Listening And Transcribing:
Learning From Others While Thinking For Yourself
by Chuck Braman
Drum technique is not and end in itself, but rather a
means to the end of making music. Therefore, the most important techniques
to learn are those which have direct application to that end - which in
fact are that end - and which can be discovered through through the
process of transcription.
Along with practicing the material in Drumming Patterns, transcribing
and practicing transcriptions are the most beneficial methods of
development because they develop several key skills simultaneously: (1)
one must listen in an extremely focused and comprehending manner to a
passage of music to notate it correctly; (2) transcribing sharpens ones
skill in working with notation; (3) notating musical sounds involves
translating an aural language into a visual language, the grasping of
abstract sounds into conscious terms; (4) there is an inherent amount of
technique involved in playing transcriptions which potentially ranges from
basic to advanced. In addition, it is the practical, specific technique
required for making music; (5) practicing transcriptions advances reading
skills; (6) transcriptions advance one's musical knowledge and taste by
providing insights into the styles of the greatest artists in the world,
in the context of the music in which those styles are appropriate.
Despite this, I have frequently heard musicians and music educators
deride transcribing and even analytical listening as being without merit,
and even harmful to development. While this is untrue, I would like to
clarify the premise upon which it is based.
Specifically that premise asserts that the stylists one might
transcribe created their vocabularies "intuitively," without
copying the vocabularies of their predecessors note for note, and would
not have been innovative had they copied their predecessors. Although
there is some truth to this statement, it reveals a grossly oversimplified
view of the process of artistic evolution.
Each successive generation of drum stylists, while not copying the
vocabulary of the proceeding generation, do abstract conceptual elements
of that vocabulary and re-work these elements when creating styles of
their own. The way successive generations of musicians absorb existing
vocabularies is through a conscious and subconscious (not intuitive)
process of conceptual abstraction and integration, mixing different
vocabularies in different proportions, and adding their own ideas to the
mixture in the process.
To deride analytical listening and transcribing is to overlook the
essence of this process: the better a musician understands the specifics
of a given set of vocabularies, the more effectively his conscious and
subconscious mind can integrate those vocabularies with his own concepts
(which themselves will be largely spurred into existence from his
understanding of these vocabularies).
Those without creative ability may indeed not progress beyond the level
of repeating transcriptions note for note. However, these same players
would not have become creative without exposure to transcriptions. And
conversely, those with creative ability don't become less creative with
exposure to transcriptions. Learning from others and thinking for yourself
are not mutually exclusive acts. All musicians become immensely better the
more they deepen their understanding of the styles that proceeded them,
and that will form the basis for the styles to come.
(This article is Appendix 4 of "Drumming
Patterns," a 176 page book detailing the system underlying rhythm
and technique, available for $28 postpaid through Drumstroke Publications,
PO Box 856-C, New York, NY 10014-0856, or through Jamey Aebersold Jazz
Aides.)
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