SOLVED! How to notate music properly (e.g. sax transcriptions)

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Grab your free pdf infographic cheat sheet here▶️ www.getyoursaxtogether.com/notation

[@wyndhl8309]

I ❤️ being back in Music Class, especially when Jamie is the wizard instructor. He simplifies things and encourages 👋 students to strive for excellence. Thank, maestro.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Love that!

[@DobrisaDobrenic]

The first video I had to look in the KZbin option to see if there is a Save button! And here it is - saved as a reference! Thank you, Jamie!

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Glad I could help!

[@barryyoung8291]

Really good educational piece and well presented. I've been transposing for a while and found certain aspects quite tricky so had to resort to "slow down" software to find the note placements but your signposts and rhythmic insights are a great help. Thanks for sharing.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

You're very welcome!

[@waynepharo]

Just what I was looking for!! Will look into Good Notes and Sibelius software and begain to practice. Also will use Transcribe to help identify the notes. Very helpful Jamie and as usual you seem to know what your students in the inner circle are looking for!! Great Job!!

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Glad it was helpful!

[@osamucabral]

Loved your didatics! Thanks!

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

You're very welcome!

[@couchphotography8861]

Great video, thanks much! Explains lots, so for this reason, I would digest it in small chunks, rather than trying for the whole thing to sink in at once!

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Glad it was helpful!

[@derekslone1135]

As a drummer and sax player, this was AWESOME!! One thing though, I recently "fixed" in a music script was in direct violation of your half-bar rule. If we're in 6/8 time, the beats realy feel they're on the crotchets, and _these_ are the ones I think are better to not span. Curiuos on your thoughts. (It was "He's A Pirate" from Pirates of the Carabean - I was doing it for my son, honest!)

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Yeh, it’s KZbin man, the video was already massive and I can’t cover everything, eg compound time. There comes a time when experience has to come to bear.

[@kirstyduncan907]

Brilliant lesson Jamie 🎷🎼

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Ta kirsty!

[@gsacca1]

very helpful video, as usual thank you

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

My pleasure!

[@CKM1109]

Thanks Jamie, really great video

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Thanks! 🙏

[@svensax8720]

Brilliant as always !

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@ouzalghost8411]

Great lesson Jamie thank you

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

My pleasure!

[@lerchedal]

:) thank you mister super sax this was very helpful and inspiring

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

You're very welcome!

[@carlkoselke2901]

Well done as always, what software are you using?

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Sibelius and Good Notes on iPad.

[@JeffSmith-eq7rr]

Excellent intro to transcription! Jamie

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Thank you kindly!

[@magnusselander]

Great lesson Jamie! Very helpful. What notation program did you use on this one?

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Sibelius for music software and Good Notes for hand written stuff.

[@magnusselander]

@@GetYourSaxTogether Thank you! Hadn’t heard about good notes before🙏🏻

[@tmcnelis]

Thanks for this. There's a particular bar in the Charlie Parker Omnibook that doesn't add up. It drove me crazy for a while until I figured out what was going on.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

👍🏻

[@maxlitwin233]

Hi , what App do you used for notation ( I mean those simply five lines 😉 ) on your iPad ?

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Good notes on iPad.

[@stephenbashforth8257]

Thanks for a good intro to notating one's own compositions. Gould "Behind Bars" has double bar at end of section only , and not alsonat start of next section. The other rhythm where the half bar is ignored is dotted minim crotchet. Seeing the half bar is all about seeing the strong beats. Your suggestion of working out the rhythm against a grid of subdivisions (semi-quavers) is a great help. As for software - have you thought of using Musescore 4? it is open source and it's free, which might appeal to your students and people wanting to try software for the first time. Though Sibelius has a strong following there are lots of advantages to moving to Dorico - have you thought about changing?

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Thanks for watching Stephen. I guess I am fully team Sibelius, but I know there are some other great options out there too.

[@FunkOsax]

I would 100% go with MuseScore (which is fully functional and totally free), but for now, I'd recommend using Version 3.6 because version 4 is still very buggy for many users (depending on the computer - Mac & Windows). When the bugs are sorted out, MuseScore 4 will beat Sibelius hands-down for 99% of users.

[@FunkOsax]

@@GetYourSaxTogether Excellent video Jamie, thank you, I will recommend it, and you, to many players that I'm in regular contact with, young & old. However, note that Sibelius is crazy-expensive for most people (unless you use the extremely limited free version) and their customer support is horrendous. I bought a fully legal lifetime copy of Sibelius 7 First (limited to 16 staves, no problem for me), but when they moved to a subscription model only, they disabled my copy. Support didn't want to know, they referred me to a "workaround" to get the licence key to be recognised but takes you around in circles, so after trying to sort it for over 6 months, I moved lock-stock-&-barrel over to the totally free Musescore 3.6. When the MuseScore 4 bugs are sorted out, it will beat Sibelius hands-down for 99% of users.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

@@FunkOsax yup, their customer service sucks. And it’s expensive. Totally agree.

[@stack80]

Great video, yet again! Can’t believe it went over so quickly!! Those 50 min felt like 20min 🙏🏽🔥 What software do you use to write in all of this, looks like you’re using a pen. Looks quick and easy.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

The hand written stuff is Good Notes on iPad.

[@jaccokiggen3676]

What video again❤ Btw, what software do you recommend to write music in, because I have no idea what is good and what’s not😅

[@derekslone1135]

Jamie uses Sibelius, but MuseScore is free and open source and available on Windows Mac and Linux (and Android!). I've been using MuseScore for nearly a year now and am loving it. This IS a complex process, and requires a complex piece of software, so do allow yourself time to get to grips with it all.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

I use Sibelius but there are a few other options out there if you research it.

