whatis wrote:Chances are if that happened that the published music would be pretty substandard-it usually is in the case of pop/rock artists where 'composition' is usually an oral tradition.
could you elaborate on that, Dave? sounds quite interesting!
Sure.What I meant is-most pop/rock performers don't 'write' their music.They might write some chords and they may very well write down the lyrics,but if someone else wants to play the music,either in tablature ('tab'=guitar figuration) or in conventional score (so that the melody and harmonies are written out,as well as the chord symbols),they either have to work it out for themselves or go and buy the printed music if there is any.
And then you discover that the great majority of transcriptions in music books aren't up to scratch,eg the harmonies/chord symbols are inaccurate,the rhythmic notation is faulty etc etc.Obviously there are some honourable exceptions.And,as a rule,these books are very expensive.
For a fairly visible example-take the Beatles.About 20 years ago a book was published called 'The Beatles Complete',which held sway in music shops for a very long time.It had some nice pictures in,and the word 'complete' made it very tempting.Trouble is,for starters,it's not complete-by some way.And then-the songs are written in completely different keys from the recordings/whole verses of lyrics are missing/the chords are frequently wildly inaccurate/and whole sections of the songs-instrumental lines,middle 8's,bridge passages etc are completely absent.At bottom it's a book for cheesy club organ players doing background muzak.But an awful lot of people own that book and probably regret it.
Set against that the 'Beatles-Complete scores' which appeared a few years back.Four Japanese guys took it upon themselves to notate everything the Beatles ever recorded,but properly.So the book is set out with each guitar,piano,bass etc part on its own line,all faithfully rendered,chord charts above;every single song is notated,even 'Revolution 9',all the lyrics (and interjections) are there,following every twist and decoration in the melody,and even Ringo's drum parts are faithfully transcribed,beat by beat.Truly a labour of Herculean endeavour,a job done properly,albeit somewhat fanatically and anally.But it's the reference benchmark if you really want to see how the dots go on any given Beatles tune.
But it depends what level you want..Personally,as a musician,I like to see the job done properly.I do a lot of transcription of music,for various aspects of my work,and I'll always do it myself rather than consult a book.And i rescue a lot of people-my pupils,other music teachers,jazz players etc-from buying substandard books by transcribing songs for them.
So...if anyone wants a proper chart of a Stina song,get in touch! I've done a few of them,for pleasure,and I can always do more of them happily.
And by the way,I think Ian Grenfell's management is called 'Silentway',isn't it?
