Post your own saxophone performance video here!
Great to share with others and to keep you honest and improving!
just upload to a video site first, such as youtube then put the video’s URL in the comment box below along with any other information about what you did, your sax, mouthpiece etc and we’ll embed the video ASAP.
Here’s the “duet” with Jake and myself playing Johnny’s song “And I Love Her” in his love songs selections. This song blends itself particularly well as a duet. It’s taken Jake and I about 3 months of collaborating back and forth online to do this and it’s not like we’re on stage together where we can both work on our timing, improvising, etc..
Johnny writes his sheet music in a way that anyone can play it, but there’s so many things we can do, individually, to “polish” a melody and that’s what Jake and I attempted to do here. Scoops, little trills, varying the volume, changing Octaves, sudden run-ups, Improvised “backing vocals” as Jake and I called while we we’re working on this, and so on. If we fall short of anyone’s expectations, in this regard, then please forgive us 🙂
For the backing vocals, the volume is NOT edited; or as if I played them loud and lowered the volume. My goal was to give Jake who took the lead here a subtle, quiet & subdued sound. Jake had the brilliant idea of playing an improvised melody behind the main melody. You can see clearly the variety in tone/pitch v.s doing the entire song in the same tone all the way through. This is a LOVE song….so play it as a love song. Johnny’s lessons on “Subtones” in the Altissimo course really help here, it’s very, very, VERY challenging to maintain the same volume from a low Bb to higher notes and I think that was accomplished. Remember the back-up playing plays behind the lead player, so we hope you can see what each of us is individually doing v.s. it sounding like a “mixed mess” where each Saxophone “crowds” out the other one.
Hey guys – you’ve done very well for your first recording.
This blogg is here for learners to showcase what they want to do & ultimately show how Johnny’s website is improving their craft.
Some might think i’m using it to impress people with my playing!
I’m afraid i am guilty of that!
The reason for that – is down to my sax teacher, he’s using psychology methods to build my confidence to play in front of people.
To achieve this he’s keeps telling me before playing – imagine saying to someone – “Hey Listen to this!”
It’s more like wow just listen to this!
Rather than concentrating on not making a mistake and what people are thinking.
you guys – in your case are confident enough, without me saying so!
You both done well!
wow guys, that is quite an achievement! I was expecting something a little more simple than that. you guys got very adventurous and being able to organize your parts without even being together is not easy to do. The whole concept too a lot of initiative to say the least.
Good to see both of you adding some nice creativity and some cool embellishments. Both of you guys have improved on your tone, especially the tuning. Now there are a couple of sour spots but it was because of wrong notes. when improvising we need to be aware of the major and minor differences. so even a simple moving “backing vocal” line can bomb if a major 3rd is used over a minor chord.
Did you guys write out your individual parts? If so I’d like to see them, if not I’d like to “polish” up a little on what you did and give it another go. You guys dabbled into harmony and this in itself is getting way beyond what you’ve been working on so far in your short saxophone playing lives. email me your individual parts and let’s have a look.
We didn’t write our own individual parts for the back-up playing—came up with them on Tenor and transposed them to Alto for the first half of the song and played them on Tenor for the 2nd half of the song–I haven’t seen the lmprovised licks for the Tenor backings but sure Jake can send them to you–we would LOVE to have you help us with that Johnny! 🙂 🙂 it’s handwritten on sheet music, nothing fancy LOL I’ll e-mail you the Alto lines in a day or so, got lots of company coming over today……Jake and I worked very, very hard on this project and it’s great fun to say the least; but we by no means played something that was beyond our abilities.
In terms of the improvement in tone, Jake’s tone is so, so good! For me personally, that comes from working like a “mad man” on the “Subtones” exercises in the Altissimo course and it’s one of the major reasons why I can now play in that range….which for my next video I will be throwing some Altissimo notes in. I have a couple of your songs ready but we wanted to do this first…..2 Saxophones on a video are definitely better than one 🙂
When it comes to the Saxophone……very little, if anything, escapes your attention, does it? 🙂 🙂
no the hard work is definately paying off as anyone can hear from you last year’s videos. I think by editing some of those lines it’ll smooth it out and give you guys a lesson on how to do that cause it’s important when playing with others. let’s say you’re playing in a band with a singer, you can’t overshadow them or you won’t last long.
You’re awesome Johnny–thanks! I’ll get you the Alto lines on Monday or so as we have about 20 friends coming over to the house…..and have said openly they want to hear Saxophone music and so I will make the debut of your songs “Use Me” and “Just the Way You Are” before them today 🙂 Jake will have to get you the Tenor lines for the 2nd half of the song, I haven’t seen those licks—the alto lines we’re transposed from the Tenor lines we came up with. My wife was asking if there is a particular place in the back-up playing where you really notice our mistake in Improvisation happening? Like many of us, she’s blown away that you picked that up……that’s just amazing!
In 2015, most of the uploads I’ll be doing will be Improvisation as this is going to become, as I have posted before, my main focal point of playing v.s memorizing songs all the time (I will still be that too) as I feel, especially now hitting the Altissimo range, that Improvisation is where I need to start focusing my attention if I’m going to take my playing to the next level….so there will be many, many more “growing pains” to come LOL
Michael, Jake,
Great collaborative effort! Michael your tone on the Alto is noticably improving with each upload. Was this the new Gaurdala MP? Both of you played well with regard to timing and syncing with the backing track which sync’ed with one another. And both played with more expression and musicality, so good performance. Hope there are more to come!
You guys are inspiring. Sax Players are cool.
Thanks guys! You are so awesome and very positive, it’s a great learning experience to post here on the blog….we don’t use it to “Impress” anyone–we do it to learn. Johnny found something in our back-up playing that the average person wouldn’t even notice; so Jake and I are accepting his help with open arms to say the least! Thanks, so much Johnny, for your personal interest in us…we know your time is valuable. As a reminder guys; it’s great to remember that we all have the “opportunity” to make donations to Johnny’s site. He’s done so, so much for the rest of us to get better and improve.
KEVIN: Yeah, I was playing with the new MBII mouthpiece, but strictly on the spectrum of very quiet, soft notes. There was NO editing in the volume there; it’s played exactly as you see it and you should be able to notice that very clearly. I will doing a song of Johnny’s on it very soon on the opposite end of the Spectrum that shows more of it’s projection and edge…..that’s a totally different ball game and where the MBII MP shines 🙂
I must say Mike and Jake, that was awesome !
Jake on bandhub your collab you really surprise me there bubby! Thanks you for adding your part to the song!
Michael can’t wait to collab with you also on bandhub.
Louie
“Use Me” is a super, super cool fun to play on the Saxophone…sometimes I don’t want to put the Saxophone down when playing this one 🙂 Thanks so much for releasing this one Johnny! This is my first time, ever, to incorporate the Altissimo range into my playing and that’s the good news to say the least. To the other extreme, the “bad” news (LOL) is that, nearing the end of this song, I caught myself getting ahead of the beat slightly because my mind got caught up in what I was playing v.s. listening to the beat, particularly of the drummer, in the backing track. At the very least, by leaving that v.s trying to edit it, you know that I’m being honest and no one can say that my playing is “fake” like a local music academy said on my last video of the Watermelon Man. I did stop by to visit them afterwards and I did play the Watermelon Man right in front of them…..I never heard anything else from them after that 😉 Keep your great videos coming guys!
