Harlem Nocturne

[Robert Frederick]

A Practice Session Sample

Selmenr Mar VII
MS Carbon Fiver Reed
Johnny BackTrack
Boss VE-20 Processor (Balled)
AKG Microphone
Roland Keyboard Amp
LG Android Phone

Harlem Nocturne Practice Session

[Robert Frederick]

A Practice Session Sample

Spelling Corrections (it was late)

Selmer Mark VII (1976) Original Mouthpiece
“FiberCarbon Onyx” Fiberreed (MS)
Johnny Ferreira BackTrack Played on Samsung Tab A Using MobileSheetsPro
Boss VE-20 Processor (Ballad)
AKG Microphone C519 ML
AKG B23 L | Compact Power Supply 9V Phantom Power Unit
Roland KC-60 Keyboard Amp
LG V30 Android Phone Video
Kootek Stand Light

[saxomonica]

You beaut, Dr Zoot!
ooh that’s sure super sultry
hauntingly lovely
It makes me think of something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie ..
then i thought more along the lines of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer
i like the tone
that’s a very moving performance, inspirational, thank you 🙂

[Anonymous]

excellent, everyone has their own styles of articulating, glissandos, bends, turns etc… which makes the performance easy to identify the sax player, and i wouldn’t dream of changing that.

The only thing i would alter is to shorten the length of your use of vibrato, going too early into a vibrato is making you sound flat, hold each of the notes a bit longer and tail off with a shorter vibrato. Thats only my personal choice, and can be ignored.

[Robert Frederick]

Wally:

Thank you so much. I appreciate your thoughts on the vibrato. Listening to it again, I see what you mean.

One reason I play the sax (an not the violin), is when I am out of tune it can sometimes be cool even if unintentional, and my pitch sensitivity is not very robust.

Dr. Zoot

[Anonymous]

No big deal, someone else might discredit what i say, and prefer it unchanged.

It is common in jazz when playing notes of length 2 or more beats, to use vibrato, otherwise the note can come out sounding dull and out of place when notes of shorter duration are being colourfully articulated.

To me using vibrato is like using salt in food, too much salt and all you taste is salt, too little salt and the food tastes bland, the correct amount of salt leaves you enjoying the overall whole food taste.

Performing music is similar to balancing the composition in art paintings, and its quite unintentionally easy to distract the viewer from focusing on the main subject of what you are trying to convey.

I practice in front of a pro once a week, and i get feed back like
‘you need to shorten that note, the phrase doesn’t sound right’,
‘you need to shorten the gap between those two notes, its changing the shape of the phrase’

I can be so focused in the song, about whats coming up next, that i can overlook things, which is why its important to get feedback, or record your practice pieces and listen back to them, nine times out of ten, i don’t like what i hear played back.

Also the mind can play tricks on you – you might not realise it, but your mind can like how the way a phrase is played, and can completely change it from how it should be played.

Overall, you still played a cracking performance!

[Robert Frederick]

Walley

Thank you for the time to give me such thoughtful and honest feedback. It is something I appreciate for being in on this forum.

When I have played at house parties, sometimes for 2 to 3 hours of background music, I just have to go from one song to the next, really without much feedback, except I get paid and the lady that pays me is very bubbly asks me back. People will often say they like my playing (and they have not been drinking), but I am not sure what that means.

Dr. Zoot.

[brother cavefish]

this has always been a mystical cool draging sax song

[Robert Frederick]

Thank you for your note.

[Mike Potter]

Sounds great Dr!

[Author]

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