5 Reasons You Shouldn't Transcribe Jazz Solos

Back when I was in college, I studied with a great jazz guitarist in New York City named Steve Cardenas.

Steve is a fantastic jazz musician, tours around the world with lots of different artists, and has recorded albums. In all senses of the word, a very accomplished musician and seasoned jazz player.

In one of our lessons, one time, when I went up to his house in Brooklyn, he told me something that was slightly disturbing, at least to the way I was thinking about learning music and jazz at that time. And that was, he told me that he had never transcribed a jazz solo before.

And this shook me because many of us understand that conventional advice for learning jazz is to learn jazz solos by ear, transcribe jazz solos and he didn't do that, and that kind of threw me in a whirlwind and kind of turned my world around.

So, today, I'm going to talk about 5 reasons why you actually might not want to be transcribing jazz solos to learn how to play jazz and improve your solos.

In this episode:

1. What is transcribing in the jazz context
2. Transcribing solos is time-consuming
3. Transcribing solos is frustrating
4. Transcribing solos doesn't always translate to better solos
5. Transcribing solos won't help you develop your own voice
6.  Transcribing solos may not fit your learning style

Important Links:
Free Guide to learning standards by ear: Learn Jazz Standards the Smart Way
LJS Inner Circle Membership
Listen to the Learn Jazz Standards Podcast

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