For some budding musicians (and even seasoned professionals), just looking at sheet music can trigger a fight-or-flight response, bringing up painful memories of strict piano teachers and high-pressure recitals. George Collier, a 20-year-old music transcriber, is doing his part to change that.
Collier, a student at Britain's Warwick University, pulled out snippets of videos of live performances by famous artists such as Wynton Marsalis and Celine Dion, as well as bedroom musicians who posted clips online. Add detailed instructions for what you need. He juggles harmonies, melodies, and rhythms while converting sounds into highly detailed musical notation, the results of which he shares with his more than 882,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. His most popular video has been viewed 18 million times, up from his 5 million.
“Music can be a little demanding, especially in the whole world of music theory,” Collier says during a break between lectures, video chatting from a light-filled campus building filled with the sounds of bustling college life. Told. His videos, created with the help of a team of transcribers, interestingly decipher mesmerizing cadenzas, barbershop quartet arrangements, funk jams, and jazz solos, creating a musical score that is both scholarly and unrelenting. has softened its reputation.
His video “When You Make the Trombone SING” features Frank Lacey's uplifting trombone solo from his 1988 performance with the Art Blakey Big Band. Another clip titled “She practiced 40 hours a day for this” features Mitsuko Uchida's virtuoso Mozart piano cadenza. Although Collier specializes in jazz, he also explores the world of classical music and the performances of everyday people with impressive talent. The clip, titled “When Your Family Is Musically Competent,” features a version of “Happy Birthday,” which turns into an improvised, gospel-filled riff. His video “Pro Musician Jams With Street Performer on Subway” documents a saxophonist spontaneously playing a version of Big Joe Turner's “Shake, Rattle and Roll” with a guitarist on the London Underground doing.
“Transcription is about understanding the musical decisions made by performers,” Collier says. “It doesn't really matter how famous you are. If you make something good, people will want to listen to it.”
Laufey, a Grammy Award-winning cellist and multi-instrumentalist, has repeatedly appeared as the subject of Collier's videos, and she admires his eclectic taste. “I think this celebrates real musicianship,” she said in a video interview. “It uplifts artists who aren't necessarily the most popular.” She noted that his channel is also a powerful source of discovery. “Especially on her YouTube, there are a lot of comments like, 'I found this song from George's Collier video.'”
Collier grew up in low-lying Cambridgeshire, about two hours north of London, known for its beautiful countryside and historic universities. After she started playing piano and trumpet by the age of eight, she began to show a strong interest in jazz. In 2020, when the pandemic hit and in-person music production came to a halt, the then 16-year-old Collier began channeling his musical energy online, as a side project just for fun to combat lockdown boredom. I uploaded my first transcription to YouTube.
One of these early uploads was a particularly beautiful piano and voice of the “Hajjanga” interlude by Jacob Collier (no relation) during a performance with the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble. The video initially received only modest views, but in February 2021 it was connected to YouTube's elusive algorithm, amassing 200,000 views in just nine days.
Mr. Collier is currently a student studying philosophy and politics, but he is also the musical director of the university's a cappella group, the Leamintones, although he quipped that his work has “little to do with music.” Some of his major musical influences often appear as subjects in his transcriptions, including Jacob Collier, guitarist Corey Wong, and funk band Wulfpeck.
Being a full-time student and recently starting his own web development agency has made it difficult for Collier to incorporate the rigor of music transcription into his daily life. In order to keep the channel uploaded, he cooperates with transcribers from the United States, Germany, Hungary, Austria, etc., and even introduces online music transcription services. Far from being a pandemic pastime, his project is now monetized and functions as both a hobby and a business. Collier makes his ends meet by paying him based on views from YouTube, but in keeping with the channel's ethos of accessible music education, he makes the transcripts available for free download.
Collier said he wants viewers to “enjoy the video, be surprised by the performers, be surprised by how someone can transcribe, or be surprised by the offhand comments about the transcription.” emphasized. When traditional notation doesn't translate the raw energy onto the screen, Collier and his team improvise.
The phrase “while standing on one leg” is etched into the transcription of a flute solo as Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson's limbs become increasingly unsteady on stage. “Causes a stink face on the First Lady” is annotated on a transcription of Trombone Shorty's performance of “St. Paul's Cathedral.” Michelle Obama's face contorts in approval as Shorty's growling solo takes place during the 2012 White House “James Clinic.”
Professional musician and YouTuber Adam Neely said, “It's very scary to work on music at such a high level without some sort of influence.” Watching Collier's videos “gives you permission to laugh and find community with people you wouldn't normally consider.”
While perfecting the transcription is Collier's top priority, he also wants his videos to be seen as widely as possible, and he's learned a lot about YouTube's algorithms. Many of his videos are titled in the format “When You Hit Puberty Twice” and are transcribed vocal performances with amazing bass in the lower register or recorded incredibly fast performances. Examples include “When You Practice 40 hours a Day.” Pianist Hiromi Uehara sings George Gershwin's “I Got Rhythm.”
“It's not just super music geeks who click,” Collier said. “These are people who are not even musicians, who may not even understand the transcription, but they click on the title and keep listening to the music.” His videos have racked up more than 300 million views of his. “It's really democratization, everyone has access, everything is free,” he added.
Laufey agreed with this assessment. “I think social media has been such a great equalizer,” she said, noting that Collier's channel is “a great way for fans to learn my songs as well.”
Despite his steadily growing subscriber base, Collier is hesitant to make YouTube his full-time job. “I don't want people to risk turning what they enjoy as a hobby into a career,” he says. But until he moves on, or until the algorithm does, he still enjoys inspiring first-timers to pick up their instruments and old-timers to dust off their instruments. I'm here.