Tag: guitar

Transcription of the guitar solo in this excellent version of Spain I saw posted on reddit.com/r/jazz a few months ago. Solo begins around 1:48 and was last accessed July 16, 2018.

Full pdf here. Will update as errors get noticed.

Another transcription project I tried earlier in the summer. This is from Charlie Parker’s recording. I was hoping to also transcribe the trumpet and keyboard solos but never got around to it.

Transcription of a random riff I liked from The Cardigans’s cover of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (2:12 – 2:27) from Emmerdale

Played over the changes (via loop pedal)

Transcribed to the best of my ability up to the piano solo:

I was dreading trying to figure this out, but it turned out to be pretty easy. This riff is fun because it splits a melody on top + bass on the bottom at the same time. Figuring out a comfortable fingering was the only tough part.

Played on guitar (note: wimpy  tone because it’s recorded via direct input):

For fun, I programmed an approximation of the drums into Guitar Pro and recorded the guitar and a bass guitar on top.

Decided to take another stab at this one. My previous attempted didn’t sound as smooth as the recording, so I changed some fingerings to allow the lick to be played much more legato.

So far, Spotify hasn’t been very useful for discovering new music (I’ll write a post about this, sometime). However, after a few months of trying the service out, it recommended a song that I couldn’t get out of my head–“The Ridge” by Raisinhill. I had to take it home and figure out what the guitar was doing in the intro:

The C♮ in there is really pretty and I like how it seems to melt into the next chord change (C♯ minor). Note to self, I wonder if it makes more sense to be calling it a B♯ here, since the notes in the key would be E F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D♯ and I see it as the raised fifth (B + a half-step). I need a music theory friend.

Stumbled upon a band from Japan called Special Others. Their music can probably be best described as instrumental post-rock, but with the feel of a jazz band. Their song “Ngoro Ngoro” caught my attention–it’s formatted much like a jazz tune where the band plays the head and then trades solos. I thought it would be a good exercise for me to transcribe the guitarist’s solo; here’s what I got so far:

Misc thoughts:

• Ears tell me changes are vi-IV-V-I
• Mainly C# minor pentatonic with lots of passing tones. Looking at it tabbed it, it doesn’t look so complicated. But it sounds great.
• If I were to improvise over this, there’s an opportunity for an E harmonic minor during the V chord. Special Other’s guitarist never tries it.
• It’s cool to see an example where ^ isn’t needed to make an interesting sounding solo.