I REALLY dislike poorly done transcriptions!

Merlin

Merlin

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[rant]

There are a number of people on the net and in classified ads selling transcriptions these days. Lots of solos, and plenty of charts. It seems there's quite a demand for things like big band vocals, especially arrangements that originally feature Sinatra.

So why is it that so many of these "transcriptions" are so inept? I'm not just talking about a chart being poorly marked, I'm talking about:

1. wrong notes - c'mon folks, the lead trumpet line should be correct, even if some of the voicings are a guess!

2. wrong changes - Ummm...try lifting the bass line and see if that helps.

3. wrong rhythms - We're not talking about minor discrepancies in note lengths here, we're talking about things that are on the wrong beat, period! There seem to be a lot of people who can't tell the diff between eighth/two sixteenths and three eighth note triplets as well.

4. wrong orchestration - if you can't tell saxes from brass, you're in the wrong business!

I know that sometimes transcription is detective work. Filling in passing voicings is tough; you can't hear ever note sometimes, but intelligent writers can make a good working chart anyways. But there's no excuse in my book for getting the basics wrong, and then charging good money for it!

[/rant]
 
Part of the problem is that there is a much lower threshold to get into arranging these days. When you have access to a music scoring program like Finale, and a basic knowledge of what a lead part should be and the like, it's very easy to start throwing ink around on the staffs.

When it was all done manually, there was a much greater "up front" work load, and mistakes were not made to disappear in an instant. Those of us who primarily play the charts tend to forget about this, but it's a real factor.

I have played more substandard charts from Finale wizards that were less than optimal than I have from old guys who do them in pen and ink. These days, I lean on Dick Spencer (and used to use Walt Stuart up until he died) for what we play, and while the errors are there now and then, they are fixable with little effort on our part. (Dick tends to drop rest measures on the "non-lead" parts now and then, usually at the top of the second page.)

The best "machine arranged" charts that I have found these days are the ones from Lush Life Music over in England. Never had a problem with any of their stuff, and they have covered a lot of the "novelties" of music (like Eartha Kitt charts). Well worth the money they cost.
 
SOTSDO said:
Part of the problem is that there is a much lower threshold to get into arranging these days. When you have access to a music scoring program like Finale, and a basic knowledge of what a lead part should be and the like, it's very easy to start throwing ink around on the staffs.
Click to expand...

The irony is that with Finale, you can play back what you've written to check it. My finished charts have far less mistakes now than the used to, because I actually listen to what I wrote.
 
Oh dear, Don't get me started on that! There has been quite a few commercial quartet arrangements that I've had to re-write into sibelius. There was even one I remember where two bars of silence have been ommited in one of the parts. To make matters worst, some of these sheet music the calligraphy is of very poor quality and often the pages are too large to fit into a stadard computer scanner, making the whole thing even more complicated.
 
You gotta love the bari sax parts that go down to low F. Y'know, three ledger lines below the staff ....

(Yes, I've had that one. No, it wasn't a transposition error. Yes, it was done by hand.)
 
pete said:
You gotta love the bari sax parts that go down to low F. Y'know, three ledger lines below the staff ....
Click to expand...

Well, geez, Pete... you can't hit a low F by now?
I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to repossess your Bari Geek Card. It's clear you don't deserve to carry one. ;-)
 
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