Johnny’s Major Scale course inquiry, great for this song?

[john]

I’ve seen some of the robotic stuff before…amazing!
the guy talking about reeds and mp’s a saxes and that it doesn’t matter? I don’t agree with him.
If I played on a crappy sax with a closed plastic mp with a #1.5 reed (which is a standard beginner’s setup) I could not even get close to the way I sound on my setup. the sax, I agree is of less importance, but the mp and reed setup are just about everything.

[Michael Bishop]

For sure, playing on a Junk Sax can make the learning experience a really unpleasant one….I’m really happy to have gotten my Trevor James 🙂 It has saved me $ in the long term too. When he was talking about ‘the gear doesn’t matter than much’ I’m not sure if he was talking about a junky Sax, but like Shawn Wallace from the University of Ohio was talking about above, the Sax is at the bottom of the list/less important and that’s what I was getting at. He mentions the MP/reed set up at the top of the list too, along with hearing the stuff we wanna play before we play it, kind of like we can’t play it if we don’t hear it.

[Anonymous]

Hi Michael, there are two main points to consider when discussing the sound from a saxophone, apart from the way it is played.

1) The internal physical shape of a person’s airway, from lungs to lips.
2) The acoustic properties of the instrument’s components.

A professional sax player could play on Johnny’s sax using exactly the same playing style, and they still would not sound exactly like Johnny. The reason is because the physical dimensions of the pathway, vocal chord’s etc. through which the air travels before it reaches the MP shapes the sound produced. Those videos are in response to a beginner requesting to sound just like their hero sax player. If you listen to the sound produced from the robot players, it sounds pretty flat and lifeless. Hence all the focus on breathing and vocal training for saxophone players. It’s not just all produced from the MP like a cheap whistle.

You must know that bass is easily reproduced in a room, but to produce good quality treble takes quality components. The harder a surface, the better it reflects sound. The higher frequencies are absorbed first. Which is why stone cathedral’s have such wonderful acoustics. To build an instrument to be light and portable, which produces accurate sound, becomes more expensive with light harder materials. The more time and effort spent, accuracy of tone holes and mechanics etc. the more expensive the instrument becomes. You can hear with the MP comparisons, you get a brighter sound because the harder materials absorb less of the higher frequencies.

You will always sound just like you, but do you want to struggle with cheap components or would you rather play on an instrument which brings you the thrill of precision and accuracy. Do you want to play with a dark woody sound or a bright jazzy sound? In the videos one can clearly hear how the sound improves with the better quality components. Which is why quality MP’s cost so much.

I am spending many hours of my finite life on playing the saxophone, and if you divide the cost of the saxophone by the hours spent with this form of entertainment, it costs you much less than what you are spending on corn flakes. Your most expensive items are your everyday expenses like coffee or newspapers. A good sax can last a lifetime and is an investment which other people enjoy too. If you spend 90% of your free time on playing the saxophone you are sure to sound much better 😉

[Anonymous]

On upgrading MP’s

Changing up from the 4C to the S80, has given me a whole new range of expression. I am loving this darker quality tone – a 100% improvement. I now understand the thrill expressed by those who purchased the quality Guardala MP’s. Rock on guys!

[Anonymous]

it’s completely pointless arguing over a difference in oppinions that aren’t backed up by any scientific proof!

I’ve talked to other Pro’s and guess what? Even Pro’s disagree about various sax related things.

A persons qualification, experience and knowledge does not turn an oppinion into a fact. Scientific proof turns oppinions into fact.

If we were all to meet up as Guests with Johnny Ferreira in Canada, and someone stated their oppinion, i would say well thats not my oppinon and we’d both state our reasons and as guests we would politely agree that the other person was right, or both parties would politely agree to disagree, and change the subject.

If however the other person refused to agree to disagree and followed me round the room and kept going on and on and like a stuck record, then i would leave the room.

Basically, that’s what will happen, if you don’t agree to disagree, then you’ll be responsible for driving people away from Johnny Ferreira’s website.

This website is owned and run by Johnny Ferreira to make him extra income by selling his own tracks, music sheets, music courses and skype lessons.

Look around you, most websites like Johnny’s don’t have forums which avoids all this kind of conflicting egostatic self oppinioniated behaviour.

The only person loosing out is Johnny Ferreira himself – in future i will state any of my new oppinons from time to time, but i’ve decided not to go on attacking anyone and that includes ‘going on other forms of social media’ – even if don’t agree with them.

And Yes i hold my hands up, as in the past i’m as guilty as everyone else.

Back to business Johnny – what xmas track have you decided to bring out this year?

[Anonymous]

Is this an argument?

[john]

yes. I doing Home For Xmas and have it rocked up a bit with a blues shuffle groove which is working really well.
I m just entering a bit of a touring schedule so am trying to finish it in the next few days….if unable to it will have to wait for more in the middle of the month.

[Anonymous]

Excellent stuff!

Johnny you are a fantastic role model, sadly i lack your diplomatic skills, mainly because i haven’t had a job where i’ve had to make a living out of facing the general public.

looking forward to buying your xmas track, also just holding back from buying the videos as a relative wants to buy them for me as a gift next month.

Keep on rocking

[john]

Thanks for that. Playing live on stage is not really dealing with the public in that sense but we generally do mix and mingle afterwards and then they just want to talk to you, usually in a very positive way so it’s pretty easy to deal with.

As for some of the other chatter…valid points about science and %’s etc but what I have always felt and expressed is that the best thing about the saxophone is it’s ability to provide EVERY player with a truly unique sound. Even the exact same setup being passed around from player to player can prove this.

[Michael Bishop]

Good stuff guys–For me, it’s just about having fun. I don’t think anyone is trying to argue over some of that stuff or establish someone else’s personal perspectives as facts…that alone tells me there’s a misunderstanding of what’s actually being said. So I’ll try to clarify what I was/have said many, many times: A good Sax set up is simply a must..but that doesn’t mean that it has to cost $6,000…THAT is what I’ve been trying to get across. Have a look at my friend, pro Sax player Jason Davis from Dallas, Texas. I personally know this guy, met him about 6 months ago….an AMAZING player. He’s constantly busy in the Music Scene in Dallas…it was only recently I discovered that he’s endorsed by Theo Wanne! He told me he endorses Theo Wanne’s but at first I thought he was just saying that he promotes it to other players, etc.. I had no idea that he really meant what he said, pretty cool 🙂 http://endorsers.theowanne.com/Jason-Davis You can go to youtube and look up other stuff people have posted of him–at the time that he made that video, it mentioned he didn’t endorse any instrument, but you see in the link above and his review of the Theo Wanne Durga below, about a year later he endorsed Theo Wannes.

I’ve said many times that playing on a Junk Set up can make the learning experience a very difficult one, I think I even said that somewhere here these comments. We all know that there’s some MPs that simply won’t due–but what I will say that is true–and this is what I was attempting to say– is that even with a high-caliber Sax/MP set up, it still doesn’t do any good if we’re not putting in the work on the Instrument, putting in practice time, actualizing the sound in our heads, hearing what we wanna play before we play it, etc.. THAT’S the point I was trying to get across when I posted those videos.

[Author]

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