Michael Bishop

@Johnny Thanks for the props you gave to Trevor James Saxophones in your blog article 🙂 https://www.howtoplaysaxophone.org/buying-a-saxophone/ I’ve had my SR Tenor and Signature Custom Alto for almost 3 years and they’re still like brand new, has never given me any issues. The SR Tenor used to be their pro-line Tenor, but when they released…[Read more]

For only 12 hours, that’s pretty good! Very inspiring 🙂 Cool to see how much fun you’re having on the Sax. Keep playing away. Like Sxpoet said, be mindful of your tuning–it’s one of those things that never stops; even for Seasoned Professionals. Keep up the great work 🙂

Yes–that’s been my fear that you said–doing something to screw it up and getting embarrassed in a public setting 🙂 There are a number of licks and riffs I’ve learned (most of the licks in Killer Blues e-course I’ve learned) and have had no problem using them in private over a backing track because if I do screw up then there’s no one around for…[Read more]

For sure! I can’t see how in the world he would have gotten such a big sound with an MP that has a small tip opening or anything like that. I can listen to this stuff all day long 🙂 I sent the link to him (Local Alto player I was talking about) earlier today…..haven’t heard anything back yet 🙂

I started looking through them today–awesome stuff Johnny 🙂 Junior Walker! One of my favorite Sax players of all time–His entire solo Shotgun is based on the Call & Response 🙂 It doesn’t have to be very complicated either–I think this Call and Response is really going to help me out. With this stuff, seems like we don’t have to do much…[Read more]

I showed him Flamingo and Up in Orbit…..he didn’t believe me those songs were on Alto. The guy had never even heard of Earl Bostic–he loves Contemporary, modern Sax music. Nothing wrong with that at all as we’re all different. But I do think it’s important we know at least some history behind our instruments. I mean, guys like Earl Bostic are…[Read more]

I’ll check that out for sure Johnny, thanks for the heads up 🙂 With me rebooting myself/getting myself back into playing shape, all’s I’ve been focusing on is what you teach in the Beginner’s Guide and the Daily Saxophone Routine for beginners, along with Altissimo and the Killer Blues course. There’s stuff in the premium membership I haven’t…[Read more]

Way to go Jake! Very Cool 🙂 Man, you’ve made some awesome progress since I last saw you play, very inspiring 🙂 On a side note, I sent you a new friend request through facebook a few months ago, did you see it? I shut the other account down. Remember that breach FB had a few months ago? After that, my account started acting weird and I was afraid…[Read more]

So it’s like talking back and forth to each other? I like that 🙂 No, take that back….I love that 🙂 He has our lesson plan set out for the next few months, said we would start working with Call and Response after I complete his exercises with Pentatonics and Scales. He was saying too many people practice their scales by just going up and down…[Read more]

@ Sx Poet yeah, I hear you on that for sure. I stayed away from it for a while too. As you said, lots of bad vibes on Facebook. I personally know of people who have allowed their personal friendships to be destroyed all because of misunderstandings on facebook–crazy to say the least.

The only reason why I have it is because it allows me to…[Read more]

Hey Jake,
I was trying to check it out and the link isn’t working.

Same thing happening here with profile pic and display screens.

What Johnny is saying is the same thing my local Sax instructor had told me. For me, the ‘sweet spot’ was always where the curvature of the MP facing length comes in contact with the reed–it’s right at that point where I put my top teeth, use my bottom lip as a cushion and create a seal around the MP with the sides/corners of my lips. Any more…[Read more]

Cool video! I’ve never heard of Booker Ervin. He’s got some chops for sure, need to look up more on him. Thanks for sharing 🙂

@ Saxmonica In terms of setting the timer on a video–when you click the ‘share’ button, there should be a little box that appears that says ‘start at’ and it will show the timer on the video. Click on the little box and it’ll set the video from the time you want to share it. Yeah, that’s a great song for the Saxophone for sure 🙂

Nice video Johnny! Very cool 🙂 I’ve always thought Steve Wonder’s song of “Isn’t She Lovely” would make a great Saxophone cover. The place where the Harmonica is playing would be great for Sax Improvisation too. Your website has come a long way for sure, have always loved your content/instruction 🙂

Hey Johnny–yes, that song ‘Last Date’ was really nice on the Saxophone 🙂 I had never heard of that song, really cool of you to make a Sax cover for it–well suited for the Saxophone 🙂 I love the sound you get with the Guardala Carbon Fiber MP and the reed to go with it; nice, fat, full sound.