Hi Michael – in terms of overall performance?
This one to me is by far your best solo recording yet!
The only problems i can hear are from a couple of notes?
and a change in tempo speed?
Just remember i’m not Johnny – so i could be wrong,
like you say – the blogg is for everyone to learn &
comment on.
The last thing i wan’t is for you to turn up on
my doorstep to prove wrong! lol
Keep going pal – look forward to your next one!
Yeah, there is a couple of places where I did get a little ahead of the tempo, as I mentioned in my comment; that was the ‘bad’ news. Watching Johnny play it and the sheet music, that’s because of a couple of rests that I didn’t pause for long enough 🙂 I got tied up mentally with my playing v.s. listening to the beat of the backing track….no one is perfect 🙂 I wasn’t going to try and edit that, cover it up, etc.. because the only way we progress is to be honest with ourselves and that’s the the great thing about the blog, we can see our mistakes, learn, and work on it. Cheers 🙂
good going Michael, the altissimo notes wre right on! very proud of you. The tempo problem is in the break-down…just keep tappin with the drums cause it’s only you and the drummer and he’s the boss! Takes some work but that’s part of the metronome study too…same thing and will translate to when doing this type of playing.
I will get some exercises together possibly to help people with this.
Yeah…I mentioned that in my description when I posted the video because I caught myself getting ahead of the drummer, mostly near the end of the song and that’s something I’m working on. It’s all a mental issue for me. It seems like the first half of the song was pretty much dead on though? At least you know it’s not edited LOL
I use a metronome regularly and it really helps ….with me, my issue is as, at times, making sure my mind is focused on the drummer v.s. my own personal playing. Especially with a song like this, it’s challenging because there’s so much going on. I was going to ask/recommend you make some type of an exercise like you recommend here to help us out in this regard, so thanks much for taking note of it….for me, it’s a matter of needing help to finding the “balance” of mentally being able to follow that beat while at the same time not loosing focus on what I have to play.
In terms of the Altissimo notes, the last exercise you posted is part of my regular practice and it has helped me go instantly to those notes and it’s like the Altissimo range is getting “fused” into the normal range of my playing 🙂 I don’t even have to wonder now which fingering in your course is better for both Alto and Tenor…..I know which ones work so I don’t have to think about it anymore. I use one set of fingerings for Alto and one for Tenor…..funny thing is that the Altissimo G that you use is the same one that works fantastic on my Tenor too LOL but it doesn’t work on the Alto. Pressing the G# with my little finger, like you do, is the difference between me hitting Altissimo G or not. Without it, it doesn’t come out near as well…very flat. A funny thing is that, in addition, hitting the low Eb key too make a difference…I guess every Saxophone is different?
I have the transposed Alto Sax back-up playing for the duet Jake and I did put on sheet music, I’ll e-mail it to you tomorrow.
Hi Michael, that sounds really cool, and it looks like you really enjoy yourself. And wow these altissimo notes are awesome, well done.
this song is called god bless the child (Arthur Herzog Billi Holiday). The recording is not that good. I did not have the backing track on and did everything on the laptop. My tempo is all over the place, I think I have to use my metronome ;-). Hopefully I get my new ligature tomorrow. Can’t wait.
your youtube video is not showing because you have the setting on “private” so you need to change it.
changed it now. Thanks
Hi UU – it’s nice to hear someone playing the sax without a backing track! You get to hear it like it is!
My daughter plays clarinet, so i can see close similarities.
For 3 months playing i find that flows very evenly,
some people are still finding there way round the key positions and sound more disjointed!
Well done – look forwars to hearing more stuff!
Thanks sxpoet, got a bit out of breath there, haha. I like the clarinet too, but I squeak too much with it, less of a problem with the sax. How long is your daughter playing? Sometimes I still get the fingering wrong as I slip into clarinet playing :-/
My younger daughter has being playing clarinet for 3 years, and was going to do her grade 5 this year, going through a teenager phase. She squeeks on the clarinet as well!
Yay I’m not the only squeeker 🙂
Michael, gotta love that song! Good to see you enjoying the song and performance. And good job on those high altissimo notes. It’s cool to have those new “tricks” in the arsenal to use at will. I have not acquired that song and track yet, but this upload sure prompted me to do so!
Awesome Kevin….I’m sure you’ll have great fun with this song for sure. That song is awesome on the Saxophone, regardless of which Saxophone we play it on. Sometimes, I don’t want to put the Sax down when playing it. My only mistake on that upload was in a couple of places getting ahead of the tempo because I was a little too focused on my own playing instead of being mentally alert to the drummer in the track. I actually played it today after my practice session and my tempo was much, much better. Just gotta listen for that drummer…..can you imagine, being on a real band, how mad your drummer would get if I we played ahead of him?!? He would hand us “the pink slip” for sure and tell us happy trails……he drummer is the boss!
I’ve moved on to Johnny’s Killer Blues ebook and I’m getting addicted to it really fast! Improvisation is what I really needed to start focusing on now so it’s the direction I’m headed. I’m going to make it the “meat and potatoes” of my playing—expect to see majority of my uploads along these lines, with some kind of Improvisation in it, in time soon to come. But first, I’m learning to “walk” with Improvisation before I can “run” with it. That’s the way it was with the Altissimo playing 🙂
Hey guys, have had a crack at my first recording of Over The Rainbow and although not really happy with it I thought, it is what it is so post it! One thing I’ve noticed is that I have tried to limit the sound to my family and neighbours and built a small 8′ x 4′ room that seems to be affecting my sound. When I play at work in the hall that has acoustic remedies in place around the walls my sax sounds mellow and really nice to my ear. When I play in my ‘box” it sounds thin and one dimensional. Johnny, I would have thought the mic wouldn’t care what the room conditions are and records the actual sound of the sax and the differences I am hearing is down to the conditions I mentioned of the two rooms and the human ear factor. Is confining my sound doing more harm than good? Anyway be happy for your thoughts on this effort….
Can’t see the video, you have it marked as private.
Nicely done Dazza. There’s something really cool about the “Flat” sound of that room. It will affect the mic though. I always encourage people to practice as loud as possible, this is the best way to improve on your tone, play loud! It opens everything up, might sound a bit ugly at first but we learn to control it as we go.
Curious about your setup? (reed / mp)
Sorry about that. Attached the link before it was finished processing….
Sounds alright to me Dazza!
My teacher has a small room and he has special boards on the ceiling and walls.
Dazza, That was well done! Nice tone from that YAS-62, and what stood out to me was your use of vibrato- very tastfully done with good control. The overall performance came across a littly bit “timid”. If you give those lungs a bit more work out your tone’s gonna be awesome!
I do like it, it sounds good. Nicely in tune with the backing track.
Hey Dazza, that was pretty cool; great sounding Sax! Nice use of vibrato and and nice, smooth tone. If you watch Johnny play this great song, near the end of it he goes up an Octave and so for the alto you’ll be dealing with a high F#. Doing some thing as simple as changing Octaves is a simple, yet very effective way to create some variety in our playing….and this is where we can really “give those lungs” like Kevin brilliantly points out and it adds even more to your performance. For your next video; it would be cool to see you play it too as this can help us in many ways. With myself, Johnny took note that I had the tendency to keep my fingers too far out when striking the keys….if he couldn’t see me play then I may not have even realized that I had that specific problem in my playing. There’s a lot of positive things that you we’re doing in that song too, nice rhythm and timing. Look forward to seeing more of your videos!
