Just thought I’d share a few of the books I’m planning on reading this summer.
The Masters of Bebop: A Listener’s Guide – Ira Gitler
Primacy Of The Ear – Ran Blake
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – Mason Currey
Discourse on Method – Rene Descartes
If you have any book recommendations, feel free to add them in the comments. Thanks!
One of the first transcriptions I posted on this site was Kenny Garrett’s solo on There Will Never Be Another You. It comes from Woody Shaw’s “Solid” album. I’ve always liked this record since I bought it, but I had never learned any of Woody Shaw’s solos until now. It’s cool to see the different ways Woody plays outside and how he resolves those lines. I also enjoying seeing how clear and deliberate each phrase was. As a listener, I had the feeling that, at the end of each phrase, Woody Shaw waited until he was ready with a strong melodic idea before playing again.
As always, I used Transcribe! for learning the solo. This time around, I found a really cool feature. You can slow your selection down to whatever speed you’d like and export it as a .wav file. It will play at your selected speed and you can choose the number of times the selection repeats. Really cool stuff! After exporting the file at half speed, I put it on my iPod, kept it on repeat in my car, and sang along. That really helped me get a good feel for the time and articulation.
Notes:
The solo was, of course, originally played on trumpet, but it is playable on tenor in one of two ways.
1. In measure 20, beginning on the E on beat 2, play the rest of that phrase up an octave, and then play the rest of the solo as written.
2. For a good altissimo workout, play the entire solo up an octave. This is what I did and it doesn’t get too crazy/awkward aside from measures 16 and 17.
3. Trumpet players – Please forgive me if there any idiomatic trumpet devices (half-valves, etc.) that I didn’t notate. If you see/hear anything like that, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll make any necessary changes.
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This is a photo of an original Adolphe Sax tenor saxophone that I took at the Museu de la Música in Barcelona, Spain. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to see one of these up close and it was really interesting to see how the saxophone has evolved over the last 170 years.
Here are some of the things that make this horn different from the ones we play today:
While the modern instruments we play today are different in a number of ways that the original instrument designed by Adolphe Sax, it is clear that Sax’s conception was complete. The added keys and features, such as rollers, have primarily aimed to improve facility and/or ergonomics.
I can’t overstate what an incredible experience it was to see these instruments. It felt like a homecoming of sorts and helped to create a visceral connection between the horns I play and their origin.
Everybody likes free stuff, right? Just wanted to let you know that I’ve added a few free exercises to the Student Resources page. Just scroll down until you get to the section labeled Free Exercises. Click on the links to download any of the exercises. That is all. Enjoy!
About a month ago, I received a Rico Reed Vitalizer Case in the mail. I had given the folks at Rico Reeds some feedback about one of their products and they sent the case as a thank you gift for my input.
For a long time now, I have been a throw-the-reed-on-the-mouthpiece-and-leave-it-there-kind-of-guy. I decided to give this reed case a try to see what would happen.
Based on my experiences over the last month, here’s a description of some pros and cons.
Pros:
Cons:
Having put that all out there, I can tell you that I would definitely recommend the Rico Reed Vitalizer Case to anyone looking for a reed storage solution. My reeds have been in better condition and have all lasted much longer than they previously did. I was a little put off at first with the idea of having to buy humidity packs on a regular basis, but it looks like keeping my reeds in this case will actually save me money in the long term.
I am using one case now for my tenor reeds and I just bought another one to use for bari and bass clarinet reeds. Thanks for putting out a great product Rico!
DISCLAIMER: I am not a Rico Reeds Artist and do not have any affiliation with them.
While I was online tonight, I stumbledupon good-ear.com. It is a simple ear training tool with a lot of options. A lot of the hits on my site come from people doing google searches for “charlie banacos exercises.” Good-ear.com allows you to do exercises like those that are randomly generated in real time. It also keeps track of your progress by letting you know how many right answers you’ve gotten out of the total attempts.
The best part of this website is the price – it’s FREE! I was really happy to find this and just wanted to share it with all of you.
Peace.
I ran across a story on the NPR site yesterday that really grabbed my attention. The title was:
The basic gist of the story was that this trombone player was chronically ill due to mold and bacteria that were growing inside his horn. This may sound like an isolated incident, but scientists running an experiment prompted by this case found that every instrument they tested had some form of contamination.
For saxophone players, there are a few things you can do to maintain good saxophone hygiene.
1. Clean your mouthpiece.
2. Clean your neck.
3. Clean your reeds.
4. Clean the body
I have 5 spots available for saxophone students who would like to study via Skype. I specialize in helping students who want to:
If you’re interested in improving your playing in any of these areas, please contact me by clicking here. The rate is $50 for a one hour lesson or $30 for a half hour.
Please act now to secure your spot in my online studio.
Click here to read the story from AFM Local 802 (NYC).
Traveling with an instrument has been daunting for a long time. The fear of being stopped somewhere between the ticket counter and the plane and told you have to check your prized (and very delicate) possession has been great. Hopefully a lot of that fear can be alleviated with the Congress’s passage of the new FAA bill. It appears that as long as your instrument will fit under the seat, in the overhead compartment, or in a storage locker in the cabin, you can bring it on with you. There is also a provision for larger instruments, but people wishing to travel with those instruments in the cabin would still be required to purchase an additional seat for that instrument.
This is all to be taken with a hint of caution, for now. On the page I linked to above, you can get a .pdf summary of the part of the bill that relates to instruments. In that summary, there’s a section at the bottom that says:
“Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall issue final regulations to carry out subsection (a).”
Subsection (a) is the part of the bill that describes the policy for bringing and stowing instruments in the cabin of a plane. This is a victory for working and traveling musicians everywhere, but it may be a while before we are guaranteed this right.