Fatback Band – (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop

Welcome to the 1975 “urban disco-funk” of the Fatback Band. So, are you ready to do “the bus stop”? Whatever that means…

This chart aligns with the 3:30 single release in the key of D minor (concert). Though I’ve included some horn lines in the coda that I quite like from the 12″ single.

I played the tenor sax part on bass trumpet for this recording, then I dropped part of it down into the tuba range electronically.

Resources:

• Fatback Band – (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop – BandLab Project.
• Fatback Band – (Are You Ready) Do The Bus Stop – Trumpet Sax charts.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Bobby Hebb – Sunny

It seems like Sunny has been covered a million times. It’s such a beautiful song! I’ve played at least a few different arrangements in my time, including an incredible one that I transcribed by Jamiroquai. But this time I transcribed and recorded the original 1966 arrangement as first recorded by composer Bobby Hebb.

Parts are here for trumpet and tenor sax. It was very difficult to hear all of the faint sax lines on the original recording, so there are a few educated guesses in places. But I promise that it works 🙂

Resources:

• Bobby Hebb – Sunny – trumpet and tenor sax charts.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

The Doors – Touch Me

Such an iconic song, bringing luscious strings and horns to The Doors in 1968. So I was amazed that I couldn’t find and purchase charts for this that were even close to matching the original recording. Determined to push ahead I was able to decipher all of the horn parts, while my masterfully talented friend Ynping transcribed the strings.

So here you find charts for strings (3 violins, 3 cellos) and the horn section (2 trumpets, trombone, alto sax, tenor sax, and baritone sax). Very closely aligned to the original recording.

This song was a crowd favorite when I held the trumpet chair in the rock band Summerhouse during the late 1980s/early 1990s. But the entire brass section of the band consisted of me, and my transcription at the time was limited. And never mind the synth strings… But now, with the benefit of experience, new software tools at my fingertips, remastered source recordings, and such a talented violinist as a good friend, this transcription and its performance were finally possible.

This recording started within the Bandhub platform while it was online, but after a long pause, it was finished offline through the addition of final tracks, a DAW mix, and a custom video. My sincere thanks to all of my friends for their contributions to this wonderful project. I couldn’t be happier with it!

Credits:

• Andrew Mayes: trombone
• Clay Whisenant: bass
• Emily Johnson: cellos
• James Wilkas: alto, tenor, and baritone saxes, keys, DAW mix, video edit
• VanGuy2015 [who won’t reveal his name]: vocals
• Ynping Mak: violins, strings transcription
• Yoichi Kishi: guitar
• Yop Pal: drums
• Gary Badger: trumpets, horns transcription

Resources:

• The Doors – Touch Me Bandhub collab video.
• The Doors – Touch Me – Score and charts for horns and strings.

Transcribed by us and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Jamiroquai – High Times

The Jamiroquai horn section must surely have had a blast, back in the day. This stuff is a lot of fun to play. And transcribing it keeps me on my toes, as seemingly repeated horn lines contain subtle variations all the way through and nothing can be taken for granted.

Once more, along with the trumpet part I’ve provided for alternate alto or tenor sax parts, to give you more flexibility. I’m pretty sure Jamiroquai used one trumpet and one tenor sax in the original studio recording.

I’ve recorded the trumpet part in an online BandLab collaboration. Once all of the other contributions are assembled and the recording is properly mixed, I’ll update this post to include it.

Resources:

• Jamiroquai – High Times BandLab project.
• Jamiroquai – High Times trumpet, alto, and tenor sax charts.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Be sure to check out my other Jamiroquai transcriptions!

Jamiroquai – Blow Your Mind

I love these guys! Always fun to transcribe and play Jamiroquai horn parts, and the trumpet/flugelhorn player gets a nice workout this time around. I’ve recorded my parts and am waiting for my musician buddies to do theirs. When complete, I’ll update this post to include the recording (as usual).

This time I’ve written alternating tenor/alto sax charts to give you a little more flexibility.

Resources:

• Jamiroquai – Blow Your Mind BandLab Project.
• Jamiroquai – Blow Your Mind – charts for trumpet, flugelhorn, and sax.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Be sure to check out my other Jamiroquai transcriptions!

The Commitments – Take Me to the River

Take Me to the River, from the soundtrack to the movie The Commitments. It was very difficult to hear all of the horn lines in parts of the original recording, particularly as the energy of the performance builds, so I’ve made a few educated guesses in spots. But they are good guesses, and very close to Al Green’s original arrangement of this great song.

