Misty

[Dazza]

Hey fellas. Been too long since I uploaded and underwent a critique. Been getting back into structured practice after moving house and my new practice room at work, which is now just a quarter mile from home, is a communications room so excuse the hum of the phone system. Sorry, no backing track just yet but will have soon. Cheers for your feedback…

[Dazza]

Goodnight Sweetheart. Hey Johnny I worked on that b down to d issue and made an attempt at upload. Please listen from 1 min 40 as the first bit is rubbish.

[john]

hey Dazza, you’ve come a long way. I think your last video was “Yesterday” and the main thing was the tenor was new to you and the main issue was your tuning. definately way better now. and nice to hear some vibrato working well and even a growl, way to go.
you may notice on a few notes, as they end you lose some control and they either break or sound a little flat as they go. this can be improved by using your tongue to make sure they end properly, making your intonation and control sound stronger.
But your overall tone and control has improved greatly since Yesterday.

[Dazza]

Thanks Johnny. I will work on that and put it together with the backing track I made. I input the chords into Band In a Box and picked a slow jazz style and produced a backing track that sounds quite cool. Has anyone used this program at all??

[Michael]

Very nice Dazza 🙂 Very smooth and you’re getting a great tone. Looks like you’re enjoying your Tenor too. Do you plan to make the Tenor the Sax you play, play Alto & Tenor? Those are both great choices of songs too. Misty is such a popular song–I’m a big fan of King Curtis’ playing of Misty. It’s good sometimes to upload with no backing track or anything…heck, it doesn’t even have to be a song that we upload. Even just of our practice seesions is good; how we practice plays a big part in how we play. I’m curious about your MP/reed set up. Are you using Cane/synthetic reeds?
I’ve been using the Claude Lakey MP for on Tenor…the more I use it the more I like it because it’s so, so versatile and is probably the best mouthpiece for Tenor Sax (for me) that I’ve used so far; so I’m seriously leaning towards making it my permanent MP. It’s the same MP that Johnny did on his Trevor James Saxophone review for the Alto. I don’t wanna get caught up in the “trap” of having 100 different MPs laying around and pulling out that one MP for a specific type of music LOL. It’s much better to pick 1 MP that we can use for just about everything we play. On the down side, the only ligature I have that fits it, right now, is one of those ligatures that are the worst in the world and that we all need to stay away from LOL But the good news is that I’ll be getting a good ligature for it on July 1. Anyone who says that ligatures don’t make a difference don’t know what they’re talking about.
Thanks for sharing this Dazza…now let’s hear those great songs with backing tracks 🙂

[Dazza]

I most certainly will stick with the tenor. I reckon it is far more versatile than the alto and lends itself well to all styles of music and particularly the songs I like to learn. Still having mp issues myself playing the Yamaha 5c and wanting to change but the question is to what?

I have a metal ottolink but can’t play it at all at present. Just squeaks and squawks. Maybe one day I will have a chance but for now it’s a paperweight.

[Kevin]

Dazza, definitely a good job regarding your playing! Controlled, in tune, good tone, with minimal noticeable errors (reed breaks, articulation, etc.)
I like your vibrato- nice slow speed with that hint of air on the low notes. Nice addition to your “sound”, which was pleasing to listen to! Looking forward to more.

[Anonymous]

really good dazza!! coming on even better. putting your own twist on it!

small tip from my sax teacher – drop all the fancy bits (embellishments, improvisations etc..) and master the bare bones of the tune, when you’ve nailed that top to bottom, then bring in the “icing on the cake” (all the fancy stuff) – don’t jump the gun.

keep tonguing/emphasing the start of each of the phrases, theres lots of dynamics in misty. the opening phrase for example Dat Dat
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa – you are allowed to really exaggerate the end of the phrase and let it linger on, but above all make more use of the dynamics it rises loudly and softly in parts and there is a feeling of changing of speed in it!

you can totally ignore me – i won’t be offended! lol

[Anonymous]

the 2nd upload i’m not familiar with the song, gut feeling a lot more expression needs injecting – it just sounds the same level all the way through ( to me ) i bet when you put the backing track on – it will come to life ( believe me, i play differently with a backing track) .

Don ‘t shy away from playing like that – it is good to try and play a tune in different ways to get a good feel of the canvas you are working with!

Play around with phrases- really over exagerate them & then go in the opposite direction and play them really grateingly jarring, then find the middle ground (Johnny’s sweet spot). Try lots of different moods – angry, sad,happy, mad, blow your brains out. By doing all these things – expression is born….

[john]

Dazza, do you live any where near a shop that sells mp’s?
the best thing to do is sit down and try out a handful of them.
I know this sounds simple but not possible for everyone if there is no shop around.

[Author]

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