Unpredicted squarking sounds

[john]

Thanks Reg, Santana is a great guy to listen to…good feeling there! I had an opportunity to play on 2 concerts with him and his band…well, the band I was in were just the opening act but we still got to say hello and it was a ball.

[Reg Hite]

Hi Johnny I have just purchased all 4 of the 50’s Rock tunes and managed to download the sheet music for each of the tunes but I experienced problems downloading the MP3 sound tracks for each tune. I am not sure if it is something I did wrong in the process but is there another way in which I can access these files to download the sound tracks.
My email address is reg.hite@capetown.gov.za

[john]

Reg, have tried emailing you 3 times and it always comes back as undeliverable…please check the email you left me!

[Reg Hite]

Try this email address

reg.hite@telkomsa.net

[Reg Hite]

Hi Johnny, I really like the 4 rock n roll songs from the 50’s I recently purchased from you. I specifically went for them so as to learn how to play fast Sax music. I am quite proficient with slow and medium tempo music but need a lot more practice playing fast especially with regards to breathing. I find it a bit difficult finding the right time to breath when playing fast music and then I tend to try playing the sections all in one breath and then taking a breath when I come to the next rest which in some cases can be quite a number of notes and by then I sometimes start to run out of air.
I really look forward to “Baker street” and “Careless whisper”.
Cheers for now.
Reg.

[john]

Hey Reg, have you tried singing the songs? When I copy melodies such as those rock songs I will have the singer’s voice in my head and just interpret it in a similar way through my sax…so really just singing along and in doing that the breathing should come naturally at the right spots. It’s phrasing, just like talking and should not really be long-winded.

[Reg Hite]

Hi Johnny, thanks for the great advice. It’s quite funny how we tend to overlook the basics. When I used to sing for the choir we were taught how to breath and we would mark off on our sheet music where we need to take a breath. I don’t understand why I did not relate this to playing the sax. It shows you how important it is to refer back to basics from time to time. Thanks for reminding me.

Regards Reg

[Reg Hite]

Hey Johnny, I really like your version of Careless Whisper and I intend purchasing it. Tell me, the Tenor Sax version of the opening solo, do you need to go into the altissimo range to play it?

[john]

The top note of that phrase on tenor is an F# so technically that is the altissimo range.
Some horns have an F# key to make it easy to play it…that;s also the 1st note we tackle on the altissimo course that I have just released and anyone who can control an F will be able to play the F#. So don’t let it scare you!

[Reg Hite]

That’s great news, in fact my horn does have an F# key and I have no problem hitting that note. I practice it quite often but for short periods at a time so as not to drive the family crazy.

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