Welcome to our new Featured Transcriber series, where we’ll be sitting down with some of the members of our transcription team and finding out a bit more about them. This week, we’ll be speaking to Leo, a UK-based guitarist. As well as being a busy touring musician, Leo is also one of our most prolific transcribers, with over 850 transcriptions completed at the time of writing.
Tunescribers
So Leo, you’re easily one of the most versatile members of the team we’ve got; you’ve done orchestral stuff, you’ve done jazz stuff, you’ve done all sorts of weird instruments. What is it that makes you able to turn your hand to just about anything – do you play a million different instruments?
Leo
Well, my practical knowledge of instruments is basically: if it has strings and frets, I can kind of understand it, in a physical performative sense. Other than that, I think it’s just the enjoyment element of it. I think it’s always being up for a challenge of some kind. I think that bit where you’re a little bit out of your depth, but not entirely, that’s an exciting place to operate in. The typewriter job really sticks out in that regard. It’s stuff like that, where there’s something a little extra tacked on that isn’t just going through the motions.
Tunescribers
I’d totally forgotten about the typewriter job! Do you mind telling us a bit about that?
Leo
It was a piano piece called In The Rowans that had a typewriter part, as set dressing, or foley. I loved the use of it – not quite percussive, but a narrative tool almost, and since then, it’s really made me think when I’m producing my own stuff, that little bit extra about the scene that you’re trying to build.
Tunescribers
What other transcriptions stick out for you – anything particularly weird or memorable?
Leo
There’s a lot of memorable ones! There was the time right when I just started that I had 20 Supremes songs to do one go – that was a trial by fire!
I do remember there was a time when I was being sent a lot of Pat Metheny stuff, and for whatever reason – he was somebody I knew existed, but had never listened to. I’m really bad with knowing “classics”!
Tunescribers
And you’re a guitarist right? Pat Metheny…
Leo
Exactly! There was one called As A Flower Blooms, and it was a piano arrangement; and it was one of the first times I could really see the arrangement really working. There’s always that satisfaction when you get to the end of a transcription and press play, and it just happens! That’s one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of it. And for this one, I remember thinking “oh, this is the first time I’ve really been able to rebuild something as a piano piece”.
Another one was the E.T. Fantasy Suite. It was arranging lots of different piano arrangements of the E.T. theme tune into one. Firstly, it was insanely difficult as a piece, but then it just happened to coincide with a whole lot of gigs, and it took up every spare moment! There was one bar in particular, with just one arpeggio, and it took the whole page up. Just one big, disgusting arpeggio! That job really took it out of me!
Tunescribers
Let’s talk a bit about your process then. Imagine I’ve just sent you a fairly normal piano/vocal tune, nothing weird, nothing out of the ordinary; where are we starting?
Leo
Always start with the vocal. Always. Because that’s far and away the most time-consuming part! Then, I’ll either do the piano part one hand or a time, or sometimes you can get away with doing it all in one go.
Tunescribers
And what’s your setup like for this? Are you clicking in note by note, do you type it with a keyboard, are you using MIDI?
Leo
So when I started this, my setup was garish! I had a Korg Nanokey 2, which I’ve used for over a decade at this point, and USB number pad for durations. So when I was moving around, I’d be on trains with all this, taking up an entire desk’s worth of space! Over the years, I’ve streamlined more and more, so the number pad was the first thing to go, and I’ve stopped using the Nanokey even. Single note melodies I can just type in now, and for chords I’ll type out one note, then click the rest in. It’s interesting how note input has changed over the couple of thousand hours of me doing this! It used be a big old operation, and now it just looks like I’m typing.
Tunescribers
So by our reckoning, you’ve done 850 transcriptions for us now?
Leo
851, precisely.
Tunescribers
Blimey! I think that puts you in our top 3 in terms of prolificness.
Leo
Really?! There was a point where I had ten songs all lined up at a time; right now, it’s looking a bit quiet – just having one queued up feels weird.
Tunescribers
Let’s see if we can sort that out! If you could be sent any song to transcribe, what would your dream transcription be?
Leo
It would be easy to say something I know and like… But there’s nothing stopping me from transcribing that anyway! I think one of the most rewarding things about doing this is being caught offguard by something I never expect to enjoy, and then have gone on to listen to the band. I don’t know if it’s a cop out, but “something from a future favourite musician”!
So do you have that future favourite musician for Leo to work on? Get in touch for a quote, and use LEO5 at checkout to get 5% off your order, and specifically request Leo at the same time!
