Also...

http://pianoaddict.com/

http://www.irealb.com/

Anyone with an interest in playing jazz/modern music (on piano especially) needs to use the above two links.  Pianoaddict has some of the most in depth playing and practicing tips I've ever read, while iReal B is a gift from God himself.  They can't play melodies on it due to copyright laws (man's greatest enemy) but they can give you the chord charts for over 1200 jazz standards.

And for each of those jazz standards, it gives you a band to accompany you with (drums, guitar, piano, bass), the levels of which you can adjust to suit you, as well as the ability to change the tempo, key, style (jazz, salsa, funk, etc...) time signature, etc.

The chords are also available (ie. it tells you what notes are in the chords) if you buy it for like a pound.

The app itself (I should have mentioned it's for the iPhone/Mac/Android) is around £5, but the songs are all free.  It's worth every penny.  Throw a loop on it, set your tempo and you can practice your solos for any given song to a band in the comfort of your own room, all night long.

Tunes I am transcribing;

I am too poor for Logic.  Far, far too poor for Logic.  For the moment, anyways.

So I've been doing my transcribing using programmes I can get;

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Garageband - http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

Aaaaaand...that's it.  Because they're free.

I select the song, drag it into Audacity, change the tempo, sit at my piano, and play what I hear into Garageband.  I go over what I hear a few times.  Then I start to transpose what I've done in every key.  Meaning, hopefully, when I come to put things into songs, I'll be able to play it in anything.

So far, I've not done much.  But I have picked four songs I'd like to dissect; three ideas from each song, which will lead to 12 ideas, in 12 keys will mean 144 possible things I'll be able to play while soloing.  Hopefully.

The songs I have picked (for several reasons) are;

Autumn Leaves (an exam piece; studying this is mandatory)
Some Day my Prince Will Come (as above)
The Girl from Ipanema (this version; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqE7RuIbfjE
[The solo in that one isn't fantastic but there are ideas there that I'd like to use.]

Song for my Father (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLdm1yuoU_Q) [as above.  I will use the melody in solos too.]

How Deep is the Ocean? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJLe3o8IrNA) [not the version I linked; the version I want to use is from Evans' album 'Jazzhouse'.  Some of the piano runs in it give me shivers.  I've worked on this song in the past.]

 However, I must say, I feel that I am cheating, as I'm not actually writing anything down; just playing what I hear into a computer then triple checking it's correct.  Is this cheating, Simon?  Does it count?

Regardless, it's a lot better than doing nothing.

Please remember to subscribe to this blog too (http://jhopemusicalprogression.blogspot.com/) for general musical goings on.

Ta.