[Harp-L] Jazz chromatic books

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eugene Ryan wrote:
<I think a really valuable way (possibly the most valuable way?)
<to learn jazz is to transcribe jazz recordings.  I mean to exactly copy (as
<much as is possible on our instrument) the melodies and solos of great jazz
<artists on your harmonica. You get everything - the notes, phrases, sound,
<time feel of those great recordings.

To which Winslow replied:
<One problem with copying music played on other instruments is that a phrase may sound musical and natural on the instrument that <orirgnally played it, but on harmonica may sound awkward and unmusical (or at least un-jazz). I'll address a number of ways to deal with this <in the new book.

<While copying solos can be valuable, by itself it will only get you so far, a little like mouthing foreign phrases out a tourist guidebook. You <need to couple it with an understanding the musical and idiomatic reasons for the choices of notes and phrases. Some of this is harmonica- <specific, and some of it isn't, and the book will have plenty of guideposts to suplementary resources.

I don't think there's any doubt that learning other people's solos teaches you a lot , whether the original solo is for your instrument or a different one.  It certainly taught me a hell of a lot--doing the transcriptions for "Jazz Harp" was a profound learning experience for me.  Of course translating solos to harmonica from any other instrument takes a little work.  Sometimes you have to substitute notes, sometimes you have to replace an entire phrase with something that lays easier on the harp in order to maintain the flow of the line.  I did both when I transcribed solos by Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong for "Jazz Harp," especially in the notation for diatonic harp.  I don't think it's necessary to make it sound like more work than it really is.  When I studied jazz piano with John Mehegan, he told me that he spent a lot of time learning Charlie Parker solos.  Certainly there are few instruments as different as piano and alto sax, and if Parker can be successfully translated to piano I don't think harmonica is a much bigger problem.

When I interviewed Toots Thielemans in 1979, I asked him about how he translated Coltrane, one of his idols, to harmonica.  He told me that he didn't try to learn Coltrane's lines note for note--a task he described as impossible--but that he picked up a certain harmonic and rhythmic "grammar" from Coltrane.  What that points to above all is that playing jazz, like any other music, is about sound, style, and sense--the same things that make it possible to communicate fluently in any language.  How do you learn a language? You listen, listen, and listen until the sound of it is in your head, and then one day you find that you can speak like a native.  

Learning a solo note for note is a very active kind of listening.  I recommend it highly.

Thanks and regards, Richard Hunter
author, "Jazz Harp"
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter