[Michael]

@sxpoet–not at the moment, I play Brass instruments now: Trumpet, Flugelhorn, and have a new cornet coming that I bought from Austin Custom Brass. With my TMD Disorder, Brass Instruments was the perfect solution as the embouchure required for Brass instruments involves buzzing of the lips and there’s nothing to insert in my mouth that may aggrevate my TMD Disorder. The Air Support required for Woodwind and Brass instruments is the same, no change there. The super-cool thing about Bb Saxophone sheet music is this: it’s all transferable to the instruments I now play as they are concert Bb Instruments, just like Tenor/Soprano–so I’m making good use of all of the tracks/sheet music 🙂 On the Trumpet, I’m getting ready to upload ‘Fly Me To the Moon’ and ‘Blueberry Hill’, and I’m working on ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’–all using Johnny’s backing tracks–it’s GREAT fun to play. On Flugelhorn, I’m getting ready to upload ‘Killing Me Softly’ and ‘You are the Sunshine of my life’, and I”m working on “Ooh Baby, Baby, on Flugelhorn. I just opened a new youtube channel/new mini blog on tumblr a few days ago, no content on the youtube channel yet, but getting ready to post it. Here’s the link(s) if you’re interested (no self-promotion on my part, it’s just to show what I’m doing these days).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTBsrDRRCxJDd7-5JEEREkw
https://rookiebrass.blog/

I actually did upload a Trumpet/Flugelhorn song a few months back on a channel that I had, but it was more of just something to help me track my progress/unlisted, but the new links/channel(s) above are going public. After my TMD Disorder, I went through a phase of not wanting anything to do with playing music at all. My discouragement/feelings eventually subsided and my son started to learn to play guitar. I encouraged him to pursue music and he turned it around on me with, ‘Dad, what about you’ LOL So I made a deal with him that if he continued with the guitar then I would get back into music again. My first thoughts was Saxophone and I started to try to play again and even resumed lessons locally, but the TMD came back 🙁 Given the circumstances, it was recommended I look into Brass instruments and that was that–it’s worked out really well for me….the blues are super fun to play on the Trumpet too 🙂 I’m still very much connected with the Blues Society on a local level/my playing friends–no changes there. My love for the Saxophone/Saxophone Music will never change and I really do hope I’ll be able to pick it up again–it would be SO much fun to be able to add it to these intruments/fun uploads with both instruments…..and I have been tempted to try again LOL

[Michael]

Hi Colin,

Johnny posted an article on his blog/section of the website a few years ago on tips for buying a Saxophone, here’s the link below. It’s a few years old, but have some good insights/tips to bear in mind:

Tips For Buying a Saxophone in 2022 – Play It Safe With These Top Brands

[Michael]

@Sxpoet @RockinRobin–Michael Bishop here; ironic timing with the comments asking about me. No, I don’t play Saxophone anymore–my Oral Cavity never made a full recovery-Permanent TMD Disorder 🙁 I was showing signs of recovery and did start picking it back up after some time to heal, I even paid Johnny for a 1-year subscription for Sax Academy and started working with my local teacher again, but the TMD inflammation all came back. I tried several things to manage it, but no go. After the Oral Cavity Surgery to fix my tongue tie that caused my jaw to go out of alignment, I was never the same after that. No, it had nothing to do with the Saxophone playing itself; my doctor already confirmed that. When I started playing Saxophone, the tongue-tie I was borne with restricted the range-of-motion from my tongue and the doctor said my oral cavity was trying to ‘compensate’ for the lack of range of motion–the tongue tie is why I was never able to flutter tongue on the Saxophone–I had no range of motion with my tongue, and it affects everything. Eventually, the joint on the corner of my jaw popped out of place and, no matter how hard I tried, that put an end to everything. I still listen to Saxophone music all the time=it’s still all in my head/heart and I don’t feel like I’ve forgotten anything in my mind–I still hear all the blues riffs/licks going in my head all the time. I’ll hear a blues backing track and my mind just starts going with all the riffs. Just the other days, I saw a video with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jeff Healey doing ‘Little Sister’ on stage and Rock and Roll Riffs started coming to my mind with Stevie’s guitar playing on that video– would recycle Johnny’s ‘Rock and Roll Saxophonist’ solo with Stevie LOL with adaptations of my own, to play a solo in that song….the Creativity gets going and then reality sets in that I can’t play the Saxophone any more–my oral cavity simply won’t let me, no matter how badly I want it to….it’s a tough pill to swallow, especially when you love something so much; and loving Saxophone has never changed. AS you can imagine, It’s very discouraging, but that’s how it goes sometimes. It’s a hard pill to swallow that I’ll never be able to play Saxophone again. I guess some things just aren’t meant to be.

