Ever notice that there’s something missing from your favorite Benny Carter, Bird, or Coleman Hawkins recordings? Well, yes, they are conspicuously missing a good melodica solo, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Things Ain’t What they Used to Be Though it’s not completely absent from their playing, these jazz pioneers used the altissimo register far less [read more…]
Just about any saxophone teacher, book, or website will tell you that when fastening your reed to the mouthpiece, the best way to do it is to position the tip of the reed so that it’s lined up as perfectly as possible with the tip of the mouthpiece. But sometimes it’s best to try some different [read more…]
Here's a new alternative to the uninspiring tunes often found in the average beginning sax book. This collection of 25 tunes, each with backing and demonstration tracks plus a video tutorial, is the product one of my most significant discoveries in over two decades of working with beginning saxophonists. That is, beginners learn fundamentals much faster by playing the kind of music that attracted them to the horn in the first place.
INFINITEMUSICAN.COM
🎷 Sax Fundamentals Faster
Last week, as I was about to begin a practice session, I saw that I had a few brand new plain-and-simple neck straps that were sent to me by the kind folks at Rico. Burnt out on my old and sagging Neotech strap, I decided to give the Rico strap a try. First thing I [read more…]
The very survival of any artform depends on its ability to continually move forward and progress. Otherwise it becomes more of a museum exhibit than a living, breathing, and ever-expanding medium. Like any other artform, jazz requires the leadership of fearless and authentic artists to keep it alive and breathing, and without a doubt, renown [read more…]
Hey saxofriends! I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know that you can now go to the Amazon Kindle Store and pick up the e-book portion of my saxophone instructional program, Bulletproof Saxophone Playing. For those unfamiliar with it, the program features a 70-page e-book and nearly 6 hours of Audio [read more…]
If you’ve ever studied sound engineering, one of the first thing you learn is about signal flow. You see, in a recording studio you’ve got gobs of equipment that the sound passes through before making it to it’s final destination, which, in the “old days” was a tape machine, and these days, is a hard [read more…]
Is that once-burning desire to burn on the horn starting to flicker? Are the hours you used to devote to practicing now in jeopardy of being traded in for hours in front of a TV set and a bag of Ruffles? Or maybe you’re still practicing your tush off, but progressing at a snail’s pace [read more…]
The Buddhists call the practice of applying calm awareness to one’s activities as “Mindfulness.” And no matter what it is you’re doing, mindfulness will allow you to do it better. Zen and the Art of Sax Of course, practicing the saxophone is no exception. In fact, I would venture to guess that over 90% of the [read more…]
As many of you know, for the past 5 months, I’ve been busting my hump putting together the mother of all saxophone educational programs. I didn’t want it to be just average, but instead I wanted it to be bursting at the seams with game-changing information that would guarantee major improvement for all those who [read more…]
For most of us, playing on the mouthpiece alone results in a horrible noise much resembling what I’d imagine a duck in heat sounds like upon encountering a potential partner. But believe it or not, that horrid noise holds the truth of your current state of intonation. So here’s the deal – take the mouthpiece, [read more…]
Tips and Techniques from the pros PLUS free access to the Sax Lessons with the Stars archive - 10 years worth of interviews and exercises featuring the likes of David Liebman, Bob Mintzer, Ben Wendel, Bob Reynolds, and many more!
