Martijn van Galen

Martijn took us through Moon Alley and discussed transcribing solos. He had written out the Kenny Garrett solo on the tune but advised learning solos by heart before you write them out. The first solo you transcribe can take weeks to get right but it speeds up as you develop your ears. Each subsequent transcription gets faster. This is what many of the best tutors have been advising, Steve Waterman - who also said that Dave Liebman advised trascribing if you do nothing else, and Jake Goss, learn to hear it first, sing it, play it, then write it down if you feel you need to.

We also looked at Beatrice - the tune that is. The non functional harmony means learning what notes are common in subsequent chords, including the upper extensions. Martijn got us to play guidetones through the chords a semi-breve at a time moving a semitone or a tone.