Beginning Saxophone Question: “Supposed to tongue every note?” – Careless Whisper

Four notes, first three notes are slurred, last is tongued

Receive a question related to tonguing the notes for the song Careless Whisper for the alto sax video lesson I made.

I’ve started to follow your Careless Whisper instructions. it gets a little harder on the 3rd page where it goes into a high D, (which I’ve forgotten the fingering) so I give up there, but it is my current goal.

I may need to take my sax in for servicing as it`s been in storage a while. Plus I think I will need to get some new reeds, they are number 2 and have also been in storage. It’s hard to make time to play. But, already between yesterday and today I’ve improved.

However, I can’t remember if I am supposed to tongue every note. Maybe you can answer that for me. Maybe I am supposed to slur only where there is a slur notice.

Thanks again

My response:

The D uses a palm key and the octave key. Check out the fingering chart if you need to look up the notes.

Slurring and tonguing depends on the music, sometimes you actually don’t play exactly as it seems to be notated with everything tongue and you definitely don’t want all the notes short in a lot of situations.

If you would like more personal help, check out Saxophone Tribe.

http://SaxophoneTribe.com

For something like Careless Whisper, you could play it with your own style in which case you would tongue where it seemed to make sense. Or if you’re trying to play it similar to another sax player, you can learn some things about phrasing and articulation from how they approached it. For Careless Whisper, I would check out either the original or Sergio Flores. Or you could listen how I played it and you could see exactly what I did within Saxophone Tribe if you’re interested. From there you can change it a bit into your own style.

The image above in the post shows one piece from my recording of Careless Whisper from the video. You can see that there are four notes, the first three notes are slurred the fourth is tongued. To make things smoother, I would recommend not tonguing all the notes for a tune like this.

Could show you more things like that in how I approach music within Saxophone Tribe.

To sign up for Saxophone Tribe, go to this page

http://saxophonetribe.com/so-you-really-want-to-learn-how-to-play-saxophone/

Duke Ellington’s ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ – Help Learning It By Ear on Sax

By Neal 5 Comments

For my ear training lesson on ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ by Ellington, I decided to post it again here. The ‘solutions’ to the music (the notes for this lesson) are listed below the video. They’re not listed all at once though. They’re listed one at a time. You can scroll down to see one and then if you want to check the next one, you’ll need to scroll down farther. In this way, it’s a slight bit of a hassle to check the next note and I would encourage you to not look unless completely necessary.

Try it out! And let me know how it goes and what you think of the format.

Share it on Facebook and Google + if you like it!

Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:

G

Eleventh Note

Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:

A

Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:

E

Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:

E A A C E A C #D D C A.

Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:

B E E G B E G Bb A G E

Check out Saxophone Tribe for more quick lessons like this!

To sign up for the saxophone ear training class, go to this page

https://saxstation.com/big-ear

What the SAT Math Prep Book Can Teach You About Ear Training on Saxophone

By Neal 1 Comment

I was helping a student study for the SAT mathematical questions the other day. He has a prep book with concepts and practice questions. And the answers are available to check out if you flip back to a later page.

That means you can check instantly whether you have the correct answer or not.

If you use this option the right way, it can help, but it can also prevent you from really learning something.

The right way would be to try a math problem, attempt one method and if that didn’t work to try a few other methods. Then you would attain an answer, check it if possible and think about whether it seems reasonable. If you’re obtaining the height of a person, two centimeters wouldn’t be reasonable.

The wrong way would be to look at a problem for two seconds, exclaim that you do not know how to solve it and then flip back to the answer and look puzzled at how they got it then examine the solution steps to see what they’re doing.

When you look at a solution and have some idea of what’s going on, the solution is probably going to make sense. You might feel like you understand it even, but if you hadn’t looked at the solutions it would have taken you much longer to figure it out if you could.

The thing is, that longer time and the struggle enables you to learn things better.

