Measures 19-23 of Fly Me to the Moon

[Michael Bishop]

Hi Johnny,
Just about finished Fly Me to The Moon on Tenor, fun song to say the least 😎 My question about this song is on Measures 19-23 where we have 1 B note in measure 19, 1 B Note in Measure Number 20 and the rest is a mix of 8th, quarter, half and whole D Notes–on this combination of the D Notes, simply playing them/tonguing them makes it sound like there’s nothing distinct about it, just notes that kind of run in with each other. I watch you play this section and you’re playing these notes and making them sound very distinct, one from the other. Are you scooping some of these and other no/just tonguing? This is about the only thing keeping me from uploading it to the blog.
I came up with my own little Improvised tune in the section of this song that I had asked about before–it wasn’t on the sheet music and you just kind of threw it in–if you remember me asking you about it.

[john]

Yes, you are right…am scooping a couple of those because I got that articulation from Sinatra maybe? anyway, because those D’s are so repetative they will sound lame if we don’;t do something like that to em. Gotta scoop and/or tong to make them a little more lively or something.

[Michael Bishop]

What is tonging a note? Did you meaning tonguing? I’m going to also listen to Sinatra sing it and see if I can get an idea or two, maybe combinations of accent, scooping, etc.. I’ll see what happens. I’ve notice how many singers from his era will sing certain bars on their songs just as is with the basic melody/basic structure, but then go back when singing the same bars again and change it up a little, change the rhythm, sing with different emotion, little things here and there, the little things they’re doing in their singing to make the same notes they were singing sound just a little different later in the song?
I’m at the E Major Scale section of Mack the Knife…I look forward to the day I can play the Altissimo range especially for songs like this; right now I’ll just play them as you show it on the sheet music. Some of the last notes on the last scale of Mack the Knife in F Major, would be Altissimo A, A#, B Natural and Altissimo C–last measure in the 2nd to last bar. BIG difference v.s playing them on the 3rd Octave range!

[john]

yes, sorry typing too fast I meant tonguing!
Listening to singers is an excellent idea because when you think about it, we are doing just that except we’re using our saxophones to sing.
If you study Sinatra’s phrasing and carry it over to your sax while playing Fly Me it is gonna help you play it better. I do that, then I slowly get away and make it my own but it’s a great way to start an approach to a song, especially one like this.

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