This iconic sax solo from the first Back to the Future film holds a special place in my heart.
The first time I heard ‘Marvin Berry & the Starlighters’ I’d recently started playing the tenor sax and the bright, growling sound of the late Tommy Thomas just lit up my ears. It was something I wanted to play, and soon. It did take me a few years before I was able to comfortably play it and it contains some great blues language, some R&B cliches and a performance that always goes down well with audiences.
In the first part of this course I’m going to give you some tips on learning to ‘growl’ down the saxophone and the rest of the transcription is split into ten clips, so you’ve got 5 weeks, two clips a week, let’s get started!
Before we start, Alto players there are a few notes you won’t be able to play, tenor players there is a Altissimo G, so, (unless you can hit the Altissimo G) play these notes down the octave, (and Alto up an octave for the low concert Bb’s)