| I am not a keyboard player, but I have always
admired Rod Argent's Hammond
organ playing. One of my favorite Argent performances is the 2
minute solo in "Hold your head up". In 2001, I began transcribing
this solo into a midi sequence. Using the variable-pitch feature
of my wave editor, I was able to slow the tempo of the lightning-fast
runs enough to obtain an accurate transcription of about half the
solo. Unfortunately, my ear wasn't quite good enough to cope with
the chromatic mayhem that breaks loose in the second half of the
solo. I broke down and bought a copy of Slow Gold, which does a pretty good
job of slowing the tempo while maintaining the pitch. Over a
period
of about 6 months, I entered the solo one note at a time in staff
notation using ancient copy of Cakewalk. By spring 2002, I had a
complete and fairly accurate transcription of the whole solo. I
threw down minimal bass and drum tracks, which were quite helpful in
ironing out some of the phrasing. There are still a few spots
where the phrasing is a little shaky, but I am still very pleased with
the result. None of the midi sequences that I have found on the
net even attempt the organ solo - they just skip to the last verse. |