Transcribing singers

Working out guitar parts by ear (transcribing) from records is how the great players learnt.
It's hard work at first, but the rewards are huge.

But, what many guitarists don't think to do is work out other parts played on other instruments...

You can learn an enormous amount from, for example, saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, drums etc.

And the BIG one is... singers.

Trying to emulate vocal phrasing and evoke that human quality on their instrument is something all instrumentalists strive for. After all, music is expressive, and there's nothing more expressive to us than the human voice.

Trying to find ways of replicating your favourite singers' vocal phrasing with slide guitar is time well spent!

Some singers I have spent time transcribing include - Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Joni Mitchell and Sam Cooke and more!

Start with “Mary Don’t You Weep” from Aretha’s incredible Amazing Grace album :-)