Ignoring Rhythmic Notation When Transcribing?

[Real Soon]

For your purposes, it's okay.

For the long game of getting into jazz styles, it'll be MORE than worth it to learn and internalize rhythmic notation. Why? Because you don't want that to be the thing you have to concentrate on the day you get handed sheet music for the head to a tune you haven't played before.

It's true that it's only representational of the actual sound and feel, so recordings will never be obsolete (in fact, I was just musing the other day how recording technology rocket-propelled the educational potential in jazz music), but accurate notation is far, far more efficient for getting the general idea of a musical idea communicated. And that's why it's still in use even in this hyperspeed digital audio media era.

It'll be worth it to learn and use it.

 

[Matthew_84]

Am I right in assuming you might have worked way too quickly through learning to read standard notation?

Yes. To be honest, I've never put in the time to learn how to read well, as I never thought I'd be in a position where I needed to sight read. I don't have any ambitions to be a session musician or playing a musical or anything like that. I've went to a few jams, but have only ever gotten chord sheets, and I was fine with that. I've also played in a few bands that didn't need any sort of sheet music at all.

Even with my ambitions to learn jazz now, I'm not thinking of playing with others at this point (maybe in a few years, I'm not sure). Right now, I just want to learn how to walk, and then learn how to play melodically, and record my own "trio" recordings on standards, and then write and record originals.

For me. I have a pretty bad ear (which I'm working on fixing as I think that's one of the most important things) and finding the right pitch is the most difficult thing for me to do and far more challenging for me than finding the rhythm, so I've pretty much only used sheet music to determine the notes as well as maybe get a rough idea how the rhythm goes if I don't know that passage well yet, but for what I use it for, it is rare that I don't know the rhythm by that point (as for me, it's usually after hours of trying to find the notes on my bass).

I understand the different symbols and notations (not on an expert level, but I know what they mean). It's just that trying to determine if I should use this note dotted, or connected with another note, etc, trying to find the exact rhythm notation on some note in a hip-hop tune, which is usually a little off-beat because it's a sample anyway is tedious. Heck, the other day I was looking at sheet music for "Brick House" from a Hal Leonard book, and one of the fills was not accurately shown rhythmically. It was fine enough, because again, I knew the rhythm, but it really didn't seem like you could write it accurately without some dotted 32th rest or something silly like that, which to be honest, I don't even know if you can dot rests, lol.

Anyways, I appreciate all of your guys advice. I will work on getting better at it. I'll try to find some free notation software for my PC (any recommendations would be welcome). Tab is also easy in that it's convenient to edit in Notepad, so if I can find a similar tool for sheet music, it will help me from falling back into tabs.

 

[Max Bogosity]

I'll try to find some free notation software for my PC (any recommendations would be welcome).

MuseScore is free and good. There is a bit of a learning curve, but the online documentation is good.

 

[SteveCS]

MuseScore is free and good. There is a bit of a learning curve, but the online documentation is good.

Another vote for MuseScore.

 

[Matthew_84]

Awesome. Thanks guys!

 

[Groove Master]

Awesome. Thanks guys!

I like a good feedback from an OP !!

 

[Matthew_84]

I like a good feedback from an OP !!

Yeah, it annoys me when people seem to give up on their threads. It's like they weren't really interested in the first place.

I like good feedback from the forum, so I have to give the love back - especially when it's as good as it is here!

 

[James Collins]

I don't transcribe much, but reading staff takes some time to become good at. Remember how long it took to read or write a sentence. It takes years of regular practice.

The rhythm part seems helpful. Gradually, you start to recognize rhythms better which makes site reading easier. Without the rhythm notation, you need to have a recording to match up to whatever notation you are using. Also thinking of the rhythm in your notation will give you a deeper understanding of the piece. It helps to recognize when you are flubbing a part or someone is leaving out a beat.

 

[Max Bogosity]

I use Cliff Engle's Rhtyhm studies and get a lot out of it.

I downloaded this the other day and just started working through it. It's brutal! In a good way.

Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[mambo4]

I downloaded this the other day and just started working through it. It's brutal! In a good way.

Thanks for the recommendation.

The best part of practicing rhythm reading is you don't need an instrument to do it.
My favorite thing to do is take it to the gym, and work on it while running on a treadmill.

 

[Les Fret]

Actually, I believe that writing down the rhythms is the best part of transcribing in a learning process.

I agree. Just learn how to notate rhythm . It's not that hard. You can notate the rhythm above the tab if you don't want to learn standard notation.

 

[BassChuck]

Pitches. Rhythm.
Everyone is stronger on one than the other. Whatever that is, get it down first. Then get the other one.
In other words, get the obvious down on paper (or computer) and use that as a helper to get the rest of the music.

 

[Les Fret]

Pitches. Rhythm.
Everyone is stronger on one than the other. Whatever that is, get it down first. Then get the other one.
In other words, get the obvious down on paper (or computer) and use that as a helper to get the rest of the music.

But with most notation software you need to put in the rhythm. You can't do the pitches alone. That can only be done with online style word tabs.