What an amazing situation I'm in

[Z]

You all are gonna think I’m completely crazy and bipolar right now but that’s okay! I’m definitely a little crazy! I know lots of you will read this because you’re amazing people and you read everything and care about everyone on here. And I love that. You guys are awesome!! I literally don’t have anybody else to talk to about music in this town so you guys have completely saved me from that!! Your advice on that last forum was very… inspirational? Maybe? I can’t think of a word, but it was really helpful and awesome advice! I would love to join bands, advertise locally, but I live in a tiny town and there isn’t even a music store 🙁 So I will try my best to meet locally with other friends and jam with them from time to time if given the opportunity. I also plan on going to college for either music education or music performance, that decision is still being pondered. But Anyway, here’s the post!…

You all know how I’ve been complaining about not being able to play that metal berg larsen I got? Well I got a softer sized reed of a different brand (I was on a vandoren java 3, I moved to a Rico Jazz 3 Soft). It literally made all the difference. I can play on that mouthpiece with ease and it sounds amazing. I used to play along with Johnny on Youtube because I couldn’t afford the backing tracks themselves, so I just played along with him. Anyway, my sound always sounded weird next to his of course because he’s a professional. But now with that metal mouthpiece, I have enough projection and edge to more or less match his tone with him. I can now get that mouthpiece to play quietly and subtone beautifully as well, which was always a huge problem before. I’m hoping that by the end of the summer I’ll have enough money to buy a new laptop. I already have a microphone, all I need is the laptop and an audio interface to start recording! I would record on my phone, but it doesn’t sound good at all, lol.

There’s another thing that’s going really well… Altissimo!!! I’ll be honest Johnny I watched every video of the course through once, just to know what I would be building up to, skipped the intro (I already know the long tones, control, chromatic scale, etc), and I went to the overtones. I spent about two days on them. I literally played them over and over until I could keep going higher. And I think yesterday or the day before I tried playing actual altissimo notes. I figured why not, I’ll just try it. And they work. I can actually do it. I can’t play G,,, so I’m going to spend a lot of time on that note to figure it out. But every other note, (G#, A, etc) I can play! I’m like a baby learning it’s first language. I know a few words, but now I just need more practice of putting them all together to make some sentences, then paragraphs, etc. I can’t wait to keep practicing them and incorporate some notes into licks! So honestly, things are going great. I’m finally in love with my tone, and not having problems with the horn, and I can just focus on learning more and more. It’s gonna be a loooong summer ;D 😀

[Michael Bishop]

That’s great news Ammin, sometimes a change in Reed can make a big difference for sure. I’ve always been very curious about the Berg Larsen line of MPs for Tenor–seems like it was the mainstream MP back in the day of Lee Allen, King Curtis, Big Jay, etc.. I’m not sure if those guys stuck with Berg Larsen MPs or not for all of their playing careers. If I remember correctly, I think Johnny used a Berg Larsen MP for quite some time before switching over to the Guardala. He has spoken very highly of Berg Larsen MPs in the past.
That’s great news about starting to hit those notes. It will take some time for those high notes to become part of your permanent “vocabulary” as you’re talking about sentences there 🙂 so you need to be very patient and persistent in that regard. Just as a kindly reminder, those things that you skipped over in the Altissimo course: Even if we know those things already, we can never get too good at them. Long tones, subtones, chromatic scales, all of those things (and more) that Johnny has us work on before even attempting an Altissimo note are the bread-and-butter of developing the whole technique to play up there. The benefits that we get from those exercises do wonders to our playing even in the normal range of the Saxophone. It’s really important to always “go back” and practice those things even if we know how to do them–I do them every single practice session and it seems that there’s always a little something that I learn/discover each time I do them. Some of those little things that I’ve discovered for myself has made HUGE differences. The point being is that, if you really want to fuse the Altissimo range into your playing, don’t skip ANY steps that Johnny has us go through. Otherwise we’re cheating ourselves. Or as they say, leave no stone unturned.
For me, Altissimo G was my first note. Once I got passed that note, all of the others we’re relatively easy to play….with lots of practice anyway LOL. Nice to hear you’re in love with your tone….you just got a new Trevor James 88′ Horn so you better not already be having problems with it! LOL

[Z]

Good point. I definitely don’t skip over them in my warm up. I always go over the chromatic scale, slowly and increasing speed, then practice scales, chords, I’m currently trying to learn different bebop scales those are fun. Just trying to expand my vocabulary as always😆. But yes, of course, I will never stop going over the basics as well, they are just as important.

[jake]

Yea, great outlet here to discuss music and have support for sure. I also have a metal berg larsen mp, 120/0. I really don’t use it as I have a custom metal mp I use. Every now and then I switch it up to see if there are any differences with them. I also was having a harder time with the larsen mp. It is a little more open than my other mp so that could be part of it. I read somewhere that someone threw a bari reed on a tenor mp to generate a little more buzz in there sound. Instead of my riggoti gold 2.5 tenor reeds, I threw a bari 2.0 rico select reed on my berg mp and what a difference. Played way easier and there was def more of a buzz sound going on. It felt a little different playing it, but it played well. Its amazing how different we can sound by changing things up. The problem is that it is so personal and its not the same for everyone and there are so many types of reeds and mp out there how can we try every combination???? Great job on the altissimo Aminn, it def a great feeling hitting those notes!

[Z]

It sure is. I’m sure my neighbors are still getting pretty annoyed!! 😉 I still have the occasional squeal sometimes to the high D when I try to play some of the notes, but with time I’m sure that’ll go away. I’m sure someday that my neighbors will be satisfied with my playing 😉

[Michael Bishop]

Jake: That is an interesting thing to hear, putting a Bari reed on a Tenor MP?!? Would never have thought about that one. But then again, there is a story about Earl Bostic using a Tenor reed on his Alto Sax playing; not sure how true that is. In any case, Earl Bostic probably was, in my little opinion, the greatest Alto Saxophone player that every played; or is certainly up there for sure. His tone/sound on the Alto was ludicrous…no one today can even remotely come close to him. Have a listen to his Alto Sax playing below.
Ammin: To stop getting those little squeaks on your Altissimo notes, make sure you’re getting a good seal around the MP with your embouchure and that should take care of it. What I mean is; as we start playing in the Altissimo range; we’re starting to do something that is new to us and that we’re not accustomed to doing. When we have the MP in our mouths and we go higher and higher up the range, we can loose a little air support if the MP isn’t totally sealed off with our lips and it tend to prevent the air supplied from your diaphragm from being delivered straight into the MP. I found that, for me, it happened when my embouchure was too open; like we would do for playing in the low register. We have to tighten up our embouchure the higher we go. Especially the bottom lip, you want to kind of “stretch/tighten” that bottom lip. The more you tighten/stretch the bottom lip, the higher you can go. Let me know how you come along. I have a gift for you that I’m going to give you..I’ll private message you about it. Great job for getting up there–your playing will never be the same 🙂

[Michael Bishop]

Aminn–I’m trying to send you a message here on Johnny’s site and the system is not letting me, weird. My personal e-mail address is baboon4215@gmail.com

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