{"id":21682,"date":"2014-11-12T15:43:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T20:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=21682"},"modified":"2021-11-23T16:21:22","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T21:21:22","slug":"donny-mccaslin-blues-solo-in-4ths-transcription","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/donny-mccaslin-blues-solo-in-4ths-transcription\/","title":{"rendered":"Donny McCaslin Blues Solo in 4ths Transcriptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are 2 more solo transcriptions I started working on yesterday. This is from a clinic recording of Donny McCaslin demonstrating using fourth intervals while improvising over a standard blues on the tenor saxophone. \u00a0I have no idea what this is from or even where I got it but it must have been on the internet somewhere. \u00a0I tried doing a search for the rest of the clinic but couldn’t find it anywhere online. Donny has graciously said he was ok with me posting the recordings and transcriptions for all to check out.<\/p>\n

\"McCaslinPic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Donny McCaslin is a great tenor player who was just leaving Berklee as I was arriving there in the 80’s. He doesn’t know it, but he had a large part in inspiring me to move to Boston. \u00a0 I went to Boston during the summer of 1986 to visit my girlfriend who was going to Berklee at the time. \u00a0I remember going to a concert at the Berklee performance Center. \u00a0Donny McCaslin was playing alongside Warren Hill. \u00a0They were both students at the time and a little bit older than me. \u00a0I remember being amazed at that concert. I don’t remember exactly what they played but I think I remember a Steps Ahead tune like “Trains” \u00a0and maybe also a Sanborn tune. \u00a0 I remember deciding right there at the concert that I had to leave Ithaca College and transfer to Berklee immediately. \u00a0If these were the kind of players Berklee was turning out then I wanted to be there. \u00a0I transferred to Berklee that fall and am very glad that I did.<\/p>\n

I remember even at that time that Donny seemed to have his own sound and concept going on. \u00a0 He had long flowing original lines that weaved in, out and around the harmony. \u00a0His technique was amazing. He would play complicated patterns and intervals throughout the range of the horn with ease. Even at that time, \u00a0I remember getting to Berklee and finding a recording of Donny playing on “There will Never Be Another You” from some performance. \u00a0I transcribed that solo and interestingly enough, even though it was 28 years ago, I remember there were also lines with fourths throughout that solo………<\/p>\n

I decided to transcribe these 2 solos because they are\u00a0unique in their use of fourth\u00a0intervals\u00a0as well as some of the rhythmic ideas used. \u00a0\u00a0 There is also another\u00a0solo in 6ths that Donny performs in this same clinic that I will transcribe later.<\/p>\n

Please be sure to check out Donny McCaslin’s recordings and website<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0Thanks again to Donny for giving me permission to post these recordings as well as being such an inspiration in today’s jazz scene.\u00a0 Thanks, Steve<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\nhttps:\/\/public.neffmusic.com\/McCaslin%204th%20Interval%20Blues.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Blues in 4ths Demo 1 PDF<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/public.neffmusic.com\/McCaslin%204th%20Interval%20Blues%202.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Blues in 4ths Demo 2 PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

*If you would like to support me here at neffmusic.com, you can do so\u00a0on the support page of my store<\/a> by debit or credit card. \u00a0 Any support is appreciated and will go towards keeping this site running, saxophone reeds, mouthpiece patches, coffee, and towards justifying the many hours I spend on providing free transcriptions to the saxophone community!\u00a0 Thanks,\u00a0 \u00a0Steve<\/em><\/div>\n

There were parts of the Demo 2 solo that were hard to notate rhythmically. \u00a0Especially in bars 9-11. Donny is playing a repeated rhythmic figure that happens 7 times over 9 beats. \u00a0i could not figure out how to notate this with Finale over the 4\/4 measures so I made it a 12\/4 measure for those 3 measures. Try not to be confused by that. \u00a0If you practice it with the recording you should be able to get the time feel down. \u00a0If any of you have any incites into those measure including the rhythm or how to write it I would love to hear from you in the comments below. \u00a0 \u00a0Thanks………..I’m off to practice my 4ths now……………<\/p>\n

If you like the lines in this solo or love other tenor players like \u00a0Michael Brecker or Bob Berg, check out my book “Devastating Minor Lines for Jazz and Funk Soloing”. It contains 100 killer modern 16th note lines in the styles of these players in all 12 keys………You can hear samples and read reviews by clicking on the link below. Thanks, Steve<\/p>\n

\"DevastatingFrontCoverSmallAd\"<\/a>Devastating Minor Lines for Jazz and Funk Soloing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are 2 more solo transcriptions I started working on yesterday. This is from a clinic recording of Donny McCaslin demonstrating using fourth intervals while improvising over a standard blues on the tenor saxophone. \u00a0I have no idea what this is from or even where I got it but it must have been on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":21801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[753,1213,1214,716,265,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-21682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-transcriptions","8":"tag-blues-solo","9":"tag-donny-mccaslin","10":"tag-fourths","11":"tag-jazz-sax","12":"tag-tenor-saxophone","13":"tag-transcription","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}