The Green Onions on Tenor Saxophone

[john]

the girl inj the first video, watch her fingers… common beginners mistake I keep harping on. you can’t play fast and smooth with finger action like that.

[Z]

Johnny you always mention that fast fingers is a bad thing. There’s debates over that I guess but personally my fingers look like they’re twitching when I play; I move them like crazy, but I have no problem playing fast. Some of my favorite players move their fingers fast and they’re perfect. You’re an exception but you still sound perfect ;D lol. I really think it’s just a matter of preference because it doesn’t seem like it’ll make much difference.

[Michael]

Hey Johnny—this coming week I’m going to record one of my practice sessions to put into practice what you told me using less licks/riffs in my Improvising, I’ve got loads of things going in my head but I will make sure to just slow down a little, which should smooth out things a little too. As I’ve mentioned before, my problem is that my brain sometimes is running FAST LOL But I guess it’s kind of like if someone is speaking too quickly and you can’t quite make out what they’re saying? It’s like, “Hey dude, slow down! You’re talking too fast” The thing about these Blues Scales that I’m learning about in Killer Blues, is that there’s just so, SO much you can do with them, it’s pretty amazing! But the lesson I’m taking from this is that I just have to know when enough is enough? I won’t re-record the entire song, probably just the middle of it…..and I’ll make sure not to “over exaggerate” my fingers when I play LOL Not saying I don’t need to work on this by any means, but in that video I did deliberately over-exaggerate a little on some key notes; but that seems to be a “no-no”. I really appreciate your help and interest, very encouraging to me….because this type of playing is GOOD stuff 🙂 My wife thinks I sound better/more expressive too. In her own words, she says it “adds some sugar, spice and lovin’ to your playing” 🙂

Ammin: Actually, Johnny has very solid points. The farther away our fingers are from the keys, the great the chance of error. The closer our fingers are to our keys, the less chance of making mistakes. Fast fingers in them self are not a bad thing and I don’t think that’s what Johnny is saying…just listen to great players like King Curtis and Lee Allen how fast they play in some of their songs; like the one I attached below of Lee Allen playing with Etta James in “Tough Lover”. But I can’t see how it would be possible to play that fast/smooth if our fingers are too far away from the keys like Johnny is saying….Johnny is absolutely correct.

[john]

Aminn, I think you misunderstood… not saying don’t have fast fingers, we should all strive for that.
Saying look at her fingers, they go up 2-3 inches from her keys. Michael as well. This is how not to have fast fingers.
When I was young and studying with a master, he would put his hand on top of mine while i played. maybe about an inch or less away from my hand and I was not supposed to touch his hand with my fingers while I played… this was very constricting but you get the point. play in front of a mirror. if your fingers go up away from your keys an inch or less that’s good….if it’s 2-3 inches that’s bad. maybe not while playing Mary Had a Little lamb but later when you’re working on faster things this bad habit will slow you down.

[Kevin]

Another perspective that could be contributing to the choppiness- the choice of when and when not to tongue every note. Some note phrases need to not be interrupted with breaking up the air flow with the tongue. It sounds like Michael is attempting to articulate individual notes of fast runs. Also one of my previous comments that i’m curious as to others thoughts- the amount of “on-time” for the reed sounds shorted- so the tongue contact to the reed has a bit too much duration creating gaps in the flow of the notes.

[Anonymous]

good points Kevin – Which is a
good reason to start out playing a fast piece at a very slow BPM smoothly – that way you can notice the tonging mistakes etc…

If you play 16th notes at 140BPM – would be a bit hard to count compared to playing it at 40BPM🎷

[Anonymous]

i posted this video in the major
improvisation forum some time
ago – he makes a very good point at
4:20

Don’t forget Michael’s upload was
mainly to showcase his new Tenor Sax – which sounds great Michael!
And he’s been in a rush to do this, i think he’s done very well!

[Michael]

Kevin: You have GREAT insights! I hadn’t said anything to anyone on those exact point that you make…that’s exactly what was going through my mind because, along with what Johnny has said about just simplying the licks/riffs just a little and tonguing choice/select notes. You make mention about the on-time of the reed an contact with it by my tongue…I had mentioned that the reed split on me in 2 places. So yes, I believe that contributed to a little roughness.
Great point guys to take with me for next time and I’ll fix it; thanks 🙂

[Michael]

Here’s the reed I that split on me while playing. It was fine while practicing and before I started playing. It was probably ready to split.

[Anonymous]

Michael – that reed is still playable – just clipp the tip back with a pair of nail clippers!

[Author]

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