Monthly Archives March 2010

Transcribed: Lenny Pickett – On The Serious Side

Tweet This is another solo I transcribed to help me get my stuff together for the Tower of Power cover band I’m playing with. “On The Serious Side” is from Tower of Power’s 1975 In The Slot album. An interesting thing about this solo is that Lenny Pickett plays it on alto saxophone. The band [...]

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Transcribed: Rick Margitza – Spin

Tweet Spin is a tune written by Rick Margitza that he recorded on his 2001 release, Memento. I’ve had this album for a couple years and have always really enjoyed this tune in particular, but only got around to transcribing it this month. It was a fun process and I’m happy to share it with [...]

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iReal Book – A 900-song fake book on your phone.

TweetI had a few friends who had the iReal Book on their iphones and I was a little jealous because it hasn’t been available for my android phone. I checked for it tonight and it’s now available for android. The iReal Book is mine! I guess that my excitement warrants an explanation of just what [...]

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Transcribed: Watermelon Man – Dexter Gordon

Tweet I transcribed this several months ago, but thought I would share it here. The solo comes from Herbie Hancock’s Takin’ Off album. Dexter plays 4 choruses and most of the material can be traced to the major and minor blues scales. There aren’t a ton of notes in the solo, but Dexter delivers great [...]

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Jerry Bergonzi Scale Exercise

Tweet I was checking out the Sax on the Web forum when I can across this thread that member Mike Cesati wrote about an exercise that Jerry Bergonzi gave him in a lesson several years ago. This exercise is based on the modes of the major scale. It is similar the 1st exercise in the [...]

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Transcribed: Diggin' On James Brown

TweetI recently began playing tenor saxophone with a Tower of Power cover band. This isn’t a style of music I have a lot of experience playing, so I decided to transcribe a few solos to get a better handle on what the guys in TOP were playing. The first solo I transcribed was the studio [...]

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Figuring out what to practice – make a list.

TweetA very common question that musicians are confronted with from time to time is “What do I practice?” of “What should I be practicing?”.  Although you may get some direction from teachers, mentors, or colleagues, most of the work you do while practicing is self-dictated. This means that appraising where you are is a necessity. [...]

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Dirpy.com – Convert youtube videos to .mp3

TweetI was wasting some time on StumpleUpon the other day when I came across dirpy.com. Dirpy allows you to enter any youtube URL and convert the audio to an .mp3 format, which you can then download. In addition, you also have the choice of converting the entire length of the video or only a portion [...]

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