Hotel California Solo

[jake]

Not perfect but getting there in my eyes. Did this transcription by ear. My friend is playing the backing on his acoustic guitar. Instantly I notice my finger height is high as Johnny has stated in other videos. The ending is a great appregio workout. LOL. This was recorded on my ipod about a foot or 2 away without any editing or effects on the sax.

[Michael]

Nice one Jake–that’s cool you did that by ear too! Those are some good embellishments your throwing in there too like the Trill. I hear some gritty growls and nice tone, especially on the lower register. I would think that Baritone behind you would be a HUGE help in Improving your tone…does the Tenor feel small to you now? LOL I’m not in Johnny’s new Improvisation course yet, but from the sounds of this song it seems like it would be a good one to apply some of the things that I’ve been reading other members talking about. I’m looking to get into his new course sometime late this year as I’m focusing on Improvising with the Blues Scales right now…here where I live if you can’t play the Blues then no one is interested in playing with you LOL It’s HUGE down here in the South; the Blues all started here in the South as you know. I’m LOVIN’ it too 🙂
Good thing you caught the fingers-too-high thing…on my last edit I deliberately exaggerated some of those fingering positions because of “showing off” my new Tenor a little (LOL…I won’t deliberately do that anymore though) plus showing others whom I’ve talked to that Johnny’s fingerings in his Altissimo course just plain work. I don’t know how many times I’ve said this and very few players at the music shops where I live here agree with me: It’s not about those fingering positions, it’s about the technique to play up there.
How did you and your guitar friend’s Gigs go that you had been talking about? Do you guys plan on doing more? That’s cool you’ve progressed to the point of doing Gigs! 🙂 Speaking of the Baritone, I’ll be getting the track/sheet music for the Baritone/Tenor duet I talked to you about done here pretty soon. As soon as it’s done I’ll e-mail you the track and sheet music. That’s going to be one FUN duet! Great job Jake, nice to see you progressing so well!

[jake]

Thanks for the comments. Honestly I really don’t play my Bari all that much, my bread and butter is this tenor. Actually it seems as though the Bari plays easier and I get a better tone with less work for some reason. Strange I guess. My uppers def sound better on the Bari sax. You def need to push more air/pressure to get those low notes though.
We had to cancel that gig a couple weeks ago, my buddy does most of the singing (hard to sing and play sax) HaHa. He got laryngitis and couldn’t sing, was really disappointing. We will re-schedule it though, the owner of the establishment is a real nice guy and understands. I gave him enough notice as he could get a replacement for us. Def don’t wanna make a habit of that tho, gigging wold be short lived. LOL

[jake]

Johnny’s transcription of Sleepwalk. This is to show my high notes, whereas last video was mostly LOW. Even tried an altissimo A in the middle of this, my 1st one!! YEA! The highs are ever so SLOWLY staring to fill in, boy its a long process for me for sure!!

[Michael]

I was reading how you said that your friend does most of the singing, so that means you do, at least, some of it? That’s a lot more than I can say for sure LOL I do not like singing in front of other people, so hats off to you there for sure. My wife thinks that I have a “great” voice for singing…that is one thing that I simply don’t like to do LOL
Your tone is definately getting better/fuller..keep up the great work 🙂

[Michael]

Great song selection Jake of Sleepwalk, I think you’re the first one to upload it here to Johnny’s site and it’s definately on my to-do list; it’s a big hit out west where we come from in New Mexico. Your playing was right on time with the beat/tempo with the song too, very nice.
That was definately an Altissimo A starting to come out, way to go! Yes, it’s a lot of work to play up there but the rewards are huge; it adds so much to your playing to be able to throw in the notes from the 4th and 5th Octaves (yes, I said 5th Octave) and it’s a super-cool feeling to say the least. I can tell you when you play those Altissimo notes in front of people, you will DEFINATELY get their attention…I have found that out first hand 🙂 You’re starting to break new ground so feel good about it. Notice how we say it’s starting to come out…..one thing you can do to make any Altissimo note you play automatic, and to play it with no hesitation at all, is an exercise that Johnny has at the end of the Altissimo course. Play a low A first, next high A and then Altissimo A. He shows how to do the same thing with all of notes; low G, High G, Alt G, etc. with all of the notes. There’s different exercises that he shows at the end of the course to use, but that one alone has huge benefits because it teaches you to just jump straight up there to those Altissimo notes automatically and you don’t even have to think about it; it becomes part of your permanent playing. Check it out when you get the chance. You started to break into that range; now is not the time to back off of it! At first, it can sound like a dead, dying cat or something LOL But the more you do it the better you’ll get at playing them. Way to go Jake, keep going and you’ll be glad you did!
Just a side note, on the timer of 0:31-0:34, it would be cool to add some gritty growling in there.

[jake]

Nice Michael, U know how hard it is to hit the low B and then growl on top of it?? LOL. I agree tho, would sound sweet there. I will give her a whirl. Thanks for for thoughts. Looking forward to the next duet as well!!

[Michael]

Takes a lot of air support and open throat to growl in those lower notes…but sounds really gritty! 🙂 If you can’t get it on the low B, try throwing it in there somewhere, I was listening to your growl in your previous video and it sounded really nice with the way you do it.
I’ll be looking at having that track/sheet music for Baritone done here pretty soon.

[john]

good stuff Jake. way to get that high A!
looking at your embouchure I can see that you are not taking enough of the mp into your mouth.
we can get too used to the same position but at your development level you have to try and get more in, this will get you a bigger tone.
every day just take a bit more in, this will feel uncomfortable at first but keep at it. go for a little too much and then bring it back just a bit… but not as much as you are at now….eventually as you bring it back it will feel better and better until in a week or 2 you’ll have an embouchure that has more mp in your mouth and therefore a bigger tone.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jake – the 1st video sounds great, the arpeggios (triplets) need to be a tad smoother – try
repeatedly saying cov-ven-tree as in ‘coventry’ english speaking not usa speaking! gives it a more smooth swingy sound.

The coventry sound fits in evenly with the 3 triplet notes🎷

The 2nd video shows a vast improvement of your tone – your notes higher up are atarting to sound more in tune – like Johnny says – taking in a bit more mouth piece will sharpen the notes even more!

Well played mate!!!!

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