Thamks guys. Haven’t quite worked out how I can video myself and merge with the sound in Audacity. I have a Gopro so maybe via that and my computer may have a camera (need to check that out). How do you all do this??
Kevin, I will do it again and push the air a bit more next time. Thanks for the tips. Great to be part of the site and constructive criticism is always welcomed between us all I am sure.
Way to go Dazza. You do have nice tone. Johnny encouraged to play loud too. I had to correct my vibrato. Bad habits. You sound good.
Thanks Johnny and Randy. I am starting to dislike the closet I play in as today I stepped outside and played loud in the room and the reverb and overall sound to my ear is much better. Very strange indeed.The room seems to be really stifling my sound so back to the drawing board I think. Maybe to hell with the neighbours and let the family and them enjoy the music! On the setup I am playing a Yamaha 4c and Vandoran Jazz as well as Juno 21/2 and feeling a bit frustrated. I have been trialling several MP’s by mail. A Berg Larsen, a Meyer 6 and a Beechler 6 which were all around the 85 thou opening and none were suitable for me atm so I mailed them back for a refund. Very obliging of the ebay seller. Where to from here please anyone! I cant get anywhere near high E of F on the 4c and it often closes up down lower when I rip into it. Was looking at trying a Vandoran Java or Jumbo around A35 hoping to get into the higher range more easily.
I know what you mean about the reverb and sound; I’ve been doing my uploads here in an area of the house the definitely stifles the sound and makes it sound kind of dull. Unbelievably…..the best place in my house to actually record is in our laundry room! The “presence” in my sound in this area of the house is fantastic and haven’t done any recordings in there yet, but I will be in my laundy room for the next one of Johnny’s songs that I’m doing on Alto Sax in a couple of weeks. I shouldn’t feel so bad…..I’ve seen people take some pretty “desperate” measures in this regard and record in their bathrooms like this guy here:
http://youtu.be/e5STJXlRjPE
The echo/reverb you here on this video is how my Saxophones sound in my laundry room.
it is funny how rooms make instruments sound different.
Last night i went to see some students playing their instruments in a school hall.
Three students played their saxophones flawlessly.
One played ‘Baker Street’ perfectly from memory without a mistake. Yet all three sounded dull to me, and i put it down to the acoustics in the room. Until this guy came out and started playing his trumpet and blew me away with his sound – like Johnny says if bands like your sound you’re in.
This guy on the trumpet is gonna be snatched up by a jazz band! He brought out something in the acoustics in the room that the 3 sax players were failing to do, which i find puzzling? and can’t understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqwzsxlh10U&list=UUtlaSgL5kCxkOfDQQsBSPwg
Here is My P Mauriat 67R Alto and JJ DVNY.
Hey Randy, the video is unavailable on youtube now.
RANDY: That’s a great song to play on the Saxophone; never even thought about that one-so you opened my eyes for sure; thanks for that! You have a great sense of timing….you didn’t seem to either get ahead or behind the rhythm of the backing track; you’re timing was right on and that’s awesome. When I did “Use Me” I got caught up mentally, in a few places, in my own playing v.s. listening to that drummer and so I got a head of the rhythm a bit in a few places. The good news is that I caught that mistake and my timing has been a lot better in this regard for that song since playing it on my own—a real plus of having the blog here for sure because we can see what we need to work on.
I was wondering if there are some things you could do here, in the way of embellishments, to really make your playing shine here? Experiment with things like playing the same notes in different Octaves here-and-there, scoops, trills, little growls, glissandos, etc.. There are some things that sheet music don’t reveal and it’s those things that we can throw in & it really adds a lot to your playing and make it “our” own so to say. Thanks for sharing this Randy, keep your great videos coming!
Thanks Mike. I growl a lot more on tenor. I preparing Honky Tonk.
Nice….then that makes 2 of us who are working on Honky Tonk 🙂 There’s one lick in Honky Tonk that is marked on the sheet music for Altissimo G–are you going to play it that way or an Octave lower? I’m a little bit more than 1/2 done with it; got some other stuff of Johnny’s coming first though. I had learned all of “Pick Up the Pieces” but it was in the normal range of the Sax….now that I’m playing in the Altissimo range, I’m going back and incorporate the Altissimo notes in Pick Up The Pieces before uploading here to the blog; that’s the way the original song is played and that’s the way Johnny plays it too. I’m working on doing the same thing with “Mack the Knife” too.
the g is not that hard. I hit it most of the time. The g# is harder for me.
Great choice of song Randy!
i’ll have to buy that music book!,
currently got 3 others by guest spot.
Often end up buying a book just because i like one song in it, and surprise myself by finding other songs in it i like.
I’ve adopted Johnny’s daily practice routine as a 30 min warm up, and its doing wonders for my notes.
My instructor brought me down a peg when i tried to play a song from one of those books. He got annoyed with me trying to spice one up – basically told me to learn to master to play it properly first, then try the improvisation afterwards.
So i’ve got a long way to go yet – been working on 3 songs for the last couple of months & still haven’t got them right!
Looking forward to your next Sir!
So in the spirit of all of us getting better. Johnny’s altissimo course is great. Here is a little bit more g blues help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RJ2Ab9KTCI
wow think I just figured out how to kill the annoying YouTube auto play.
if you play a Bflat using the bis key,
add the octave key,
add the righthand Bflat key,
add the righthand High Fsharp key
this gives an easy altissimo G.
remove the bis key – gives Altissimo Gsharp
so many combinations – like in the video
Randy
Hey guy good effort, good collaboration. Can you tell me where did you get the backing track.
Thank you. Guest Spot: Playalong For Alto Saxophone
Musicroom.com I found a lot of good music in this book complete with back tracks. Much of it I would rather play like smooth jazz instead of R & R. This is a R & R website though. My Tenor is a growling machine.
No one seems to be doing anything on the blogg at the moment – so
in the spirit of trying to get more people to upload their stuff…
put 2 songs up – still trying to improve the tone/sound should be
an improvement as i’ve been using Johnny’s daily practice routine
from when he brought it out.
In the 2nd song i’m trying to follow a pro sax player trying to keep a
fixed distance behind (failed)
Overall i hope that my sound has improved
Hey Sxpoet–I would upload but I’m here in NM and don’t have my recording stuff with me; but I think lots of members have had a case of Harlem Nocturne fever lately LOL
I hear big improvements in your timing; great job there. Thanks for sharing that song too–it’s one of those songs that I knew about but once we hear someone play it; only then does it “ring a bell” as a great Saxophone song. Keep up the great work!
Thanks Michael – when do you get back from NM?
At the moment i’m working on improving time keeping/tone & adjusting my hand/finger pressure on the key Pads.
My Sax teacher is correcting one of my faults when i’m holding down the keys.
He’s training me to touch the keys as lightly as possible when playing, be more relaxed in arms and hands.
Sort of playing with loose floppy arms.
He demonstrated this, and showed that by doing this it’s a lot easier to play difficult passages when they occur in sight reading. Also helps a lot if you want the fingers to fly.
Similar to playing the altissimo range, you gain more by relaxing the embouchure and letting the sound come out rather than tensing up the mouth and forcing the sound out.
sxpoet that sounded really good. I don’t know the song but the timing is good and you hold the longer notes really well. ( one of the mistakes I make is cut them short as I run out of puff). I’ve been away but will but soon put something on the blog again. I also have to figure out the recording. I don’t know how I can make the backing track more “hearable” when its from my cd player, maybe a mic? any advice would be great. Ta
Thank UU.
