Grover Washington Jr. on tenor sax! A pioneer of the smooth jazz genre, which isn’t my favorite style, but some of it sounds pretty good.
Adrian suggested that I check out this song again, so I have.
His group lays down a really solid groove on Mister Magic which came out on his album in 1974. Saw it on youtube and noticed that Amy Winehouse did a version of it too, seemed like from the comments that people liked her version a lot – comments about the solidity of the groove and whatnot.
Saxophones and space shuttles….. what’s the connection?
If there are 1000 parts (for sake of argument) comprising a space shuttle and each of them has a 99.9% chance of working, then the chances for no malfunction is only about 37%.
By multiplying .999 by itself 1000 times without rounding, the true result is found, a 99.9% chance of working seems high, but if you counted on it being high enough, the crew might have piloted the spacecraft and met their doom in an explosion.
There are a lot of components to a saxophone too! Keys, pads, corks, rods, mechanics, etc.
If the pad in your octave key falls out, your saxophone won’t work right, even if you’re Kirk Whalum. That happened to me. I suppose I could have gotten some notes to play, but effectively it put the saxophone out of commission.
If the pad in your octave key falls out, your saxophone won’t work right, even if you’re Kirk Whalum. That happened to me. I suppose I could have gotten some notes to play, but effectively it put the saxophone out of commission.
Physically, the parts can limit your playing.
Your skills with the various elements of music can limit you too. If you play perfectly, but it’s all too loud, you’re not going to be the right sax player for many situations. Or if your technique and rhythm are perfect, but you don’t listen, there will also be catastrophes on the band stand.
Physically, the parts can limit your playing.
Your skills with the various elements of music can limit you too. If you play perfectly, but it’s all too loud, you’re not going to be the right sax player for many situations. Or if your technique and rhythm are perfect, but you don’t listen, there will also be catastrophes on the band stand.
Everything is connected to everything else!
That was written on the wall in my biology class in high school. He was a bit of a hippie, but I’m seeing that the statement is pretty true.
If there are 1000 parts comprising a space shuttle and each of them has a 99.9% chance of working, then the chances for no malfunction is only about 37%.
By multiplying .999 by itself 1000 times without rounding, the true result is found, a 99.9% chance of working seems high, but if you counted on it being high enough, the crew might have piloted the spacecraft and met their doom in an explosion.
There are a lot of components to a saxophone too! Keys, pads, corks, rods, mechanics, etc.
Eddie Harris playing some funky saxophone live in Montreux.
Right after the legendary “Swiss Movement” with Les McCann.
Eddie Harris on tenor sax
Jodie Christian on piano
Melvin Jackson on bass
Billy Hart on drums
Just got over a cold…. having your throat out of commission is a drag for a saxophone player! I imagine it’s just as bad for other horn players, singers, etc. Probably for all musicians, but in a pretty direct way on saxophone.
Tried a few different remedies, started with tea & honey, lots of water, ricolla cough drops, chicken soup, vitamins….
Seems like apples make my throat feel better, so I was eating one or two of those each day.
Mariah Carrey told a story about how honey helped her throat. I think that was just for when she was singing a lot, not necessarily for a sore throat.
Gargling with salt water seems to help kill the bugs in there.
Seems like garlic helps your immune system a lot. Tried garlic oil pills, but I’m not convinced they work as well, though they don’t give you crazy dragon breath.
I did play a show before I was quite better yet, and that set me back a little bit. They gave me a vocal mic, and it seemed to me like singing was harder on my throat than playing the saxophone…..
A huge part of the recovery is just getting rest and letting your body recuperate.
So while I advocate practicing saxophone every day, it’s okay to reduce your practicing time or even take some time off when you’re ill.
What have you tried that works well in helping a sore throat?
Maybe some saxophone playing doctors will read this!
“If you could recommend any good music books that would progress further in my studies it would be a help. So for now and until I hear from you again All the best”
-John
There are a ton of saxophone music books out there. Some of them are great. Others are mediocre and some are not worth your time.
