question about sax solo for Rock Around the Clock

[Michael]

Hi Johnny,
When you play the Sax solo, at the beginning of the solo, we have a series of Bb, A, G then back up to B, A, G, series of Bb, etc.. Are you playing these notes with a swing of sorts? Just looking for that rhythm–starting to work on the solo and watching you play it, those two G notes feel almost like a small fall-off of sorts. Thanks! 😎

[john]

I think I added a real quick trill from A to Bb when I hit the first A (goes by pretty quick but that;s the feel)
If you wanna copy it you have to listen to the licks isolated in short groups of like 2 or 3 beats then sing it. If you can’t hum or sing it you may not be able to play it because you don’t know it yet. Learn it first, then work it on the saxophone.

[Michael]

I watched you play that portion of the solo and I can definately see you trilling, so I tried it and worked great! I didn’t even think about it when looking at your sheet music. I’ve been working on trilling for a couple months, I found an online exercise a couple months back specifically on trilling that I actually use when warming up; it’s really helped to strengthen my “ring” finger and little “pinky” finger, especially when hitting those side keys of low C# and low Bb. Humming has really been helping me out a lot with Mack the Knife; I’ll upload it as soon as I get my webcam replaced. Humming wasn’t much of help in working on “Take Five” on the alto because it’s in 5/4 time. I will be uploading “Take Five” to the blog in time shortly.

[john]

Yes, trilling is huge…I don’t think I even have a lesson on it yet.

[Author]

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