My pc is so old (xp) it’s a painful to use.
Doesn’t even work with bandhub!
I put the backing tracks on my i- touch,
connect my i-touch to a portable amp
with sterio speakers, then i play the
backing track through the speakers.
Their only the equivalent of cassete player
speakers (which is one of the reasons i have problems in hearing the drums to keep up timing).
Then is use an ap called ‘Tunable’ on the
i-touch and press record, put the volume
on full, and play the sax close to the i-touch to pickup the sound!
Then i save the recording to another ap
called ‘n-track’ on my i-touch & e-mail to my pc.
convert it to a .wav file on my pc, and load it into the windows movie sofware, add a photo – save as a . mpg and upload to youtube!
I’m sure other members on the blogg have easier ways of doing it.
sxpoet, you are well on your way to becoming a good saxophonist. Great job your tone is improving. the teacher has you trying to relax. That is something all of us need to do. I have recorded I will always love you by Dolly Parton and redone my last one with Mike’s suggestions.
UU Pfister I have a recording idea. I use Audacity(free) and import the mp3 backing track. You can move the levels of you and the back track up and down in the software at the beginning of the track.
I always liked Dolly Parton. mmmmm…
Thanks Randy!
The Dolly Parton song sounds brilliant!
The timing is great (i’ve got a lot of work to do on that),
love the vibrato (i haven’t started doing vibrato),
and a good show of the dynamics (i’ve got a lot of work to do on that)
i like the part from 4.07 through 4.20, where you linger on then end of the phrases, brings out a lot of tension in the mood!
Streets ahead of me – look forward to your next one!
Thanks sxpoet. You are so kind. I took a 22 year break when my horn was stolen. trying to get it back. I am trying to find my sound on P Mauriat with Jody Jazz.
Hi Randy,
very nice song! Fits perfect for alto sax! It is funny to hear the same problem i have. I also play an open MP ( Lebayle No. 7 on alto) and thats why i am scoopimg a lot of notes that have to be exact instead. Habbits….
But it is very good over all. Good timing, nice feeling.
Have a goot time.
Why is scooping a note a problem? I did it on purpose.
playing Sax is so complex, a real juggling act. A juggler shows a good performance by keeping everthing under control. If he drops one thing the whole performance can be ruined.
Playing the sax is similar ? :
sounding great
notes in time
tempo controlled
dynamics displayed
show you enjoy playing – its show bizz
play to the end, mistakes are your best friend, arrange to meet them afterwards
my mission statement – never stop at looking for ways to improve the last song played! Its a great game to play!
Then you get the sax out, and think how much time do i spend on each of them?
Too much time on one lets the others down? Solution vary your routine to improve your weakest areas first.
After 11 months of playing, i now have greater respect for someone when they take the time to learn a piece and play it.
Because of all the above areas, its a mammoth task.
Great job Randy—that song by Dolly Parton blends itself very well with the Saxophone for sure. I know you have a couple of different Saxophones, which Sax and MP set up did you use for this upload?
I’ll be back home sometime in December, probably around the holiday–hoping to be back in time to see if I can upload some of Johnny’s holiday music. If not I’ll be back at blog uploads shortly thereafter….my practice sessions are still regular, but due to the family emergency I’m dealing with out here I had to “modify” due to time constraints.
Randy, if it is the way you wanted, i have no problems with it! Music has a lot to so with feelings and everybody feels di ffetent, thats how you should understand my comment.
I like scooping, i like growling, vibrato and other embellishments. I think it is hard to choose the right one for the song i want to play and not using it by accident, what happens to me more than once in a while.
Like i said, nice work!
You guys are great. Thank you. I played my P Mauriat 67r alto with the Jody Jazz DVNY 7. I have apparently sold my Cannonball alto on Ebay. My Keilwerth tenor is on eBay too. Then I can get the P Mauriat 66r tenor. Hopefully I will be all good then.
Had to try to tackle this one and move on. Difficult enough that I can’t lay down a take as good as I would like, but as a student and my skill level a work in progress that will be an ongoing delima… lol
So it has its’ share of unwanted “grace” notes(and missed notes), and a somewhat “lame improv verse, but it is what it is until such time as I hope to do better.
In working through this piece it surely helped me to develop articulation and fingering speed, though in watching the video after making it, I surely have the “flying fingers” bad habit. So I have that to work on!
Kevin, I’m very impressed, I hum this song almost daily (or whenever I think about the sax) and think about trying to learn it. I think you did very, very well!!! Your vibrato it very good, you really got it down! And, yes, just loosen up a bit, you will as you play it more, I’m jealous!!
Sounds lovely Keven ! Can’t fault it!
Are your hands relaxed? My Sax teacher
told me to spend a week playing with
relaxed hands (ie with loose floppy arms)
Very good Kevin! Sounds smooth. There aren’t that much “extra” notes in it … and i am happy that i am not the only one that has to live with and without them :-D.
I am working on that one once i a while and it is much harder as i thought.
Keep on!
Thats pretty cool Kevin i know that most of would be very happy to miss a couple of notes and still make it work. your tone has developed its much more mature.Whats your recording set up, i keep meaning to get a little set up so i can upload something.
Paddy
Hey Kevin. Cool performance. I would be interested on you recording setup. I am having trouble with mine. I have an SM57 into a Behringer 302 into Audacity but the sound is not great for some reason. My other query is how do you get the video to gel with the audio recording.
Great job Kevin—way to go to play in the 5/4 time; I know when I did Take Five about 6 months ago, my Alto was way out of Tune and it resulted in many rough spots, of course. Can’t believe how well your playing after recuperating from a Collapsed Lung, WOW. How is the Recuperation process coming along? Think you’ll be ready to jump on the Tenor again in time to come? Very good playing Kevin! Thanks for sharing this, really encouraging to see for sure.
Thanks all for the comments! It’s been a year of too many work hours, too little practice time, and an injury to recover from, so having this site to blog on and get to see/hear those participating has been an encouragement for me to keep striving to get the sax out of it’s case when I can.
Paddy, Dazza- regarding my recording setup, if you scroll about half way down through – “Members Saxophone Music Videos Part 2” you’ll see my blog on my recording setup. It is still the same, though the mic I used on this upload was a Radio Shack mic I bought 30 years ago. I just discovered it in a box and thought I’d give it a try…
Dazza, the Movie Maker software has the means to load in the video from the phone, and the audio .mp3 file that I brought in from my zoom digital recorder. You can adjust the starting points of the video and/or the audio till they are in sync. I then mute the audio that is brought in with the video from my phone. But you initially need it un-muted to use for syncing. Hope this helps. Be glad to provide any other info.
That is a great job Kevin. I bought this back track to. You have a nice tonal core.
Very nice soothing tone you got there Kevin. Nice use of the vibrato. Your high notes sounds so complete and full! That is something I am still working on achieving!
I play my tenor most of the time. When I do occasionally pull out my alto, I seem to have a hard time getting those upper notes like the high F and F# consistently. I can climb up to them from the high D or E but just hitting them is another thing. This isn’t sounding like a problem for you. I am loving my tenor setup and the mouthpiece I am using now blows so freely. I wonder if I may need an upgrade in my alto setup? I do have more open pieces for the alto but still run into the same problem on the alto. Weird?? Any thoughts?