After getting a number of sax music books myself, hopefully I can help you get what you need.
If you check out out the saxophone music books in a music store, you’ll see a lot of different stuff.
Method books, jazz books, ‘fakebooks’ or ‘real books’, play-along books, theory books, classical saxophone books, saxophone etudes, scale books, saxophone duets, saxophone technique, transcriptions, among others.
Many of these books have some good music in them. How they are set up varies. It could be a step by step process with explanations like a sax method book or it might just have music to play like a duet book.
Having a solid saxophone method book is a good start. Generally saxophone method books use classical music as a foundation. Rubanks is the series that I have used.
The classical method books will teach you some solid technique which will help you with whatever you play. They include work on scales, technique, pieces, etc.
Getting some jazz etude books can help you understand jazz phrasing better. I used the Lennie Niehaus books and more recently got Greg Fishman’s books.
There has been some heated discussion about ‘fake books’/’real books’ in the jazz community. Ideally, you want to learn tunes by listening to them since whatever is written on paper will be missing part of the music. However, as long as you realize that, I think you can safely use a fake book to help you learn some songs.
Listening is crucial to your development as a saxophone player. Keep listening as you work through books you get. Transcribing tunes and solos yourself is great for you too. So don’t go overboard on getting books of transcriptions.
Play-along books, such as Aebersolds or Hal Leonard, combine listening and reading music. They can be a good tool as well as fun to play along with. If you’re trying to improvise on saxophone, you should probably pick up a few in the styles you want to play. They allow you to focus and play a song again as many times as you want. In a live setting you can only do that a certain number of times!
Saxophone duets and quartet music can be a lot of fun to play with friends and to perform.
Here are links to a few lists I have compiled of saxophone music books-
10 Most Crucial Jazz Oriented Sax Method Books
Sax Improvisation – Books to Help You
Leave a comment about saxophone books that have helped you or if you have a question!
Mr. Woodtone playing saxophone with electronics out of Bristol. Looping is something I have seen done before with guitar, bass, etc. Hadn’t really seen it with saxophone. He also seems to know his way around the effects pedals, changing pitches and sounds with it. I know that takes some time to get comfortable with.
Thought it was pretty cool.
When I hear electronic music, it sometimes feels a little flat to me…. Other times it sounds good.
Combining the electronics with musicians is something I would like to see catch on.
What do you think?
The Monterey Jazz Festival was a few weeks ago.
I heard some great music there – Diana Reeves, Russell Malone, Kenny Garrett, Roy Hargrove, Chick Corea, and more.
Also, when walking around the grounds I saw an artist set up with a booth. It caught my eye since several of the pieces of art and shirts featured the saxophone.
His name is Russ, his site is UglyHands.com
I wanted a medium shirt with the blue sax on it…. but it wasn’t available! Maybe next time.
If you want some saxophone schwag, go check out Russ’s site.
I’ll write more about the Monterey Jazz Festival later.
Barry recently asked a question about articulation on saxophone:
“How do you articulate a dotted eighth with a sixteenth?
thanx in advance
-Barry
This question on articulation was included at the end of a comment on here.
At first, it seems pretty straightforward….
But then I thought about it some more.
In a particular style of music, the articulation for that pattern would be fairly set. In the classical style, you would play the dotted eighth for its full value and then play the sixteenth staccato (generally). Playing that way makes the two notes distinct and fits in that style of music.
In jazz, swing eighth notes used to be played like the dotted eighth and sixteenth. As in it would be written out as eighth notes, but you would swing it by playing them like dotted eighth and sixteenths.
Unlike in classical music, you would not articulate the sixteenth note as being very staccato. That wouldn’t flow well in jazz (in general).
That interpretation changed over the years though and swing eighth notes came to be played more like a triplet quarter note and triplet eighth note together.
There’s also the issue of personal interpretation, depending on how it fits with the music either note can be made a bit longer or shorter.
