I like this song, and I know it’s good to record yourself, so I did. The tune was composed by Eden Ahbez (1947).
As I played it back, I was looking at my fingers and my attacks on the notes. Ghosted a few of them and used quite a bit of subtone. That can be fine, as long as it’s intentional. You want control as you play.
My fingers lifted up a bit farther than I wanted in a few cases. Especially my top finger on the left hand and my left pinky…..
I think I’m getting better with keeping them down, but that’s something I noticed so I’ll spend some more time working on it.
Happy Holidays!
Hello Neal, one of my favourites songs too! Easy at first sight but very demanding as any ballad!
Although i ‘m not a pro sax player i can notice that it needs a better support to your sound as your phrasing endings stop too suddenly and the ballad feeling is lost. I have noticed that the masters can use the subtones while the air-flow doesn’t stop at all.
Happy Holidays and many greetings from Athens-Greece!
Hey Panos,
Thanks for listening. Not sure what ‘ballad feeling’ means, that phrase seems pretty ambiguous to me.
I think that the first half of the recording has endings that are more abrupt, listened again and they sustain a bit longer the second half. More an issue with duration of the notes than air-flow. What do you think? And do you have some recordings up?
-Neal