Jake, i had the same problem on tenor. The reason was that the reed was too weak for the huge MP. Changing to the next harder one helped a lot.
The other thing was additionally changing the position of the MP in my mouth a bit and playing around with the position of the ligature.
My MPs (Fred Lebayle Jazz) have a wide tip opening and a large facing curve length. With these i have a large variety in positioning my teeth in opposite to the O-Link i have used before.
After a lot frustration months using cane reeds i changed to (partly) synthetics an i am very happy now.
Thanks Kev for the info. I will look back and give the MM program a go. Really need to get something up on the Blog as it is clear that its a good forum for some honest and reliable feedback on my progress…..Cheers
Gone all quiet on the blog – so i thought i’d upload a work in progress “Week 8 & 1/2” on ‘Johnny’s Daily Practice Routine’ – mainly focusing on the tone, the timing on this one is way beyond my level of playing!
Taking stock i haven’t quite got up to playing a year yet.
This time last mid-November will be when i started, and wouldn’t have dreamt of playing anything beyond nursery rhyme songs!
had to find the sheet music on the internet & transpose it to the backing track. Some notes i’m not happy wth the quality, but the daily practice routine has definitely improved my tone – thanks to Johhny!
Thanks for sharing your video Sxpoet. Nice to hear you working hard on Johnny’s Daily Practice Routine. Has it been almost a year for you already here on Johnny’s site?!? WOW, time flies by so fast and you’re having fun learning how to play and that’s what it’s all about.
In listening to your recording, it sounded like the backing track was slightly louder than your Sax playing…I’m not familiar with this song so not sure how the Sax is to be played in this song. I would be cool to see if either you could lower the volume on the backing track a little or play your Sax just a little louder so as to hear more clearly and distinctly the notes your playing. One other thing I would recommend is, it possible, it would be cool to see you personally playing. I dig the pics and all you put on your videos, but it really helps when we can see what your doing. I had the tendency of keeping my fingers out too far when hitting the keys and Johnny pointed this out to me. Had he not seen me doing this, I may not have even realized what I was doing and it would have resulted in becoming a bad habit. What if we’re not holding the sax as we should? Or our embouchure needs some adjustments? There’s lots and lots that we can learn when Johnny and other members can see us playing and not just hear us playing. Be proud of the progress your making Sxpoet!
I should be back home sometime in December, as my brother-in-law here in New Mexico is responding well to his surgery and is scheduled to get his medical clearance to return to work in December. I’ll resume blog uploads when I get back….I was going to upload a Sax version of this famous song “Spooky” by the Classics IV, I learned to play it back in July & August and it included the Sax solo. When I get back home, I’m going to start learning Johnny’s new release “I was Made to Love Her” as my Tenor is at home right now.
http://youtu.be/Qpo9KZYJ4sA
wasn’t gonna quite post yet but looking back it’s been almost 2 months. WOW, time flys.
This is for sxpoet’s request.
I recorded this last night at my buddy’s house. He graciously let me record it, he is playing guitar and singing. We had just started working on this song and have only played it a handful of times. I feel that this song has a lot of potential. Let me know your thoughts and criticisms. I am using a custom king model guardala metal mouthpiece with a 2.5 medium rigotti gold cane reed. My sax is starting to come to life.
After I showed my buddy Johnny’s take on Yakety Sax, he wants to do that tune. I will have to download that next, sure sounds like I got my work cut out for me on that one!!
Sxpoet- wasn’t familiar with song but regarding the tone, it is developing well! especially regarding sustaining a note with duration and clarity.
As Michael mentioned, need more of it’s volume in the mix. But even with it boosted it still perhaps would come across a bit “timid”. Don’t be shy!
Jake- Your best video to date! Well done- Tone, growl, intonation still getting better and better, and played it with hardly any noticable errors. Great song choice for adding a sax to a performing band. Must be loads of fun!…
SxPoet played this in the previous months, so it caught my interest. Then he commented on another upload about not playing with a backing track. So here is a quickie with no back track to see how it would turn out, which in hindsight I hear the audio was clipping a bit, or something with my 30 year-old Radio Shack mic was amiss.
I know what to ask for Christmas this year!!
thank you kevin. nothing beats playing with other musicians, so much better than the play alongs on cd. if you can get together with anyone, i highly recommend it. i have learned so much from doing that.
kevin, i love your tone. so soothing and pleasant to hear. i love the tone i get for the gritty rock and roll but i can’t get the soothing sound i am looking for as of yet for the slow stuff. i know there are no secrets, but how did you develop that vibrato? it sounds so awesome in there. it is something i am trying to learn but havent seen any solid videos in regards to achieving it. any tips?? what did u do to practice it? thanks again.
Jake, I ran across a video lesson on vibrato that basically intructed a “vah…vah” type lower lip/jaw articulation that you begin to learn by doing it in time with a metronome. Start out pretty slow to get the embrochure muscle memory and a good controlled steady timing going. You will pretty quickly get up to the speed of what sounds good to you.
For my liking I don’t want it to be very fast or be a very dramatic sine wave in pitch, so getting contol of those two things was/are my biggest challenge in learning it, as well as learning to not use it too much. As I get better learning it, it is now more a lower lip muscle movement as less jaw movement, but as the embrochure tires the jaw has to help out…
By the way your control of the “scoop” in that last video was obvious- mastered that quickly!
testing 1,2 3 – checking the blog is working
yes working and it actually emailed me telling there was a new comment on the blog. This is great because for the last few months it was not giving me an alert email, that’s why I wasn’t checking it daily and thought no one was submitting videos.
Michael – thanks, looking forward to your uploads in december!
Kevin – thanks, in parts of my playing, i was so running out of air, i was trying to push out the last bits of air without ruining the phrase, so it came out as being feeble!
love your take on moonriver, would love to hear more feeling and expression put into it, but thats just my oppinion from a learner – so dont take it too seriously (what do i know?)
Jake – once again thanks for doing the upload, you have improved by leaps and bounds.
Sxpoet–I get home probably close to the holiday depending on how my brother-in-law responds to the rehabilitation process; so I get home in December but may/may not have the chance to upload in December depending on when I get back—I plan on taking a couple weeks off to rest before returning to work here. So it may be the beginning of January or so when I start uploading again….thanks for your encouraging comments and videos guys! Looking forward to learning Johnny’s new song and getting back to my Tenor at home! I have some Alto stuff of Johnny’s done though 🙂
James, thanks for your constructive critique/comments. I do welcome them. Your observation is pretty much on target. My playing was lacking expression. My focus was too engaged in the mechanics of playing- starting/stopping notes, air delivery, vibrato control, tapping my foot to keep some semblence of a beat to follow, etc.. So I did leave out a key aspect which makes music “music”…
Playing to a backing track actually helps me to play more musically, and probably helps to “mask” some of the mistakes that are more obvious without it…
Kevin, yes, that mic is definately lacking but beyond that you have done what many would be afraid of – playing naked with no backing track. You are to be commended! This is actually the best way to record yourself, at least once in a while, and also shows a great deal of confidence from you. Yes it’s fun to have a backing track to experiment and finally to entertain friends and family but this is the meat and potatoes of you and your sound which I think is getting better since earlier videos.
Jake, you got it goin on man! As a sax player who’s been doin it for many years with singers etc I’ll give you a very valuable tip (one that might even prevent you from getting fired from a gig)….
