Practicing saxophone & pullups?

Where’s the connection??

A lot of playing saxophone is internal.  How you breath, how your air column goes into the horn, all your embouchure.

Your fingers can be seen, but not by you while you’re playing.

Sometimes we practice in mirrors or record ourselves to get a more objective view and ear on what we play.

Playing fast hides a lot of problems and we can cover up other things in our playing with a little effort.

Practicing hard to the point where your embouchure is a little tired can feel pretty satisfying.

However, it doesn’t always help your playing if you’re not doing it right.  And taking breaks in between practicing keeps your mind and body fresh and makes the time you practice more effective.  It does require some discipline though.

Sometimes we don’t slow down and look for problems that we can fix, because well, it’s not always that fun to do.

I thought of a little experiment….

Exercising in proper form is important to getting results and avoiding injury.  Slow movements take more energy but can be better controlled.

Gyms have mirrors in them so that you can see yourself exercising and I think partly so you have good form.

The other day I went to the gym and had my friend Enrique take a video.  Raj talks at one point in the background about Rocky 7.

Pullups are a great exercise, good for your back and arms, works a lot of different muscles.

The experiment was to do as many pullups as I could without any rest between.  I used to do these pretty regularly, but haven’t as much lately.

Next week, I’m going to do a similar experiment with rest in between them using a specific formula.

I’ll track the number, how long it takes, and check out my technique/form.

Experiment #1

Result: 10 Pullups

Time: 30 Seconds

Part II in a week

When it gets colder you tend to push in your mouthpiece a little to keep your saxophone from going flat.  It makes good intonation a lot easier anyway.  You don’t constantly adjust it, but having it at an optimal position for the saxophone and temperature overall keep you from straining to get it right.

Last night I was playing and it’s getting cold outside (around freezing at the low point these days) but it was getting pretty toasty inside.  A conflict!  I actually went a bit sharp and needed to pull the mouthpiece out a substantial amount.

That tends to happen when you play for dancers and they get into it.

Sometimes it gets to the point when it’s warm enough that it’s hard to keep the sax mouthpiece on tight because it’s pulled out too far.

So if you’re playing in a warmer area or it’s getting closer to summer, you might need to have the mouthpiece pulled out a little more in general.  And for that to work correctly, the cork on the neck needs to be expanded enough to keep the piece on properly.

To expand the cork, you need a source of heat (could be a match or lighter, but be careful) and to apply the heat evenly around the cork.

If you’re having the opposite problem, and need to push the mouthpiece farther on, you can use cork grease.

When you get a new mouthpiece, it doesn’t always fit the same way as your old one did, so adjustments can help.

You’ll see temporary adjustments sometimes with sax players rolling paper around the cork.  Works for a bit, but in general you want the mouthpiece you like to fit your sax.

We all know that saxophone is used extensively in jazz, blues, even reggae, R&B, and salsa.

One place you might not expect it is with house music….

A few months back I saw DJ Mark Farina do his thing at a club in San Francisco. I’m wasn’t the biggest fan of house music, but I liked his stuff when I heard it live.  Listening to ‘Mushroom Jazz’ today (related to acid jazz but more ‘organic’ according to Farina).  Seemed like it could be a lot of fun to play with live and could add something to the music.

http://www.djmarkfarina.net/ if you would like to check his stuff out.

My friend was up in SF again the other week and the power went off at a club.  There happened to be some percussionists in the crowd and they started playing house music with congas & bongos.  The people at the club started getting into it and when the power came back on the musicians played with the DJs.

Another time I heard Todd Clickard’s addition of some flute to a Thievery Corporation song.  Sounded better to me.

House and other electronic music can really set up a groove, it seems like that’s a huge part of it to me.  And they sample the sounds from great musicians.

Sometimes live music lacks a solid groove.  But at the same time, I think that the spontaneity and improvisation of live music is missing from electronic music sometimes.  An electronic baritone sax just doesn’t cut it for me.

The combination seems like a cool thing.

Doron wrote a post about his experiences playing saxophone with DJs and also went into all the equipment and some tips for making it work.

Personally, I have played along with some recordings, but haven’t played sax with a DJ live yet.

Have you done that before?  What styles have you heard saxophone in that you hadn’t expected it?

The other night I headed down to a coffee shop in Monterey to check out a jam session.

Had heard good things about it….

It’s once a month on the second friday, which maybe it stick around in the back of my head, but not necessarily remember it or have that night free when it came around.

Based on the comments about it by my friends (most recently from a percussionist in my band.\) and just wanting to play, I made some space to go.

The house band, with the leader on soprano sax, really could play!

My friend and I both went and met a few other musicians/singers in the audience including a young guy who played congas.

He went up and played ‘Sugar’ by Stanley Turrentine.  Was thinking about playing ‘Footprints’ but the leader of the group already had played that one.

That went pretty well.

Thought I was going to play right after that, but they ended up playing a few more songs, so I set down my horn.  The set included ‘Red Clay’ – a Freddie Hubbard tune I really like.

After a little while I went up and a singer went up, so I accompanied her.  Didn’t know the tune, but was able to use my ear and play along pretty well for the most part.

Then I was thinking about playing ‘Nature Boy’…. but realized it didn’t really fit with the style of music that was being played.  So I asked about ‘Work Song’.  The leader of the band suggested ‘Moanin’ instead, which is actually a bit like Work Song.  So we played that.

The way I played the melody was a bit rough at first, but I had heard the song quite a few times and got the hang of it.  Soloing over that was a little rough too by ear, went decently.  Made me want to really learn the song after I got home.

At the end of the night, the leader of the band called my friend and me up to play ‘Now’s the Time’ (a blues by Bird).

All in all, the jam session was a lot of fun.  Heard great musicians, got to play with them, and got me thinking about stuff to work on afterwards.

Think I’ll head back next month.

Do you have any stories about jam sessions?  Leave a comment!

1. Score goals on the other team.

2. Block the other team from scoring goals.

The combination of those two ideas will cause your team to win a match!

So simple, right?

Sometimes on saxophone, we think in terms of ‘getting better’.

But vague goals do not effectively drive our practice of music.

To score a point, the ball needs to be passed effectively between teammates moving in a formation and responding to the opposing team.  There are thousands of variables in the situation.  And some of them may include capoeira antics of the other team!

Likewise, you learn saxophone one step at a time.  You might learn the E major scale, then you might increase the speed at which you play it proficiently.

You can learn a song, you can’t learn a thousand songs at once.  And really, you just learn a small piece at a time.  The speed at which you do so depends on your ear, how long you have played, and some other things.

In sports, an athlete practices specific exercises, scrimmages to simulate the actual gameplay, and thinks about the tactics a specific team might work among other preparations.

One at a time.  You don’t see athletes scrimmaging while holding barbells and doing curls (well, at least I haven’t).

In music, focus is fundamental.

Think about what you want to learn.  If you play in a band the music you play with the other musicians may be a big priority.  If you’re playing on your own, pick something you want to learn and put some time in on it.  The results will be much greater with some focus instead of scattering your practice time all over the place.

You ought to practice the different elements of music, I’m not saying to only work on rhythm and forget about tone all day.

A little focus goes a long way.  And learning songs one at a time instead of reading through them for a few minutes will make you really learn the songs you work on.