new forum

[Anonymous]

Hi Jf,
Can you setup a new forum called “Chat Room”?

Where people can go and discuss stuff that has no relevance to improving a persons Sax Playing?

Perhaps i’m being too harsh?

At the end of the day, i just wan’t information that will help improve my playing. Like these videos you are doing for your latest songs – now thats what is very useful.

cheers
sxpoet

[Dazza]

Really? Are we going to go here again! I thought this attitude was a thing of your past. I am of the opinion that any discussion and feedback that helps someone make decisions about the equipment they choose, or otherwise, potentially affects their playing. I regard this site as a Sax community not just an online textbook.

[Anonymous]

exactly !

All the more reason for a community chat room.

I wasn’t having a go at anyone, just an observation, an oppionion of mine which i raised.

I haven’t taken offence of your comments, it seems like the idea hasn’t gone down very well!

[Anonymous]

That reminds of this delightful performance!

[William Cingolani]

Thanks for the “Sound of Silence# tutorial. Lots of valuable points in the tutorial e.g Tonguing, hitting the low D by sliding down from A, ending the note with the Tongue to avoid sounding flat, articulation, etc. Even though it’s a simple song, simple melody, simple notes there’s more to playing the song than just blowing notes.

[john]

Thanks William. at first I didn’t think there would be very much stuff in these easy song videos to go over but then sitting down and going over them carefully I was happy to see that even tho I tried to keep it as simple as possible there was still many “little” things added.
On Sounds of Silence I think I counted 10 different types of embellishments. what’s cool about that is you can learn them from that lesson and start using them on everything you play.

[Michael]

Great points Johnny–I think there’s so, so much to be learned in these songs that people will call simple or ‘beginner’s’ songs and, in my little opinion, I think those are usually the ones where we learn the most. I was noticing how you mentioned at first you didn’t think there was very much stuff in these simple songs and then when you got to thinking about it you noticed that there was quite a bit–do you think it’s because these simple songs kind of forces us to take a step back and makes us think a little bit more about what we’re doing? When we’re playing, we don’t really think about what we’re doing, we just do it. It’s kind of hard for me to put into exact words, on a computer, what I mean about the lessons we all can learn from simple songs. I also think these simple songs are some of the best to listen to; look at how huge Elvis’ song of “Falling in Love” is, even to this day 🙂

[john]

yes, I made a mental note to myself to keep the playing as straight and simple as possible yet out of habit I just added little embellishments such as note bending, fall-offs etc with out even thinking about it. actually I’m glad I did cause it allowed me to make the lesson videos with more contend and therefor more valuable for you guys.
I’ve had lots of email asking me to share this stuff or write it in the music but it’s not that simple…if I write a squigly line going down from a note that tells you it’s a fall-off but just how do you go about pulling it off the way that I did it? it needs explanation and demonstration to make it clear, especially for beginners who haven’t really tried to do these types of things yet.

[Michael]

🙂 🙂 🙂 I can’t help but smile really big when I look at your reply because when I first started to learn from you, those are the exact kinds of things I would think to myself when I would see something like a squigly line and wonder what in the world that was and can even remember asking you about things along those lines, but it wasn’t until you released a lesson–say a Glissando for example–that I was like “oh, okay I see what that is” It goes to show how there are some things you simply can’t learn on your own and need someone to teach you these things. I really think that you’re on to something good with doing with these tutorials Johnny….I would imagine that this is all quite a bit of work for you too. Coming from a student player like me, I really wish I had some of these kinds of tutorials available to buy for previous Sax Covers I bought from you & attempted to play. As a suggestion, maybe it would be cool to send out a survey to all members, like you did before when you designed your Major Scale course (I will be jumping on that course very soon, I bought it before my Oral Cavity disorder decided to onset itself and needed treatment), to see if there are songs that you have on your site that folks would buy a tutorial for. I’ve seen comments from people on your channel about the solo to “Pick Up the Pieces” asking for help. After you get the results from the survey, see which songs are most in-demand and make tutorials for those songs. I would think that the songs that are most in demand would be the ones that would be worth your time to do from a financial stand point? I don’t know, this suggestion is coming from the viewpoint of a student player like me and I’m not sure if it would be worth your time or if time would even permit you to make tutorials for Sax Covers of yours in high demand. I would imagine it would take some time. I’ll tell you right off the bat, for me “The Watermelon Man” would be at the top of my choices for you to make a tutorial because when I learned it (that was over 2 years ago!) there were some very tricky lines to pull off…a tutorial from you would have been the icing on the cake 🙂 I can’t even begin to imagine the things I would have picked up from you if I had a tutorial v.s. just watching your video, listening to what you’re doing, etc..
On a side note Johnny, I’ve been sharing my custom backing tracks/links to where they can get the Sax lines to learn those songs under the “Repertoire” section of your site…please let me know at anytime if this is something that you disapprove of. This is your website and I would never, ever, want to detract from that…ever. I had my tracks made in a recording studio as you know and decided, due to my temporary set back, to go ahead and release some of them to members here on your site/friends who I connected with in my growing music community of really nice people 🙂 Some of these guys are simple amazing players and I’m picking up some great insights from so many of these guys, pretty awesome that they’re so open and willing to extend a hand 🙂 It’s cool to see these guys who are so good at what they do, but at the same time are actually nice people–a real highlight for sure. I’m releasing some of these tracks to music friends, but not all of them 🙂 I thought other members/other players may want to learn some of these songs too and will put them to good use v.s. just sitting on my computer waiting for me to heal…the healing process has come along very well and I’m starting to feel…great 🙂

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