Always have 2 volume levels – one for the background lines and one for the big solo.
This will please your singin buddy and the soundman at every gig.
I know you were just practicing at your buddy’s place but start doing that cause it’s very important for any sax player. We are usually just the icing on the cake and NOT the main event…that’s the singer.
Two volume levels – background and solo. This can be accomplished 2 ways – stand back from the mic on stage or physically just blow softer and then louder.
Kevin – i was just comparing your rendition to my sax teachers rendition, he puts so much more expression into “moon river” that i rises and falls like sea water gently breaking on the sands…
Unfortunately i can’t do expression at the moment, as i need to practice more control of my dynamics/articulation.
back in the nineties i never took any notice of Opera Tenors until i heard Pavroti! At the time there were lots of other well known opera singers, but they never got my attention – i can only put it down to the feelings he could express that connected with me and i could understand.
Music is so mysterious…
After being of for a while (family business) i have recorded my first usable version of Harlem Nocturne.
There are a lot of wrong notes in the two downscales and i hate it not to be able of getting rid of them!
I am playing this beast once in a while now since my teacher gave me the notes earlier this year and i am always struggling with these scales.
Anyway it is like it is and we all are not perfect yet.
wow – 3 uploads without a backing track, yours, Kevins & UU’s. I must confess i do like to hear the Sax on its own, if you can sound good unaccompanied, i find the minute you add some backing track it’s like the lights come on!!
Good delivery Dirk – thanks for sharing! setup works for you, lovely vibrato. wrong notes or not! the main thing is you kept going, apart from the timing issues with some notes, for an early performance of a piece thats still quite impressive!
nice one dirk. very nice smooth sounding vibrato you got working for ya. Nice timing especially since you are playing without a backing. Bravo! I hear a big improvement in your tone from your previous uploads as well.
Righto fellas. I have whinged enough about my recording woes that were preventing me from blogging so I thought I had better commit and get something out as you all have. Sorry about the headless shot but it was with the Gopro so no view-finder and the mic is the camera one. Not my best performance of Yesterday but done at 11.00pm last night and a bit rushed (hoping the cops were not alerted!) without backing track so I feel I can do better later on. Cheers
All of you guys are getting better and better. Johnny is wearing off on us. I wish I didn’t stop for 22 years. Saxophone rocks.
I hear ya mate! We all have regrets. Mine is that I didn’t stick with it 22 years ago when I owned my first sax. Imagine where I could be today! I am fulfilling my dream now and look forward to the next 22 years of playing.
Dazza – uploading without a backing track!
Johnny’s gonna get worried if we all stop playing without backing tracks!!!
Amazing every horn played on here without a backing track has its own flavour, which is hard to pickup with a backing.
Your notes are very clear! and vibrato as well!
Thanks for sharing! I thought your finger technique wasn’t very fluid, but you proved me wrong when you got up into the mid/high registers. For a solo piece that was very good, the only improvements i can see would be to extend the length of some notes eg in yest-ter-day i would play the day part a bit longer – but other than well mate – keep going pal
Back in May of this year, I had uploaded this private video and sent it to the local band director back home, whose name is “Mr.Baker” (I’m not kidding about the name either LOL) and his favorite song on the Saxophone is Baker Street–how funny 🙂 He had provided me with the backing track and sheet music so I learned it–I don’t know where he got it from. He set aside 30 minutes of his time every Monday afternoon when the kids would get off school and worked with me on Musical theory…super nice guy. No one here on Johnny’s site has ever even seen this one before and I can’t make videos and upload here to the blog till I get back home, so I thought why not go ahead and share it. I have Johnny’s backing track/sheet music for this very same song and plan on starting to work on it when I do get back home. His track/sheet music is in a different key than this one that was given to me.
At the time of this video, the Saxophone was way out of tune and I was playing with an MP some locals gave me, it sounds so, so flat compared to now….it’s amazing how we can look back on the progress that we’ve made. Sometimes we don’t realize that we are progressing, but the proof is on video. As a reminder, this video is 7 months old already and it was a private video and the Sax was WAY out of tune. I was still using Juno reeds at that time too LOL. I’ll be back on the blog soon guys…your videos are all very encouraging! I got some new stuff coming when I get back home.
Michael – just listened to your Baker Street, don’t really want to comment on it as your playing has improved a lot since then, as we are all aware of.
Your Sax wasn’t that badly out of tune in parts, a tad bit on the sharp side!
What you were doing then, and its exactly what i used to do months ago when i played in front of my Sax teacher in a small room was to play way too loud, by bringing the volume down just slightly more actualy brings the notes more into focus/key in a small room, for a large room the effect would be different. – unless of course you are trying to achieve that effect?
Its easier to explain if you get out a tuner, play any key, then watch how the needle changes when you play soft/normal/loud/screaming loud…
Yeah, this private video I had on my youtube channel was a “sleeper” that I made and sent to band director and some family to keep in touch. I know he showed it to other students that he had and all, he may still even be showing it to students now. The purpose of it was not to impress anyone, but to use it as a learning curve and it served its purpose. How many practices have we had where we’re working on something and those notes sound like a dying cat or dog? LOL We should never take ourselves too seriously and be afraid to make mistakes, be honest with ourselves and show those mistake to others; it’s all part of the learning process and that’s why I posted it here. It’s all about just having fun on the Sax 🙂
This video was made at exactly the one year mark of learning to play. I hadn’t even started Johnny’s Altissimo course at all, the thought of playing in that range for me was non-existant! LOL Also, realize that the year before I knew absolutely nothing about a Saxophone, had never even held one before. Everyone has to have their start somewhere. So it’s good to post these from time-to-time and look back on them. I also enjoy going back to previous Member’s Videos here on the site and look back at everyone’s Videos….look at the progress everyone has made! I had virtually forgotten about this video on my youtube channel that I posted here, so look back on them and feel good about the progress we’ve made….and that is because of Johnny’s Instruction 🙂
Exactly Michael – the advantages of the blog is all the members on this site share the same goal, help and encourage each other, and those that have experienced certain problems (done that got the teeshirt) can help us out when they see these identical problems they’ve ovecome.
For me, i’ve spent enough time on tone, i intend to keep up Johnny’s daily practice routine as a half hour warm up. I now intend to focus more on note timing & dynamics with my sax teacher. i’ve made enough excuses about it in my uploads. Vibrato & embellishments, video performances, better recording equipment can wait a bit longer for me.
Had to switch over to a Selmar S80 C** mouthpiece
a few days ago & use Vandoren 2 reeds with it,
to produce a classical sound for my grade 2 next month.
Silver Bells – after a few attempts (will improve in a few
weeks time)
Grade 2 – no excuses for these 3,
Drunken Sailor (piano)
0:40 Rosemary & Thyme (piano)
1:47 Saxophone Sentimentale (solo)
i thought the 2nd sounded a bit flat.
yes, you’re playing Drunken sailor better than silver bells and it’s a tougher tune so goes to show what some good practice time can do!
Your timing is good on Silver Bells. I did think you cut some phrases short. You lost some expression because of that. I have not heard you play much and do not know your sax history. Long tones and focused breath support will improve your tonal core imho.
Keep going and it will all come together. I stopped for 22 years.
Thanks Randy! i’ve been playing 1 year now.
