This was one of Billy Joel’s big hits. It is one of my all time favorite Sax solos on a pop tune! This transcription has both of Phil’s solo’s in the middle and at the end of the tune.
Just the Way You Are – Solo by Phil Woods
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Is this transcribed to be played on the guitar? I Really love this song so it would be nice to add to my growing bag of solos
Sorry, for late response somehow my plugin failed to notify of your question. Yes, it is transcribed for guitar as are all the solos in this section. This is, in my opinion, one of the top 3 greatest solo’s of all time! Just because we are guitar players doesn’t mean we should stick to only guitar solo’s. Most of my favorite solo’s are not from guitar players. I love horn solos and piano solos a lot. One of the biggest benefits of learning solos from different sources is that you will find, because of the unique lay out of each instrument, there will be tasty riffs and lines that players tend to lean on because they lie well on their instrument. By learning them we can add things to our vocabulary of tricks that may not have occurred to us otherwise. The end result is that we don’t end up sounding like a typical guitar player playing only guitar flavored lines. Most of the time the solos translate over with ease but of course there will spots the don’t translate well and you’ll have to get creative to find a solution. There is always a solution, you just have to find the best compromise sometimes.
Thats an awesome way to look at it and i def wanna try and learn it
Just wanted to say thanks for this – I looked everywhere and this was the only transcription other than pitched for sax I could find anywhere. Literally anywhere on the net just in D major! I worked it out for myself a few years back, but I’ve comp[letely forgotten it and couldn’t face that again, so appreciate this – will keep this and try to remember it this time! 🙂
Such a great iconic sax solo! Phil Woods was awesome! Glad I could help, nothing worse than having to transcribe the same song twice!
Isn’t it? Yep – big thanks for that – really appreciate it. One piece of timing was killing me – bar thirteen where there’s a really difficult pause between the g and the return to D to G .. I noticed you picked up that the the lick after it starts on the b flat and actually that pause is a b flat too, so the phrase after is just recapitulating the same phrase. I’m honestly not an internet smart arse – just mentioning it for posterity as it made the timing much easier for me – much as you made everything easier for me and those that follow. You have the ear and did the work – I came along and made the most of your talent :). Thanks again – really appreciate it!
I was wrong … it was (a very quiet) B …