[@TechLiteDesigns]

Great video as usual Jamie - it will help me count out the rhythms better and reduce my editing time. The decision to write in half time is difficult for me, especially when I'm transcribing a ballad that sounds about 60 bpm and lots of quarter and eighth notes - then breaks out into what appear to be 32nd notes during a lick (which I have to write out to practice.) How would you approach a piece like this? Cut time and use sixteenths? Also, fitting all the notes on one measure takes up a whole line sometimes. Overall, a great instructional video. Thank you.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Yeh, go for cut common time!

[@TechLiteDesigns]

@@GetYourSaxTogether Thanks Jamie. I had transcribed the entire song in 4/4 and using MuseScore, I was hoping changing the time from 4/4 to ¢ (cut time symbol) which didn't change anything and I'll probably have to rewrite the whole thing. I find editing is difficult in MuseScore. It's a good lesson on what not to do, before someone teaches you something relevant as you just did. Cheers.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

@@TechLiteDesigns you can double and half rhythms on Sibelius.

[@mstram]

Jamie, Writing music notation manually reminds of "assembly language programming" for computers. Or maybe even "hex programming" using a "debugger". Have you tried any of the audio-to-notation programs like ScoreCloud, or AnthemScore ? I only just downloaded ScoreCloud after searching for "audio to music notation". Mike

[@derekslone1135]

Been there, done that, far prefer writing music by hand (and prefer MuseScore even more ;-)

[@mstram]

@@derekslone1135 I've used Musescore (and Reaper, Reason) ... other midi editors My "kindergarten level" of knowledge / skill at music notation, might have something to do with trying to find the "easy way" ;) I'm just playing around now with Scorecloud, AnthemScore, and Melodyne. As a "hobbyist musician", they look like interesting programs.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Haven’t tried them!

[@bebopreview3187]

This is a very good video but I would like to make (add) some comment on my own experience of transcribing. First I would strongly urge anyone to always put in a key signature. You can start by just finding notes etc but when you've done always write it out with a key signature. This will help you identify the relationship of chords to the tune and you will be able to see any substitutions the soloist is thinking because you then see incidentals against the Key and spot immediately what the player is thinking (to a certain extent). Another reason is to see any modulation within the song. For example on the tune roundhouse (Chords of Out of Nowhere) Charlie Parker modulated into another key - no key signature difficult to see in the music. For those of you who are going to lay the Charlie Parker Omnibook at me. There is a prime example of poorly written solos full of mistakes. Take a look at 'Blues for Alice' and you will see a bar with five beats in it. Second I agree with the splitting the bar down the middle, this is standard practice, However, sometimes you get rhythms so complex within Bebop that it is not practical to do that (as in point three below). However, I agree that this should be your first consideration in notation. Thirdly Many players of the Bebop era could turn the Rhythm section around. You can see an example of this on the tune 'Blues for Alice' where Charlie Parker plays two beats ahead of the tune. Many writers have claimed that Parker was making a mistake but he wasn't - you have to watch out for that. Fourthly Sometimes Jazz musicians play off pitch on notes. The best way to notate this is with an arrow pointing up for sharp or down for flat. Fifthly Many Jazz musicians play slightly ahead of or behind the beat (sometimes called laying back). The best way to notate this is with a line drawn above the music where this is happening and at the end either a plus sign + for rushing (on top of) or minus - for lagging behind the beat. Sixth This will sound strange after I've just criticized the Charlie Parker Omnibook but sometimes it is a good idea to round off complex rhythms particularly if it seems that they have been displaced off beat as described in point five - you need to make sense of what you are writing. Seventh Always listen to and keep in mind the whole tune - don't try to see things in micro but be aware of the whole Macro situation. Jamie gives this advice in the video above by looking at other notes on beat and then filling in - good advice.

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Wow - thanks for that epic comment! Of course, my video is aimed at people who can’t even get the right number of beats in the bar etc - after that, nuances like time feel might become an issue. 😎

[@hamishmurphy1027]

Crystal Waves by Kalax please 🙏

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Thanks for the suggestion 😀

[@ichbinmartin]

I absolutely don't understand the need of bars. What is the practical function, when there is no drum, no space for breath? And sometimes are the notes violated to pass into bars. Sometimes is in songs one note alone at beginning and some at end of the section byt if the bars would be moved one note to front, no one note would be alone outside of the bars. Also strange for me is, that paise for breath in is in middle of the bar, not at the bar. I also don't understand, why the C or A note is somewhere in the middle in lines and spaces and not at the first line. It would be much easier to read.

[@unclemick-synths]

The bars relate to the rhythm. When the bars don't align to the rhythm (even if that rhythm is played loosely with pauses) it's very confusing. In my piano lessons there was a piece that was simply wrong, the "kick-in" note (as I call them) should have been ahead of the first bar line but instead was notated as the first beat after the bar line. My piano teacher tried to make some excuse but my opinion is still that it was wrongly notated because the bar lines didn't line up with the beat in any part of the piece. As a bass player, the One is always on the one!

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

It might be a bit lost in translation, but I get the impression you’re someone who doesn’t read music very well? Or certainly doesn’t enjoy it! It’s not a perfect system at all but it’s what we’re stuck with! 🤷🏻

[@markbro396]

Almost first view

[@GetYourSaxTogether]

Good job!