King Curtis music puts me in a great mood :)

[Michael Bishop]

😎 Hey Johnny,
I don’t know what future releases your planning to make available in the way of Saxophone music, but the only request I have is that you make available as much of King Curtis’ songs as you can LOL There’s an “element” in his playing that I think much of today’s modern Saxophone music (while it’s still good) is missing and you have such a wonderful way of capturing the essence of his music in your own playing; I love the song of the “Watermelon Man” 🙂 and, to me, that song is a perfect example of how playing the Saxophone should be.
I was listening to his song of “I was made to love her” as done by Stevie Wonder. I love the way Stevie Wonder sings it and I don’t want to sound biased…..but I think hearing that song on the Saxophone actually sounds better! Listening to King Curtis’ music always puts me in a great mood 🙂

[john]

I have a few potential King Curtis tracks to do, but one is almost ready and that is I Was Made To Love Her which I have been performing much like the way Curtis recorded it so it will be very similar to his version.

[Michael Bishop]

Thanks so much Johnny! That must be a huge undertaking for you in the way of making a good backing track, making sheet music available, etc.. That has got to be very time consuming, all that work that’s involved to make a 2 1/2-to-3 minutes song available?!? I don’t know of anyone else who can capture the essence of King Curtis’ Saxophone playing like you can 🙂

[john]

Yes, time consuming for sure. I try and do the work on it between lessons, recording projects and various other things I’m committed to.
If I was just to throw together a quick backing track and sell it for a few bucks like many sites do I could put way more of them out there. But I’m stubborn and want to do a better job on these tracks and then get the notation done for both alto and tenor so as many people as possible can access all this and have an easier go at it.

[john]

very good standard Johnny!
Keep up the good work!
Quality before Quantity!

As My brother would say – another song ruined!
he can’t stand it when he hears singers trying
to do someone elses song for a fast buck! lol

Hey Michael – have you got your alto fixed yet? Looking forward
to hearing the difference!

[Michael Bishop]

Hey Johnny: I’m very, very glad that you’re stubborn about it…….because there’s just way to much “junk” out there and your stuff is just so much more authentic/superior quality. Even for myself, just being a simple student player and what little I know, I will say that, at the very least, the more I learn the more “selective” I am becoming regarding backing tracks, songs, etc. In the beginning, I didn’t know any better and just wanted to get my hands on anything that I could LOL. An example: I wanted to do “Lady’s Night” by Kool & the Gang as a duet with Alto and Tenor 🙂 but all the backing tracks I’ve found out there for this song are so generic. Even with playing such a great song on the Saxophone, as cool and “funky” as it would sound 🙂 it would sound kind of “generic” because of using such a lame backing track. I will say, I do have one duet project that I will upload to the blog in July of a very, very popular song 🙂 Just like “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, I managed to find one good backing track on Karaoke v.s. hundreds of generic/crappy ones.

Sxpoe: I’m looking forward to seeing YOUR next upload 🙂 You are definately getting better and that’s something to feel good about for sure. My alto is getting serviced soon; I try to keep blog uploads to about once a month, don’t want to seem too “aggressive” as I also enjoy watching everyone else’s videos; including yours! 🙂 I will ask, though, was my playing really that bad? LOL Just about all of the palm keys and the high bis key that we use for playing Altissimo G gets stuck and it’s annoying the living daylights out of me. I have to wiggle these keys loose before a practice session. Also, it was time for me to go to a 1/2 larger reed (on Alto) and that alone was a HUGE plus, resulted in a very, very bright tone. It doesn’t sound anywhere near as “hollow” I guess you could say, so I made the right decision there for sure. I’ve noticed that my tone is getting a lot stronger and brighter and I think that comes from playing on the Tenor/Guardala MP, because it’s such a bigger horn. Also, working on Johnny’s exercises in the Altissimo course; I’m already seeing results from it. Playing those notes softly in the lower register takes WAY more effort than playing them in the middle/higher register–that’s where I’m at in the Altissimo Course right now. Just like Johnny said he’s stubborn regarding his production of backing tracks, I’m stubborn in the sense of making absolutely sure I have mastered everything in his Altissimo course-or anything else I learn from him for that matter-before moving on or rushing to learn other things just because I’m eager to want to learn them. For myself, I’m really looking at about 8 months-1 year from now of having mastered everything in his Altissimo Course, it’s not the only thing I’m working on of his right now. Been working hard on the Killer Blues ebook and coming up with my own licks, that’s what helped me learn my own Sax solo for Take Five–and even that right now I’m revising a little bit LOL. A good percentage of the roughness in that song was due to the Alto needing servicing though, that much I will say.

[john]

Michael – you are a fantastic player for 12 months, technically you are very adept!
I can see you were putting your own twist on take five! and your playing shows you put a lot of work into it!
If you imagine doing a maths exam, even if you make a mistake and get the final answer wrong, you still get top marks if you display the correct method! compare that to your Sax playing in take five you’ve got the method man!
What i’d love to hear is you doing a slower song?
One of the things Johnny says when learning, is set the metronome at a slow pace,
then increase the beats gradually to get up to speed!

When i have a Sax lesson and i’m learning something new, my Sax teacher has software that slows the backing track music down.
Then when i’m familiar with it, we both play it together at the right speed. Even though everyone can see that my timing is crap.
An interesting thing to do is take one of Johnny’s songs he’s playing and slow the speed down and listen to each note, it reveals a lot!
For me all fast songs are off limits – but i’ve got my eye on Yakity yak!!

[Michael Bishop]

You make a good point Sxpoe regarding starting off slow and as we get familiar with it then we get up to the proper speed depending on the Time Signature. That’s exactly what I did with Take Five and, even though my Alto needs servicing, I did play the Main melody in 5/4 time. But it all starts off by starting slowly, literally one note at a time.
I do have a couple of slower things I can do (a rare find on Karaoke of a couple of decent backing tracks LOL),examples are “Blue Moon” in the version of Ella Fitzgerald, “Crazy” by Patsy Cline, “Have you Ever Really Loved a Woman” as done by Bryan Adams-gorgeous Saxophone song on Tenor, a couple of others too. For the Alto; I can do “Moonlight Lady” and “Gozar La Vida” by Julio Iglesias, “Bailmos” by Enrique Iglesias, a couple of Adele songs, etc. It’s impossible to upload all this stuff as time just doesn’t allow me to upload to the blog all the time. But I personally—-and bear in mind that this is just me—-prefer, if at all possible, to upload Johnny’s stuff to the blog—as a way to support all his hard work. Again, that is just me/my own personal view and in no way would ever push that off on someone else. Next month, though, with a cool project I’ve been working on, at the insistence/ideas of my own kids, will be with a Karaoke backing track. Then in August it’s back to Johnny’s stuff and my Alto will be serviced by then; I upload once a month.
QUESTION: Have you tried playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” at the end of Johnny’s ebook? I did Greensleeves a few months back and wanted to do the other ones at the end of his book too, cool songs to say the least!

[john]

Yeah – i’ve played 3 different versions of somewhere over the rainbow – probably in different keys.
It’s a good piece for learners, its not difficult but its challenging.
For me theres not much point in uploading to the blog until i get my timing sorted out.
Like you say the blog is there to upload Johnny’s stuff, get feedback on it.
Each song us different and poses different pit falls.
For me playing is about having fun, engaging people in your performance etc..

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