You want to transcribe a bass line or a solo by ear. You put the record on, pick up the bass, and start hunting for the first note. You find something close, then the line runs away from you, and before long you’ve got a handful of notes you’re not sure about.
Transcribing is one of my favorite subjects, so I’m going to show you how I actually do it, in real time, on a solo I hadn’t played yet: Jaco Pastorius’s solo on “Havona.” It’s really one of the great solos of all time. I still can’t believe someone improvised this. Real genius on every level.
I hadn’t spent any time playing it. But I’d spent a ton of time listening to it. It’s on Heavy Weather, which is probably my third favorite album of all time, and I’ve probably listened to it something like 8,000 times. That’s where this starts.
Get it in your ear until you can sing it
First thing we’re going to do: make sure we can sing it. I’m not a singer, so I’m just approximating it with my voice. But I can sing most of it, because I’ve listened to it so many times.
That’s the order. I get it in my ear first, to the point that I can sing it, and then I translate it onto the instrument. If I don’t have it in my ear, it’s literally just muscle memory, and then it’s not going to come out in my playing.
We transcribe not just to increase our technique but so that way this vocabulary comes out in our playing.
Cole Davis
Find it on the bass, one phrase at a time
Then I go phrase by phrase. On this one I even sing while I play. I usually don’t sing while I play. I actually think it’s kind of obnoxious when bass players do that. But for this, I’ll do it.
I play what I think I heard, and then I ask myself: is that it? Is that actually what it is? Sometimes it is. When it isn’t, I go back. I gotta hear it again.
A good way to check is whether what you’re singing lines up with the phrase. That’s how you know.
Some phrases are much easier to hear than others. A lot of that first section is very pentatonic, and Jaco tends to use a lot of triplets. Other licks took a lot of tries. There’s one where I said, here’s what I think it is, but there’s no way that’s it, and I kept playing it until it clicked.
This is the thing. If you’ve been listening to it enough times, it’ll click in your head when you get it right. When that one clicked for me, I was 100 percent certain.
Check the rhythm, not just the notes
Here’s a trap: you can have the notes right and the rhythm wrong. On one part of Havona, I was actually right about the notes and still had to get it up to speed, and I think that’s what was happening there.
Jaco’s hero was Charlie Parker, and Charlie Parker was the most rhythmically free improviser ever. The phrases start and end in the craziest places. It’s not all on the one. It’s not all on the three either. It’s all over the place. So rhythmically, you have to make it line up.
So transcribing increases your knowledge of rhythm too, not just your knowledge of harmony.
Play it without the track, then push past the hard part
Once you’ve got a section, play it without the track. That’s really important, because you want to make sure you can play it as if it’s your own solo.
Then try it with the track. When I tried, clearly I didn’t have it yet. So I moved on, because it’s actually good to get the whole solo first and then get it up to speed.
Some of Havona goes across the instrument, all four strings in one line, instead of the more linear lines we’re used to. That’s very hard on upright. On electric bass it’s much easier. The electric bass is horizontal, not vertical, so gravity’s on your side. But playing lines that go across the instrument is a really good way to get good at the instrument.
This is also the point where people want to stop. Transcribing requires a lot of focus, which is why nobody wants to do it. People get to a certain point and they’re done. If anyone likes running, you know you have to push past the pain cave. This is the point where you have to develop a Mamba mentality and keep going. When you push past this point, that’s when it starts to creep into your playing.
And if you’re slower than me, it doesn’t matter. I’ve got a lot of technique, so what I’m doing here is an accelerated version of the process. It might take you two or three days. It’s still the same process. Even for me, I’ll probably spend the rest of the day shedding it, and what you see on Instagram is probably a finished product.
Turn what you transcribe into your own language
The point of all this is the vocabulary. Part of this solo goes from E major to C major. Now, if I want to play over E major to C major, I have all these cool licks I can use. That’s all Jaco language I’m lifting from this solo.
I take it from the solo, and then I improvise on it myself. That’s how we integrate these solos into our own language. There was one lick in this solo that I said I was going to do in all 12 keys.
Transcribing is really the best thing ever, and that’s why it’s the hardest. It’ll take your playing from good to great almost immediately. But people don’t want to do it, and I don’t blame them.
Try this today with one phrase
- Pick a phrase you’ve heard a ton of times. Choose a solo or bass line you already know from listening, not one you’re hearing for the first time.
- Sing it. Approximating is fine. I’m not a singer either. Just make sure you’ve got it in your ear.
- Find it on the bass. Play what you think it is, then check whether what you’re singing lines up with the phrase. If it doesn’t, hear it again.
- Check the rhythm. Where does the phrase start and end? Don’t assume it’s on the one.
- Play it without the track. Get it to where it feels like your own solo, then try it with the record.
- Improvise on it. Take the lick over the same chords and make something of your own out of it.
If you want to watch the whole session, wrong guesses and all, it’s in Transcribing Havona in Real Time. If you want to keep building your ear, take a look at Play What You Hear, and there are free practice tools on the site too. Then pick your phrase and start singing.
