Stand By Me

[john]

Yes it makes sense, it’s just part of trying to tame your saxophone. Yamaha’s are good but just make sure it doesn’t have any leaky pads. If you’re near an instrument shop they can check.

If you downloaded my “How To Play Saxophone” book there is a section there with a vid lesson on some help in getting around this common octave and mid-range problem.

As for the non-related notes, I don’t think you should incorporate any untill you’re 100% with the proper use of the scales we talked about, otherwise it just gets too confusing. For blues-based playing all the notes we need are in these 3 scales anyways so knowing them is all you will need to do.

[Jan]

Thanks Johnny,

So, the three pentatonic scales I need to master are: B (=G#), E and F#?

Jan

[john]

If you’re still referring to how to solo over the Stand By Me song yes.

[Jan]

Thanks for your patience Johnny, and sorry for being so slow in grasping what I’m hoping one day will become obvious banalities. I’ll continue to tame my sax, and try to improvise a middle section of Stand By Me. I’ve searched the net for the notes for the violin solo to no avail, and probably will try to emulate some of it only by ear.

I’ve also set my eyes on trying to match a rendition of the mega soulful The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face. Only a few notes to play, but extremely challenging to get emotionally engaging. It requires technique and tone control currently far above my level. But hey, some time in the future, who knows …?

Jan

[john]

No problem, we’re all different and at different stages of learning. You’re after something that is good and makes you feel great, that’s why there’s 1000’s of members here!

I’ve always taken time to sit down with a song I wanted to learn and copy it either by writing it out and/or recording it to learn the notes etc.
It’s time consuming but once you get it then it’s smoother sailing when practicing and playing it afterwards.

This is something that I’m starting to spend more time on and will actually bring it to the site. You will start to see more and more songs on a new section here called Saxophone Backing Tracks. I will record the backing track for a song, then write out the notes for the melody or solo or both, depending on the tune. Most of these will be a paid download of a few bucks because of how time consuming it is to do this stuff. But I get a lot of requests for it because that’s what most people want to do, learn and play their favorite tunes. I’ve already started with a few here:
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/saxophone-backing-tracks

Hopefully you’ll see dozens of them there but like I said, it’s very time consuming. Hopefully you will see songs there that you like as well.

[john]

No problem, we’re all different and at different stages of learning. You’re after something that is good and makes you feel great, that’s why there’s 1000’s of members here!

I’ve always taken time to sit down with a song I wanted to learn and copy it either by writing it out and/or recording it to learn the notes etc.
It’s time consuming but once you get it then it’s smoother sailing when practicing and playing it afterwards.

This is something that I’m starting to spend more time on and will actually bring it to the site. You will start to see more and more songs on a new section here called Saxophone Backing Tracks. I will record the backing track for a song, then write out the notes for the melody or solo or both, depending on the tune. Most of these will be a paid download of a few bucks because of how time consuming it is to do this stuff. But I get a lot of requests for it because that’s what most people want to do, learn and play their favorite tunes. I’ve already started with a few here:
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/saxophone-backing-tracks

Eventually you’ll see dozens of them there but like I said, it’s very time consuming. Hopefully you will see songs there that you like as well.

[Author]

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