Posts Tagged ‘music’

I’m frequently asked what someone should do if they want to get back into music as an adult. Perhaps you played through college, but now have put the saxophone (or whatever instrument!) down for ten years or more, and you want to start playing again.

If you’ve read my other posts, you’ve seen that I believe there are four areas to practice on the saxophone (or any woodwind instrument): sound, technique, tunes, and ear. So if you’re just starting back, what should you do?

Well, here are a few things, in each of those four areas, that you might work on. Within each area, I have listed these things in roughly what I think is their priority of importance. So here we go…

Sound Production

• Longtones (without vibrato)
• Recording yourself and listening to the quality of the sound
• Practicing a nice vibrato on half and whole tones with a metronome

Technique

• Scales
• Pentatonics
• Major, Minor, Aug Triads
• Triad Pairs
• Learning a few keyboard basics

Learning Tunes

• Memorizing tune melodies and chord progressions
• Playing through tunes, in rhythm, with no backing track
• Playing triads or other patterns through tunes

Ear Training

• Playing along with the radio
• Transcribing
• Matching tones with a keyboard

I have covered some of the items listed above in other lessons. But if you have questions, a good instructor could help save you some time.

Practice hard, you’ll see the results!

No matter what genre you play in, it is important to learn (memorize) tunes. As a jazz or R&B musician, for example, it’s hard for you or the audience to really get into your playing if your nose is glued to the stand reading music. Sometimes it’s necessary to read music, but it’s far better and is more professional to memorize the tunes. You’d also be surprised that after you’ve got a few under your belt, others come much easier.

It is far better to learn tunes by listening to a good recording, and learning the melody via ear rather than reading it from a real book. And it makes sense; music is an aural activity so it seems logical that learning aurally would be better than learning from reading a chart. Real books and charts are a great reference for gigs, and for understanding the chord changes, but are not the best way to learn the melodies.

What to Practice

You should start by picking some tunes you want to learn. Then, similar to the method I described for transcribing (listen, sing, play, write), you should learn the melodies. Try to precisely match the rhythm, intonation, and sound on the original recording. Also listen closely for any embellishments used, and try to match those. This can take quite a while, but will pay huge dividends if you put in the effort. You can’t get this quality of learning from just trying to learn tunes from reading charts in the Real Books.

Once you’ve learned the melody of a tune, you can start to improvise around the “changes” (chord sequence). For beginning improvisers, use the melody line as a starting point. Next, learn the changes (a chart will be necessary now) to the tune. Then practice playing chord tones (3rds and 7ths work well as “guide” tones) over the changes, perhaps mixed with snippets of the melody. Next, you might try adding in some of the patterns you are learning in your Technique practice sessions. Finally, see where some of the phrases or licks from your transcribing will fit in. Using all these techniques, you should have some great ideas for how to improvise now!

An important thing to do is to hum the tune in your head while your improvising. Humming the tune while you (or others) are improvising is the easiest way to keep from getting lost in the tune. Humming in your head can be difficult to do at first, but once you practice it, it will start to become second nature.

Another neat thing to do once you’ve learned a tune, is to get or build a backing track for that tune. The Jamey Aebersold or Hal Leonard CDs are great sources for quality backing tracks. Then you can use these backing tracks to simulate a live rhythm section, and you can work on both playing the melody and improvising over the changes. I like to group eight to ten or more of these backing tracks and then play through them sequentially as if it were a full set at a live gig. It’s a great workout, and fun too.

Another thing you can do is to go to a jam session, if you can find one (they’re harder and harder to find). You might even start your own. I’m a firm believer that you progress at least ten times faster (per hour spent) when you play at gigs or jam sessions verses practicing alone at home. It’s something about playing out in a group that really ingrains the tunes in your subconscious.

A final suggestion, which I also mentioned above under some of the other core components, is the importance of recording. After you’ve learned a tune, record yourself. Listen to see if your rhythm, sound, and intonation

References

• See Jamey Aebersold’s free jazz pamphlet for a listing of jazz standards to learn.

Background

An important part of saxophone playing is being able to play in tune. The saxophone is undoubtedly a very difficult instrument to play in tune. But instead of using a tuner, like we did in the Sound Production exercises, we’re going to rely on using our ear more in these exercises. But, if you’re having difficulty with intonation, feel free to pull out the tuner and check tuning.

