Fly Me….Member Video Upload

[Anonymous]

Recording wise, the backing track is clearer than the sax – don’t worry about that, for the purposes of the blogg its just fine. Worry about recordings later on when you start your own portfolio to showcase yourself to the public – thats when you want to remove all your duff learner recordings, build an image and sell yourself!

If i ever get to that level, i’ll go in a professional recording studio.

Playing sounds great – especially the lower notes, higher notes need working on (don’t forget i’m not JF).

What might be a good idea on the high notes, is try playing along to backing tracks that have the sax player playing, and try and sounding exactly like them tuning wise. When you are both in tune, you wont hear the other sax.

But overall Dazza i think you sound great !

[William Cingolani]

Good sound. Nice buzz on the sax. Nice recording. I’m aware of that mic positioning.My audio=technica AT2020 usb mic started sounding scratchy on the play back so I switched to my bluebird mic that uses phantom power and an M-audio interface.

[Michael]

Thanks for sharing Dazza, that’s a great song on the Saxophone for sure. How did it for your you playing at that banquet (was it a banquet you played at)? I’ve been having a dilemma for recording too and I’m turning my attention to it. The mic I have is not suited for recording the Saxophone at all. You said it well that recording is a complicated overall process and that’s so true. I have great software, but not a great mic, and also working on microphone position. I’ve been looking online doing some research and some guys will actually use 2 microphones–one placed near the bell of the horn where the sound projects out of the Saxophone and one near the upper keys of the horn…they will then take both of those recordings and blend them together to get a fuller sound. It’s all kind of a subjective thing, depends on the having the right tools for the trade, mic placement, etc.. Great job Dazza, keep up the great work 🙂

[john]

at the very end your backing track is missing the Count Basie piano hits, was this intentional on your part or is your track messed up?
anyway Dazza, couple of things…
you’re getting some decent articulating here and there and very nice growling just at the right moments and just the right amount…well done.
some of your timing is off and I would suggest you tap your foot the whole way through. foot goes down with the snare on 2 and 4 of every bar.
when we do this it’s harder to mess up because most of the notes that you’re speeding up on or hitting too late will have to land at the same time the foot goes down or up (it’s down on 2 and 4 and up on 1 and 3). try this, it can be very helpful. perhaps practice just the foot tapping along with the music a while before even playing it with the sax just to get in the right groove.

[Dazza]

Thanks for the feedback all. Its funny how when you play along with a track it sound better than when you play it back. All the more reason for the importance of recording yourself I guess A couple of cringe moments in there for sure and I hear the timing issue you mentioned. For some reason the end piano went silent. Not sure of the reason but will practice and try recording again soon. Cheers

[Dazza]

Still trying to get the sound right with recording and got this one down this arvo. I think it is poor due to a substandard sound card on my laptop. Anyway, this is a song I performed at a dinner recently and it went off really well. Of course, I put it out there to get some feedback and welcome your thoughts. Once again, no picture but you don’t need to see me playing anyway!

[Dazza]

Sorry. Had some problem with the upload and had to reload.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dazza – lovely tune mate, love the low notes again, high notes don’t sound right to me. I think you need to check your high notes with a keyboard sound or a tuner generated sound, could need to relax or tighten the lower lip pressure on all the high notes?

Other than that – it sounds great, you’re definetly improving mate!

[Dazza]

Thanks James. Yes I agree. When I watch the tuner in practice the high notes really require a loose lip pressure to get them in tune which is sometimes forgotten when recording. It is quite deceiving just how little pressure is required. It actually feels like it is slightly less than the lower octave notes which are showing in tune. Is this usual?

[Anonymous]

Yep – i have exactly the same issue, if my mid C is roughly in tune,
using the same lip pressure my mid D is way too sharp, i have to loosen my lower lip to bring it down a lot. It must be something to do with pressing the octave key, seems to make the air flow faster in the neck, faster air increases pressure in the sax – pushing the pitch slightly higher.

If you watch big dave’s demos, he can play all the notes with hardly any lower lip pressure, by adjusting his mouth, air flow pressure etc.

When you tune up the sax – try playing low F#, with a tuner, try and play it with a relaxed no biting lower lip pressure, if you can’t do that, then move the mouthpiece in or out until it is in tune.
When low F# is in tune, it must be with out any lower lip biting pressure. This is so that if you for any reason you want more lip pressure in certain passages, then you are not over biting and chewing up you lowers lips. The other important thing when getting the low F# in key, you MUST be relaxed FINGER wise, body wise – gently touching the keys, a lot of people tense up, and this can also send them badly out of tune which they don’t realise. Just imagine you are smoking a fag, chilling out, that is how you should be playing, its not 10 rounds with mike tyson!

[Author]

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