Johnnys Sax version of the song “Use Me”….heard Bill Withers on the radio today.

[Michael]

😎 Hi Johnny,
I heard Bill Withers on the radio today sing the song “Use Me” and I really think that, in many ways, Johnny’s Sax Version is even better! Hearing it on the Sax sounds so much more expressive (I think so anyway) and there’s a lot of the embellishments in his playing that just really hits home 🙂 I’ve learned slightly more than half of this song and I”ll upload it to the blog after the next couple of things I going to be uploading…one of those uploads is the duet Jake and I are doing. Sometimes I just don’t want to put the Tenor down and call it a day when learning to play “Use Me” LOL Just hope Johnny plans on releasing more of this funky style of Saxophone music in the future because this is good, GOOD stuff to play 🙂

[Anonymous]

That sounds cool Michael!
Do you learn all your songs from memory?
so you don’t need to look at the sheet music
when playing with the backing track?
That’s one of my goals – to learn one from
memory, but haven’t got round to it yet.
Soon as i’ve completed my grade 2 in
November i shall try it!
I’m glad i’m doing this grade because now
i know what the kids have to go through when
they take a grade!
In a way it does seem a tad exam orientated,
you spend more time getting things right for the
exam than practing a lot if other things.
The plus side is at least its getting me
to play things properly and sax teacher is more
stricter as the grades his pupils get reflect
on his teaching.

[Michael]

Yeah, I always make it point to commit Johnny’s song-or any song-to memory so that I’m not staying glued to the reading the sheet music while playing. To do this, I will break the song down and work on just a few notes at a time and it’s much easier to retain by memory when you do that. Good for you to have that goal,and like anything else with the Sax, the more you practice at it the better you will be and there’s no question that I feel so, so much more free and open while playing from memory. Johnny in his book “How to Play Killer Blues” talks about it right from the first lesson and really encourages people that, if at all possible, to play what he teaches there in his book from Memory. Good for you to have access to your Sax teacher too!

[Author]

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