How to sound good while rambling?

[William L]

At best, my repertoire is limited. I could maybe play ten or so songs off the top of my head because I’ve really not played too many.

This is a problem when someone says “play something!” because I can’t, really.

Even if I bust out one of the songs I’ve learned it sounds bare without the piano and it sounds so rehearsed on top of that.

I know the G blues scale, (easiest imo), and I can play with that but the melodies become really simple rather quickly.

My question is, are there any extensive scales out there that you can base these ramblings off of or are they just about knowing the G blues – for example – and knowing where to go and where not to?

e; this post kind of looks like a metaphor for itself. If you have any tips on how to sound good whilst rambling in english, that’d be great as well =p

[john]

Yes, that’s the reason I wrote an eBook course called “How To Play Killer Blues and Rockin’ Sax Solos”
Learning the scales is the first part but as you already know, that isn’t enough.

As for your 1st part regarding what to play and limited repertoire… absolutely right. We all practice all kinds of exercises and scales but that’s not what we’re gonna play when some asks to play something!
That’s why I’m constantly working on different songs. The songs I arrange and put up on the “saxophone music” section is mostly repertoire I am using or have used in actual different gigs over the years. It’s a fairly wide variety of mostly well-known songs pretty much everyone will know, and most importantly they have been proven to work well on the saxophone as you can see from their accompanying videos.

Reminds me of a funny story…

One time when I took my band on tour, after going through customs at the airport Vince, my trumpet player wasn’t at the gate with the rest of us. Finally he showed up and we asked what took him so long. He said they made him take his trumpet out and thoroughly searched the case etc. Then the guards asked him if it was really his trumpet. He said it was. Then they asked can you play it? He said yes. They said prove it! So he told us he had to actually play his horn to satisfy the customs people, and obviously they all were pleased cause he’s such a great player. So the first question we had for Vince was… so what did you play?

Anyone will usually ask you to play something and I don’t think it should be one of your exercises! Learn some tunes. People always enjoy something they know. If you can dazzle them a bit that’s good too. For this a little improvising during or after the melody. A soulful ballad played well with great emotion is always nice. One of my go-to’s is Yakety Sax cause I can play it really well and it blows people over. One reason is because your fingers really fly and the other is because it’s about the most famous saxophone tunes of all time!

[Michael]

That’s a crazy experience! Just when we think we’ve heard it all LOL but that’s a great point. What if, in that particular moment, all your trumpet player could do was play exercises and scales? What country were you guys in when that happened?

Hey Saxomaphone: I started Johnny’s ebook on “How to Play Killer Blues” and I’m about 1/2 way through it….it’s a superb investment and by applying what Johnny shows it will take your playing to a new level. His ebook opens up a totally new world on how to play the Saxophone and I think it could be the “cure” that you’re looking for. Notice that Johnny didn’t call it “How to play Blues and Rockin’ Sax solos”…..he called it “How to play KILLER Blues and Rockin’ Sax Solos” because that exactly what it’s all about. He doesn’t provide an endless list of “don’t do this and don’t do that” but rather is written in a way of “this is HOW it’s done, now take what you’ve learned and see what you can do with it”…..so many things you can apply with even the songs that you know how to play right now. But, when you add this to all these songs that Johnny releases that is proven to work on the Saxophone, you acquire a list of licks, riffs and repertoire that will turn some heads 🙂

[john]

Ha – like your story Johnny!!! my youngest daughter will be playing her clarinet in Belgium next month with the school orchestra to celebrate WW1 centenary, we’re really proud she got picked to go.

[paul kelly]

In those situations I like to play the pink panther or baker street, because every body knows them…

[Author]

Posts