Yellowstone

[RockinRobin]

I’ve watched all of Yellowstone and all the prequels, 1823 & 1923 and I’ve been blowing the proper music – RHINESTONE COWBOY. So on my music stand is Rhinestone Cowboy. The backing track is in C major so that puts the tenor sax in D major

[Anonymous]

i’ve watched them all, including Tulsa King!

Since last November, i’ve started practicing playing songs with backing tracks from memory instead of looking at the music sheet.

It’s a lot more fun doing it from memory, less stressful, gives you more freedom of expression, and sounds less robotic.

i found playing from a music sheet, at the back of my mind no matter how many times i practiced a tune, i would always remember and see on the parts of the sheet i had problems with in the past, which is off putting every time i played a sheet.

where as playing from memory the more times i played a song, all the stressful parts disappeared. The other thing i noticed when playing from memory it allowed me to focus more on listening what was happening in the backing track, so i could start the track anywhere and know what to play. Also i could identify sounds in the track that signalled to me where to come in. Where as playing from the sheet i focused more on counting to keep in time and less focusing on the backing track.

The other great thing i noticed, if i then decided to go back and play from the sheet, it was more perfect playing time wise every time than if hadn’t memorised the tune.

so i now have 2 tunes under my belt, ‘fly me to the moon’, ‘as time goes by’, and working on ‘autumn leaves’.

the first time i did memory playing took me 4 months for ‘fly me to the moon’ (1 hr practice each day), after that memory playing improved, ‘as time goes by’ took a couple of week in March, and now i’m near completing ‘autumn leaves’. So it does look like, the more you do it, the shorter time it takes to do a new song.

[Anonymous]

On average, i found that it roughly takes one week to memorise 4 bars of a music sheet (i only practice up to 1hr a day on the sax). It’s not as difficult as it sounds, as most folks can easily memorise one bar, then it’s just a case of adding on another bar and another bar, and before you know it, you’ve remembered 4 bars. Then you just spend the rest of the week playing those 4 bars from memory.

Quite often there are lots of repeated sections on a music sheet, that cuts out having to memorise new parts further along the sheet. In fact the hardest part to remember is usually the solo part as this goes outside the main melody of the tune.

once you start memorising, it improves your ability to find the right keys for new notes on the sax, so you find you can play simple tunes by ear.

the only problem with playing from memory, which may not be classed as a real problem, is i have to spend all my time just working on the same tune and practicing nothing else on the sax.

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