scales

[Anonymous]

wow – this time last year if anyone had said i’d know
22 different scales a year later i would have said they
were nuts! Just got 8 more to go & then i’ve covered
all the major flat/sharp scales & their harmonic minors.
Not even started the melodic & natural minor scales.
Anyway once i’ve done the last 8 – i shall re-run the
Altissimo course again!

[Anonymous]

Hi James

So those old smelly fish have come in quite handy then? 😉

I can’t wait, by tomorrow this time I should have my YTS-62
then I can start practicing my scales on Alto and Tenor.

Some may say … I’m on tender hooks 🙂

[Anonymous]

cool – u must do an upload !

when i went to my sax lesson this week, the sax teacher was showing me he plays the sax using the sheet music displayed on his i-pad, and he has a foot pedal to turn the ipad sheet page, then he was getting all excited as apple are bringing out bigger ipad for him to display his music sheets on!

So i told my wife about the new bigger ipad coming out ! Her response was ‘Don’t even think about!’, i could see the reflection of the fish on the wall behind her!

A night i crawl into my sax bell and goes to sleep! yawn

[Anonymous]

oh – just to add my sax is sounding less like a typewritter – re-learning finger technique to play with very soft fingers, letting the keys push my fingers up instead of lifting the fingers off the keys (the pro way to play so i am led to believe by my instructor)

[Anonymous]

James, I’m still making too many mistakes to do uploads! I am trying to relax my fingers whilst playing, still too tense at present. I read somewhere that to play quickly and smoothly one has to keep finger movement to a minimum.

I tried the YTS-62 yesterday but it needs a good pad clean and hinges oiling etc. I’ll do that today. Whilst in the shop I bought a Selmer metal mouthpiece for my alto. It’s incredible the effect the mouthpiece has on the sound. Compared to the standard 4C, the sound is nearly twice as loud better defined and clearer. I was hoping to play it indoors, but perhaps I need to fit a softer reed to play more quietly?

[Anonymous]

practice long tones at different volume levels (soft, medium, loud etc.. ) to be able to play softer.

the 4c is ok for the 1st year for a beginner to build up a fantastic tone on!

[Anonymous]

James, I’ve just been playing the alto with the new Selmer mouthpiece with a Vandoren #1 reed. I play the 4C with a Vandoren #2 and now use very little lip pressure on the reed as that way it produces a better tone.

When I practice with the 4C alone I spend about ten minutes making long tones and bending the note as far as I can take it.
I tried this with the Selmer MP tonight and discovered I can bend the note down a little further still.

With the 4C I couldn’t really bend the note when it was on the sax, but the Selmer allows me to bend the note down nearly as far as with the MP alone – droooool making stuff!!! That is probably due to the reed being mounted further from the tip. The reed is also held firmly flat and in place on the Selmer which makes reed adjustment a pleasure.

I’m beginning to see why these mouthpieces cost so much more than the standard 4C. I’ll try a two hour practice session tomorrow with my ‘Silver Dream’ Selmer MP. I can hardly wait!

[Anonymous]

cool – selmar make quality mouthpieces!

i stopped playing for 2 days, and re-started today, been sun bathing in the hot sunny weather!

currently relearning to play using fingers that are lifted up by the sax keys, instead of raising my fingers, i let the keys push my fingers up, and playing with complete relaxed hands. I no longer raise all the fingers off the sax,instead i just raise the finger i dont need off the sax (huge difference in style), starting to feel the benifits of playing this way, it feels more sexy/responsive to have fingers gently in contact with the keys at all times rather than slamming them up and down on the pads

[Kevin]

JB, thanks for sharing insight on this fingering technique. To learn to finger the stringed instruments I learned on I was taught to give it firm “pop”. This has carried over into my sax fingering which gives and audible pad popping noise and makes the metal linkages click loud enough to be heard with the mic.
So mentally thinking of letting the spring pressure lift ones fingers is a very useful pointer…

[Anonymous]

Thanks Kev – my teacher (very patient – god bless) keeps saying relax relax gently on the keys !

i’ve starting playing soft fingers recently – and for me its harder to do than it sounds! it so affected my playing that i trip up a lot of my notes on songs i have no problem playing!

So what i’m doing, sounds stupid, i got out the music learners book that i started out with (includes backing tracks) and started working through that! its going to be a long haul! I told my teacher what i was doing & he was quite sympathetic!

on a completely differect tack – i was practicing a jazz piece yesterday and tried something new with my tongue.

i played a note, stopped it by bringing my tongue down onto the reed, continued blowing the note and this time i stopped the note by bringing the tongue upwards.

speeding this up, flicking the tongue down, hitting the tip , then flicking the tongue up, hitting the tip – creates an unusual effect

dat daaaa dat daaa

[Author]

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