Articulation is a very important part of playing saxophone, it makes a huge difference in style.
An extreme example would be an all staccato polka type song vs smooth jazz.
Polka would sound like crap if you articulated it like smooth jazz and smooth jazz would sound like crap if you articulated it like polka!
Out into the saxophone interweb wilderness! Figured I would write about a few sax & music sites that I follow.
The site Casa Valdez can hook you up with some deep analysis of music and saxophone!
I started following it a little while ago, Valdez took lessons from Paul Contos who I also saw a number of times as part of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s music education program.
This is not stuff that the casual fan or beginning player will necessarily be able to digest easily. But that is the point. Clearly Mr Valdez sees his audience as sophisticated musicians.
His site is packed with technical analysis, informative reviews and reflections, and some insightful advice on playing saxophone. He has the knowledge to help sax players especially, but any musician will profit from reading what he writes. The site also includes things like breakdowns of the different chord progressions used by guitarists on specific albums.
There are video clips of live performances that he analyzes in his usual technical manner. Mr. Valdez is on very good terms with a number of contemporary working musicians.
These relationships are put to good use in the form of interviews and book excerpts. For example, there is a lengthy and in-depth interview with saxophonist and teacher Fred Lipsis, covering many different aspects of his music and teaching career. These types of candid conversations give a unique glimpse into the world of working musicians, and highlight the hard work and excitement that make up that sort of lifestyle.
If you are a serious student of music, Casa Valdez can probably help you with some things. From the technical break downs of songs to the almost obsessively comprehensive fingering charts, this blog is a great one to check out.
Say what is a good sax cd for ideas on sax…bird ..??
Thanks
-Robert
Neal:
Bird is awesome! But probably not necessarily who you want to start with to get ideas.
If he’s who you really want to sound like it, try it out and see how it goes. He plays some stuff lightning fast though, so software that slows music down could help.
To get ideas, listen to music that you like! Pick a style that you’re working on or that you would like to be able to play.
It could be sax players, it could be something else, your call.
Take a small piece and try to play it back by ear.
It’s good practice to ‘transcribe’ as well- to write down what you hear.
What do you want to sound like?
A few players you might check out-
Stanley Turrentine
Joe Henderson
Dexter Gordon
Paul Desmond
Hank Mobley
Eddie Harris
Wayne Shorter
Sonny Rollins
Branford Marsalis
Joshua Redman
James Carter
Plas Johnson
Ernie Watts
Wayne Shorter
George Young
Maceo Parker
Jerry Bergonzi
Chris Potter
Leave a comment!
“Playing the sharp keys has been my one of my biggest challenges”
-Kennedy
Neal: As saxophone players, our horns are in Bb and Eb. For some reason we usually get used to playing in Bb and Eb and also in the ‘flat’ keys from early on in our musical development. The charts in jazz and even in concert music seem to not be in the sharp keys as much for beginning players. And if they are, it’s keys like G, D, A maybe, nothing too extreme! (mostly)
It seems like part of the reason is that beginning players on trumpet, clarinet, saxophone, flute will have an easier time in keys without lots of accidentals.
In contrast, orchestras often seem to have music that is in keys with sharps. I don’t personally play the violin or strings, so maybe a string player could let me know why that is the tendency.
However, if you played clarinet, flute, brass, etc in an orchestra that included winds, you might get used to the sharps. That’s what I did. The first two years I played music included playing with an orchestra.
So basically, it comes down to what you’re used to and comfortable with. You can develop that comfort with practice.
Just spend a little time on it and it will get easier.
What are your thoughts?
Want to play saxophone, but feeling lost and not sure how to get started?
In this online/downloadable class you will see methodical lessons in a sequence and you can get feedback and ask questions at any point.
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Want to take your playing to the next level?
You’ll learn fundamental saxophone skills, building past the basics. Master rhythms. Learn about phrasing, tone, and more. Here you will get feedback which is crucial to developing good habits.
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