It sounds backwards. You want to play faster, so I’m telling you to play slower? But ask any serious player how they built their chops and you’ll hear some version of the same answer: slow practice. The musicians with the most dazzling speed are almost always the ones most willing to crawl. Here’s why going [read more…]
Introduction Forming a correct embouchure is one of the most important aspects of playing the saxophone. Without a correct embouchure, a saxophonist’s tone, intonation, response, musical expressiveness and performance enjoyment will be severely hindered. In addition, it is extremely important to establish a correct embouchure in the very beginning stages of development since a poorly [read more…]
There’s a paradox at the heart of musical imitation: the closer you study someone else’s playing, the more deeply you discover yourself. Every great improviser – from Bird to Brecker, from Trane to Shorter – spent years absorbing the language of those who came before. They didn’t end up as copies. They ended up as [read more…]
My new book, Try It! 13 Triad Pair Jazz Etudes is a collection of etudes composed primarily using triad pairs that are linked by whole step and tri-tone. As a young student, I remember finding Gary Campbell’s Triad Pairs for Jazz method book life-changing, as it helped distill otherwise difficult sounds (V7alt as an example) [read more…]
NOTE: At the end of this article, there is also a super-fun Youtube short that summarizes the first part of the lesson below. Scales are the “raw material” of melody, whether improvised or composed. It’s not likely that you’ll study jazz improvisation to any serious degree without spending a lot of time learning, exploring and [read more…]
Whether you’re a big time professional sax monster, or a part time hobbyist on the horn, chances are that you often find yourself hard-pressed to find as much practice time as you would like to. Real life duties such as work, kids, errands, chores, mayonnaise spills (don’t ask), and even unchallenging gigs can keep us from [read more…]
Let’s begin with a simple thought experiment: There are two tenor players sitting in at a straight-ahead jam session. Player 1 has a great sound, solid command of the harmony, superb chops, a fulsome and controlled altissimo, creative ideas, but a tendency to rush the time. Player 2 has an average sound, a limited grasp [read more…]
Introduction The fundamentals are an essential component part of required musical practice on the saxophone/woodwinds. The fundamentals provide a secure foundation across all areas of importance for a rich, stable sound and a well-developed technique. One of the important fundamental areas I would like to briefly discuss and share with you today is, the overtones [read more…]
Many saxophone players (and horn players in general) have a complicated relationship with harmony. This can be for a whole spectrum of reasons ranging from a) the feeling that you struggle to stay on top of it, and essentially leave it up to whoever’s playing the chords to take care of it while you try [read more…]
If you’ve ever wanted that gritty, bluesy snarl that cuts through a band mix, you’re in the right place. “Growling” is simply adding a vocal sound while you play so the reed’s vibration interferes with your voice—creating that raspy texture. Do it right and you get color, power, and attitude on command. There are two [read more…]
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