We’re going to cover exercises that help you learn intervals and match pitches. How often have you heard guitar or horn players trading licks, sometimes matching the lick that the other improviser just did? This skill requires ear training.

Another topic we’ll cover in ear training is transcribing. Transcribing is absolutely critical for learning everything from sound, technique, embellishments, phrasing, and rhythm. New York saxophonist Tim Armacast explained to me that his approach to transcribing is four distinct steps: Listen, Sing, Learn, Write.

What do these four steps mean? Let’s say you want to learn Paul Desmond’s famous alto solo in Take Five. This is a great solo to learn, because it’s relatively easy, technically, but the rhythm is challenging until you get the feel of 5/4 time. Before you start, set your horn down in its stand. The first step is then to Listen. You want to use a software or hardware looping device and start looping a small piece of the solo. Let’s select just the first two bars of the solo to loop. Listen to these two bars intently until you can do the next step, Sing it. Once you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve listened to it, and can sing (or whistle) it perfectly to include embellishments, then and only then do you pick up your horn. Now turn off the music, and play the first two bars by ear. When you think you’ve got it down, turn the looper back on and play with the recording. See if you’ve matched the pitches, match your intonation to Desmond’s, and see if you can copy his phrasing, tonguing, volume levels, and embellishments. The whole package.

What to Practice

Exercise 1. Matching Pitches. One of the best exercises is to practice matching pitches. One method is to have a friend play a pitch and then try to match it. Another is to use one of the many software tools that are available.

Exercise 2. Intervals and Phrases. This exercise involves having someone (or a software tool) provide two different pitches in succession, and then you try to match those on your instrument. Start with just two pitches, but then later you might go to several pitches or licks. This lick matching is often done in real gigs, so this is great practice. Another way to do this is to whistle or sing a couple of notes or a lick, then try to play it on your horn.

Exercise 3. Play Along With The Radio. Playing along with a tune on the radio is a great way to learn to quickly figure out the key of a tune, and to provide an opportunity to discover a neat lick or two. I like to first listen to a tune, see how quickly I can pick out the root and determine if it’s major or minor. Usually I will hum the root in my head, and then pick up my horn and see if I can jump right in to that key. Ballads are great for this. Once you figure out the root and whether it’s major or minor, use the pentatonic scale or blues scale to improvise along with the melody or changes. If it’s a vocal tune, see if you can compliment the vocalist by playing when he or she is not singing.

Exercise 4. All Twelve Keys. This exercise involves taking a short lick or simple tune (like a nursery rhyme) and see if you can play it by ear in all twelve keys.

Exercise 5. Harmony (Advanced Exercise). Learn what modes are for major and minor keys. Once you understand chords and modes, try breaking down a tune by its modes. Then try playing guide tones (smooth lines of chord tones, mostly 3rds and 7ths where possible) over a tune. Bert Ligon’s series of books are a great reference here.

Exercise 6. Keyboard Basics (Advanced Exercise). Try learning a couple of simple things on a keyboard. Start with learning major and minor triads. Then perhaps see if you can do some simple comping for and easy tune, perhaps starting with a blues tune.

Transcribing. Transcribing is a fantastic way to improve your ears and to improve your technique. Tim Armacost, and excellent saxophonist from New York City, gave me a great phrase for the proper way to transcribe. Listen – Sing – Play – Write. What he explained was that you should first listen intently to a phrase that you want to transcribe, with your sax still in its stand. Next you sing or hum the phrase until you know it cold; still with your horn put up. Once you can sing it perfectly, only then do you pick up your horn and try to play it. Once you can play the phrase, write it down if you want. When you first start out, you should only take a few notes at a time. After you’ve done this method for awhile, you’ll find that you can do more and more at a time.

Select some of your favorite artists and transcribe some of their tunes or solos. Some of mine include Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Richard Elliott, John Klemmer, Don Braden, Joshua Redmon, and Paul Desmond. Write down some of your favorite artists here.

1. ________________________
2. ________________________
3. ________________________
4. ________________________
5. ________________________
6. ________________________
7. ________________________
8. ________________________
9. ________________________
10. ________________________

Another thing to look at when you transcribe is all the embellishments that the artist uses. What tonguing and articulation is used? What embellishment techniques were used, such as grace notes, vibrato, slurs, growls? Can you copy the sound and embellishments exactly? Record yourself and see!

