Transcription Service
About the Service
Bob’s transcription services are mainly for serious musicians, scholars, recording artists, and arrangers. Lead sheet arrangement and score transposition is available for singers who wish to transpose a jazz tune or the piano part of a notated composition that they are singing. He also does copying work creating publishing quality scores of your handwritten notation. Actually, the quality is better than that of most published scores.
Bob’s main area of interest and the bulk of his transcription work is jazz piano. He has created transcribed piano scores for pianists all over the world. You can read what his clients have said about his piano transcriptions here.
Experience
Bob began his transcribing experience at a very young age, imitating and learning music from the recordings of many jazz, popular, and rock musicians. Bob first began transcribing music professionally in 1983, when he began transcribing the music of Bill Evans. This portfolio of solo and trio performances was eventually published by Warner Bros. (which eventually became Alfred Music Publications) as The Artistry of Bill Evans Volume II.
A few years later, he began working on transcribing the solo piano music of George Shearing. These transcriptions were also eventually published by Warner Bros. (and later Alfred Music Publications) as The Artistry of George Shearing. Noting the poor quality of many transcriptions of his piano music, Shearing was particularly hesitant about having any of his piano music published in transcription form. Before he gave Warner Bros. permission to publish this book, he requested that someone play through the transcriptions for him since he was concerned about accuracy. With his discerning ear, he gave his wholehearted approval and the book was published in the early 1990s.
Looking for the music for a few Bud Powell compositions and having no luck, Bob eventually realized that there were no folios of the compositions of Bud Powell, although well-known individual pieces were often included in many fake books. Wanting to learn a few of the lesser-known pieces, he began transcribing a few pieces. What started as a few transcriptions eventually grew into a large collection that became The Bud Powell Real Book, a folio of 44 compositions written by the great jazz pianist published by Hal Leonard. These works, in lead sheet format, represent almost all of Bud Powell’s original music.
Other transcribing experience includes many transcriptions of solo piano performances by Keith Jarrett, Roland Hanna, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, George Shearing, Clare Fischer, Dudley Moore, Billy Taylor, Wayne Marshall, Alan Broadbent, John Bayless, and Khatia Buniatishvili.
Education
Bob’s formal education includes a Bachelor of Music degree in music theory from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, a Master of Music degree in music education from the Eastman School of Music, and a Doctor of Philosophy in music performance from New York University. Bob also studied jazz piano at the University of Miami.
Cost
The transcription service is $80.00 per hour and more for expedited service. Currently, there is about one to two month wait. Typically, piano music averages about three and a half hours a page. Some pages go very quickly, while others can take many hours. The hours that are charged to produce a transcription are only those that go into producing the first draft. From that point forward, any updates, revisions, changes, and tweaks are done with no additional charges.
There are many reasons for this. First, this helps to keep the cost from getting exorbitant, since producing an accurate transcription is exceptionally time consuming and is not cost effective if every hour is included. Second, although very good, the first draft is never completely accurate. By stepping away from the transcription and allowing some time to pass, moreover, many things that were missed in the first draft are much easier to find. Third, it provides great value to clients since although it takes a lot of time to produce the first draft, clients will know that they are getting many more hours of my time than they are paying for. Bob typically does four to five updates of a piano transcription, although he has done many more on occasion. He usually does not stop revising until he is convinced that the transcription cannot be improved. Over the many years that he’s been doing transcriptions, he has found that this is the only way to produce an accurate transcription.
How to Proceed
A MIDI file and/or audio recording of the notated score is available and will be sent by email if you wish to hear what the transcription sounds like. Although the MIDI playbacks are lacking subtle tempo changes, touch sensitivity, balance between the hands, and other subtle aspects of the performance, the MIDI playback will give you a good idea of the accuracy of the pitches and rhythm. When you contact Bob with a transcription request, include a link in your email or attach a mp3 file. Payment is accepted via PayPal, money order, or personal check via mail. Selected Individual transcriptions that I have completed are for sale.
Commitment
Bob is completely committed to the quality and accuracy of his work, and to the 100% satisfaction of every client. From his experience with many clients who contact him to do transcriptions for them, it has become quite clear from the sharing of their experiences with him that the quality of the work done by most of those who provide Internet transcription services is poor and the transcriptions are simply inaccurate.
When you contact him with a transcription request, he will complete a single page (the first page) of the transcription and send the pdf to you. If you are not completely satisfied with the quality of the work (the accuracy of the music, the notation, and the visual appearance of the score), you’re under no obligation to pay him for the page. You will part friends and go our separate ways. If you are happy with the work, he will complete the rest of the transcription and charge you for the total hours required to complete the transcription, including the first page.