I’ve currently been given the assigment of transposing the two tenor sax parts for Lord Rockingham’s “Hoots Mon”.
I have to do this, give the music to the rest of the band, and make sure we get it note-perfect ready for gigging within six weeks. I reckon that I have 1-2 weeks to get the transposition thing sorted then.
When I listen to the song, I’m trying to play along, as it usually works, but it really doesn’t for this song. I’m almost certain that the saxes are playing together at the start to make a chord progression.
My question is this; is there any easy way to work out what chords are being played, aside from forking out the money to buy the sheet music?
If I knew what the chords were, I could write the parts easily, but I’ve searched the web for hours today, and I really cant find anything (cue someone to search and find it within five minutes).
Some folks could simply listen to it and tell you the chords (give or take a diminished 13th or so). Otherwise you either need the sheet music or a cheat book (a book with chord lists of standards.)
Forking out the money isn’t a bad idea, since somebody actually DID take the time to write the song, but if it’s a standard (and I personally don’t recognize the title) some musician knows the chops. Just ask him. (Oh, I guess that’s what you’re doing here… hmmm.)
I know you have a time element here, so getting some outside advice sounds like a good idea. But in general, it’s a very good exercise to spend some time listening to pieces of music and learning to discern the various parts. I don’t have any technique to suggest other then to just do it, try what you think it is on multiple-voice instrument like a keyboard, and repeat over and over and over. It’ll get easier with time.
By the way, what you describing is acually called transcribing. Transposing would be if you were changing the key, or turning the alto part into a tenor part, etc.
I suggest a good fake book, or hang with someone who’s played the chart before.
Thing is, I didn’t know either the name of the band or the song title, I was given the assignment late at night, and all I remembered was that it appeared in a mid '90s ‘wine gums’ advert, and didn’t search any more after I’d found it.
I guess my t’internet searching technique is a little poor aswell, I used a badly written boolean query in altavista, and only ended up with people exclaiming “hoots mon!” in interviews and stuff. Never mind.
Thankyou very much pjen, I’m in college at the mo, but shall sort it out properly when I get home.