You’re far more likely to remember something if you struggle while learning. With one student I went over a problem with him, finding the height of a triangle inscribed in a parabola. He looked at the problem, unsure of where to start, so I helped him with some steps. It was a somewhat complicated problem. Then three days later we encountered the exact same problem. Not a similar problem. The same problem.

He wasn’t sure how to solve it or even get started even though we had done the problem before. I had the steps to the problem with me that I had written out three days prior. He saw the solution and it made sense on the previous day, but when he encountered the same problem again, he wasn’t able to figure it out without more help.

I thought about the process of how this happened. Ideally, you want to try something, anything when you encounter a problem.

If you’re learning music on saxophone and want to play it. Try playing a note that you think you hear. You might be off by two octaves. But once you play it, you should hear a difference. Then if you play a second note, it ought to be closer using what you have learned. If you try to instantly guess what the note is and have no experience learning music by ear, you might feel overwhelmed and not even try to play a note, simply giving up.

Looking at the sheet music will give you the answer instantly all at once. If you were working with a saxophone teacher, he or she could probably give you the first note and then let you work from there. It would give you a starting point. And if you got off track, you might learn from the teacher where exactly you got off track.

Check out the lesson where you can check yourself by scrolling, Ear Training lesson for It Don’t Mean a Thing

Alto Sax Stand, Tenor Sax Stand, Baritone Sax Stand, Keg Stand?

By Neal Leave a Comment

Saxophone stand! More Functional Than a Keg Stand

Well, maybe that last one doesn’t belong in the list…..

The other night at a gig I was looking at my sax stand and how it wobbled. It had done that for years. Was a little annoying, but didn’t seem to really matter. It worked and it has a couple of spots to put in pegs for flute and clarinet which I use sometimes. But I decided to look at it more closely.

It turned out that one of the metal legs was bent and that made it not rest evenly on most surfaces. Unless those surfaces happened to be the correct slant to line up with it.

I had tried to bend it back before, but it’s not that easy to bend somewhat thick metal, so it didn’t quite work out.

That night I decided to use a little leverage, have the metal legs out, hold it by the opposite leg and push at the tip of the bent leg. The physics of the situation caused my force to do more and I actually unbent the sax stand. A moment of triumph. Not sure why I didn’t do it years before.

Tau (torque) = lever length x force x sin of the angle between force and object

Another issue with my stand is that while it works for tenor + flute and clarinet both even, it doesn’t really hold an alto sax too well. The proportions aren’t quite right.

Now that I’m playing more than one saxophone….

It came to my attention that my friend had a pretty spiffy looking Hercules Double Alto/Tenor Sax Stand
that could hold both an alto sax and a tenor sax. He had the Hercules stand.

I have seen some other friends who are musicians with them.

Was thinking about getting one of those.

Any thoughts on your sax stand? The good and bad? Leave a comment!

Sonny Rollins Photos at Monterey Jazz Festival 2011- Arena Stage

By Neal Leave a Comment

Sonny Rollins put on a great show this last year at the Monterey Jazz Festival!

Was very happy to be there to hear it. Took a few photos.

What a Trombone Player Can Teach You About the Charlie Parker Omnibook

By Neal 2 Comments

A trombone player who knows some Bird!

At our last gig, I was talking to Faris, trombone player in our band, about Charlie Parker. Since it’s at least slightly hard to play Bird on a trombone than an alto sax, from all evidence I have seen and heard, he was saying that the tunes that can be most approachable in the Omnibook are actually the ones with the highest tempo markings.

Also let me know that his favorite tune in there is one that’s a bit lesser known, called ‘Celerity’

I had been thinking about which Bird tunes to work on more myself and which ones might be good to start with. I know a few on tenor sax, but didn’t really know any on alto since tenor has been my main horn. Lately I’m also playing a bit of alto sax.

You don’t play them at tempo initially! But because Charlie Parker could play these tunes at the fastest tempos, they flow a little bit easier at slower tempos.

