As jazz saxophonists we are always contending with the challenge of “originality.” Like most saxophone students, I started out practicing from method books and transcribed solos, but eventually realized that I was not going to stand out as a player, or feel creatively fulfilled, if I only practiced what everyone else was practicing. I had [read more…]
Introduction I recently had the chance to speak with San Francisco Bay Area sax pro, Tim Lin, and he was nice enough to share some examples of melodic shapes, which I believe could benefit any player, whether they are beginning or advanced. My hope is that the exercises included in this article will be a [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.
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🎷 Sax Fundamentals Faster
Introduction I am continuously speaking to saxophone players on the scene today and am always asking “are there any new players I should be checking out?” Recently, the name that has come up quite a bit is a saxophonist named Chris Bittner. Fortunately at NAMM 2020, I ran into Derek Cliff Crane who runs SaxSpy [read more…]
The argument for and against “shredding” is as old as music itself. In this article I will define the term “shredding” and try to look at it from a perspective that I think is overlooked by most musicians who are anti-shredding. I will also explain, with examples, why I believe shredding is probably a good [read more…]
In this article, we’re going to be taking deep-dive into a project me and my group recently recorded in Spain at Berklee Valencia. The song began in spring 2018 inspired by The Venus Project, initially refined while at Boysie Lowery Jazz Residency in Wilmington, Delaware (USA) shortly before leaving for Spain. I wanted to write [read more…]
Maxim Shalygin’s Todos los Todos el Fuego (2019) is a new, nearly 90-minute long work for saxophone octet, inspired by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortazar. While there have been other original works for 8 saxophones, no work has ever combined tonal and avant garde elements with the scope and scale found in Maxim’s piece, called [read more…]
I’d like to dig into two concepts to help give you something that you can try out for yourself, today. The first idea is great for beginner/intermediate players, the second is a more advanced idea. Let’s look at the beginning 8 measures of the etude on All The Things You Are (Bb version): Take a [read more…]
Anyhow who’s subscribed to the Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever. newsletter or follows the site on social media knows that I’ve just released a new course by sax legend, David Liebman titled The Ultimate Guide to Saxophone Sound Production. In a nutshell, it’s the culmination of his entire life’s work teaching the art of saxophone sound [read more…]
Probably like most people, the thing that drew me to the saxophone was it’s sound. Initially, Coleman Hawkins on a 1950s French film sound track, then later countless other players. Early in my playing career it struck me that if you make a great sound then you don’t actually have to play that much; one [read more…]
There’s no good improviser in any style of music who hasn’t spent time mastering their pentatonic scales. The question, as always, is how do we master them and make them work for our own playing? The Pentatonic Pitfall Many beginning improvisers immediately start working with basic patterns and simply aim to rip through them as [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!
