Dave Liebman on Transcribing

This is an excerpt from a great article on transcribing from Dave Liebman, master saxophonist, educator and and general renaissance man:

"WHY TRANSCRIBE?

How does one learn tone, nuance and develop a true and believable jazz sense of rhythm? Certainly there are exercises and method books which can help a student attain these goals, but there is a built in elusiveness to these concepts since they are virtually impossible to notate in any convincing fashion. The best approach is exact aural and tactile imitation-the first stage of all artistic growth. For jazz, the most valuable form of imitation is a direct master-apprentice relationship in which the live model (master)demonstrates directly to the student demanding immediate and exact repetition until mastered before moving on. Learning in this way becomes a natural outgrowth of constant exposure and reinforcement on the spot. But without that opportunity, I have found transcription is the next best method. Some musicians object to transcribing as stealing other people’s ideas. My contention is that in one way or another, whether it be as detailed as I will describe or as casual as Charlie Parker supposedly standing outside of a club in Kansas City hearing Lester Young and then going home with phrases in his ear and mind to practice and recall, most artists have done something of this sort. And the
best players are usually the ones who will tell you immediately that so and so was their main inspiration and they began by copying him. This is a process-a means to and end and to my mind very necessary..."

Read the full article on Dave's website.

Also see Dave's mention of iHearit on his blog post from April.