Harlem Nocturn on Alto sax

[Anonymous]

@michael – the person on youtube played vibrato exceedingly well,
but in his case i think he became obsessed with vibrato to a point
that if he didn’t play everything with vibrato it didn’t sound good enough to him – seemed a bit extreme to me?

What i need to learn is scoops, lot of call for that in swing.

My eldest daughter plays vibrato on the flute – and it sounds so
natural on a flute.

I agree with you whole heartedly – there are lots of good insights to
gain from other members to help us out!

When are we going to hear the tj Tenor?

[Michael]

Hey Johnny,
That’s a really great point you make/how you put it about how they used Vibrato back in those days–with a song like Moonlight Serenade being the example I mentioned. I’ve listened to certain areas in your playing where you use Vibrato and you do it so, so well–it’s not too exaggerated or anything like that; very smooth and even. Seems to be somewhat of a personal thing? I really love the way Kevin uses it……If you’re reading this Kevin, hats off to you! 🙂

JB: that’s a cool point you made about your eldest daughter using Vibrato with the flute….my older brother who lives in Connecticut plays the pan flute and Vibrato is AWESOME with the flute; thanks for mentioning that. I will be uploading “The Green Onions” on Tenor sometime possibly over the weekend or this coming week—I uploaded not even 2 weeks ago with the Alto and I don’t want to come across to Johnny or anyone else as being too “aggressive” of a student player here on his site. There’s a time for everything. I typically like to switch between Saxophones for uploading, one time for Alto, one on Tenor, and so on. I also alternate between each Saxophone when I practice…I just finished practicing a while ago and today was a Tenor day. The next time I upload on the Alto will be on a metal MP v.s. the cheap, hard rubber MP that I used for “Spooky”. I did that just so that you could try and hear what the Sax itself is like, simply “as is”. It’s funny using a high quality, metal MP and then suddenly switching to a hard-rubber MP…..you get used to a quality metal MP and then suddenly the hard rubber sounds too faint for your taste LOL

[Kevin]

Michael, in answer to one of your above questions, my music learning began on a non-fretted stringed instrument (violin) as a grade schooler. I applied myself (or should I add that my mom saw to it that I practiced daily, and got me into private lessons) and become fairly proficient by high school. To learn that instrument you have to learn vibrato to advance.
So to shorten the story, the way that I hear/feel the musical expression of how the notes are to be played is with vibrato on certain notes or at the end of… Yes from the perspective that what I hear in my head comes out in what I want to play on the sax instrument- that part could be stated that it comes natural.
But to learn the vibrato on this instrument has required a very applied effort, since it is so different that oscillating your wrist. For the most part my wrist doesn’t tire like my lips do, so to gut out a controlled vibrato toward the end of a song when the embrochure is fading is another level of challenge to playing the sax (at least for me). Also the vibrato control on high notes is much more demanding than on low notes, and I struggle to keep from over-doing it on the high notes.
So thanks to all for the comments that provide me feedback to what I’m improving on.

[Anonymous]

@Michael – excellent stuff!
looking forward to hearing you play on your new tj Tenor!

It’s great to hear more uploads on this site, i like it that we are all so passionate (not aggressive) about our playing!

Also waiting to hear some more duets – but i appreciate that takes a lot more organising between 2 players over the internet!

I’d love to do something on
bandhub! – but bandhub doesn’t
work on my pc as the operating
system is so old, so it’l have
to wait until i get an apple mac!

[Author]

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