Studying the omnibook and how Charlie Parker approached patterns and licks is great practice. If you take his ideas and start changing them a little bit, adding in your own phrasing and flavor, you’ll develop more of a vocabulary and bring them into your own sound. Take the pieces you like the best, learn them well, change them, adapt them.

Musicians learn from one another. You might sound like you’re playing Charlie Parker at first, but that’s not a terrible thing. And down the road it will become part of your toolbox and part of your own sound.

Sidenote: it’s easier to play the Eb omnibook than the Bb omnibook since they were originally played on alto and you don’t have to worry about octave jumps! Therefore it’s not a bad idea to have the Eb edition of the omnibook (yellow cover) even if you mostly play tenor sax.

But of course it’s probably easier to play Bird on tenor sax than it is on trombone!

How to Play ‘The Lick’ on Alto Sax – Saxophone Video Lesson

By Neal 7 Comments

How to play ‘the lick’ on alto sax. This lick comes up all over the place! See a few musicians playing it below the lesson!

In the simplest key, A minor. No flats or sharps. Here it is for alto sax.

Blues March – Wayne Shorter Solo on Tenor Sax, Tune by Benny Golson

By Neal Leave a Comment

Leader Art Blakey on drums with the Jazz Messengers in Japan, 1961.

Bobby Timmons on piano, Jimmy Merrit on bass, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone. Tune composed by Benny Golson

My student Marie-Jacqueline in France is working on soloing over the changes for this one in the sax improvisation class.

Wayne Shorter’s tenor solo starts at about 1:00 in. He takes a simple idea and develops it.

Saxophone CD – How to Pick an Awesome Saxophone CD From Amongst Mountains of Shiny (And Sometimes Terrible) Discs

By Neal 3 Comments

Want a Saxophone CD? To listen to, give to someone, or learn from?

You probably want it to not be terrible.

On amazon, ‘saxophone cd’ had 2,552 results in the music section when I last checked.

The first one that comes up is Best of Jazz Saxophone by Various Artists!!

Sounds awesome right? I love the Various Artists Band, they always rocks the live shows.

Or maybe you want a real saxophone cd, by a saxophonist?

Something like Just in Case You Forgot How Bad He Really Was, he being Sonny Stitt.

Heard this particular saxophone CD being played on a shuttle going to the airport and then ordered it later. Driver happened to know his jazz.

So wasn’t an automatic search that found it.

Amazon can be pretty helpful though, you’ll see reviews once you get to an actual CD. But finding that saxophone cd in the first place isn’t laid out so simply, you need to know a little about what you want beforehand. Which sax players are good, which albums you might like, etc.

In my case, since I play saxophone, relatives have several-ish times given me saxophone cds as gifts. Sometimes they’re cool. Other times it’s a CD with a saxophone on it and doesn’t have many other redeeming qualities. Your relatives have good intentions! (probably) But they don’t always know what they’re doing when selecting a saxophone cd.

If you’re reading this post, you probably play saxophone, but if you don’t, check out the list of players on Greatest Saxophone Player of All Time? and the comments. And listen to the players before you get something! Youtube, samples on iTunes, there are options.

‘Best of’ sometimes are good… but not necessarily. Don’t take that phrase at face value.

There are a ton of great saxophone CDs out there. Lots of styles and different flavor.

Some of the my favorite jazz recordings with saxophone include these ones, click on the images to check them out. Other CDs with these musicians tend to be good too!

Saxophone Colossus
5 Stars – Excellent …Rollins displays humor, gentleness, a delicate feeling for beauty….I find this entire album excellent on all counts and for all persons concerned. -Down Beat

Miles Davis with John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Cannonball Adderly, Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly. Even people who don’t generally like jazz like this album. It just has great music.

1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue In Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Flamenco Sketches (Alternate Take)

Time Out with the song ‘Take Five’ by Paul Desmond. Dave Bruebeck on piano.

Song for My Father – Horace Silver with Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone. Joe Henderson’s solo follows Horace Silver’s piano solo and is amazing.