Working hard on the Long Tones.doing a Grade 2
Sax exam in December, and been concentrating on
that for the last 3 months. This week my Sax teacher
got me to change my setup to a classical one for the exam.
As my current Jazz setup was too out of place.
It was my 4th attempt at playing Silver Bells.
Doing the grade has helped me focus a lot more on
timing. Only recently started working on the dynamics!
But its all good fun … long way to go for me! lol
For the first six months I played my parents thought they bought me a moose call. The dog always howled. Then one day the dog stopped crying.
P Mauriat 67R and Jody Jazz DVNY7
Randy – love your ‘White Christmas’ very smooth & steady on the notes!
You’re doing what i commented on one of Johnny’s songs – not just playing the notes, but bringing out the notes! two
different things, which makes a difference in the presentation!
I can tell you’ve been playing for some time! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks James. Johnny has improved me. I can growl if I want to and some altissimo works for me to. Johnny is good for us all. You need to get excited and keep going.
You may be Boney James of the future.
Good stuff guys. If I were standing beside you while you are playing I would put my hand about an inch away from your fingers as you play. Your fingers would hit my hand because they are coming up way too high from your sax keys. Some of you guys more than others, you can watch the videos to see this. On some of these simple tunes it’s not a huge problem but it will be as you work for consistency and speed. As I was starting out I was told this by my teacher and so worked very hard on it. If you watch my videos you will see that most of the time my fingers stay very close to the keys. There are times of course they don’t and it’s usually when I get carried away with some crazy altissimo notes but that’s a good exception because speed will never be the issue when hitting those notes…not for me anyway!!!
Keep this in mind while playing anything until keeping your fingers flying a little lower becomes second nature. It can happen quite easily if you become aware.
There you go James. Johnny is going to improve me some more. No one has ever talked about my finger height.
Thanks Johnny. I may be an old dog, but I like new tricks.
Well Randy, when I was young and intent on learning I had a very good teacher and I’m just sharing what was taught to me. Even so, not everyone will take note and put it into practice which is too bad.
Excellent Randy! Good advice from the Master!
Just been trying out Johnny’s latest “Jingle Bells” – it’s a great fun piece to try out!
P Mauriat 66R and Jody Jazz DVChi7
well done Randy. So are both your saxes P Mauriat?
Anyway Randy, you are starting to get some nice fluidity to your playing. Your tone is wavering a bit and but you can start to improve this by practicing much louder for longer periods of time if that’s possible. Doing this will get your air flow coming down deep from your diaphragm like it’s supposed to. The long tone exercises done in different volumes will help this.
Thanks Johnny. I can play much louder. I am playing all P Mauriat. I really like them. I need to get my diaphragm in spec to take this to the next level. I appreciate your help. You are a great professional.
Randy – i love the deep tone of the P Mauriat 66R !
I know from the fact that Johnny only released
“The White Christmas” song recently that you can’t
had much chance to play it as the “white Christmas”
song! Despite that, for a new piece, you still played it with great ease! Thanks for sharing – would love to hear the
“Jingle Bells” one!
Very nice Randy!
Such a warm and smooth tone. Your articulation was very good. I like the sound you get with the jody-jazz MPs.
Randy, 2 good song performances… Both those horns are beauty’s. Likin’ the tone your getting with your Jody Jazz MP’s on both as well. I have a Jody Jazz MP also that I bought and it didn’t become my favored player but I do occasionally pull it out to compare as well as to see if my maturing embrochure and air delivery can do it justice.
It is a hint brighter sounding than my Meyer MP that I usually grab to play with.
Good job…
Wow. Thanks guys. I sold my Keilwerth sx90r tenor. I didn’t think that would ever happen. I really like P Mauriat.
I appreciate all the comments and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.
I used plumber’s epoxy stick to build a removable baffle for my Jody Jazz DVNY alto piece. It brightened it up some. This is a great web site.
http://youtu.be/oRU1kkK-3XI
Yamaha Yas480,
Classical setup – Selmar S80 C** mouthpiece,
vandoren 2 reed
I think you played that very well. Your Yamaha Yas480 sounds good.
Thanks Randy – credit to Johnny mainly, he makes such
brilliant backing tracks, that it makes you wan’t to play them several times!
I’ve got a few cd backing tracks that come with Sax music books, and a lot of them are really dull & i only play them once.
A lot of people must be working on this one?
Just started it today, hope to be on top of it in a months
time.
http://youtu.be/ZqnTCzDWla4
Played on a Yamaha Alto Saxophone YAS480,
using a Selmar S80 C** mouthpiece with Vandoren 2 Reed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArKaryX6PN0
Here’s a lil sound clip of my tenor sax without any backing. Took it from Bob Segers’ Old Time R&R.
Maybe I’m closer to that classic 80’s sound than I really thought! Been working on long tones and those lovely Altissimo notes!!
James, I think we are all beginning to feel what it’s like to be a judge on American Idol in the sense that it can be hard to come up with comments that aren’t a repeat of previous ones and/or come up with a new perspective to give you constructive feedback…
I do like how your tone is developing. Your sense of timing is what your struggling with the most, though you nailed the drunken sailor above!
Silver Bells you began almost 4 beats behind, then caught up to 2 beats back, then by 2 min. you got in sync pretty good till the end. Fingers fumbling for notes quite a bit, which Hey we all do as we begin the process of learning a new song, especially when we’re new to the instrument…
It is good to see you’re applying yourself to learn and are sharing that on the blog!
Thanks – Kevin,
All valid, good sound constructive comments.
The best thing is that people on here take time out
to comment, which gives me the encouragement to
carry on playing!
I’ve only just got rid of my guitar after 42 years as i don’t play it anymore, as the Sax Beast is more challenging!
What i need to do now, focus on a specific song, work on it for several weeks & then upload it for feedback, like i
have done on “Drunken Sailor”, the rest of my uploads have been done within a few days of playing!
James, for a first touch it is quiet good. I know this beast, so i can feel with your fight with it. It sounds so easy but it is not!
You had a lot of big timing issues. Maybe it is better to play without backing at first. This will give you the ability not being in a hurry when you miss some notes.
Another thing that helped me a lot was slowing down the backing with my zoom. Learning with less bpm is better sometimes.
Keep on. What about a new take at the end of this year? I am working on it too, so we can hear if we are improving.
Thanks Dirk,
I will drop out of the blog for a couple of months at
least & work on the timing issues, like Kevin similarly
pointed out, until i’ve improved on these, for me, there’s
very little point in uploading as the comments will be reasonably the same.
So thanks to the rest of you Guys – keep practising,
and a Merry Christmas to you all, where ever ye be!
Lol
Nice to see everyone improving–and it’s killing me not to be able to upload right now LOL I’ll be back home next month
Sxpoet: That’s a cool name to have James Brown! I You’re making great progress–keep up the great work. It’s really encouraging for me personally to see you progress like you have. One thing that can help you too, in addition to the comments given to you above, regarding timing is to watch Johnny’s videos and how he plays it. Sometimes it helps, if possible, to even play along with it. When we do this, sometimes we find ourselves discovering some of those little things that maybe we didn’t think about before, like little embelishments that Johnny throws in all the time.
Jake: Did you transpose your solo by ear? Your tone is showing huge strides even since our duet together. How’s the Altissimo course coming along for you?