I love playing these soul tunes! So much fun to play on trumpet.

I couldn’t be sure if the soundtrack recording featured two saxes or a sax/trombone combination. So I wrote for trumpet, tenor sax, and trombone, figuring that might be a little more useful for anyone who wants to use the charts in the future.

Update Jan 3, 2020: Our BandLab project is complete. I’ve updated this post with our recording.

Resources:

• The Commitments – Take Me to the River – BandLab Project.
• The Commitments – Take Me to the River – Trumpet Sax Trombone charts.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Music Transcription Resources

I’ve been asked about the different tools that I use to transcribe trumpet lines from audio recordings. So here they are!

Follow the links to learn a whole lot more about these resources.

Transcribe!
I’ve only recently taken to using this tool, and I like it a lot. Before using Transcribe! I used Audacity in much the same way, but this tool is just a little handier for the sole purpose of transcribing from an audio file. It lets me isolate a section of the recording that needs close examination, reduce the speed, loop it over and over, and a whole bunch of other things that I’m only beginning to explore.

The audio tools that are buried under menus in Audacity are lying right on the surface in Transcribe!, making it a tool that is custom-built for this task.

Anytune
Possibly the only app that makes me wish I had a Mac or iPad, as it’s not yet supported by Windows. Instead, I use Anytune on my iPhone.

While Anytune has many of the same features as Transcribe!, its “ReFrame” feature is especially valuable for isolating the exact instruments I am otherwise straining to hear. Other applications allow me to adjust the EQ to highlight the sounds I want to focus on or ignore, but no other tool that I’ve found can achieve this so effectively and so easily.

Ears
I was fortunate enough to be born with a good working pair of these. I’ve found them invaluable for holding my glasses on my face and also giving me somewhere cool to put my headphones. My set has a special add-on feature called tinnitus, which I think I picked up in my developing days of playing the trumpet. But if I was getting a new set of ears I wouldn’t select that option next time.

I have found my ears to be such an invaluable resource for transcribing, that I can’t imagine doing it without them.

MuseScore
This free, open-source music scoring program is hard to beat. I’ve compared it to the trial versions of its hefty competitors, and I’m yet to find a serious shortcoming.

It’s amazing, and it’s free.

In addition to these tools, my transcription efforts are aided by a trumpet on my lap and an old keyboard within reach behind me. Can’t get by without those!

Swing Out Sister – Am I The Same Girl?

This 1992 hit for Swing Out Sister was a cover of the song first recorded by Barbara Acklin in 1968. Although, it is perhaps better known as the 1968 instrumental hit single “Soulful Strut” recorded and released by Young-Holt Unlimited. I think I first heard it in a shopping mall or an elevator somewhere.

Anyway, here’s how I heard the horn parts in my head, and subsequently recorded with musicians from around the planet.

Resources:

• Swing Out Sister – Am I The Same Girl? YouTube Video.
• Swing Out Sister – Am I The Same Girl? trumpet and sax charts.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Scary Pockets – Sweet Child O’ Mine

A cover of a cover…

The guys from Scary Pockets have quite a following on the Scary Pockets YouTube channel and are well worth checking out. This time, in one of their most popular funky covers, they put a new twist on the Guns N’ Roses hit Sweet Child O’ Mine. And I got to transcribe and cover their work.

It’s nice to get a trumpet solo in on a GNR track!

This recording started in Bandhub, while it was still online, with sax, keys and a DAW mix all added later to complete the collab. This was also my first attempt at video editing. 😬

Resources:

• Scary Pockets – Sweet Child O’ Mine collab video.
• Scary Pockets – Sweet Child O’ Mine trumpet, alto sax, and chord charts.

Transcribed by me and free for you to use.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

Music on Paper

Something I saw in a trumpet group that really resonated with me…

“Music on paper is just a roadmap. That has nothing to do with the actual things you’re producing. That has nothing to do with emotions and affecting people. I hope that’s the reason we’re up here doing this.” -Ambrose Akinmusire
@TheBlackTrumpeter

I’ve always felt this way about what, and how, I play. But perhaps for the first time I’ve seen it articulated in words so clearly that it hit the mark perfectly.

I’m going to try to draw on this whenever I’m playing outside of a trumpet section.