One of David Fosters hits

[Kevin]

This song was one I wanted to learn, but has been my nemisis for many months. Just can’t play it as cleanly or with expression as I want. Mainly due to losing the air or embrochure before I can get a recorded pass to my liking. I start my sessions OK but after a few(or numerous) passes with a missed note or some other error, I finally reduce my mental errors but then my ability play has faded.
Wanted to do my second harmony track with my tenor sax, but it must have a leaky pad and in need of a trip to the repair shop. My attempt to have a picture in a picture with my harmony playing failed for some reason and I think the backing track volume sounded low but no take time to fix for now.
Need to get onto my Christmas repertoire, so gotta move on from this one…
Sorry that it’s not the more gritty up-beat stuff that this site is geared for. Yakety sax and Use Me are on my todo list. Not enough time in the day(or should I say the year?)
But thanks to Johnny for this site and having a place for an audience. Hope I can get my playing up to a standard so that I can use it confidently with other musicians, improvising, etc…

[paddy jordan]

Hi Kevin you have been busy in the wood shed ,that was beautifully played so controlled and great tone. Well done! Kevin

[Anonymous]

Hi Kevin, I’m also trying to play this song from time to time. You did an excellent job!
Listen to yourself again after a week or so, then you will be able to hear it as we do.
I really like your harmony.

[Michael Bishop]

Very well done Kevin! 🙂 Nice to see a video from you too, I love watching your playing..I’ve missed seeing them! I really, really love your tone, very nice/warm. That’s a very beautiful song to play on the Alto! There’s so many benefits out of playing these nice, beautiful, soft ballads, they do wonder for our embouchure to say the least. Great choice of song Kevin, David Foster has got some good stuff…I have plans on Soprano Sax this coming year(found a good Selmer Soprano for a really decent price) and I plan on doing a Soprano/Tenor duet of the love theme to St.Elmo’s Fire. I’m a fan of Trevor James Saxophones as you know and they’re working on releasing a Signature Custom Soprano, but they told me they weren’t sure when it would be released, so the Selmer is the one I’m looking at…it’s one of the Selmers that are made out of that famous Brass that Selmer Saxophones is well-known for, resonates like crazy!
Those leaky pads on our Saxophone is a pain in the neck, hope you get that fixed soon, would love to hear you upload some stuff on Tenor again, what model is your Tenor? It looked to be a really nice Tenor. I’ve learned all of Yakety Sax on Tenor, will be uploading it as soon as we get finished setting things up here around our new house. The notation itself isn’t very complicated or anything, it’s all very straight-forward stuff…some of the riffs/licks are just a little “tricky”. I broke it down into 2 seperate parts and worked on them separately from each other–1 part is the main melody and the other part is that tricky solo LOL I just focused on just a few licks/riffs each day, much easier to learn that way. After that I put it all together. Make sure to tongue the notes clearly/distinctly on Yakety Sax..easier said than done LOL Same thing goes with “Pick Up the Pieces”. Thanks for uploading Kevin, very nice stuff you’re playing 🙂

[Kevin]

Thanks all for the comments, it’s been a really hard up-hill struggle to get my embrochure strength to be up to par for a piece like this. I’m striving to get in some routine practice time, but the demands of my career seem to limit me to 3-5 hours a week, and that isn’t getting the chops back to a level of endurance to readily make it through a piece. But as Michael said doing a song like this one with long sustains does make you put in the work. I had taken the time to write out the notation for each of the harmony parts in my notation software so if anyone is interested in a copy let me know.
Hope all are striving to upload some Christmas songs. I will be staying tuned…

[Michael Bishop]

You definately made the right choice Kevin with your song selection and how it relates to strengthening your embouchure. In Johnny’s Altissimo course, he talks about the benefits of subtones…it’s WAY harder to play the lower notes with subtone quality v.s. really loud. For me, it was that exercise of subtones that helped me “crack the ice” of playing into the Altissimo range, so you can never go wrong with choosing a song like you picked to helped you develop those chops. I’m hoping to have something ready in the way of Johnny’s Holiday music like you talked about, we’ve been so dang busy moving into this new house/setting up everything; it’s exhausting work. I was hoping to get done “Rocking Around the X-mas Tree” by Brenda Lee..no promises but I will try for sure. Even though Kevin you are getting 3-5 hours a week and you naturally want more, keep at it and don’t allow ANYTHING to interfere with those precious hours or practice. Before you know it, 3-5 hours a week becomes 6-8 hours a week, etc.. Great job Kevin, hope you get that pad on the Tenor fixed…that’s always pain in the neck LOL

[Anonymous]

Sounds great Kevin – judging by the comments you made, it might not be a polished performance to your liking, but i’d be happy play as good.

listening to it, i’m not sure if you’re slightly behind/ahead in some of the duo parts? heard a few squeaks? To play a vibrato in a duet is harder to keep in sync than not playing vibrato (hats off to you).

Recording setup is great for the blogg!! Can hear your sax very clearly. I can see now the problems with recording on different tracks – getting the right balance blending in with the backing track.

But overall – sounded great .. look forward to your xmas upload polished or not!

[Anonymous]

i had a sax lesson this week, and the teacher said – lets hear what you have been doing. So played etude no 2 guy lucard, afterwards he said you need to be playing more difficult pieces, lets skip to some harder etudes.

So i ssid to him – i’m playing these simple ones to develop my expression as my expression is crap.

So he sang etude no 2 expressively to give me the correct feel of the piece. Then he got the sax out and demostrated to put more tonguing emphasis on the start of phrases and bars that builds up the expressiveness (more down to the articulation in the right places and less to do with silently/loudly playing suddenly/gradually).

So to play expressively practicing wise, take out the vibrato conpletely.

Then he sang etude no 2 with this knowledge and i played the sax while he ssng so that my expression was in line with his singing.

Then i played etude no 2 without him singing and he said it was a big improvement.

Then – wait for it, he said now to add to the expression even more, i want you ti start playing with vibrato. Then he demonstrated the etude no 2 with and without vibrato.

So i had then had my 1st lesson practicing vibrato, so now he wants me plsying vibrato.

Its quite interesting as he demostrated lots of different styles from classic to rock, using vibrato. He then demonstrated the changing styles of vibrato over the decades played by different sax players – some if those early players used a very slow vibrato.

So there you go – thats the only knowledge i’ve got on playing more expressively – may help or not!

[Kevin]

James, thanks for the input. I always want a candid feedback and comments that will give me perspectives on how to improve. My expectations for the quality of my uploads has slipped. (didn’t take the time to fix the errors in my playing and in the level adjustments of the recording)
When one’s practice regimen and devoted time are yielding progressing results and the chops aren’t fading, things just go smoother. I would like to have done a few more takes to correct those squeaks, and the timing issues, but that take was more true to my current skill level of playing (mistakes and all).

[Michael Bishop]

Doing great Kevin, keep at it 🙂

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