First saw this video a few years back and thought of it again and decided to post it.

A homeless drummer banging away. And he sounds awesome.

We can have music without notes…..

So let’s start with rhythm.

Think about the music in Brazil. There are beautiful melodies. But the foundation is rhythm.

Dancing is about rhythm.

Depending on your teachers and classes, you may use a metronome. But not all musicians and singers use theirs (or even have one). And a metronome is pretty mechanical.

Saxophone players, how’s your rhythm?

Robert asked a question about remembering everything in life and on top

of that the idea of learning music in all 12 keys!

Part of it is seeing things in patterns. We think in terms of words, not letters.

Even a single sentence might have close to a hundred letters.  But a word might be a single syllable.  We process the words faster and process the letters but don’t dwell on them.

For the twelve keys bit, if you remember in terms of numbers or patterns – things get easier.

Here’s a quick example.

In the song ‘Harlem Nocturne’, there’s an ending line to the bridge that has a certain pattern to it.

Bb down to Gb goes down a fifth.

B down to E goes down a fifth.

A down to D goes down a fifth.

What’s more, Db to B to A….. there’s a whole step in between each of those notes.

This is just a few notes of the section, but the rest of it has a similar pattern.  The notes are descending along a whole tone scale.  And it alternates between this whole tone descent and jumping down by fifths.

That’s how I think about that section of the song.  To play it in all twelve keys becomes a much smaller challenge.

Having the technique to play it smoothly in all the different keys becomes the issue.

Playing a song in all 12 keys…..

Something that we at least theoretically feel is a good thing since we’ve been told it’s a good idea.

But what’s the real point?

Are you going to go play a show and do ‘Blue Bossa’ in the original key and then for your second number play Blue Bossa modulated a half step up and then for your third number…..

Probably not.

Is learning a song in all 12 keys even worth the time if you can’t play it well in the original key?

I would say no.

Knowing the notes is just one piece of music.

If your rhythm, articulation, phrasing, etc isn’t sounding good, then learning a song in 12 keys is a waste of time (in my opinion).

So learn music in the original key first, and then once you can play it well, you can move on knowing it in all the keys.

It’s up for debate whether you should know more songs, but only in the original key, or fewer songs and in all the keys.

Knowing the songs in all the keys means you have a much greater understanding of the harmonic structure of the piece.  That’s a good thing, but it’s not the only piece of the puzzle.

Having a wider variety of songs in your repertoire is nice, it can be argued that having a smaller repertoire of songs that you can really play might be better.

The middle ground might be knowing the song in the original key and also knowing the intervals of the song in terms of numbers.  Then you can figure out how to play it in another key if you need to.

It will take some time to be able to do that well on the spot.

Being comfortable with scales in all keys is an important early step.

Playing in different keys on saxophone is a bit different than playing in different keys on piano.  On piano, you may be able to keep the shape of your hand position and simply move it.  On sax you can use completely different fingers in another key.

So think about where you’re at musically and don’t just learn music in all twelve keys because you hear you should.  Do it if it makes sense for you right now.

What do you think?

If you post a video of yourself playing saxophone (or singing or doing something else) on Youtube, there are trolls out there who enjoy pointing out everything wrong with it.

Could be your first video and you may feel bad about what they wrote.

But you shouldn’t.  If it’s an anonymous person who doesn’t give a name or a video/recording of themselves playing, you really shouldn’t worry about it.  They may or not know what they’re talking about.  And expecting you to listen with a negative approach is silly.

Earlier, I got some anonymous comment criticizing my time and tone on sax and going on to say some other things about Sax Station.  From an anonymous person.

Found it a little annoying.  But I didn’t really care.  If you have some constructive criticism for me about my sound or Sax Station, go ahead and contact me and let me know.  I’ll probably appreciate it if you do it in a constructive way.  Many sax players have helped me out with ideas and added things that make Sax Station better.

Feedback matters more when it:

A) Comes from someone you know and respect.

B) Comes from a sax player you know can play.

Preferably both.

Other saxophone players can play better than me.  Sonny Rollins, Joshua Redman, James Carter, the list could go on for a while.  But internet troll #347 isn’t on the list, since I don’t know what he sounds like.

Sax Station is about helping people learn the saxophone and it does that.  I know because I run it.

If you have suggestions to help that process work better, I would love to hear from you.

And if troll #347 is reading this, include your name next time, makes your comment a little bit less like noise.

Thanks!

-Neal