By christina toth, the
times
Like a lot of teens
living in the heyday of rock, hemme luttjeboer picked up the guitar and tried
to plunk out the iconic tunes played by his guitar heroes - lennon, santana,
clapton, frampton, breau.
The difference with
luttjeboer is that he actually did it. The first tune he attempted was the
beatles' day tripper, he recalls.
"i figured it out, and basically i'm
still doing the same thing today, and getting paid for it," says
luttjeboer, who makes his living as a freelance music transcriber, putting notes
to paper.
After graduation, he left
a forklift job in a mississauga warehouse to play in a country band in edmonton
for three years.
eventually luttjeboer entered a lenny breau scholarship
contest and was a runner-up.
- he didn't win but the results convinced him he
was on the right track, so he enrolled in the guitar institute of technology in
los angeles in 1986, and hasn't looked back since.
After that success, he
contacted music publishers, and soon they were contacting him to transcribe
works. In vancouver, he got busy teaching, playing and composing. Then
luttjeboer met one of his idols, jazz guitarist mike stern, and offered stern
transcriptions of some of his music.
"he was blown away.
I ended up transcribing his first two albums," luttjeboer recalls.
luttjeboer
belongs to a unique guild of music masters, transcribing the classic songs
created by rock icons who, for the most part, can't read a note to save their
lives.
He still gets thrills
from the process, uncovering how the artists assembled their
songs.
"there are standard licks, but sometimes it's just astounding what
they come up with, like day tripper. Lennon was so young but he was a genius.
"
luttjeboer, who
recently moved to abbotsford with graphic designer wife wanda, has 250 or more
full books published - he's lost count - of rock, jazz, blues and pop songs,
plus countless single songs, in print and online.
He sets down notes for
vocals, guitar and other strings, horns - in recent years, luttjeboer has even
crafted arrangements for big band groups in the region.
in a way, he's a
historian, documenting for posterity the music that defined and spoke for a
generation.
Thanks to him, and
transcribers like him, those composers of the rock "classics" will
continue to influence generations into the future.
now he's also transcribing
younger artists' work, such as taylor swift, avril lavigne and nickelback.
However, some things in
his trade have changed, he says.
when he began, luttjeboer painstakingly
scratched out each note on paper, using up buckets of no. 2 pencils. Today he
uses finale software and a computer, but the basic process is the same.
"it all starts and
ends with this," he says, pointing to his ear. "i sit with my
headphones at the keyboard and type in one note at a time."
the work has kept
him very busy, sometimes transcribing a book or more a month, but in recent
years there is less demand for sheet music, the publishers tell him, as there
are more music software programs for amateur musicians.
The way music is put to
paper is also changing. Many of luttjeboer's transcriptions include tablature
or "tab," which are not notes but a map of where to put one's
fingers, a kind of paint-by-note guide, he says.
Over the years, he's met
many of his guitar heroes - joni mitchell, santana - the list is endless.
Luttjeboer himself has won their admiration.
In the foreword of his
complete idiot's guide to guitar exercises, no less than seven guitar masters
praise his skill and musical intelligence.
To learn more about his
fascinating work, see www.musiconpaper.com.
ctoth@abbotsfordtimes.com
© copyright (c) abbotsford times
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