Introduction Seamus Blake is one of my favorite saxophonists on the scene today and continues to move jazz in a forward direction appealing to a wide range of audiences. During my senior year of college, I had the opportunity to meet Seamus Blake and attend his masterclass where he discussed sound, practicing in all 12 [read more…]
Anyone can play fast and accurately. There is no magic to it, just practising in a correct and constructive way. Most students nowadays fall into what I like to call a computer game mentality when they practice. They play a passage/lick/exercise wrong and/or sloppy a few times, and when they play it right once or [read more…]
Regardless of your horn, mouthpiece, or reed, the truth is, to the outside listener, you sound pretty much like...you. It's not that gear doesn't affect your sound at all, but your biggest and richest sound will only come by developing the skills within both your body and mind to sound great on any setup.
So if you're willing to move beyond having your day ruined by a lousy reed, then sax legend David Liebman's course, Ultimate Guide to Saxophone Sound Production is where you're going to want to go next.
Broken down into bite-sized lessons, this streaming video program covers just about every single aspect of saxophone sound production. It represents his entire life's work teaching the techniques and concepts that were handed down to masters such as Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, and Harvey Pittel (among many others), and then refined over the course of decades teaching countless lessons and masterclasses worldwide. Click below to see for yourself why so many professional saxophonists consider David's thorough, methodical, and practical approach the "real deal" for players at any level.
SAXOPHONETONE.COM
The Ultimate Guide to Saxophone Sound Production
Introduction While at last year’s NAMM show (NAMM 2016 Gear Roundup), I had the chance to test play a few new saxophone brands which I had not seen at the 2015 NAMM show. One saxophone manufacturer that stood out to me in particular was Ochres. Today, with many Taiwanese saxophones flooding the market, it has [read more…]
In virtually any musical idiom from the Western hemisphere, major and minor triads are a fundamental building block of melody. From children’s songs, to folk melodies, to European classical music, to Broadway show tunes and more, some of the most highly recognized and easily sung melodies are based upon the color and structure of the [read more…]
Biography Bruce Williams hails from Washington, D.C. and has performed, toured, and recorded with a long roster of jazz legends such as: Little Jimmy Scott, Frank Foster, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Stanley Cowell, Louis Smith, Cecil Brooks III, The Count Basie Orchestra, The World Saxophone Quartet, Russell Gunn, Curtis Fuller, and Roy Hargrove to just [read more…]
I’m guessing that each and every one of you reading this practice scales on a regular basis. It’s one of the first things that we learn and something that is reinforced throughout our lives in school or when taking lessons. Scales are amazing. I’m a huge fan and I believe they are a necessity for [read more…]
Introduction I have and still play on Vandoren products from reeds to mouthpieces to ligatures, and the list goes on. In the past, I had reviewed Vandoren’s line of products (Vandoren Product Review) and one of those products was the Vandoren V16 tenor and alto saxophone mouthpieces. Recently, Vandoren introduced the V16 S+ mouthpieces for [read more…]
Introduction I was recently contacted by Paul and Jim Corry who design and manufacture their own line of mouthpieces and asked me to review one of their new pieces of equipment I had never seen before called the Tone Tablet. Now I have seen various neck screws as well as the Klangbogen (BSWE Klangbogen Review), [read more…]
Introduction With musicians continued frustration around the consistency of cane reeds from brand to brand, there have been more reed tools hitting the market designed to help address this common issue. In the past, I had tried sand paper, reed rush, and a reed knife to try and correct various reeds that either played too [read more…]
Introduction If you have listened to Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, you might be wondering, who is that killing saxophonist backing up these two famous entertainers? If you don’t know, this is Steve Kortyka. I recently reached out to Steve to take a skype lesson and during my lesson, Steve shared two concepts with me [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!
