenmaximus231]

You put in so much work on this. And it's one of my very favorite recordings, of anyone, ever. Greatly indebted!

[@clockman9097]

Thank you so much for transcribing this! I've been looking for this transcription for years! Even asked Pascal Wetzel if he had done it yet. Haha! 🤗

[@QubitVector]

Thank you so much Mr. Hughes for transcribing this and helping make Mr. Evans' genius more accessible to a wider audience! Take care

[@marieannecelticwoman3466]

My love, this is perfect! Like when the trees she their yellow leaves and they danced around us as we looked on hiking up the path.

[@JY-ej8ig]

Amazing stuff William!!! Thanks and keep it up.

[@musicm8kr]

Awesome........thank you for sharing William.

[@musamor75]

Wonderful job. My respects to you Sir. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@philburpalooza8]

Masterful timing voicing and reharmonizing.

[@TheMafouin]

Thank you so much for the perfect transcription . Great

[@richard9480]

Brilliant as ever!

[@maximilianoponce5388]

Great job. Thanks.

[@E._Z._K]

Gracias por esta transcripción. Es un gran trabajo

[@RENEARBOLEDAMAGIC]

I can´t belive. It´s really amazing. Wow...!

[@user-cg1ih5ys6r]

Стенограмма произведения даёт возможность наглядно увидеть нотное содержание произведения( аккорды, пассажи ,многообразие ритмов, ломанная линия темы). Приходит понимание уровня техники исполнителя, его виртуозности, умение чтения с листа, удержание в памяти информации - и это восхищает.

[@w126jazz]

I love this!

[@sandraeckelhofer]

A MA Z I N G Bill. breathtaking. extraordinary. adorable.

[@harryswidthamateurmusician2185]

Thank you!

[@ashleyhribar2512]

awesome

[@brettbreet]

Wow!

[@jazzgal5631]

Tour de force! 👏👏👏

[@ale.bouchard]

Awesome!! Thanks! Can I have a copy of this score? Thanks!

[@chenyanhao676]

Surprised no one said anything yet, but borodin string quartet 2 at 10.40ish

[@chenyanhao676]

Oh wait nvm lol its bangles and beads, sort of the same thing though

[@dariodangelo8938]

C. Yan H. 👍👍👏👏👏

[@Dabaiko]

William, I know I am probably late, but at 2:12 I hear A E Db G Eb, just in case you want to check it out and correct it in the file if you hear it too.

[@igorpianista]

BAR 247 - 2:21: C natural, insted C#, on the bottom bass clef;

[@dmitrybachinsky]

Hello, how can we get your transcriptions?

[@musicisforever0997]

hey! thanks for doing these transcriptions? is there anyway to get a pdf? :)

[@classypoodles2142]

Did you get a response? I'd like to have some of these transcriptions, would be glad to buy them. Ray Dewey

[@musicisforever0997]

@ClassyPoodles21 no i didn't unfortunately :(

[@incwithaperiod]

He has a lot of them on his blog

[@tonalambiguity3345]

Lol at transcribing the quintuplets. It fits but I guarantee bill wasn't thinking about 5 on 3 (or whatever) there, he is just taking liberties with his own accompaniment. Good job at retrofitting that transcription though.

[@tonalambiguity3345]

Listening to the whole thing, it is about as useful as transcribing the sound of traffic. He was just hearing phrases in his head and popping them off with their own metre, not imagining a strong underlying meter of the whole piece, which is why you had such a tough time with the time signatures.

[@chenyanhao676]

well u got to transcribe them somehow lol, most jazz transcriptions on the same piece will defer in the ways they group rhythm

[@tonalambiguity3345]

banson houry True. But it's dangerous to present these transcriptions to students because some will inevitably try to play it exactly as written and waste lots of time trying to reconcile all those irregular meters, rather than taking it for the loose rhythmic phrasing that it is.

[@scottkacher3684]

I love seeing this resource! Most of us understand timing in sheet music is just an approximation and you should play it the way you feel it and learn the nuances from listening to your heroes. Well done!

[@ethanhayward9624]

@@tonalambiguity3345 I don't know of many students who could play at this level and not understand that potential pitfall already

[@benaaronmichelson2517]

Anyone else hear reverberations or accompaniment of some sort at 10:10 ??

[@ronin8993]

Ben Aaron Michelson I thought 💭I was the only one who heard it ?

[@danieledibella2204]

My future girlfriend is playing this 🍂

[@charlesduckettjr.800]

Notating this in weird time signatures is surely not what Bill intended when playing. What is the point of doing that? Jeez, I would hate to see your notations of Art Tatum.

[@musical_lolu4811]

Either transcribe this or shut up.

[@ChrisWilliams-oh1vs]

The time signatures are in place to give an approximation of how Bill is playing rhythmically. Bill is not playing the straight rhythm perpetually, as this is a solo session, he will drift from the conventional 4/4 occasionally. It is not, by law, to attempt to follow the written time signatures.