I Heard It Through the Grapevine Backing Track for Everyone

[Michael]

Hi guys,
About a year ago I started to have several backing tracks professionally produced in a live recording studio with some folks that I began networking with, so I thought I would go ahead and make some of these available for you to download/use for yourself. These tracks were made for my Sax uploads on my youtube channel that I was going to upload before I got hit with tongue-tie…and I still will be uploading when I’m fully recuperated from my Oral Surgery. You can find much of the sheet music for these tracks on mysolospot.com This first one of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” that I had made is inspired by King Curtis’ version of this song. Like his original release, this track is in B Major, so for Tenor that means C# Major and for Alto that means G# Major. In his playing King Curtis was notorious for using the typical notes of the Blues Scales, the minor 3rd and flat 7, as well as the occasional flat 5 of the Blues Scales…the exact same stuff that Johnny has talked to us about and covers in his book on How to Play Killer Blues; it’s all very straight forward stuff. I did notice when I got the sheet music from Curtis at mysolospot.com, that there was a chunk of this song that he did not transcribe, so you can either improvise or if you know your C# Blues Scales you can transcribe those unwritten parts very easily; which is what I opted to do. I put the link below for the site I use to take youtube videos and turn them into mp3 files.
http://convert2mp3.net/en/

[William Cingolani]

Michael,
I had a video converter a few computers ago. I downloaded the video converter (mediaDownloader).Didn’t work. All I could get is an mp4. No mp3. Still working on it. rock on. In the meantime I’ll continue using Marvin Gaye’s version. And I’ll be looking for another video converter on line for a mac computer

[William Cingolani]

Michael,
Not to worry. I found a video converter that works for my mac and i was able to convert King Curtis’ “I heard it through the Grapevine” to an Mp3. And while I was doing that Apple Care helped me clean up the computer. What a day. You say the music is in C#

[Pete]

Thank you Michael
just downloaded it going to have a play around
with blues scale for now
Cheers
Pete

[Michael]

@ William: On the link to the video converter website that I posted, there’s options to choose from right before the button that says “convert”. I don’t have a Mac computer, so maybe it wasn’t compatible for some reason? Not sure why that would be the case, the computers/internet have minds of their own sometimes LOL
The backing track itself is in B Major, so for Tenor you will need to play the song in C# Major (2 semi tones above B) The sheet music on mysolospot.com is already in the key that you need for Tenor Sax. C# Major is not the friendly key in the world to work with, but that’s what King Curtis is doing here and when you learn to play this song in that key, it sounds fantastic 🙂 On a side note, Johnny mentioned in another post that this song was on his to-do list, so if eventually Johnny decides to make this song available to buy, he could produce a backing track in Bb Major and that would mean for Tenor you would play in C Major….much more Sax ‘friendly’ than C# Major 🙂 But I learned this song in the original key that King Curtis did it….it’s an absolutely killing Saxophone song 🙂 I learned this song about a year ago and was going to upload it when I got my home recording studio all set up before this tongue-tie thing hit me…it’s one of many songs I’ve learned and never shown to anyone–other than just family friends–because of wanting to set up my home recording studio first.
@ Peter: Right on Peter 🙂 Do you play Tenor Sax? I thought you’re on the Alto Sax…you would need to play in G# Major. The Alto is an Eb Sax, it’s not the same things Tenor Sax..make sure you understand that before trying this song…you would end up learning it in the wrong key and in the beginning I made that mistake 🙂 Yeah, work on your Blues Scales….work on all of your scales, it’s really important. Then when you go to learn any song in the world it will all feel very familiar to you. Practice your Major/minor Scales in every which way you can–the various chords of the scales, invert your chords, modes of the scales, the various degrees of the scale/their corresponding chord, the notes of the Pentatonic Scale, work on your scales in Major and minor 3rds, diminished scales, Bebop Scales, and so on. The point being is to work on your scales in every which way that you can so that you simply know them like the back of your hand and you don’t have to think about them. Most people will work on their scales just by going up and down them in a robotic manner…rarely does this kind of practice help to ‘burn’ your scales into our minds. When I’m fully recovered I’ll share some tips with members in the “Saxophone Tips” area of how to get more out of your scales…we all know that practicing them can be boring LOL But there’s lots and lots we can do to make them fun and turn them into actually music.

[William Cingolani]

I used a converter for macs but mysolospot would not let me buy the sheet music using visa. I don’t use paypal.

[Pete]

Hi Michael
I play tenor sax ( YAMAHA CUSTOM ZS) thanks for tips etc
I know blues/ pentatonic/ major/ minor/ dominant scales
but need to keep at em.

[William Cingolani]

H Michael. After 4 hours trying to use the sax solo site to get King Curtis’ music. I give up and I condemn the site. The site won’t let me buy sheet music so I’ll keep using Marvin Gaye’s sheet music.

[William Cingolani]

Well. one good thing resulted today. I found a video converter. cleaned my mac, and converted King Curtis’ video “I heard it through the grapevine” to an mp3. And I practiced “Bridge over Troubled Water”. I’ll up load it while I work on Marvin Gayes “I heard it through the grapevine”. Rock on.

[William Cingolani]

Hi Michael,
New day today. I finally got the King Curtis’ Grapevine sheet music from saxsolos and like you said it’s in C sharp. I wonder why he played it in C sharp. Well anyway I got it. And I also got a video converter. Thanks Michael

[Author]

Posts