Tag Archives: Freeview lessons

What is a Lydian Dominant Scale?

There are lots of Jazz Scales that have great names and the Lydian Dominant is one of them.

But what is a Lydian Dominant and how do you practice it?

Watch this video to find out how I work out on my Lydian Dominant Scales and what they have in common with a Melodic Minor and Altered Scale.

Yanagisawa S992 Curved Soprano Review

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Yanagisawa S992 Curved Soprano

 

I first encountered a curved soprano when I visited my old primary school ten years ago. A number of the students had bought curved sopranos as they were not big enough to play the alto or tenor.

This of course didn’t get the hoped-for results as the youngsters couldn’t keep them in tune, and the instruments were poor quality.

 

This Yanagisawa 992, by contrast, is SUPERB. I own a 992 Bronze straight soprano – for me it is simply THE best soprano on the market today, with flawless intonation, a warm and centred tone and a design that is second to none.

 

Make sure you watch the video and listen to the sound clips below.


How to Prepare Reeds

Let’s face it, when it comes to the saxophone few things give us more frustration than reeds. Finding a good reed is like finding the perfect playing partner: when the reed plays well, you play well. I’ve found that RICO reeds give me the best chance of finding the best ones; I play Rico Select Jazz 4M at the moment on my tenor sax.

In this video I explain my process of preparing reeds. I’m not someone who spends a lot of time on this – I would far rather be playing! However, I do find some soaking and breaking in helps the reed ‘speak’ better and extends its life by quite a few weeks.

Anyway, here’s my video review – enjoy it, and please leave your comments below!

Modes – Part 2 (on piano)


This lesson is a follow-up lesson to Modes – Part 1 (on sax).  In this video I’m sat at the piano showing you how modes work in relation to C major, i.e. just the white notes on the keyboard.

Remember, PLEASE leave a comment in the forum with any questions – if you’re brave enough to leave a question you’ll help the probably about 10 others who aren’t. I WILL answer all your questions as best I can, or if necessary do another video.