STOP PRESS! I have found a flaw! Please note that the F F# G part which I have notated as power chords should be single notes! Ooops.....
I haven't included the guitar overdubs here but other than that I'm happy that this is a fairly accurate transcription. I hope that if Mr. Fripp sees this he finds it to be acceptable. really enjoyed doing this one as it is hugely important track in rock history. Perhaps surprisingly I find the octave section to be the most challenging. The fast section at bar 147 makes a good calisthenic. Contrast the guitar solo with the wilder versions played by the 72-74 band live. This was probably a considered solo-more or less planned in advance. Of note is the use of the C dorian mode and chromaticism to create tension. At times on this track its difficult to be sure whether you're hearing sax or axe, both showing the influence of modern jazz phrasing.
9 comments:
It's nice to see this also in music notation for non-guitarists.
I'd love to see the Bass Line notated - I recall that it was stated that Greg Lake couldn't remember bass line for the middle part anymore, when ELP added 21st Century Schizoid Man to their song list in the early 1990s (many years after the 1969 recording) - So, ELP only did the first part of the song as a result.
I also was informed that there was a complete band transcription of the entire "In The Court Of The Crimson King" session published in Japan, but I've never been able to get my hands on that book, to check how accurately it notates the songs.
Hi there,
The fast unison section in Schizoid Man is, in fact, in 4/4.... all the way through.
The late Ian Walace sent me a jpeg of the sax part(!)
Happy to pass it on to you.
I'd love to see it to see what would have been different. With much love and respect to Ian-who blows me away on the live KC stuff, and who has my further regard as a vegetarian-I stand by the transcription however. The 7/8 is definitely what happens on the original performance, regardless of what was intended. The 9/8 is a way of notating what was possibly an on-the-nod pause. A sure way of spotting the 7/8 is that you can't keep a crotchet pulse throughout. You can however keep a quaver pulse. From there it's a simple matter of counting the beats. When transcribing naughty time signatures I use this method to sort out the layout of bars and time signatures, then check how many notes I have to fit into the space available. Next I establish the precise rhythm. Having established all this one checks the pitches. Check out the forthcoming transcription of Pictures of A City for an example of a tortuous rhythm to notate which initially sounds quite simple. In fact I didn't realize that it wasn't 4/4 until I actually sat down to write it out. For those who can't wait here's a teaser. It goes, with a crotchet pulse of about 70 bpm, 3/4,2/4,3/4,3/4,2/4,3/4, then settles into 4/4. The Poseidon album gets a bum rap for being a follow up album. A careful listen shows this to be erroneous as for example in the fact that the material is mostly refinements of compositions by the first Crim line-up. Pictures is a phenomenally complex production with amazing attention to detail and arrangement in the guitar overdubs. The recorded performance may not have the juice of "In The Court....." but the compositions were fascinating and equally timeless. In my view the album's only flaw is that Groon was left off.
Thanks a TON for this, been trying to figure out the meter in the unison section for years. One little thing tho, in the 6/8 ensemble section at 45 and again at 135, the 2nd note in each of those bars is an F natural, not a G flat/F sharp, this can be confirmed by plunking on a piano (or your inst of choice) along with it, it is in fact diatonic (or minor pentatonic if you will) there rather than blues.
I am going to dig into this transcription with gusto, as a bass player of nearly 40 years I keep trying to find transcriptions of melodies and other things I haven't played, so this is great...thanks again.
(somewhere in my archives I have a transcription I did of Zappa's "Moggio", took like a year, this was before widespread computers...lot of fun to play though)
Thanks for the additional info chris. Sadly the the original Finale file has been lost which means to edit it, I'd have to write it all out again to correct the errors. Man, once in a lifetime transcribing this was more than enough! So if anyone else fancies typing it out with the above errors corrected...
Hey man, my name is Tristan Selzler, I'm a jazz pianist from Reno, NV. Excellent trans. work. I'm playing this tune in a new project of mine and I'd love to use your transcription, however am having trouble seeing it on my screen. Do you have a larger file you might be able to send me? Also, did that cat ever send you the jpeg of the original sax part? I'd love to see that too. Thanks dude!
-Tristan
renojazzsyndicate@yahoo.com
myspace.com/renojazzsyndicate
Tristan Selzler on Facebook or YouTube
Hi Tristan'
Sorry, the original file was lost in a hard drive catastrophe! You can try right clicking the page and opening it in a new window where it will be larger. Please see the other comments for errata and omissions. Sorry, never got that sax part. Rather like the dead sea scrolls of rock eh?
Im gonna re transcribe this so that we can all have a working file to play with. I'll do it on Finale and happily mail a print out to anyone who would like a copy. For a fee to cover postage of course.
Paul - Did you ever get the re transcription done ?
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