Hal Leonard play along books.

[sammyp]

Holy Crap! i buy these books cause i think they will be bennificial to my students with the play along tracks etc ...i think it's a really cool concept but i am appalled at the transcription inaccuracy....my god it's like children are transcribing!!!

i just opened the funk vol 5 book and checked out "sex machine" james brown ...the transcriber missed all the octaves on the Eb chord in the main groove ...it's plain a day on the studio recording.

The guitar books aren't much better ..way wrong fingerings and wrong notes ...i had to drop a note to HL!

This pisses me off because i would really like to get into transcribing but HL holds all the cards.

[vishalicious]

Is this true for the Easy Pop Bass Lines, More Easy Pop Bass Lines, and Even More Easy Pop Bass Lines books from Ed Friedland? I grabbed all 3 from Amazon but haven't dug into them yet.

[electracoyote]

I'm a teacher with 15 students, and I use the HL play-along series and the Easy Pop series.

I think they occassionally dumb down the transcription just a tad to make it more accessible for student players. The Easy Pop series has their own studio recordings (not the original recordings) on the CD to accompany the transcription, and they are very accurate.

[tekdiver500ft]

So, if I'm reading this correctly, your objection is that the transcriptions are easier than the original recordings - the notes are accurate, but not all of them are there? I would expect nothing different, actually. The transcriptions are simplified for students, so to expect them to be a masterclass is unrealistic, IMHO.

[conttador]

I have the Real Book play along books and there's a few tunes that have different arrangements. In my opinion that's a good thing because I've been to jams where someone calls a tune and they want a different arrangement.

I have the World's Greatest Fakebook and they include Palladium & Birdland by Weather Report and the bass lines are not dead on. You figure it's a book with a bunch of songs for many instruments so something has to give.

From a business stand point, HL sells Note for Note transcription books so they figure if it means that much to you, you'll buy their note for note book. That's how most businesses operate nowadays and any higher expectation is just an exercise in futility.

[sammyp]

Originally Posted by tekdiver500ft

So, if I'm reading this correctly, your objection is that the transcriptions are easier than the original recordings - the notes are accurate, but not all of them are there? I would expect nothing different, actually. The transcriptions are simplified for students, so to expect them to be a masterclass is unrealistic, IMHO.

no! you're not reading this correctly! the Easy Pop books are arrangments by Hal Leonard staff ...so they can't be wrong ...it is their arrangment!

THe play along books are supposed to be note for note off the record transcriptions and then recreated in the studio by players ....they are NOT dumbed down or simplified ...nor are they supposed to in this series .....they are just plain wrong in some cases.

Easy Pop series and play along are two completely different things .....Easy Pop is a series aimed at students of a novice to intermidiate level.

Play along is aimed at anyone who wants a note for note tab and a backing track to practice with.


I believe what they may be doing is having the players record the play along tracks first and then transcribing what they have played as opposed to transcribing the original and then having the players play that.

[germ_77]

I agree, I bought 5 or 6 of the play along series in the past month and have been pretty upset for the same reasons.

I also have the easy pop series and I expected those to be dumbed down and re-arranged to make it easy to learn.

My impression of the play alongs was that they would be note for note, there is nothing mentioned in the books about them being easier versions to start out with. Even really simple songs by bands like Blink 182 and greenday seem to be missing a lot or just simplified.

And actually I am just looking at one right now and on the back it says right on it "feature authentic transcriptions based on the original recordings". That would lead me to believe they are supposed to be the full bass lines and not simplified.

I liked the concept of these books with the backing tracks and everything to play along to but if they are not the full song then I wont be buying anymore and will most likely try selling all the ones I bought so I can get the actual books they are in.

[funkybass]

I have the HL r&b bass bible and it has knock on wood transcribed with slap parts, so I'm not surprised.