Stanley Turrentine’s ‘Sugar’. My favorite saxophone player. He’s got soul. I’ve got a ton of his recordings.

John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Masterpiece. Not exactly easy listening though.

Joe Henderson’s ‘Page One’. Another one of my favorite sax players. His debut as a band leader. I really like his recording of Blue Bossa1. Blue Bossa
2. La Mesha
3. Homestretch
4. Recorda Me
5. Jinrikisha
6. Out Of The Night

What’s your favorite saxophone CD? Leave a comment!

Epic Sax Guy Notes- How to Play Epic Sax Guy Line on Alto Sax

By Neal 30 Comments

My student Paul in NY asked how to play this one, so here it is.

Starts on F#, that note repeats a few times. (Notes for tenor sax below video)

You bend the A.

Though there is a ten hour video on youtube, I wouldn’t recommend playing it for that long!

Correction: at 1:47, it says D E, but I’m playing E D. It should be E D. There is an annotation with this correction already on the youtube version, but that might not be visible here.

Also, the last note on alto should be a B, not an E.

Notes for tenor saxophone:
B
B B B B A B B
B B B A B B
D B A G
E E F# G E

Saxophone Book Guide!

By Neal 5 Comments

As you learn the saxophone, method books and other sax books can be a great way to systematically work on playing the instrument. Here are a few books that I have used and recommendations on the appropriate order to work on them. But remember that you should definitely listen to saxophone players and other music in addition to working through books! Ideally you want to play in groups and get private lessons if you can afford them too.

Beginning Saxophone

Rubank Elementary Method – Saxophone

Progressive method book for saxophone. Starts slowly with notes, exercises, melodies. I would use a fingering chart like the one on Sax Station though.

Saxophone Maiden Voyage Volume 54 – Maiden Voyage

Good book to start working on improvisation. Comes with a CD that has a backing band that you can play along with. The melodies are simplified a bit and the chords are not overly complex.

Intermediate

Saxophone Rubank Intermediate Method Rubank Intermediate Method Saxophone

Continuation of the Rubank Method. More challenging exercises, scale studies, and melodies. Good book to work through.

Jackie McLean Saxophone Warmup Book Jackie McLean Warm-up

Scales and chords throughout the full range of the saxophone. I used this book to warmup and work on my scales/chords for a good while.

Saxophone Bop Duets

Playing duets with another sax player can be a lot of fun. This book in particular is challenging, but the lines weave together well and make some cool music.

Intermediate Jazz Conception

Advanced Jazz Conception for Saxophone: 20 Jazz Etudes

Jazz Conception for Saxophone Duets

Aebersold Series

Real Books:

The Real Book: Sixth Edition (in C)
Useful resource for learning jazz tunes
The Real Book (B Flat, Sixth edition – for soprano/tenor sax
The Eb Real Book, Sixth Edition –

Volume 16 – Turnarounds, Cycles & ii/V7s to get familiar with the harmonic cycles in music

Advanced

General

The Music Lesson
– by Victor Wooten. This book changed my perspective on music in a very good way.

Rubank Advanced Method – Saxophone Vol.1
Rubank Advanced Method – Volume 2 (Saxophone)

A more advanced book that was actually written for oboe can be played on saxophone (on the cover it states ‘for oboe or saxophone’ for a greater challenge.

48 Famous Studies

Small Book

Art of Saxophone Playing – Larry Teal

Top Tones for the Saxophone

Greg Fishman’s Books:

Jazz Saxophone Etudes For Alto & Tenor: Book & Two CD Play-Along Set

Jazz Saxophone Etudes, Volume 2

Jazz Saxophone Etudes, Volume 3

Jazz Phrasing for Beginners

Volume 64 – Salsa Latin Jazz, to play some Latin music, check this book out, it’s not at a beginning level and some of the tunes are fast.

–The Jazz Theory Book. Definitive resource for harmonic theory in jazz, by Mark Levine. Playing some piano will help you understand this book.

Patterns For Improvisation By Oliver Nelson,