Here's "Spooky" Alto Saxophone Instrumental

[Michael Bishop]

Hi guys,
It’s late Sunday night and we had a busy weekend, but managed to get this first edit done. We’re in the process of moving and we’re living among boxes, so I shoved some of them aside to do this video LOL
Couple of things on this edit–we produced it in HD but for some reason the pixels on my cpu monitor we’re looking kind of fuzzy, not sure if that’s just my monitor or not. Let me know if you see this problem and we’ll check it out. In terms of recording the Sax, this is brand new software and my son and I are in the process of ‘figuring it all out’ so please forgive us if we have failed at a few things. Reverb was used at an absolute bare minimum. I do feel we could have raised the recording volume of the Saxophone itself; but the speakers on our cpu aren’t the greatest in the world. This is new territory for us and we really appreciate your insights/help so that we can make adjustments for the next edit; which will be on the Tenor Sax. For this edit, I opted to just use a hard-rubber MP, just because for this song on Alto I wanted a more “subdued” type of sound (For other upcoming Alto Sax covers I’ll use a metal MP). Using just a hard-rubber MP also gives you a better idea of what these Trevor James Saxophones sound like with just a plain, hard-rubber MP. Even with a cheao rubber MP, I still had no problems hitting the Altissimo notes with Johnny’s fingerings that he teaches. For anyone whose in his course right now, I’m using the fingering positions No.2 on this Saxophone..they just seem to work no matter what!
The Improvisation in the song is not an exact copy of what Mike Shapiro did when he originally released this song on the Alto Sax. There’s no sheet music for that Improvisation, just that popular solo of his and that’s all there is. I even contacted Curtis with saxsolos.com (mysolospot.com) and he didn’t have sheet music for all of Mike’s Improvised licks/riffs, as it was explained to me that Mike Shapiro played this song on the Alto in many keys. So I just used the scale and attempted to create licks/riffs that captured the ‘essence’ of the original Spooky release. For most (but not all) of the Improvisation I used the the 1-3-5-7 of chord and that’s it; nothing complicated or ‘spectacular’. On a side note, I did catch myself getting sightly ahead of the beat in the middle of my Improvisation.
I’m hoping Members start uploading videos again…it’s really fun and encouraging to see everyone play! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thanks Michael – just wanted to hear what your new sax sounds like – it ROCKS man!!

Some of these sounds that sax players mske, there is no convention in music how to describe it on sheet music – for
example you know how to play a trill & sheet music will show a trill sign to indicate it!
I’ve got a 9 page booklet on one song just to describe how the sax player plays each phrase & notes
the author had to come up with a lot weird signs on the sheet to
indicate how he played certain
parts, so i can understand you
will find some sheet music wont
exist.

[Anonymous]

@Michael – in terms of your recording setup – i can’t comment,
as i haven’t got a clue as i wan’t to upgrade mine – i only use an
apple i-touch to record my sax.

I don’t think you need to increase
the sax volume, i would get the mic as close to the sax bell as possible, and increase the volume of the backing track – But thats just a matter of personal taste.

My teacher would say dont use mouthpieces with large projectios in small rooms – to him it doesn’t sound right to a listener
in the same room in relation to a
backing track! Thats his view – not mine, he thinks you can’t get
the right balance.

When you hit the perfect setup settings – i will be interested – it will be helpful for me when i
go down that route – i don’t know
whether to get an apple mac or
a 8 track portaatudio recorder.

[Michael Bishop]

Hi JB,

I kind of felt the same as your instructor does when doing this edit–the projection with a Theo Wanne with this Sax is just….ludicrous. It sounds absolutely fantastic but I’m in a very small room where we’re stacking boxes being in the middle of a move. Right now everything feels small in the house because of things packed everywhere. But before we started packing the room/house didn’t feel small at all, so go figure LOL But it came across to me as just a little TOO much, given the space that I was in, because I wanted a subdued sound with this Alto Sax Instrumental–go listen to the original release by Mike Shapiro on youtube and you’ll see what I mean when you listen to it. Now with the Tenor Instrumental I’ll be uploading soon in the key that the Classics IV did “Spooky” in of Fm (played in Gm for the Tenor)…..that is a different story 🙂 For that one, I’ll attempt to see if I can find a different spot in the house because if the projection with my normal mp/ligature set up felt to be too much with the Alto, then that will certainly be a problem with the Tenor…WAY more edge/projection than the Alto. I will have to eventually get a better quality mic though…as an example for my Selmer Bundy Tenor, the intonation comes across as far, far more subdued/dull on videos that we made for it like “The Watermelon Man” and “Use Me” than what it Sax is in person; as my wife/friends have told me when they listen to the sax in person v.s. what’s on video.

Yeah, the editing software that we’re using is new to us and it’s going to take some time to find the right balance of everything as you said; which is why the blog is great because of the support system and feedback I can get from experienced Members and Johnny himself; expect to see lots of trial and error in that regard. But most importantly, it’s always about getting feedback on the way we play the Saxophone and improvements in our playing that we’re trying to make..no recording software can replace that.

[john]

Hey Michael, awesome that you’re now getting those high altissimo notes at will! This is really good., Another good thing is you’re starting to throw in some solo riffs which are starting to work very well.
Not sure about that long run down you do several times…is it supposed to be a fast scale or a chromatic scale? I would figure out which one and tighten that up cause as is now sounds jerky and broken up and to me it doesn’t make sense.
Don’t think the sax has to come up, if anything the trsacks should match it a bit more and good that you didn’t abuse the reverb!
way to go, keep rockin’!

