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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Transcribing songs to the harp
Transcribing songs to the harp
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oda
309 posts
May 11, 2010
7:05 PM
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What is your approach to transcribing a song to the harmonica?
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I could be bound by a nutshell and still count myself a king of infinite space
OdaHUMANITY!
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
412 posts
May 11, 2010
7:45 PM
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It can take some thought. Here the past couple of years or so, I've spent three or four months at a time working on one song, I play other stuff, too, but for those weeks, I really concentrate most of my energy on getting one just right, sometimes it's a new composition, sometimes not. The first one I took time like that to transcribe was Elk River Blues by Ernie Carpenter. I spent probably six months on that song, trying new things out and the song I transcribed (arranged)was a good bit different than the original song...
The original:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtQFkoHd4uY
My arrangement early in my transcription of this tune:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHKx0PkzLKc
For transcribing this tune, I looked first at what features of the song were in there because it was written on a fiddle, like there's this shuffly thing that fiddles do in there and it's medium tempo. Basically, I broke it down to the simplest melody. Then, I looked at what the harmonica could do that wouldn't necessarily work with a fiddle. Since the harmonica has all these double stop/chord options, I figured I could slow it down and add some harmonica technique to it. I had to choose the best tuning for the sound I wanted and settled on a G Paddy Richter played in Em (4th position). The song itself is a very short pattern repeated, so when you slow it down, it lengthens the amount of time that passes before the listener hears the same part played again. I also added a part for an octave sextet for that same reason. That was another reason I slowed it down. I also changed the makeup of the timing on some of the notes.
In a nutshell, I broke it down to the simplest melody, thus removing the attributes developed for the original instrument, then I rebuilt the melody based on what the harmonicas best attributes were, especially chords and octaves.
Last thing I did was change the key, from E minor to F# minor on an A Paddy Richter tuning, fourth position. This is the transcription I finally settled on. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jTDPFO9y6Q
After Elk River Blues, I did "Take Me Home Country Roads" for a few months. On this one, the vocal lyrics were already in the simplest melody, so I simply added the harmonica's flourishes, F# minor chords here and there and the chorus is done with octaves.
Now, I'm transcribing stuff for chord harmonica. That's a different puppy altogether. Now, I gotta write the melody out as standard notation and try to find the appropriate diatonic chords. It's hard. I'm just now learning to write 48 chord harmonica solos.
Last Edited by on May 11, 2010 7:48 PM
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GermanHarpist
1438 posts
May 11, 2010
11:52 PM
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I don't 'transcribe' songs... I rock em! :)
ok, seriously... all I copy is a lick or the recognizable part of the melody and I just go from there.
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YT
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phogi
420 posts
May 12, 2010
3:21 AM
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My approach is rather lazy. I listen over and over til I get it.
When I transcribe other thing (not for harp), I write it down as I go.
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oda
310 posts
May 12, 2010
4:50 AM
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Thanks, Dave! That was an interesting read. I enjoyed learning about your approach.
Be sure to post your progress with that chord harmonica solo, I'm interested in how it turns oot.
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I could be bound by a nutshell and still count myself a king of infinite space
OdaHUMANITY!
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Rubes
12 posts
May 12, 2010
5:37 AM
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Get that riff in your head and don't let it go. Live the song, feel the song, be the song:)
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HarpNinja
458 posts
May 12, 2010
9:29 AM
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I memorize the solo in my head, or maybe just pieces, and then sit down and figure it out. Then I go back and jam with it once I figure it out. If I can't sing it or hear it in my head, then I usually don't try and learn it. The last time I did a whole song was Feel So Bad by Derek Trucks...5-6 verses of slide guitar...sometimes I had to invent my own sounds since some of the riffage doesn't work on harp. Recently, I've done that with licks and phrases rather than whole solos.
Lots of times, I find patterns and that really speeds that part along. If I can mathematically conceptualize it, then it goes fast.
Often I try to save time, I know it isn't a good habit, and find a tab. Then I write out the note names and then I transcribe to harp tab (so it is all written down). Most recently, I've done with with Revival by the Allman Brothers. I did it this way with Miles Davis stuff too.
If someone in my band knows it already, I'll write down the scale degrees and do it that way too. I can usually ready scale degrees on the fly. My overall site reading is super slow, but I can usually get it figured out. I think in terms of scale degrees typically anyways.
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