The Green Onions on Tenor Saxophone

[Michael]

Hey guys,
Here’s my first upload with my Trevor James SR Tenor playing The Green Onions. I based the Improvised licks/riffs from what I’ve been learning from Johnny’s course on “How to Play Killer Blues with 7 notes or less”. With my Improvisation in the middle and the end of the song, I used only 5 notes: The 1-3-5-7 chord of the Blues Scale that I’m working with and a flat 5 on a typical 1-4-5 Blues progression. So I guess that wasn’t too terrible LOL I think this song is absolutely perfect for applying Johnny’s lessons too, I will be doing another one later in the same key that King Curtis did, so that means Improvising in another key with this style of playing .I haven’t forgotten about using Johnny’s backing tracks at the end of Killer Blues or here on his site for the Improvisation lessons by any means! During my playing, the reed started to split on me. I’m not sure if that had any effect on the playing. Thanks for the tips/insights guys in the way of recording/using the software. We’re getting there, little-by-little.

The last time I did “The Watermelon Man” and “Use Me” some locals at the music shop said that my playing was “fake” When my son got the idea of doing more videos up close and personal like the Watermelon Man, it only showed my body and not my face. So they were insinuating that someone else could have been “standing in for me” LOL I don’t pay much attention that those kinds of comments anymore, but we wanted to get up close and personal again and here you can see my face. I want to make my uploads fun v.s just being monotonous and playing and I think it will help be deal with a little stage freight on Camera. I don’t have a problem with it in front of people, it’s just when I’m recording myself. The more fun we can have on our uploads, the more loose and relaxed it will help me feel. How in the world Johnny dealt with a Camera Man in his face, filming him to be on national television and music videos; and NOT get stage freight is something I would like to know LOL If he ever had any stage freight, I can’t tell.

[Michael]

I also played the 4th in this Blues Scale, that would be a C note–so that’s 6 notes in the Improvisation LOL

[john]

Michael, lots going on here! I’m so glad you’re getting a good handle on using the blues scale way to go, and your use og altissimo is there in a big way too.
The points where you can work on is getting everything a bit more smoother. Some of your runs are very
choppy”. Now that you are understanding the note choices, start slowing things down. You can say more with less notes.
Look at your fingers, then go to my recent download song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and look at my fingers.
Let me know if you see any differences.

[Michael]

Great points Johnny; much appreciated. One of the things I’m working on is slowing down in my mind–sometimes things are going through it very quickly. I think I had mentioned to you in a private e-mail some of the side effects I suffered, mentally, from my life-threatening brain injury a few years ago. If you’ve ever had the experience of trying to sleep and you can’t because of your mind is off an running–that’s similar to what I go through sometimes. Medically, it’s been a very slow road to recovery. But my doctor does think that music has helped me for a variety of reasons. Going for nature hikes also are good and that’s what our family is doing today and tomorrow 🙂 The brain will literally rewire itself after I blow like I suffered. Without being technical, some of your neurological connections you brain will cut off and it will make new ones. And with that comes certain changes–but that is another story. At the very least, when I told you that your Killer blues ebook is the main focus of my practice, at least now you know it really is LOL Your exercises and how you break down and analyze everything just seems to stick in the mind really well; don’t have to think about it much.

Thanks for noticing the fingerings–I already saw your new video and commented on youtube….GOOD stuff! That was an awesome backing track. One of the things I forgot to mention–and maybe I should have mentioned it before and I won’t do it again–regarding my fingers: Some locals said that my playing was “fake” on video and they also feel that you have to know lots and lots of Altissimo fingerings because, quote, “every Saxophone is different” and I simply refute that..of course they disagree with me. But they’ve been playing for years more than I have…….what do I know, right? So I decided, on at the very least a few key notes, decide to deliberately exaggerate some of the fingerings. I wanted them/other members to see what I’ve been trying to convey: That thought of having to know 100 different fingerings is simply not true. What you teach us here just plain works! 🙂 As I have explained to locals, I have used your fingerings that you teach on 5 different Saxophones–I hit them each and every time. I have shared your site/courses with lots of folks in the music community here. One band teacher my wife talked to (yes, she shares your site with Music teachers that she knows here) said that your name “rings a bell” with him but couldn’t quite put the finger where. With the folks I have talked to here where I live, they look at the Altissimo range like it’s a mystery of sorts. One guy even asked me if I had any “secrets” LOL There are NO secrets, the exact same thing I’ve been learning you make available to everyone. I told him that you can show us what to do, but you can’t do it for us. WE have to put in the work…and it took A LOT of work to play in that range. If you noticed, I hit Alitssimo G in the 5th Octave a couple of times…that’s what the last note was 🙂 If I can get my flutter tongue better, I wanted to do an Instrumental version of Junior Walker’s “Urgent” 🙂

Couple of question: I noticed some of the runs were choppy too–thanks for bringing that out and I’m not going to try and cover that up because I have so much to improve and work on. Do you think my reed starting to split on me while I was playing might have had, to a small degree, an effect on that? I feel that it may have and I mentioned it in my comments when I posted the video. I started to split in 2 places at the tip of the reed. Also, do you think we overdid anything in the way of editing with reverb or compression that may have made it sound a little choppy? I’m not sure how much Reverb and Compression my son used, but I told him to keep it bare minimum. We’re getting there and there will be many more trial-and-error edits coming.

[Anonymous]

@Michael – your tenor rocks man!

What amazes me – is that even though you’ve changed sax’s you
sound just the same! Just like singers we all have our own sound.

