The Art of Stealing

I have always been lazy about transcription.  I've cherry picked a line, here and there, but, up until recently, I never learned an entire solo on my instrument.  Now that I've really started to "listen" to the records, I know that I've deprived myself of arguably the most valuable tool available.  I guess my main reason for shying away from transcription had to do more with semantics than anything else.  I’m certainly not fearful that learning lines will somehow compromise my individuality or style.  I have no style, to be honest.

I was convinced that transcription forced one to write down everything one's learned.  While I know that writing down these lines would benefit my notational abilities, I absolutely hate this process.  I have no problem learning to play lines on my instrument.  I enjoy this process, actually.  After speaking with a fair amount of people about transcription, I've learned that some people write everything down; other people write down certain licks; others don't write anything out.  Transcription, or, if you will, stealing lines, is a very personal process.

A few months back, I toiled away at a Horace Silver's two chorus solo on Solar, from the Miles Davis album Walkin'.   The primary players on the album are Percy Heath (bass), Horace Silver (piano), and Kenny Clark (drums).  I picked this solo because I enjoy it, and it's not too difficult.  Within two choruses, Horace presents and develops a handful of ideas.  I am particularly attracted to the ii7-V7-I7 in Eb that he played during the first chorus.

Thus far, I've taken this line through 12 keys, as-is, and know I'm trying to disassemble and put it back together.  I may try to take the entire solo through all 12 keys, but I think I'm getting more out disassembling pieces of it and putting it back together.

Tonight, I may try to write out my own lines based on Horace's ii-V-I.  I think I could probably spend several years on this one solo.