How To Transcribe in 7 Steps

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Become a Text Lessons studio member: www.jazzlessonvideos.com/text-lessons Use coupon code “CLB5” for $5 off an instant download of the “Chad LB Transcribed” PDF ebook by Wesley Chin. www.chadlb.com/store Use coupon code “CLB5” for $5 off an instant download of Chad’s latest PDF Package “Modern Etudes: Melodic Cells” at: www.jazzlessonvideos.com/pdf-packages Mouthpiece: use $10 coupon code CHADXSYOS at www.syos.co/en/shop/products/signature-saxophone-mouthpiece/chad-lefkowitz-brown-tenor

[@UkuleleAversion]

After watching this video I decided to tranpose Sonny Rollins' five chorus solo on St Thomas through 12 keys. I've done 5 keys so far.

[@CamIsSuper]

Did it help?

[@SolarMumuns]

As a guitarist, I must say that your content is almost always fresh and useful as it really gets into the nuts and bolts of building melodic lines: sth that a lot of guitarists and guitar teachers gloss over. So, thank you and best wishes in this difficult time.

[@utkuvargi221]

Dude thank you for this videos which means a lot for beginner level musician as I am.Greetings from Turkey.

[@Sebassplayer1978]

Thanks for the advices ! I'm a bass player and l'm currently transcribing a Wes Montgomery solo, transposing each phrase in 12 keys is a massive work but so valuable !

[@juanlorences4091]

Even though i am a pianist i always get so much value from your videos!! Thank You so much!

[@conradhoffman4851]

These tips are awesome! I've been transcribing your "Yesterday" quartet piece and this helps out a ton

[@kladmonet9]

Thank you, Man! While watching this video I thought that you are in near level with Parker, Coltrane, Brecker. But in comparison with them you are teaching in addition. Thank you!

[@larrythebassist]

You're honestly a blessing to us all! Thank you for sharing so much!

[@richardcomard4223]

Thank you so much. There's so much to unpack. Like treasure or one of those gift boxes. Work never looked so good.lol

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Haha thanks, Richard! Glad you’re enjoying the content!

[@hecateswolf6007]

Very inspiring and informative les. Sincere thanks.

[@dp4878]

What an amazing lesson. Learning a solo is one thing, but you show how to unwrap it and use it as a springboard for your own soloing. This can keep your study going for ever, a brilliant challenge for a growing musician.

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Thanks for watching! Glad you’re enjoying the content!

[@XB29SP]

Great ideas and methods as always. Just playing a Parker tune (head) in all keys with the goal of making each key sound as "slick" as the original has worked for me because his tune can include colorful chord substitution notes in themselves. Like the singing part too!

[@YoPaulieMusic]

Great video, love your playing and teaching style. I think there is another thing students can do to improve their transcribing capabilities: know your scales adn apreggios. So much of jazz is based on these two, if you know them and have them under your fingers you can trascribe more efficiently.

[@michelmalts9053]

i will apply now!

[@jwalker7277]

Love you bro and i learn from you playing the trumpet hope to meet you one day i live in the Bahamas and you help me tremendously Happy New Year and all the best to you!!!!!

[@cmt8485]

Thank you Chad for the cool video and the cool blues lick sir

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Thank you, Chris!

[@dylandecker_music]

Hey I was just shedding this tune! One of my favorite Bird tunes.

[@ericworthy1300]

OK! Hearing you play it makes alot more sense!

[@insidejazzguitar8112]

What an amazing teacher - excellent concepts and discussion - thank you! I’m a guitarist so I mainly think in terms of scale degrees when I transcribe and practice lines. I love taking melodic cells and combos and transposing to several other keys, usually chosen based on the II-Vs in the tunes I’m working on. That’s one of my favorite ways to practice.

[@Jamsville]

This is a great video! Two things I would add: listen to the solo over and over and over. This will let you memorize it really easily. Write variations on your favorite phrases in the solo. This helps get it in your vocabulary without copying exactly.

[@FrantzesElzaurdia]

The cool blues lick never fails

[@ivanmectin9106]

Amazing !

[@bhuvankala8011]

I think the Chad meme probably originated from Chad LB, what a chad, always shedding great stuff

[@RafikCezanneTV]

Informative video with useful tips on transcription and soloing. Baby steps for me all the way. Thank you

[@shaddjimenez4524]

great content, lots of valuable information in these videos.

