The Blues, from Way Back by Mark Whitfield (Part 1): Transcription and Analysis

I’ve got something special to share with you today. To kick off this month’s series on jazz guitar blues, you’re going to learn a complete transcription of highly acclaimed jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield’s solo from The Blues, from Way Back: a track from his classic debut album, The Marksman (1990). In today’s post, you’re going to learn: The reasons why studying transcriptions is so important for any jazz guitarist How to play the complete transcription of Mark Whitfield’s first solo from the recording of The Blues, from Way Back A general overview of the types of approaches and concepts Whitfield uses in this solo. Cool Bonus: Get access to a FREE print friendly PDF version of The Blues, from Way Back transcription by Mark Whitfield, complete with notation, TAB and analysis. First, let’s have a brief discussion on why to learn a transcription in the first place… Why Learn a Jazz Guitar Blues Transcription? Learning transcriptions of master players is one of the most important things you can do as a jazz guitarist. The reason? It gives you a complete all-around jazz guitar workout. Here’s how it works: Usually transcriptions are tough technically, so learning a transcription is a great way to build up your technique. You’ll learn a wealth of jazz vocabulary that fits well together, giving you plenty of new ideas to bring into your own playing. Learning a transcription is the best way by far to train your ears – especially if you transcribe a recording from scratch. By playing a transcription along with the original recording it was transcribed from, you’ll get a sense of how to add shape to your own solos – i.e., how to structure the rise and fall of a solo in order to tell a captivating musical story. The last point is particularly important. If you just learn jazz guitar licks in isolation, without listening to the lick in the context of the full solo it came from, you won’t get a well-rounded picture on how to the lick effectively as you improvise. Here’s the thing: Even if you end up only delving into a few licks from a transcription after you learn the full solo, these licks act as a kind of ‘trigger’ in your mind for the general vocabulary and approaches contained in the complete transcription. So, learning a transcription is a very effective way to learn a huge amount of jazz vocabulary in a short space of time. Convinced? Good. So let’s now dig into the transcription itself… The Blues, From Way Back The Blues, from Way Back is a track from Mark Whitfield’s debut album The Marksman, which catapulted him to international recognition in the 90s after he graduated from Berklee College of Music. Why did I want to transcribe this recording? This solo is probably the best example of jazz guitar blues I’ve come across, so I was keen to study this one intensely in order to get a more authentic jazz blues sound into my improvised lines. Here’s the original recording of The Blues, from Way Back on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/HtG9zqlnACk What I particularly like about this solo is how seamlessly Mark Whitfield weaves traditional blues ideas between sophisticated bebop vocabulary. Learning this solo has also been a great technique builder for my own playing. Both the bluesy licks and the bebop lines are classic pieces of vocabulary that are really worthwhile to work into your own playing. Presenting The Complete Jazz Guitar Blues Transcription! So here it is: The complete transcription of Mark Whitfield’s first solo from The Blues, from Way Back. Watch the video to get a demonstration of the fingerings I used to play the solo, then read through the notation and TAB of the transcription below. (Hint: If you want a print-friendly PDF of the transcription,click here to access it now). Note: Fast-forward the video to 5:00 in for a close-up slow-motion view of my hands as I play the solo (if you nee...