Last month, my friend Dan from Mingo Fishtrap sent me this link via Facebook. The link is to the great 'You Are What You Hear' blog of live jazz recordings, and this particular page is to a solo Tenor Saxophone performance by Chris Potter of the great standard "All The Things You Are". I must be living under a rock, because this solo has been around since 2003, and I seem to be the last saxophone player to hear about it!

Anyway, I listened to it a few times, and was hooked. There was something about the way that he builds the solo, and how creatively he plays with the time and meter in the 'a capella' format that I really liked. His use of triplets throughout is crazy good. I listened to the solo over and over, and really wanted to learn to play it. I started scouring the intertubes looking for a transcription of the solo with no luck (and I looked really hard). A friend of a friend of a friend knew a guy who knew a guy who transcribed it, but that was as close as I got.

Finally, I decided to take matters into my own hands and transcribe it myself. I did a bunch of transcribing in High School and College, but honestly, I hadn't done much in years. I figured this would be a good project to get me back into it. Also, Tenor Sax has always been the horn that I've played the least, and that I'm the least proficient on. Transcribing did a lot for my alto playing, so I figured this project might be just what I need to work me tenor chops up to snuff.

Get the Transcription

Without further ado, here's a link to the solo for you to download (for free!):

DOWNLOAD HERE: XPS or PDF

If you are on Windows Vista (or Windows 7!), the XPS version should load without installing anything. If you are on Windows XP, and need an XPS viewer, you can get one here or use the PDF version. If you're on a Mac or Linux, you'll probably want the PDF version. I don't plan on posting the Finale file

The Process

One of my (many) excuses for not transcribing more in the recent past is that I didn't feel I had a good, productive setup for it. I wanted to be able to do it all on the computer - playing an MP3/WMA on the computer and using my MIDI keyboard to notate the transcription directly into Finale while using my horn to pick off the notes as I heard them. Afterwards, Finale would be able to play the transcription back to me as well. The first problem I had with this setup was that I didn't have a good playback program. Most media players are too heavy-weight for transcription work, and don't have decent transport controls, let alone pitch/speed control, looping, etc. In the past I had tried plug-ins for Windows Media Player and Winamp, but they were all band-aids for the real problem, which was that they were the wrong tool for the wrong job.

The solution to this problem was Transcribe!  A friend turned me on to this program, and it's amazing. I could make a few minor UI suggestions, but it was otherwise perfect for me. I can't recommend it enough. Not only is it a great transcription tool, but it's also a great practice tool since I can loop sections and slow them down (without changing the pitch) to practice. It goes without saying that I had to slow down parts of the solo quite a bit to hear each note that was being played.

The second problem I had with my end-to-end computer setup was transposition. if the soloist played a 'G' on the horn, I wanted to play a 'G' on my horn, play a 'G' on the MIDI keyboard (which would also sound the same 'G') to enter the note into Finale, have Finale place a 'G' on the transposed staff, and then have Finale play that 'G' back to me. Because I play a transposing instrument, this never seemed to work. I could tried everything and would always have at least one link in the chain that didn't work correctly - the keyboard would sound a Bb instead of G, Finale would put an E on the staff, or the computer would play back the wrong note.

The solution to this problem was to abandon the end-to-end computer setup. Even though I used Transcribe! for playback, and Finale for notation, I did an intermediate step of writing the solo out by hand with pencil(!) and paper. It turns out that this was much quicker for me anyway, since the notes were a lot easier to pick out (generally) than the rhythm. Had I done everything in Finale, I wouldn't have been able to finish a single measure until I knew how the whole phrase fit together rhythmically (which was often the hardest part to figure out).

So, I basically just roughed stuff out on paper, and then went back later into Finale to notate. This was often helpful as a sanity check and basic proofreading step. Admittedly, this is the least effective way to transcribe a solo if you really want to get the full musical benefit out of the process. Ideally, you don't write down the solo as you transcribe it. You memorize it (and thus, learn to play it), as you go. That way, when you're done, you can play the whole solo from memory. I knew that I couldn't do that with this solo for a number of reasons. For one, it's too difficult to play, and it's too long (12 minutes!) And since my schedule doesn't allow me to practice more than 2-3 times a week, I'd never finish it if I followed that approach this time. I was focused strictly on throughput - getting the thing done as quickly as I could!

I honestly don't know how long it took me to do the transcription. The work was spread out over 2-3 weeks with maybe 3-4 sessions per week tops. Some were as short as an hour, others were as long as 2-3 hours at a stretch. I'm sure I spent more than 20 hours total on the transcription, but probably not more than 40 (guessing).

Mistakes

"...I've made a few, but I did it my way". OK, that's not how the lyrics go, but you get the idea. I know that there are mistakes in the transcription, so if you find any, by all means let me know so I can fix them. One of the challenges of the a capella format is how loose the time is. Much of the transcription is open to interpretation - for example, "where is 1?"..."Does it even matter?" is a more interesting question. I've done my best to notate things in a manner that balances accuracy with readability, but inevitably there will be spots where other people might have made different choices. You'll see lots of odd-meter bars in the transcription. This is generally an attempt to get phrases to line up in a more readable manner when Chris is playing 'across the bar line'. I certainly wouldn't categorize these as mistakes on Chris' part, simply creative choices!

Several parts of the solo are very rubato with sections that slow down or speed up. I notated the solo with the idea that people reading it would either be familiar enough with the recording, or the specific tempo changes didn't matter (i.e. they just wanted to steal a few ideas here and there). So with that in mind, I didn't go crazy trying to make the notation accurate enough for a computer to re-create the performance exactly.

Again, feel free to make suggestions as to where I can improve! That's a big reason for sharing the transcription with everyone. I'm sure that I'll upload corrected versions from time to time. Look in the comments stream of this post for updates.

Analysis

Along with learning to play the solo at full speed, I'm also working on analyzing the solo. For starters, trying to figure out the roadmap. ATTYA has a well-known form and chord progression, but again, one of the biggest challenges of an a capella solo is that the player can be loose with both the time and form. So you can't really count 16-bars into the solo and say "this must be the bridge!" because it generally isn't. Some chord changes are compressed or extended, so it will take some more work (and interpretation) to try and figure out what chord progression Chris was mentally referring to at any given point in the solo. Once I have the form figured out, it should be interesting to break down the different types of scales and patterns that Chris uses in different situations. Since there is no rhythm section providing harmonic reference, I expect that he's taking more liberties with the chords and playing more 'outside' than he normally would.

There's already a lot on the page, so if I do add chord changes and section markers, I'll probably post a version with and without the chords and section markers (for those who just want to read the notes/rhythms).

You're Welcome : )

Just kidding! I briefly considered trying to sell the transcription (I would have paid for a copy if one were available when I was looking initially), but in the end, I didn't feel like it was worth the hassle. No matter how much or how little I would have charged, I would always feel like the quality of the transcription wasn't quite worth the price. So enjoy the free transcription! If you really feel compelled to compensate me for my time, you can always wire me a donation of your choosing via PayPal, I won't turn it down!

Keep in Touch

I'd love to hear your feedback/comments/corrections/questions. if you have complaints, just remember that you get what you pay for : )

Thanks in advance for any comments/suggestions/corrections. I may not have time to respond to people individually, and also note that I don't accept messenger/facebook/etc. requests from people I don't actually know...nothing personal : )

Scott

scott_dart@hotmail.com

P.S.

Thanks Chris for playing such an inspiring solo! It's a real credit to his level of execution on this solo that this transcription was even possible at the speeds he was playing!