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Thanks for watching!

[@FrantzesElzaurdia]

Very useful, I was transcribing your solo on Yardbird Suite from the Standard sessions series you have here on KZbin, and it's been a very long time since I've transcribed something. A day after learning some frases and trying them over different keys and chord progressions and I already hear them in my improvisations.

[@johnmcguire3999]

Thank you. Great explanation

[@adamsiegel6873]

This video is amazing as all of yours are!

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Thank you, Adam!

[@suemelina1984]

Great video! Thanks for the lesson, I will try!

[@tylerpauletti4265]

This was very informative. I've been having trouble transcribing lately bc I've realized that I wasn't really internalizing solos the way I wanted to and learning the most content possible. Thanks for giving me a lot more to work with! You're incredible as always

[@RogelioEscobar]

Imitation is key. I am by far not a great Jazz player, but I ate slept and pooped Sonny Rollins in college. I tried to emulate even the sounds of the keys of his horn popping and tiny sounds of spittle you could hear from his embouchure and the fuziness of his tone (Saxophone Colossus). You move your face around and try to match the colors of tone. I've been racking my brain hating my playing and this....this is the key. Back to transcription. Even if you habe 20 minutes to practice.....you should be teanscribing and analyzing. Thanks Chad! Would love to do a lessonone day.

[@koanda6489]

Thank you so much!! It’s really helpful video.

[@johnnywhyayou]

thank you so much for sharing!

[@michamarkuszewski4546]

done learning softly as in a morning sunshine in 12 keys

[@CliffieVanR]

Fantastic lesson - thank you!

[@nelsonval9398]

Great stuff Chad really needed this! Thank you!!

[@jazg9725]

Hi Chad! Thanks for this

[@zmerz]

I’ve been waiting for that video!!!!!!

[@usernameb1o3e]

wow your voice is good

[@ChipArmstrong]

Superior video, Chad. The Charlie Parker piece you transcribed up in three different half steps...how do you plan to apply them in solos?

[@tracezacur6784]

Awesome video - really helpful. Really wish this had been out when I was in high school!!! 😭😭 Keep it up; this is dope 👍👍👍👍

[@danhpena]

Hey Chad. Thank you very much for your work and sharing here on KZbin. I was transposing a melodic phrase using the chord degree numbers strategy and I couldn't know what scale degree i should attribute to some notes under a half dim or dim chord. Example: under the F#º7 which one is the 9th (G or G#)? which one is the 4th (Bb or B)? and so on.

[@Mr2plus3]

IN your analysis of the G7 pickup, why does it have to be a scale? Why can't he just be playing the tensions b9 and #9. against the chord with notes of the key C for all others?

[@UkuleleAversion]

I think I might be up to Step 7. I recently finished learning Sonny Rollins' solo (6 choruses, drum solo, then 5 choruses) on St Thomas and I'm thinking about putting it through to 12 keys.

[@KennyNunnSax]

Learning the omnibook in the original alto key and then up a half step is a great way to go through all the keys. Learning a solo in all the keys is fun but you end up going really high.

[@Chilajuana]

Do you give lessons to guitar players?

[@chrisdecarlo9974]

Where is the most reliable place to find changes for tunes? I’ve tried the internet, the transcription books, and iRealPro, but they’re all often so different.

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Great question! Ultimately you’ll want to get the hang of transcribing chord changes yourself from the recording because I find all books and apps to have errors, and sometimes there’s no right or wrong, it’s just a matter of deciding which options you want to do yourself. I’ll try to do a video on transcribing chord changes soon :)

[@chrisdecarlo9974]

Chad LB Thank you very much, your videos have been enormously helpful for me.

[@ChadLefkowitzBrown]

Chris DeCarlo thank you, Chris! So glad you’re enjoying the content!

[@danielcaicedo9340]

iRealPro is the move buddy

[@theolockhart2624]

Please do a lesson on alternate fingerings.

[@christophmunch4796]

The 7 steps: 1. Get a coffee. 2. Power up computer. 3. Check E-mail. 4. Check Facebook and Instagram. 5. Post vitriolic comment on jazz education video. 6. Start transcribing. 7. After 5 minutes finish transcribing because of that impossible-to-figure-out passage.