My oldest son who is now 24 has turned out to be a good guitar player and he really loves it, and my youngest daughter is learning violin right now–they both love it and I support them fully. For me, not being able to play Saxophone anymore really got me down and I decided to stay away from learning any kind of musical instrument at all–started focusing on other things that I like to do. I’ve played with the idea of going to the keyboard or drums, but it’s just been a passing thought/not very motivated to do it.

To all the guys who are here learning Saxohpone from Johnny–have fun with it and don’t take it for granted–there’s not another instrument quite like the Sax 🙂

[Michael]

Great stuff Mike! Love your tone–very full, fat and smooth sounding. You have some of that ‘buzz’ in your sound too, very cool. Hats off to you 🙂

[Michael]

Right on Mike! That’s a beauty of a Sax, very happy for you 🙂

[Michael]

All right! Good stuff–thanks for sharing it 🙂 Haven’t heard of his band White Trash before, will check that out for sure. Did his first band break up and he formed his White Trash/2nd band?

[Michael]

Good points being made by everyone here. I was asked where I get my custom tracks made, so I shared it with everyone. There are lots of great places where we can get great tracks. The folks I use aren’t my sole source of tracks–I use many from Karaoke. I just purchased Elvis’ song of ‘Mess of Blues’ from Karaoke and use the custom features to create a really nice track, sounds great 🙂 I used Karaoke’s custom features and removed the guitar solo in the original song so that I can play my own Improved solo with the Saxophone. The track came out nice 🙂

To the other extreme, I use the folks I use to create tracks that you’re simply not going to find on places like Karaoke. If someone can find a good source of backing tracks, (which are already premade which I can download like you would from places like Karaoke) for songs created by players like King Curtis, Junior Walker, Red Prysock, Big Jay Mcneely, Sil Austin, Earl Bostic, Mike Shapiro, etc.. then please let me know. The folks I use produce impossible-to-find tracks to my taste/personal preferences. No, they’re not cheap, but the tradeoff is the quality of the track.

[Michael]

@ brother cavefish It just depends on the backing track itself and the work that’s required to make it/produce it.

[Michael]

@ Mel It’s impossible for us to not practice those things too many times. It’s something we have to work on every single day. When I push air from my diaphragm area into the Saxophone, I can sometimes feel the muscles in my back region working too. I have to remind myself to keep my shoulders down and keep the neck muscles relaxed, don’t lean my head forward, etc.. If we have a problem with our shoulders kind of shrugging up when playing, that usually means we have shallow air support. Keep the entire upper area/oral cavity relax. Recently with long tones, I’ve had a few times when I felt like passing out a little bit LOL

[Michael]

Hey guys–As Johnny said, I have some folks I use for making custom tracks for me. They do great work and their prices are very reasonable. They use real musicians in a real studio. They require a 50% deposit up front and you pay the remaining balance after you’ve reviewed the completed track and you approve it, ask them to change something, etc.. The link is below. Create a username & password. After you’ve done that, select the ‘request music’ tab and fill out the form. They respond much quicker to you if you have a username/password set up first, which you’re going to need to download your custom tracks. I have several custom tracks which I’ve never gotten around to showing anyone/uploading, but I’m looking to do so as I get back into playing shape.

When I started having custom track made, my first/obvious choice was Johnny, but he’s really busy. I’m stoked he’s now offering transcription services, I’ll definitely be sending some stuff his way, other stuff I’ll be doing simply by ear. It’s true there’s some places where you can get cool backing tracks made already for jazz, blues, pop, etc.. But the custom tracks I had made are for songs from King Curtis, Junior Walker, Sil Austin, Mike Shapiro, Red Prysock, etc.. In other words, it’s the kind of stuff that you’re simply not going to find anywhere online–unless someone like Johnny outright produced it.

https://www.custombackingtracks.net/

[Author]

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