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June 3, 2014 at 8:33 am #9622
Hi Johnny,
downloaded Baker Street and tried it. It seems that you did get the keys wrong. IMHO the piece is in C-Minor = Es Major (3 * b) and changes to D- Minor = F Major (1 * b) for the first repeat of the main melody theme. I send the re-done sheet music to you with PM (don’t want to post that here đ )
EDIT: just noticed I can’t add an attachment to a PM. Need your email to send the PDF….June 3, 2014 at 11:28 am #12085my email is saxjohnny”at”johnnyferreira.com (replace the “at” with @)
My key is right. I don’t know what Es means but if you are referring to the original version of the song, yes I know that it’s in D major (not minor). I don’t always choose the original key because sometimes that’s not the best choice for saxophones. For Baker Street I decided on Eb major, which is a semi-tone up fro the original. Why did I do this? Because for tenors it will be F and for altos it will be C. These are two great keys, even for novice players. If I went with the original key, the tenor chart would be in E major and the alto in B major. I know most people would be happier to play it in C instead of B.
These are my reasons, it doesn’t always work out to choose an easier key as it involves other factors like the range etc but I always try and have a key that will work best for both Eb and Bb saxes.June 4, 2014 at 12:44 am #12088In our church band everything is written for the piano, and when we transpose for the clarinets & saxs they can go out of range, so we have to transpose everyone, easier than writing separate accompaniment parts for clarinet & sax.
This is one of the advantages of playing in a band. You learn a hell of a lot more than playing alone. You learn to work in a team, and you have to play it the way the band wants you to play it and not how you want to play it. When playing the guitar, strumming chords in a band, if i suddenly change tempo, or arrangement, i can really distract the wind players, they suddenly start listening to what i’m playing and concentrating less on what their playing! All good fun.June 4, 2014 at 1:55 pm #12091I don’t think it matters what key you are in as a wind player you have got to play in all keys. I have Johnny’s baker street music and for my money it is great. I can and do play baker street in the original key.But Johnny’s arrangement is very good for Tenor sax, this is the life of a saxophone player.
June 4, 2014 at 2:54 pm #12093very true that, the only time it matters what key you play in is when you have to accompany other instruments that don’t want to play in your key.
June 5, 2014 at 2:28 am #12095I don’t complain about the key – I did complain about he had wrote that down. When you look at the score, you first think it is in C. Then you try the first phrase, which has 2 sharps and one release within 5 tones. That is not good to read.
I went over and re-though the whole piece, got the chord sequence from the net and tried to align melody and chords. Then I found out, that Johnny’s real key is E-flat (for Tenor), I changed the key of my notation to E-flat and all transposition and release signs disappeared! So the melody Johnny gave us is not in C, but in E-flat.
From his answer I know he wanted the piece in E-flat (concerto), which means F for Tenor and C for Alto. But someone (I don’t know whether he prepares the scores by himself) messed up with changing keys instead for transposing.So playing together with other (non-transposing) instruments is a challenge. Either the woodwinders have to adjust and live with 2 (or even 3) sharps more, or the others – especially Guitars have to adjust and live with 2 flats more. (I know what I tell, before I started with the Saxophone, I played Guitar – and sometimes with a larger Sax-dominated band – boy there you learn to hate E-flat – as a Guitarist).
Today my sax teacher plays on the keyboard. That is easy, because modern keyboards have a transpose function, whitch allows to allign keyboard and Sax.
June 5, 2014 at 7:19 am #12097I hate playing any flat major scales on the guitar really mess with you wrist unless you jump about with bar chords
June 6, 2014 at 12:35 pm #12104Sometimes I used a Capo on the 3rd fret, which brings you in the key of the altos… -> E-flat… Downtuning one full tone to Bb was not a good idea – the strings get too floppy….
June 6, 2014 at 12:57 pm #12105lol
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