Terrific music you have for the Alto Sax Johnny :)

[Michael]

Hi Johnny,
I started working on “Yesterday” and will be learning “Unchained Melody” on the Alto soon…these types of songs are so good for the Alto Sax! Don’t get me wrong, they’re fantastic on the Tenor. It’s just that with some of these songs I like that warm, open, soothing sound. Great stuff Johnny, hope you release more stuff along these lines in the future 🙂

[Anonymous]

after a break of 7 months, i need to start working on backing track songs with a view to mastering them properly and slowly building up a repertoire of songs that i can play to entertain family members.

At the moment i only play backing track songs once – mainly as a sight reading exercise. So i’ll probably restart on amazing grace & work my way up. What i’ll probably do is take each sheet music and copy it into my Finale software so i can add the dynamics or any bit of improvisation that might work, that way i can listen to it played back etc..

but yeah – i need to get back to playing songs for entertaining others and not myself

[john]

ya, and by doing that we enter into a different zone; there’s a place we go daily to learn, practice etc, and then there is a different zone to actually perform a tune for others. it’s a one-time thing so it’;s a totally different mindset. one that requires the practice of course to get there but just like an olympic runner, it’s time to lay it all out on the line and do the best performance we’re capable of for that one time through.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the encouragement Johnny!

what i’ve been doing is completing practicing all the sight reading notation that is expected from anyone with a grade 3 pass.

I want to be able to play any sheet music that is grade 3 standard, not just to be able to only play the 3 songs that are examined in the grade 3 exam – so a lot of practicing short songs with loads of variation is required.

Also started playing lots of short duets with my sax teacher playing the teacher parts of various songs – that takes a bit of getting used to, playing along side another sax player, a lot different to playing along to a backing track or a piano player.

seems weird starting off sax ensemble pieces without counting in the start.

No its definitely time now for me to start working on one song at a time, i shall be working through your stuff that is mainly up to grade 3 standard, i don’t want tackle harder stuff.

i know its possible to learn any song slowly bit by bit, but what i realised when i played in an orchestra and in a jazz band recently, that some of the phrases, you cant just play them straight off without having spent weeks practicing similar phrases, and doing lots of similar run throughs. This is a familiar thing i’ve noticed with some of the uploads, its very difficult to pull off a song if you haven’t mastered playing lots of similar combination of notes in general, in other pieces of music.

practice makes poifekt!🎷

[john]

ya, we really need to focus on specifics. as you say, take one song and learn the hell out of it. not only will you start to shine on that one song but it does rub off into other things…after all, it’s all music.

[Michael]

Oh yeah JB..we really need to play with backing tracks and build our list of songs to play for others…and ourselves. There’s no question that people want to hear us play with backing tracks, plus it’s good for us too because it helps us to learn so many other valuable things like playing in the proper time. Playing with backing tracks also “magnifies” our mistakes…but so does playing without backing tracks too and there’s absolutely a time for that. When I’m working on Johnny’s songs, first I’ll listen to the backing track as I’m reading his sheet music to get it all fixed in my head. I find it’s easier to learn his songs/any song when I do this, we obviously can’t play it if we can’t hear it, can’t feel the rhythm, etc.. That kind of “skill” is almost impossible to develop if we don’t use backing tracks at all. And besides, I think playing for others using backing tracks is just more plain fun 🙂

[Anonymous]

absolutely right michael!

in my case i need to 1st of all listen to the piece being played WITH the instrument, that way i get a better picture of how the instrument should be played, for me its impossible to get the phrasing/dynamics/expression to sound right if i don’t listen to how the instrument is being played in the song.

I’ve got to the stage now when i listen to melody being played, that i can tell the length of the notes being played ie 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16 notes etc..

[Author]

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