[Michael Bishop]

QUESTION JOHNNY: The distance between me and the USB mic didn’t seem to be too far? How about the appearance of the video on your cpu. screen? Listen and watching it on my cpu, it seemed like there may be a problem in this regard. It was like the pixels of the video were broken up or something, but my son produced it in HD, not sure what happened. It also sounded like to me the Sax in some places sounded too faded or something, so we would just adjust the input on the mic and that’s it.
Those were were supposed to be chromatic scales/fall offs and my problem is that I get “stage freight” and I think about it too much when that happens v.s. ignoring the fact that I’m recording myself and just let it happen like I do when I practice; it’s a mental thing for me and there’s no excuses other than that. I’m working on what I see lots of players do when they play: they’re in the own little world and you can NOT break them even if you pinched them; they’re in a ZONE. I don’t think about Altissimo, at all, anymore….I just play it and that’s what I need to do with chromatic scales. I did manage to pull that off with the Watermelon Man because I didn’t think about it. Somedays it’s there mentally for me and others it’s not, depending on what’s on my mind.
For the licks/riffs, your course on Killer Blues is THE focus of my playing right now and that’s all I did here. Mostly, I just played the 1-3-5-7 of the chord of the scale; 4 notes in the full range of the Saxophone and that’s it. I’ve learned from you that, when it comes from this type of playing; the simpler the better. We can think that it needs to be complicated to sound good but it’s exactly the opposite.
When I get back home this evening, I was going to post here in the forum a question for you regarding some key notes within the scale I’m working with for my Tenor Instrumental of this same song….the projection of the TJ SR Tenor that I bought is just amazing and smile everytime I play it! Some folks think that I may have wasted $ on buying the Alto that I did, but I think this song that I just uploaded is a perfect example of how cool the Alto is….I LOVE IT!!! Where that thinking comes from about investing into a pro model being a waste comes from; I don’t know but I don’t agree with it either. Wonder what someone like Earl Bostic would have said about that?

[Anonymous]

stage fright/nerves etc.. can be 2 things (possibly more)
1- being outside your comfort zone
2- you haven’t practiced it enough to stop making mistakes

in case 2 keep plugging away until its error free!
Then turn it on its head and play it like you don’t care
if you make a mistake – just go ahead and make mistakes
because it doesn’t matter and absorb that sensation!
Get a really good feeling about i don’t care if i make
a mistake, then take that feeling and play it again!
The next stage is if you can truly play it, then play it
in a lot of silly styles – then get back on track and
play it properly!

1- now get yourself in a right state before playing,
then do a 15 min warm up session ie be able to play
it slowly but error free! At this stage you should still
be out of your comfort zone.
When the big moment comes be it recording time / exam
time where your playing will be assesed by someone
the minute the backing player
/backing track kicks off you get into the comfort zone
of the band/backing track etc..

Thats what happened when i went for my first sax exam, in
fact 1st exam in 35 years! i arrived 1/2 hr before the exam!
went in the practice room & couldn’t play any of my 3 pieces
without making mistakes, was nearly going to walkout,
then i thought i’ve come this far, i might as well give it a go
yolo – so i calmed down then managed to play all 3 pieces to
a reasonable standard.
Then i walked in the exam room, the examiner asked me what piece
i was going to play, Strange thing happened, once the piano player
played the 4 bar introduction, i felt i was back in my comfort zone
sailed through all 3,pieces no mistakes. My comfort zone
turned out to be the music around me when i was playing, once the
music stopped i was out of my comfort zone.

[Michael Bishop]

Great tips JB, thanks for the insights. I do all of the above you mention. I’m one of those in the category of how you listed of (possibly more) when we talk about stage freight LOL It’s something I’m working on for sure. We’ll see how that goes for the next edit I do on the Tenor Sax.

And now JB…it’s your turn to do an upload! 🙂 I’m hoping that we’ll start to see more Member’s uploads again; but with Johnny upgrading his site and members starting his new Improvisation course, it was to be expected that uploads of our playing would get be on a short pause. It’s a cool aspect of Johnny’s site for sure, I think it’s a very encouraging one too because we can all look back at what we’ve learned, get personal insights from Johnny/others, etc.. It’s a great learning tool for sure. It doesn’t have to be a song; I was actually planning to do some very raw videos of just my practice sessions. If Johnny can see HOW we practice, it can certainly help us improve our overall playing.

[Anonymous]

i’ve got a slightly different agenda – because of my age 57, and
starting to play the sax so late in life (declining memory – takes a lot
longer for me to memorise a song & play it back without the sheet), i
made the decision months ago to go the sheet playing route instead.

So i just wan’t to pickup any sheet and play it straight off, or after
a few run throughs play it nearly perfect – even if it means getting
a few bars down at a time if its a difficult piece.

So in the week when no one is around, i mainly do lots of technical
sight reading exercises, then at the weekends or if anyone is around
so as not to annoy them i get sheet music/backing tracks out and play
loads of songs one after the other, because of the volume & nature
of the technical exercises i do, everytime i get the song sheets out,
they seem to appear easier to play.

last year i was uploading lots of stuff, and one of the members
quite rightly pointed out that all my errors were consistent & he
couldn’t add anything different to his comments. so i
stopped uploading, and took down most of my youtube recordings.
I’ve got to the stage now where i don’t get a kick out of uploading
anymore, i prefer to play for my own personal enjoyment, or to play
to people in real time and get their feedback straight away.

So this sunday – i’m off out to play in a jazz/swing band (using sheet music) for a couple of hours – which is going to be my 1st public
playing.

[Christopher Adams]

hey well done Michael im really impressed with the way you were throwing those altissimo notes in there at will we im doing the course now so i hope that i can soon get to that standard well done again & keep on blowing man!

[Author]

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