I became aware of the Reedjuvinate via one of my students who came in and emptied Listerine on my studio floor!
What interested me the most about the ReedJuvinate was its claim to keep reeds clean AND in a controlled, humidified state. I’ve been using the ReedJuvinate for a few weeks now and I am very pleased with the results. My reeds are playing better and holding a consistency which is allowing me to keep my three favourite D’Addario Select Jazz Reeds playing for longer!
One of the joys of Twitter is when you stumble across a fascinating article that REALLY helps with understanding music. This video shows what happens inside a French Horn players mouth and throat when she is playing, thanks to an MRI Scan.
Whilst the playing technique is of course different between a saxophone and a brass instrument, (we are members of the woodwind family remember,) how you position your throat and tongue has a profound affect on the tone you produce.
When we are practising overtones and tone matching, the position of the lips, tongue and throat have an important role to play in producing the harmonics or overtones. I strongly urge you to spend some time watching this video and look carefully at how Sarah uses her tongue to produce the overtones, (remember a brass instrument does not have keys like the sax, they have to produce their overtones and move the valves, a difficult technique, but don’t ever let onto a brass player that it is, they moan enough already!)
Sadly they only show a little bit of how her diaphragm is moving – but the watch carefully how Sarah uses her tongue as a baffle or ‘wing’ in order to make the air move faster for the higher notes, the same thing SHOULD happen on your saxophone!
There is also a fascinating video blog here where Sarah Willis and the team go to the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, Germany to meet scientists who are using the latest MRI and Motion Capture methods to find out exactly what goes on inside a musician’s body while playing an instrument. Sarah talks to kinesiology professor Peter Iltis, head of the MRI department in Göttingen, Prof. Jens Frahm and motion capture specialist Erwin Schoonderwaldt. She then volunteers to play the horn in the MRI chamber …you definitely don’t want to miss this episode of Sarah’s Music!
I am delighted to present to you my full review of the Yanagisawa WO10 Tenor Saxophone.
I did a short review of the Yanagisawa WO10 at Woodwind and Reed in Cambridge last July, (around a week after the WO101 series first arrived in the UK.) Sadly I forgot that my lovely new MacBook Pro doesn’t have a Firewire connector!
Finally, on the 1st March I was able to get into my studio with Max, (my film consultant) and record this video high quality video review for you. We were able to record the sax with three different microphones and two different cameras, which I hope will give you a better feel for the saxophone.
I am a big fan of the Yanagisawa 992 series and I own a straight 992 soprano, 992 curved soprano and 991 Alto. I first played a WO series Alto, back in March 2014 and I commented to Hidemasa Sato of Yanagisawa that if they could make a Tenor as good as the Alto’s I’d played, perhaps my 5 digit Mark VI might stay home for most of my gigs!
This is a first class saxophone, one of the best I’ve ever played. The ergonomics are incredible, my fingers just seem to be able to reach and play every note with ease. It has a rich, centred tone that projects with ease and producing the low notes is easy. I’d highly recommend the Yanagisawa WO10 series to anyone looking for a high quality, elite level sax.
Yanagisawa Curved Soprano in Ely Cathedral
Yanagisawa Straight 992 Soprano in St. Paul’s Cathedral
If you were lucky enough to receive a new iPad or iPhone for Christmas you might be looking to find out what the ‘Top 10 Apps are for Music Students’. Perhaps, (like me) you already own a device and you’ve received the ultimate stocking filler, an iTunes gift voucher?
Here are my top 10 apps for music students on an iPhone / iPad
Jazz Session Band – the ultimate ‘Band in a box’. Real instruments played by some of the best jazz musicians in the U.K. (Dave O’Higgins, Geoff Gascoyne, Tom Cawley). I use this App a great deal in my own practice and also when teaching jazz improvisation.
iGigBook – put all your music in one place on your iPad. I have over twenty real books, plus all the music I use for various different bands arranged on different playlists. I use this app on almost every gig I play and saves me transporting, and loosing endless sheets of paper!
Notion – when you consider that Sibelius software is over £600, this app is incredible value for money. Add in Apple Pencil support on the iPad Pro and you have an app that is a real ‘game – changer’ for musicians and composers.
Hip Licks for Saxophone – Greg Fishman is one of the world’s leading jazz educators and I’ve used Greg’s materials in my teaching for over ten years. This Hip Licks App works great when teaching small groups and even better when put onto a large screen TV, (via ‘airplay’ on an Apple TV). There are so many innovative ways to use this App that you can use it every day and still find something new to work on.
Tempo – the best metronome for iOS, by a long way.
Musicnotes – this app sync’s your purchases from the Music Note’s website. More handy for pianists than saxophonists, like iGigBook it saves me carrying and loosing lots of sheet music!
Evernote – not really a music app, but an app I use everyday is so many ways. I use Evernote to record all my teaching notes, (and share the notebooks with students.) Plan set lists for gigs, send arrangements to other musicians, plan recording sessions and so much more – get it and then you will wonder how you ever lived without it!
Cleartune – I’m not a fan of tuners as they encourage you to use your eyes for something that you should be using your ears for. However, this app is very helpful for training your ears and to improve your intonation, just don’t rely on it to play in tune, OK?
iRealPro – similar to the Jazz Session Band apps, but with thousands of standards on the forums. You can also add your own arrangements and transpose the chords into any key. Comes into its own on gigs with singers, and is VERY easy to share with other band members.
So here it is, the 2015 ‘Cambridge Saxophone Students Christmas Project, Deck The Halls!’
Well done to everyone one of you on this video. For those of you who didn’t manage to make a video this year, for whatever reason, let’s make sure you’re on next years!
This was a step up from last years Christmas Project and I would put this version of ‘Deck The Halls’ to be around Grade 5 standard, so well done those of you who got it down in just two weeks!
Let’s make sure we take away from this project,
Using the ‘extract’ practice model, slowing things down and even rewriting sections in crotchets and minims so that we can execute it cleanly.
Less use of tongue
Preparing under pressure at what is a busy time for all of us.
May I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I look forward to making more music with you in 2016!
I’m asking all of you to contribute towards this years Christmas Project. All you have to do is record this version of ‘Deck the Halls’ and then send me the video. I will then work my video magic and make it look like one ‘seamless’ performance!
Click here to view the Dropbox folder to access the sheet music and backing track.
You MUST play the track at the full tempo to take part in the project and make sure that the first note of the backing track is audible, (so I can sync everyone together.) Please do your best to complete the whole piece, even if you can’t play some of it, (but do aim to practise it so that you can!)
Here is ‘Silent Night’ from our 2014 Christmas Project,