[@ganlanwang9286]

haha

[@duckzi6678]

Hey, I am a piano player. Are most of the videos for all instruments or exclusively for horn players

[@ralfbettker-cuza7432]

Thanks for the great content, Chad. One question and one remark: do you actually transcribe on your horn or on a keyboard or piano? And the remark: I find writing down the transcription yourself extremely helpful for understanding the rhythmic approach of a soloist. I had various teachers telling me that rhythm is actually more important than notes.

[@joaquinodriozola4963]

great stuff man thanks! im a guitar player lol

[@bluessax5089]

I really dig this video and Chad is a Monster player but I really wish cats would mention the importance of matching timbre, tone color, dynamics, and nuance when transcribing. There is so much more than just playing and analyzing the notes. You can see examples of what I speak of on my channel. I transcribe guitar solos on the sax

[@reuven8815]

Marvelous: Shavua Tov!

[@lbb2rfarangkiinok]

Your voice reminds me of Owen Wilson. Are you from the same place or something?

[@BourdeoixEterno]

Anybody know what tune chad lb was playing at 4:53?

[@kadenn8811]

I think its Mack the knife

[@BourdeoixEterno]

@@kadenn8811 appreciate it

[@jlcm1963]

Sub titulos en español por favor !!!!!Gracias...

[@Krabzzz]

Thats some giant steps

[@kennethvalentine4907]

Do you transcribe the chord changes in step one as a part of memorizing the chord changes? If so, how specifically? Are you arpeggiating on your sax or are you using a piano/keyboard? What are you listening to specifically in the recording in order to transcribe the chord changes? (Piano/Bass) Or do you look up the changes before even starting on a tune/standard?

[@samuelroberts8449]

What if you're stupid slow at learning by ear? assuming the transcription isn't available in writing.

[@davidpinto2197]

The writing down part is also great for the ancillary benefit of improving your reading.

[@ForgotMyOrange]

I found that listening to this at 1.5x speed works quite well. Just gotta concentrate a little harder

[@thomasgendron1446]

My favorite Charlie Parker solo

[@elsaxofonista]

because when I listen to an improvisation of a song it sounds the same as all the others? because all improvisations seem like study exercises? I'm not talking about your sax solos, I'm talking about the solos of most saxophonists, shouldn't an improvisation be a variation of the melody? I don't understand how the term improvisation is handled today

[@LowReedExpert1]

Modern soloing tends to allow every type of solo styles, but some the newest "hippest" sounds are playing flashy lines and playing outside of the key and resolving. Personally, it's not my cup of tea since there are a lot of folks who rely on that too heavily but, like everything, it's all about moderation. Take some things like the cadenzas at the end of Dizzy's night in Tunisia. Since a cadenza is unaccompanied, you have no choice but to play horizontally to keep the progression/key, vertically for interest, melodically so it doesn't get boring, using phrases so things don't ramble, and you'll even hear on those old recordings playing lines outside the key and resolving well. In my opinion, it's all about how you use the tools. You can make amazing solos that are less melodic (take Allen Vizzuti, whose soloing I don't care for, but is undeniably outstanding)

[@andrewcallous9688]

Chad looks like crazy Jafar from Aladdin. Thanks for lesson anyway))

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

Make a video on funk.

[@MARSAX86]

craze

[@onesyphorus]

I assume Transposition will soon let you know how much you are relying on muscle memory, and will force you to memorise the form better lol

[@jlcm1963]

Yo soy vuestro cliente...

[@ili626]

RE step 1 - What if it’s an unknown song?

[@miositv549]

of course your name is chad

[@olebirgerpedersen]

I just love your long and fine analyses, but it dont mean a thing if you aint got that swing.

[@fdtank81]

Im sorry, but doesn’t everyone just do #7 and none of the other steps? I mean maybe you learn it by heart in the original key but then I’m pretty sure most of us just go to the seventh step. It’s like all the other steps are critical to the memorization but not the transcription.

[@brandonm7952]

0:42 im sorry what. A flat???

[@qiitxxsmitj3491]

you made music un enjoyable thanks

[@insidejazzguitar8112]

What an amazing teacher - excellent concepts and discussion - thank you! I’m a guitarist so I mainly think in terms of scale degrees when I transcribe and practice lines. I love taking melodic cells and combos and transposing to several other keys, usually chosen based on the II-Vs in the tunes I’m working on. That’s one of my favorite ways to practice.