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Awesome Freestyle Jam Session
Awesome free style jam. The bass player, Tim Poulton, in my blues band, Cobalt Fusion, told me about this jam session.
Here’s what Tim said:
Aurelio Santos, is an MC(emcee)/beat-boxer that runs a weekly live production called WTF jam sessions at a jazz club called Jamboree in Barcelona. He has a lot of videos posted on Vimeo and Youtube, which many are ‘hit-n-miss’. the ones that feature Llibert Fortuny (alto sax) are usually my favorites. Mostly everything is improvised at these sessions and the band members change weekly. Heres a couple links to some vids; )the youtube one is an all beat-box, non-improvised song that broke out backstage.)
WTF Jam Session 26/01/2009 Tema: “Improvisación 1 – Parte 1” from Aurelio Santos on Vimeo.
Improvisation on Saxophone
“I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.”
-Robert Frost
Similarly, when you make up a sax solo, you should not know where it’s going to end!
You might have some ideas you want to try, and know that you want the sax solo to have some shape.
But you’re usually playing with a group, and there the group should interact. It should be playful in a sense.
If you play a certain lick, the drummer might echo the rhythm of it or the bass player might respond to a line you play with something of their own.
Getting Started at Sax Station and on Saxophone in General
Here’s an introductory video to Sax Station
And here are a few saxophone articles for players new to the sax.
Playing Saxophone With Passion
Please tell me what you think, how can I become as good as him and even better? Where does one
find this kind of passion?
Beginner’s Mind Child’s Mind for Saxophone
In Zen, there is an idea of approaching things with a “beginner’s mind” or “child’s mind.”
In this stage you are most open to new ideas, a not afraid to try things.
Starting Saxophone at 52
I am 52 and I just started learning the sax tenor.
I had my first lesson last week.
My previous music experience amounts to 1 year of studying the piano 20 years ago.
Saxophone Altissimo Glissando
How to do Saxophone altissimo glissando. From the guys at Digital Pill.
To do this, you’ll need to be decently experienced with altissimo on saxophone.
This is a fairly advanced saxophone technique! So if you have only been playing for a little while, it should not be your biggest concern.
Do you Press the Saxophone Keys Too Hard?
You should only press the keys on a saxophone hard enough to make them close.
And you should keep your fingers directly upon the keys in most situations (for some notes you must lift them).
If you feel like you CANNOT play a note without pressing the keys down very strongly, then you probably have a leak.
If that is the case, take your horn to a repair person. They will use a ‘leak light’ to check for leaks.
Beginner's Mind Child's Mind for Saxophone
In Zen, there is an idea of approaching things with a “beginner’s mind” or “child’s mind.”
In this stage you are most open to new ideas, a not afraid to try things.
It is a useful mind set to return to when practicing saxophone.
You will not be afraid to try new things or worry if you sound bad.
And you will get better at saxophone more quickly.
Top Ten Saxophone Articles at Sax Station
So I was checking my stats, and here are some of my most popular articles. Let me know what you think of them!
Practicing Saxophone
Hillbilly Flamenco
Story of Captain T
Circle of Fifths (Fourths)
Sax Man (Jack Black) with Lyrics
John Coltrane Afro Blue- on Soprano
Joshua Redman Jazz Crimes
Saxophone Mouthpieces
Saxophone Sound
Saxophone Books
Practicing Scales on Saxophone: How to Not Waste Your Time
Scales are important, they are one of the most important things to practice on any instrument, but they are not magic. If you aren’t carefully listening for the right things, just playing through them won’t give you any special abilities.
There are two reasons to play scales, and each requires a different sort of practice. Fortunately, if you are clever, you can combine them.
The first reason is technique.
When you are playing a piece it is too easy to hide inconsistencies behind the natural expression of the music. Scales leave you no room to hide. They are like a control group for experimentation with your technique. Any error is made obvious.
Practicing scales without rhythm will make bad habits stronger. Always play with good rhythm. If you cannot play fast with good rhythm, then slow down!
Slowing down is a very useful technique in practicing the saxophone.
The other reason to practice scales is improvisation.
You need to learn all these different sets of notes so you can follow chord changes. This is trickier to practice; if you are playing a solo you don’t want to just be running up and down scales, but you need to know them intimately.
Learning From Bad Musicians
You can learn something from all musicians.
Even if it’s what NOT to do.
But you almost always can find at least one good thing about any saxophone player or musician in general.
If you tell that person the good thing, it will encourage them too.
AND you can take that element and try and do it yourself.
It could be their stage presence, their style of clothes, interaction with the audience, one particular phrase that they used effectively, anything.
This was inspired by an article on Greg Vail’s site
My Top 7 Saxophone Practice Methods
- Using a Metronome (often on 2 & 4 for swing)
- Using a Tuner (for about four minutes during one half a long tones exercise)
- Long Tones Exercise (by George Young)
- Jackie McLean Scale Book
- Classical Method Book (usually Rubank)
- Jazz Phrases Book (David Baker right now)
- Transcription Book (currently Stanley Turrentine)
I use these things everyday, usually in this order.
For the last three, I listed the three I’m currently working on.
Those are a matter of personal preference and I have a number of those things.