sharing sax practice

[Marc Justiniano]

Hello Johnny, hope to find you well. Just wanted to share these two videos of me practicing. I am playing with a play along cd. It’s my second day practicing these two songs. Man, my tone to me sucks but maybe you can give me some constructive pointers. I feel when I watch my playing that I am playing like a robot and with no feelings.  Johnny, what am I doing wrong. I don’t seem to be making any progress on my own. Well, here are my two videos. Hope you can give me your take on my playing. 
I practiced both songs about two hours trying to get it sounding right but
Just didn’t work.
I use my tablet to record, could take be an issue on how it sounds too? 

Marc Justiniano
Los Angeles Ca. USA 

Thanks for your time!

First one is roundabout by YES

25 or 4 to 5 by Chicago

[Anonymous]

Hi Marc – before JF gets back to you with advice, i’ve listened to your playing tone and i can hear the makings of a good tone sound that just needs developing – so a few weeks down the line, that sax will start to sing!

[john]

Not too bad Marc, my strongest advice to you at this point is to start playing louder.
Practice your long tones and scales etc much louder.
Let’s say you have a volume knob that goes from 1 to 10, you’re at about 2 but need
to be able to get to 10. It takes some effort but working this way will start to
improve your tone which is starving for way more air at the moment.
which mouthpiece are you using, reeds?

[Michael]

Hey Marc,
Thanks for sharing this session from your practice, good for you. When we upload to Johnny’s blog, we always think about hearing killing Sax songs, etc., but these types of videos of our practice sessions are great because it allows Johnny to see how we practice. I was just thinking about this myself earlier today (no joke LOL), so thanks for doing it and uploading it here to Johnny’s blog. That old saying of “we play like we practice” holds a lot of truth. As an example like Johnny says above regarding to play louder, if we’re used to practicing loud, then playing loud in a song, with a band, etc.. will naturally follow.

[Anonymous]

if you want to play loud in a band – get a microphone

[Kevin]

Marc, loved your song choices. Practicing/playing along to those tunes would be fun for sure.
Practicing louder to fill out the sound is one of the benefits as stated, but it also gets us to play more assertively with the energy we hear from our pro mentors.

[Marc Justiniano]

Sxpoet, Michael, and kevin. Thank you all for commenting and adding some good suggestions for sure! Johnny, my mouthpiece is a vintage Berg Larsen 110 which has a deeper darker sound from what I was told by Jim Scimonetti who I took some private lessons from. I play with Vandoren java red 2.5 reeds but perhaps this reed was a 3 which I can’t tell because the number has rubbed off. I tested a ottolink mouthpiece 7× which at the time seemed brighter and easier for me to play but I ended up buying the Berg Larsen. Jim is a endorser of Theo Wanne mouthpieces and has told me he would sell me a Theo that he has for $400 (worth $900), so when I get the extra cash I’ll have to play the Theo wanne mouthpiece and see if it’s brighter and easier for me to play it. Johnny you are right about getting back to practicing the scales to play more smoothly and to help me use them for improvising down the line because I still suck in that area of improvising. Johnny, is it a good idea to memorize the blue scales? My wife is setting next to me and she is asking me if I am writing a book, she is making me laugh. Lol Thank you Johnny for your time and the great advice! Look forward to improving and not have the feeling that I am running and not getting anywhere with my playing.

[john]

yes everyone should know the blues scale and major scales and chords without a doubt!

[Michael]

Hey Marc,
Put it this way: It’s impossible to become “too good” at knowing scales/chords. If you wanna enter into the world of Improvising, it’s simply a must. Learn to play your scales inside-and-out, or like the actor Clint Eastwood would say “Every Which Way But Loose” 🙂

[Anonymous]

if i’m playing a new sheet in a different scale, i usually run up and down the scale before playing it.

a good scale exercise is to play up

1 2 3 1
2 3 4 2
3 4 5 3
4 5 6 4
5 6 7 5
6 7 8 6
7 8 9 7 8
then play down
8 9 10 8
7 8 9 7
6 7 8 6
5 6 7 5
4 5 6 4
3 4 5 3
2 3 4 2 1

you should be able to zip up and down through very quickly if you have mastered playing scsles properly

[Author]

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