In addition to focused daily practices, it is very important to assess your current strengths and weaknesses, and then to set some longer-term goals for yourself. Assessing your current strengths and weaknesses are usually best done by an instructor that has worked with you, or lacking that, fellow musicians. You can also do a self-assessment as a start. Periodically review these, along with reassessing your goals, at least every six months or so.

Strengths. Let’s start by listing what you think are your strengths. List five strengths that you think you have:

Strength 1. _________________________________________________

Strength 2. _________________________________________________

Strength 3. _________________________________________________

Strength 4. _________________________________________________

Strength 5. _________________________________________________

Weaknesses. Now list five weaknesses that you think you have:

Weakness 1. ________________________________________________

Weakness 2. ________________________________________________

Weakness 3. ________________________________________________

Weakness 4. ________________________________________________

Weakness 5. ________________________________________________

Goals. Finally, let’s work on longer-term goals. What would you like to accomplish musically over the next six to twelve months? I’ll provide space for ten goals, but usually three to five is a good start. Here is an example of some goals I have had, to help you get started.

Goal 1. Be able to identify the following intervals by ear: 2^nd, minor third, major

third, fourth, fifth, flat 7 and 7 in both directions.

Goal 2. Really loosen up my embouchure on the top and bottom, thus improving

my intonation in the upper register and altissimo.

Goal 3. Be able to play major and minor triads in all keys on the keyboard.

Goal 4. Complete the current CD, and complete another CD.

Goal 5. Improve my “entertainer” skills at gigs.

Now take a shot at listing your musical goals for the next six to twelve months. Start with fairly simple goals at first. They should be narrowly enough focused such that they are attainable within six to twelve months. Then will also want to review and update these about every six months.

Goal 1. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 2. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 3. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 4. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 5. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 6. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 7. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 8. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 9. ________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Goal 10. _______________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

What is the Mini-Sessions Technique?

In a nutshell, the Mini-Sessions (MS) technique is an innovative practice technique where the student practices a single core concept over a relatively short period, but at a very focused concentration level. I believe the ideal practice length for each session is about 20-30 minutes, but one of the advantages of MS is that the student can vary this time to his or her needs or daily schedule. Many of us are part-time musicians working one or more other jobs, so it can be very tough to decide what to practice in the limited amount of time available. Yet we all want to get better as fast as we can, but still have fun. That’s the purpose of this method!

There are so many options when considering what to practice. It’s hard to decide where to start. What should I practice to get better as quickly as possible, in the limited time we all have? I like to divide the “what we practice” into four bins: sound production, technique, ear training, and tunes. The concept of MS, then, is to focus each 20-30 minute session on only one of these four core concepts. The idea, then, is to do our practicing throughout the week in such a way that I repeatedly cover these four core concepts.

So how would MS work over a typical week? Let’s assume I have somewhere between 30 minutes and two hours per day that I want to spend on improving as a musician. If I decide I like 30 minute mini-sessions, then I just divide up my available time into 30 minute blocks. I can even do then at different times in the day, which actually is often a reasonable approach.

Let’s look at an example. Perhaps we allocated 60 minutes to practice on Monday, or two 30 minute sessions. I would probably choose to do a 30 minute session when I get up, before I go off to work, and then my second 30-minute that evening. But of course you could do two back-to-back 30 minute sessions in the evening instead. One thing to keep in mind is that, at least for saxophone players, there is a little bit of overhead time (horn and reed setup) associated with each session, so you might decide that doing two back-to-back sessions is more effective for you. Another important thing to do is to keep your practice area neat and organized, as you will find this helps reduce this overhead time. Also, turn off your phone, and any other distractions, so that you can totally focus during your practice.

It’s a good idea to keep a workbook for logging your practice sessions. Use blank music manuscript (staff paper) to write down transcriptions, patterns, licks, or other ideas. You might also want to keep a daily log of what you practiced, for how long, and how you felt things went that day.

Remember that the reason we are doing music at all is that we enjoy music and it’s fun. So for myself, if I’m especially tired or just not particularly motivated for some reason, I’ll back off of what I do that day and not push myself too hard. I’m confident that if you follow the Mini-Sessions practice technique, you’ll soon notice significant improvements in your abilities as a musician!