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Hi guys,

I recently posted about getting a piano accompaniment from a YouTube vid transcribed. Since I wanted it exactly as played on the vid, not a watered down version, it was suggested I hire a pro for an accurate transcription, which I think is a great idea. They threw out a few suggestions, and I was wanting to see if you could add to the list of accurate piano transcription professionals available for this, so I could reach out to all of them and compare rates & quality.

The piece is an old Bessie Smith tune from the 20s, played by Clarence Williams. Link is here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zCrtErmipXE
I just want the piano accompaniment transcribed, not the vocal line.

If you guys have any recommendations for solid pros with tons of experience doing this, please feel free to let me know. Again, accuracy is key. Thanks in advance for any guidance! Loving the support on this forum, you guys are great

Just wanted to mention, you might be making it harder about getting somebody by saying it must be "exactly as played in the vid." I'm guessing that you don't exactly mean exactly ......that what you mean is more the next thing you say, that it shouldn't be any kind of watered-down version but that it should be essentially what's in the vid.

There's a big difference. It takes a lot (a lot) more work to make sure of it being "exactly," and often it's not really possible. I've played transcriptions of things for which there isn't any official score but only versions that various people have written down from what's in a recording, with all the people doing their best to come as close as they can -- and the versions are all different. Besides it being much much more work to be "exact," you may be giving the impression that you'll be hard to work with, hard to please -- like, they'd be afraid that they'd work on it and come up with a real good version, and you'd say no, it's not exact.

So, if I'm right that you don't necessarily mean "exact exact," I'd suggest that it would be a lot better if you don't put it that way.
Good luck!

Two questions:

1) I'm curious to know why you would want a transcription of just the accompaniment. Would you not want to be able to play this as a solo, complete with the melody? Otherwise, in some phrases, the piano is playing simple chords, and not very interesting ones, at that. Or, do you have a soloist who is going to do a Bessie Smith interpretation?

2) Given the quality of this ancient recording, it might be difficult to transcribe "exactly" what is on the recording: difficult to decipher which inversion of a chord is being played and, sometimes, how many notes of the chord are being played and whether it would make a difference if a three-note instead of a four-note chord were transcribed or vice-versa.

Regards,

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I just want to learn the piano accompaniment only, so as to be able to play this tune with another musician. I realize that the piano is pretty basic in parts of the song, but I'm liking the little embellishments Clarence plays throughout the song, especially in the high notes when he strays from the chords, hence wanting to learn as close to his version as possible.

I realize 100% accuracy might not be possible due to the factors you mentioned. I guess as Mark suggests above, I'm looking to get as close as possible given the audio quality, etc. Some of the sheet music I saw online for this were very simplified and did not seem to carry forth the style and details played in the original.

I see many transcription service pros online, but being that I haven't dealt with any of them yet, was just wondering who is known for their expertise in this realm?

Thanks!

I can enthusiastically recommend Doug Gould who lives in England.
https://twitter.com/itranscribejazz?lang=en&lang=en

He did a transcription for me with phenomenal accuracy and detail including phrasing and dynamics. The piece was very difficult to transcribe because of the recording quality and the bravura playing of Korngold. I think his prices are extremely reasonable.

This is the piece he transcribed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXDuBKvQ8-U

His email address is douggould@hotmail.co.uk

Please tell him he was recommended by the person for whom he did the Korngold transcription.

I also recommend Doug Gould. I purchased one of his Art Tatum transcriptions a few years ago and it was extremely accurate.

Thank you very much! I will definitely reach out to Doug. All the best.