The basic form is around a 12-bar blues, but with a clever twist. Make sure you check out the full version of the track in the second video below – and the interpretation by Maceo Parker too. Those of you on alto would find it rewarding to transcribe the start of Maceo’s great solo.
The parts can be downloaded here:
With this in mind I decided, in partnership with Woodwind and Reed, Cambridge and the ACE Cultural Foundation to launch the ‘Stapleford Jazz Collective’ at the brand new Stapleford Granary Arts Centre.
The ensemble is open to all musicians who have reached grade three or above and it is a fantastic opportunity to get together with like minded individuals and make some music, just for fun!
As someone who has lead various ensembles of different age groups I’m really looking forward to this and encouraging ALL my students to get involved.
If you require any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Minor 11th chords & Confirmation ” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix0Htoi4skA”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Transcribing Joshua Redman ” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1gcEyaseCw”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Villa-Lobos Fantasia ” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE-x8eGapcc”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Eric Alexander Dominant 7th Lick” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO5bKeH2URo”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Transcribing Victor Goines” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9VquzLcvJ0″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”All The Things You Are (Acapella) ” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6VQg1EHms”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Four (with backing)” link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqpxXPVSVcY”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Practicing ‘Horse Play’ pre-gig” link=”http://youtu.be/pc6fDFgrFRw”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Transcribing Blue Monk” link=”http://youtu.be/-Q52ERW3104″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Listening back to gig & making notes +ve & -ve” link=”http://youtu.be/wZMIyr8s06o”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Bach ‘cello suite” link=”http://youtu.be/hFF04eMq04o”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Recording Session for Darn Funk Orchestra” link=”http://youtu.be/FcYX86kWagw”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_video title=”Lonnie’s Lament – Coltrane Playalong” link=”http://youtu.be/BDguCfF2i0w”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
In his book Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound, Dave Liebman says ‘the closer you get to the source of the sound, the greater the effect on the overall sound’. In other words, how you breathe, form your embouchure and play the mouthpiece has a much greater effect than the type of mouthpiece or the saxophone you play. You can check out this lesson here to view some exercises on just the mouthpiece. If you purchase the silencer you also get a small booklet with exercises and a DVD! The silencer is currently available from sax.co.uk
I knew I could make it work with a few tweaks, yet I was concerned about how it would impact exam results.
I was worried. How I could accurately judge students’ performance of pieces? Listening down a phone line, the dynamics are heavily ‘compressed’ or ‘squashed’ together so that everything sounds the same mid-volume. I was also unsure how I could work around not being able to put my pencil markings all over scores to give students my insights into the pieces. I was confident I could teach people to play and to improvise, but surely exam preparation needed to done face-to-face?
I need not have worried. Yesterday I received another set of ABRSM results which continued my students’ amazing 100% pass rate and incredible 100% DISTINCTION rate for all Skype or FaceTime students. Last year two of my students achieved over 140/150 on their grade 8 ABRSM exams. This sitting, one of my students (who lives in Zakynthos, Greece) flew over to Cambridge to take his exam. Remarkably, he had never ‘met’ me (he had been studying with me via Skype for over a year) until the day of the exam. He achieved a stunning 29, 30, 28 (all out of 30) on his pieces. Without the technology available today he would be extremely unlikely to find someone with my credentials on a small Greek island, let alone achieve the distinction he fully deserved.
These results clearly display how teaching music over Skype – with the right insights and innovation – succeeds. I’ve used Google Hangouts, shared whiteboards, Dropbox and – most notably – my video resource site CambridgeSaxophone.com to prevent location being a barrier to achieving high quality results.
Find out how you can do the same by signing up for four FREE lessons at CambridgeSaxophone.com
Sure, they’ve missed out some people I would have put in, but for a ten-minute primer this is fantastic – I urge ALL of you to watch it and learn from it. If you want to know more about the history of the sax I can highly recommend The Devil’s Horn by Michael Segell – watch this video for more information.