Transcribing -- it's worthwhile. Example: Schenker, "Looking For Love"

Grunfeld

Ever had a song which you've told yourself, "I really must get around to learning that..." ?

I've got loads.  But this one is special cos tbh I've forgotten most of the other "must learn that" songs but not this one.

Michael Schenker's second solo album had a track called "Looking for Love" (it's not even one of his popular songs; it has never been a staple of the live sets) -- but...

it has 8 bars in the second guitar solo which caught my ear back then and I've never forgotten them... just never got around to learning what he played till now.  Job done.  37 years later.

So the point of this post is:  LEARN THAT THING YOU WANT TO LEARN.  It has been fun.  I'm really glad I've finally nailed it.

This is my thing that I've wanted to learn.  I don't even know if anyone else knows or likes this the song, possibly Jon @FelineGuitars , but the point is, it's been a good few hours work (only cos transcription is fiddly) but totally worth it.  I'm posting it here so I don't forget it now!

The original track:  [2nd solo:  2:40 to end]

The eight bars:

clicky

The transcription:

FelineGuitars

Love this song - some great playing by Michael
In fact this whole album is a firm fave even if Ron Nevison did leave one of Cozy's bass drums out of the mix

bingefeller

Thanks for the transcription.  I think I have the Japanese bandscore of that album.  I will look out the tabs for that page and post the part for comparison. 

Grunfeld

I remember you lending me that Japanese transcription; alas all lost in the demise of my PCs hard drives.  I don't know about you but I found it hard to work from.  Also, since I've got back into it (cos of getting an iPad) I've found there is  something about doing your own transcription which is really satisfying.  And bloody fiddly too:  the amount of times I wrote a fret number onto the wrong string...!  Luckily that's super easy to correct on the tablet but I think I did three or four final "that's it" versions and each time you spot something else which you've missed or made a mistake on the paper. 

If you find it, post it.  I'd be really interested to compare.

PhilW1

Can I ask what your using to transcribe?

Grunfeld

@PhilW1 ;

To play back the audio I used

Transcribe!

so the audio I was listening to sounded like this:

Schenker slow

To do the TAB I used an iPad and Procreate and an Apple pencil.  (Three months ago that was all alien to me.)

Blank sheet as a base layer, then added a layer for the bars, and another for the notes, and another for the coloured notes to myself.  Exported it all to pdf for home and png to show here.

bingefeller

I have two different versions, an American and a Japanese version.   If you click on the images and "view image in new tab" you will see the full size versions.    

What's interesting about this solo is the string skipped licks he plays.  He plays a similar lick in the outro to Rock You To The Ground and he plays similar string skipping patterns in, I think, Love To Love.  Schenker was the first guy I heard doing the string skipped stuff.  At the time I didn't even realise what it was until everyone was talking about how Eric Johnson was doing it.   Quite a lot of string skipping is in Schenker's playing and he never got the credit EJ did.  








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Grunfeld

@bingefeller cheers for that.

It's so strange what you pick up on when you've immersed yourself in something for  a couple of hours:  the differences between the transcriptions just leap out at you.    

Firstly, transcribing bends is difficult!  You're describing two endpoints and a curve between them which might be a "note" in itself. 

Secondly, straight-away I spotted two differences.  In each, only one of the printed versions has what I got:

1)  in what I'm calling bar 13, second beat, I've got (and 2nd printed version has got) the E comes down to a D (15th fret B string; first printed transcription has it as a Db (14)

2)  in what I'm calling bar 12, second beat I've got (and 1st printed version has got) a 12, 14, 12, and the second transcription has it 12, 15, 12.

I've (obviously) just double checked and my inner pedant is happy, and for what it's worth I'm 100% sure I've nailed the correct transcription. 

And the much bigger point!! is that if I now spend time playing it then that will make me way happier than my inner pedant could ever be.  (Still nice to get these things right though!)

bingefeller

Grunfeld said:

@bingefeller cheers for that.

It's so strange what you pick up on when you've immersed yourself in something for  a couple of hours:  the differences between the transcriptions just leap out at you.    

Firstly, transcribing bends is difficult!  You're describing two endpoints and a curve between them which might be a "note" in itself. 

Secondly, straight-away I spotted two differences.  In each, only one of the printed versions has what I got:

1)  in what I'm calling bar 13, second beat, I've got (and 2nd printed version has got) the E comes down to a D (15th fret B string; first printed transcription has it as a Db (14)

2)  in what I'm calling bar 12, second beat I've got (and 1st printed version has got) a 12, 14, 12, and the second transcription has it 12, 15, 12.

I've (obviously) just double checked and my inner pedant is happy, and for what it's worth I'm 100% sure I've nailed the correct transcription. 

And the much bigger point!! is that if I now spend time playing it then that will make me way happier than my inner pedant could ever be.  (Still nice to get these things right though!)

You're welcome.

I have that American book, published by Chrysalis in the late 80s, and the quality of some of the transcriptions aren't great.  While most of the notes are there, some of the fingers are awkward and you have to reconfigure things a bit.  

The Japanese books tend not to be as accurate as the American books, or even some online tabs.  The good thing is that there are huge libraries of Japanese scorebooks around and most of the transcriptions will get you started with what you want to play.  The other good thing is that there are a lot of Japanese Schenker tab books around!  

PhilW1

Grunfeld rsaid:

@PhilW1 ;

To play back the audio I used

Transcribe!

so the audio I was listening to sounded like this:

Schenker slow

To do the TAB I used an iPad and Procreate and an Apple pencil.  (Three months ago that was all alien to me.)

Blank sheet as a base layer, then added a layer for the bars, and another for the notes, and another for the coloured notes to myself.  Exported it all to pdf for home and png to show here.

That’s great Grunfeld, thanks v much,
been thinking of taking transcribing on in the new year hoping it’ll help improve my playing and theory 
thanks again 

DLM

Seriously cool stuff!