Latest 5 tracks

[Dazza]

Great advice again JF. Well simplified and made me realise my fears are unwarranted. I am already playing a few songs in E and B is only a A# away so what is the problem I now ask myself! A year ago I wondered if A was out of reach. Funny how our brain reminds us of what we can’t do rather than what we can. Will certainly get the song pack and keep them in those keys. Thanks again for all the comments.

[Michael]

Great points Johnny, when I shared the track of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” we were talking about the exact same kind of thing—it’s simply not realistic to think that we can/should limit ourselves to playing songs we like in just a handful of keys; we would be very limited to what we can do on the Saxophone. The more scales/chord progressions, etc.. that we can get under our fingers then all the better. The man I’m working with tells us to know our scales, chords, chord progressions, etc.. to the point that it’s “instinctive” meaning you know them so well that you just don’t think about any of them anymore and that when you hook up with other musicians that we have the confidence that it doesn’t matter what key/scale everyone else is playing in, we have the ability to play with them.

[Michael]

Hey Johnny,
I forgot to mention, just adding to my post above, that when I started playing with the Blues Society I learned how much our guitar players love those same keys too. Not just playing with them on Tenor, but also the times that I’ve had to play in C# on the Alto when our guitar player, Whitman, is playing in E–if I wanted to play with him on the Alto, I had no choice but to play in C#..it was either that or break out the Tenor, but that doesn’t do much good when I left my Tenor at home because either I had already resolved that tonight was going to be an Alto Sax night or that’s the Saxophone they wanted to hear for this weeks’ blues session, so I don’t have any choice LOL I like how you said it’s more of a mental thing; that’s what I found for sure…….and your Killer Blues ebook was a HUGE shortcut to learning to play with these guys 🙂 When it comes to my 3 Saxophones, I love my Soprano, Alto and Tenor because I think each Sax has it’s own unique challenges and when we get over these challenges, like having to play in different keys that aren’t considered the norm, it just makes us that much better of players and I think it’s a lot of fun 🙂 Talking about the Blues Society…I’m SO looking forward to getting back with those guys when I’m back to 100% fully recuperated..it’s an awesome way to spend my Friday nights 🙂

[Anonymous]

JF – Thanks for the feedback relevant to my initial post topic!

I spent an hr with my Pro today, and he’s sorted me out a fantastic practice routine which will improve my sound quite significantly and also give me a solid improvising foundation over the next year. As you are well aware, there is no short cut to learning to improvise – the only shortcuts are basically copying some else’s riffs.

cheers
sxpoet

[john]

@Michael, that’s the thing about playing these transposing instruments, we need to be fluid in those multiple sharp keys because as soon as you get with a group you’ll be playing in F# and C# right away. That’s why I always say to learn all your scales inside out!

@sxpoet, I glanced at a few of the exercises you shared from him a few days ago and he’s got you right on track…very detailed stuff from the few I saw. I always worked on my improve in 2 ways 1), studying scales, chords and patterns, 2) copying other players licks that attracted me. The thing about doing both is you quickly start analysing what others do and how it relates to the theory side and the bright bulb eventually comes on!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback again JF.
The exercises in my dropbox are from months back when my teacher started me on the basic blues & major keys improvisation.

The 1st point i agree with, and that has been in place from day 1, the exercise sheets bring to surface how important these are, and its not the case of running up and down a scale starting from the same point (thats a waste of time). These exercises are to get the feel of the sounds and the scale sounds so hopefully later on i can jump round the scales for the same song with ease, and around the various intervals in each scale.

I must admit his exercises were very boring for the 1st few months on just 1 scale, but after that, light bulb, i then found i could just flow around that scale without thinking about it and my fingers were moving to the next sound i wanted to hear in my head, without having the fumble about finding the right key, you don’t get that by just going up and down a scale.

With regard to the 2nd point – At this early stage my teacher has insisted in NOT jumping ahead like most learners do and try to play some improvisation like well known players – he’s explained the negative side of that resulting in students not developing there own improvisation skills properly (in fact completely ruining their improvisation learning) resulting in being very limited to what they can imagine, the other point is also that most learners like me don’t have the technical skills to play like a Pro so that can have a negative effect on their outlook when trying to take on something outside their reach. Each person is different in this aspect.

Point 2 would be great for a couple years down the line, if i still want to analyse and pick apart what other professional players have done – thats too way ahead for me.

The general stuff at the moment isn’t about growling, screaming altissimo, its about the artistic medium of how my sax sound integrates with the backing and concentrating on the beauty of that, get that in place first and then one can easily throw in growling etc later on to spice up the pizza – strip back to the bare canvas and feel what is going on without the distraction of attention seeking sounds, harmony & melody.

The daily practice routine i have now, which will be continually assessed is set for over a year depending on how fast i progress, the good thing working along side a Pro, is he can demo on the sax, where these exercises are leading, and give a demo of what weeks down the line you should be able to play – all without sheet music.As time goes by, obviously more stuff will be added, without being overloaded.

One of the interesting things he mentioned, was in his day he was introduced to improvising late on in life, and regrets not having the opportunity early on in life to be exposed to it. Hence he gets his students on it within a year or so, along side all the normal stuff that he gets students in their teens to do in music grades.

all good stuff
cheers
sxpoet – look forward to a new batch of xmas songs

[Ridge]

sxpoet, yours and Jf post make sense to me. i have been listening to an alto sax player by the name of bob henderson on youtube, he is very good at playing behind the singers he performs with you hear him playing what sounds to me as little melodies while he is improvising it just adds to the overall sound of the songs. of course he plays great solos too. i haven’t been practicing for months but i am ready to start back. i set up a dropbox account so that i can down load the sheets but what is missing are the backing tracks. thanks for your posts.

[Michael]

Thanks for sharing those exercises Sxpoet, good for you to work on them too. Lots of players wanna just play songs all the time and tend to avoid the kind of stuff that your Instructor has you working on. We get to this point in our playing that the stuff he has you working on is unavoidable and it’s simply a must. The good thing about those exercises you shared with us is that you can turn a lot of that stuff into actual music, good licks and riffs in there. That’s the same approach that Johnny took with his Killer Blues ebook. Johnny has always told us how important it is to take heed of the key notes in those scales/exercises, especially the minor 3rd and flat 7, and notice how they give our licks/riffs that ‘bluesy’ feel to it. There’s lots of additional things you can do with those exercises like trills, growls, scoops, etc.. These are things you can do/play around with and have some fun doing it after you have those exercises under your fingers really well, so that you take them from playing them as mere exercises to actual riffs/licks in playing with a backing track or a band. Thanks for sharing 🙂 Are you still using Theo Wanne MPs? They seemed to be a nice fit for you from your last upload, very nice 🙂 Are they hard rubber/ebonite MPs or are they metal MPs?

[Jazz Cat]

good points re new keys, for example I play ‘Chameleon’ a lot and it’s got 3 flats, makes for fun playing Eb Bb

[William Cingolani]

Hi Johnny,
I sent you some charts by email yesterday. My Riverside Dixieland medley. Hope they arrived. Cheers
William

[Author]

Posts