Thanks Michael. I found some notes for the song for the alto online somewhere. I transposed to tenor and tweeked them till they sounded good to me. That arrangement of notes gives me a chance to get some of the higher notes that often sound thinner to me. It gives practice other than just scales to work on. Altissimo is coming along. I am getting them more regularly now up to the Alt C. Really haven’t worked past that one yet. What is helping get them is to work on appregios. It seems a little easier to get note by note going chromatically but nailing them in the appregio helps cement them in for me a little more. Helps with trying to make sure they are in tune as well. So far my best setup for tenor is the guardala king style mp that was hand finished with my rigotti gold 2.5 reeds.
Can’t wait to hear your progress when you get back home and upload some stuff. Its been a while and am sure your improvement is gonna be huge as well!!
Hey Jake–we’ll see how it goes in terms of improvements; sometimes we’re improving and just don’t see it LOL I’ve had 2 songs of Johnny’s ready since October “Just the Way you are” “Careless Whisper” and recently got done with “Samba Pa Ti”……oh man I love this song in particular and so does everyone here in New Mexico 🙂 The first 2 songs include the solos as Johnny has on his sheet music and Careless Whisper has the Altissimo. I haven’t learned anything else new though because of current circumstances; mainly Killer Blues and staying on top of what I’ve learned from Johnny in the way of Exercises, Altissimo, etc.. For Tenor, I had “Spooky” done with the solo too before having to come here but I’m sure I’ll have to brush up on that a little. When I do get back home, I’ll start learning “I was made to love her” and “Harlem Nocturne” When I do come back home, around Dec 20-23, I’m going to go sleep for a week before even thinking about uploading anything LOL
One thing Jake I was going to mention on your solo was that your tone is sounding better and better, but be mindful about the last few notes of the solo as they sounded just slightly “run-in” together v.s distinct. If you listen to the last few licks of that solo, you’ll pick up on certain notes being emphasized, tongued slightly more to make them stand out, etc.. Also, really try to “let loose” with it a little bit more. Your tone is big and strong, so go for it and blow the roof off! 🙂
Michael & Jake, very well done. Good idea to Play a Duett !!
Just got my Selmer Bari back. This is my 1st go at a tune. Wanted to post the 1st bari on the blog and share this fabulous sound!! Right away I can tell my LOW C needs work. I need to support it better and get good air flow from my diaphram for sure. Couple swaks in there but I’m happy with my 1st go at it. Will be applying Johnny’s daily routine and my long tones and will be flying before I know it. Such a cool distinct sound!!!!
Jake- great to hear the first Bari to the Blog! Good first take with it as well. Sounds like that low C is going to take a full breath every beat or two! Look forward to hear more…
I’m pretty sure this is the first upload here onto Johnny’s site with a Bari…..what a beast of a Saxophone! That thing is huge but should do wonders for your tone Jake. I would imagine you can really play some truly “funky” stuff with that thing. What kind of MP/reed are you using with it? I definately wanna see more of it here on the blog Jake 🙂
WoW, seem like everyone having fun on their horns. Just wanted stop by and say happy holidays.
Louie
Jake, you ARE the bari! Ya couple bad notes there but I could tell that you are getting it to sound the way it’s supposed to. I think this horn suits you.
Thanks for the comments all, really appreciate it. For now I am using a Rico B5 graftonite mouthpiece with standard rico 2.5 reeds. I will look to upgrade the mp in a bit after I can get a bearing on this beast of a saxophone!
Jake, cool stuff! We are on our way to build a full band 😀
Looking forward for more.
Very nice, Randy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3wAKCs5-0Y
P Mauriat 66R/Jody Jazz DVChi 7
Love the Tone Randy! – and you’ve got a bit of swing in there as well!!
Randy, Like those lower notes especially. Good tone and they sounded in tune. The higher notes were a bit on the sharp side.
I have been tuning my MP more in favor of the higher notes being in tune then I try to lip up the lower ones which tend to go on the flat side with my setup/horn.
Wish the sax wasn’t so hard to play in tune!
Your performance was good and enjoyable to listen to!
http://youtu.be/eq2jztMt-_o
This is one of those not so well known Christmas music pieces that I remember its’ impression on me the first time I heard it. It’s enchanting melody and full orchestra backing make it a good instrumental piece as well as the original Lyric version- Amy Grant, Breath of Heaven 1992.
The sax version of this I heard was done on a soprano sax an octave above where I am playing it. Not sure I like it as well in this octave, but would like some feedback as to what others think…
It is difficult/challenging to accomplish the embrochure control needed for this slower type melody with long sustains (at least for me at this learning level…). Starting and stopping the notes while performing the dynamics of the music, etc. (and in tune)
But it is was a good one for practicing and trying to hone those “control” skills.
I do like your tone Kevin. Playing alto in the lower register is overlooked. Your horn sounds good there. Nice vibrato. I reached for the altissimo g# on my tenor. If I tighten up at all the high notes tend to sharpen. More practice in the woodshed for us all.
Sounds lovely Kevin, you played it very well.
Never heard it before, listening to it i can see why a soprano
sax would be more suited to it. I think a higher pitch would float more on top of the orchestra sound and stand out better, where as the lower pitch tends to blend in more with the orchestra background! Only my opinion – beautiful piece to hear.
I think Johnny should have a separate forum for people like you who have been playing a lot longer than us beginers, to get feed back from more experienced players?
Lol
Great job Kevin and Randy–Kevin your tone is very nice and full, really cool melody too. I can see why this one would be great on the Soprano–I would love to have a Soprano in time to come. Many times it’s playing these types of melodies with long, sustained notes that are key to improving our tone. In Johnny’s Altissimo course, he’s got a lesson on subtones, super lesson especially when playing in the lower register as Randy mentions in his comment. Playing those notes in the lower register long and soft are way harder to play than notes in the upper register; it requires that we supply so much more air from the diaphragm but it does wonders to your tone. Great job guys, love watching your uploads–very encouraging! 🙂
This blog is getting full again LOL
Randy, very nice. I do realy like your tone.
Kevin, very very good! Your tone is so warm and cozy as it should be for this kind of song.
I think it sound very well on alto but i also like the version i found on youtube played on soprano.
Do you have the notes for soprano? I’ve just bought one, so i am looking for well suited transpositions.
I am going to upload a video when i’m feeling comfortable with the new horn(et).
Thanks all for the comments/feedback. Its surely appreciated.
Dirk, I could provide you the notes for soprano sax for this song, let me know how you would like to get it to you…
Looking forward to your upload!
Thanks for the great feedback. I have played in three churches. I do want to be good enough to play night clubs. No smoking in them is nice in Kansas. The blues scale and altissimo.
Have not been on the site for sometime but I can see the great work Johnny’s site has done to help all of us improve our sax playing. Happy Holidays to all of you and our teacher who gives us the inspiration for the sax. Merry Christmas to you and your family Johnny!
Marc
Thanks Marc and same to you!
Hey everyone, for your next upload go to #8 here:
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/members-saxophone-music-videos-8
Hi,
i always record my practis time for the Saxophone, so i got this melody. It started with a simple 3 Chord Guitar Backingtrack. Then i sended the Track to Tomek and Krzysztof (Collaboration Musician’s Friend )
So Krzysztof did a new Backingtrack and Tomek played the Solo guitar. After some Mixings we got this one…. we hope you like it…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7A9OyQfCWA
the Altosax is a Thomann 50 Anniversary from ebay for 300€ …. Vandoren MP 2,5