Keep at it Michael!

[Michael]

Thanks JB, without Johnny and his instruction, none of it would be possible. There’s a few rough spots in this playing as Johnny brought out–I just need to slow down a little bit and that will help fix those rough spots. Because of the side effects that I sometimes suffer from my life-threatening Brain Injury that I had a few years ago, my mind can think too fast and it’s a problem that I have, not just with playing a Saxophone. It has affected other aspects of my life. Medical recovery has been slow, but making steady progress and I’m working on it. The next upload I’m doing in a couple weeks is “Spooky” on this Tenor; it’s in a different key than I played on the Alto so it will sound/feel different. More keys/scales to Improvise with, all the better to help learn and improve. The mic I’m using isn’t very good and doesn’t capture the TRUE sound/essence of my Saxophones, but at least you do get somewhat of an idea. A good, quality mic is on the list to fix this year that does a better job of recording; it’s just that time to take care…doesn’t mean I have to spend a lot of $ either. I will say this much: To hear this model of Trevor James Tenor, how it plays in person…all I can say is that it’s a BEAST of a Saxophone. My wife says that it sounds very “evil” 🙂 If you listen to the very last note, Altissimo G in the 5th Octave (I hit it again at the end of my solo in the middle of the song) you can hear that screaming “screech” in the high note….VERY cool 🙂

[john]

the choppyness is not from reverb and compression….I don’t even hear those to be honest so at least you’re not using it too much which is good.
I totally forgot about that brain thing sorry. But ya, it’s like that, very racing and I guess now that you are more aware of it you might be able to slow it down. this can be good because we don’t need to play so many notes…pro players have a running joke at a gig if someone plays a solo with a whole lotta notes we ask him “hey man, you gettin paid by the note?
Now that you’re getting a handle on those blues scales try and make up some little riffs that work for you and not just go up and down so much. it’s like you can say a lot but it doesn’t mean that much, conversely, we can play a little less and make it sound more meaningfull.
This stuff takes time so don’t get discouraged that I’m saying this negative sounding stuff. Soloing takes time but I can hear you’re really starting to get it so keep going! Just try to implement those few suggestions I made while you move ahead.

[Anonymous]

@Michael – i am doing a grade 3 sax exam this December, and one of
the songs i have to play in the exam i started learning it in January – bear in mind i only practice it for 10 minutes ONLY every day.

The song has to be played at 120 BPM which is the backing track speed.

In january i could play it smoothly at 76BPM, its now MAY and
i am ONLY at 108BPM – i’ve still got to get it up to 120BPM.

For me i first of all nail a song
at the speed i can play it smoothly – then i increase the backing track speed by STEPS of 5 etc… until i can play at the proper speed!

The only other way to play at the proper speed is to practice the 1st bar or phrase until you can play it at the right speed, then move onto the next bar! The trouble i find with that method, is when you slowly join up all the bars for the entire song it tends to make the whole song sound choppy and disjointed!

For me its far better to play the whole lot smoothly at a slow speed
and then slowly start increasing the speed in steps for the whole song – its s more natural progression!

But at the end of the day – its all down to pratice & adopting a fixed approach to learning a new song that works for you!

Keeping going Michael – Sax sounds great!!

[Michael]

Terrific points Johnny, thanks much! That’s good for us that you couldn’t tell we used any reverb/compression, so that means we got that right and we’ll make a note of that for sure. That’s a funny running joke at the gig LOL Never thought about that, thanks for sharing! But I guess that goes to also show that I’m by no means the only one to have used lots of notes 🙂 Cool, Slow down slightly in my Improvising and use a little less is what I need to start working on, which should also take care of some of the rough spots that I see too. That’s the great thing about your Blog is that you can actually see what we’re doing v.s. just reading about it. I’m not discouraged by any means….I feel very encouraged and I’m taking lots of positives from this 🙂 I realize that these things take a lot of time like you say and I do think that these are very positive steps–it’s a work in progress. Reminds me of how many times I first tried playing a high F# after our private lesson–so many tries/attempts and it sounded rough and thin LOL. I think it took like 6 months or so before my high F# started to sound full/whole. Whose to say, 6 months or a year from now, where I’ll be with these Blues Scales? 🙂 Like you have always said, gotta crawl before we walk and walk before we can run. Even at that, our first few times at running we may have to run, stop, catch our breath, LOL Anytime where learning anything new it takes lots of time; but the more we do it the better we get at it and that’s what will happen here. When I was a pro fly fishing guide, I would tell people the exact same thing whenever I was teaching them different fly casting techniques or what. I can cast a fly line with a fly rod (not talking about conventional lures/gear) with more distance and accuracy than I care to mention here on your forum…that is another story 🙂 But it took me YEARS to get to that point and that’s what I always tried to convey to people. I’ve been asked, repeatedly, by people I’ve worked with through the US to open a new youtube channel and make videos of my former profession.

JB: Those are great points and will definately help. Thanks for sharing and will work on it for sure! Always appreciated 🙂

Great insights and points guys, really appreciate your help! I’ll work at putting those into practice for the next upload, will be in a couple of weeks or so.

[Anonymous]

This is the one of the grade 3 sax exam pieces i am learning to play but i haven’t
got it up to speed yet

Michael – this song below called
radetzki march is a grade 3 alto sax
exam piece that anyone who has been
playing for 3 years should find very
easy to play

the guy playing it made some mistakes
in it.
I can just about play it far better than that!
At the proper speed! but when i first
had a go i had to take the metronome
speed right down to 40 BPM! lol

[Author]

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