Original Compositions
Transcriptions and Piano Arrangements
Bach’s Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 645)
Bach’s “Waves” Prelude (BWV 846)
Lord of the Rings (Leitmotifs)
Motion Picture Studio Intros (Dec, 2024)
Bossa Nova Grooves (Jan, 2025)
Wake Me Up When September Comes (Intro)
Fairytale, from Shrek (arranged for two hands)
Mr. PC (Aimee Notle)
Sonnymoon for Two (Aimee Notle)
Freddie Freeloader (“Kind of Blue,” 1959)
Taxpayer (Lullaby) Blues (Antoine Hervé)
Hound Dog (Scotty Moore’s guitar solo, 1956)
1979 Mk.II 88 Suitcase (Part 1 of 2)
Morning Glory (Mike Kanan’s solo, lead sheet)
Four (Red Garland’s piano solo)*
Dreamworks (Motion picture)
Let It Be (guitar solo)
In My Life (Faux-harpsichord solo)
Just The Way You Are (Phil Wood’s sax solo)
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Super spreadsheet: https://bit.ly/3PZvi9T
My transcriptions (bulk): https://bit.ly/4gOIiuB
8th note subdivided: https://bit.ly/3PJEkY4
Note to the reader: I truly began transcribing music in 2024. (A transcription is a written version of heard music.) But in fact I did not know how to write music before 2024. I had always tried — owned a spiral composition pad with “music” written between the years of 2012 and 2023 (mostly scribblings). I wasn’t super organized about it, but most of all I didn’t get far. I tried though — vividly recall the times I tried to write music. So what changed? I spent winter break of 2023-2024 on the Galápagos Islands. Internet was super spotty. I brought a music composition notepad and Jazz Standards that I had hoped to learn (by sight?). When things were quiet I began to write out a Kenny Barron’s solo for Billie’s Bounce. This became meditative. I focused only on the syntax of writing — the fact that some notes need a line pointing down, some up; there are quarter and eighth rests I conveniently ignored my whole life; the usefulness of triplets, or straight eighth notes. These are the mechanics of written music, and in this period I became familiarized. I did not know before the difference between a half and a full rest (the block facing down is “serious” so that is the full rest). All these little things allowed me to transcribed Mike Kanan’s solo for “Morning Glory.” I remember coming home from class at night in my convertible and pausing in the garage, hearing this piano solo that was absolutely perfect in every way. I Shazam’d it, and it is the miracle of modern technology that I found the song on YouTube and went to work (still only 150 views!). It was very (very) difficult to transcribe that song, but it was like learning something fundamental. Much of the 2024 I spent transcribing other artists — see above. In late September 2024, I made the transition from pen-and-paper to writing on a computer, thanks to some lessons with a new Jazz teacher.
*I don’t actually remember transcribing this, but it may be my first transcription (~2022)!