Why MELODY is important when learning saxophone - Derek Brown BeatBox Sax

[@beverleydowden1956]

Fell in love with Boots Randolph’s playing along with Sickle Sax band. Been in sax school a year still can’t play but love trying!

[@randymiller248]

I was born in 1948 by the time I was ready to start saxophone I was impressed by my father's playing his tenor sax on big band Tunes. Glenn Miller's in the mood was the first I heard and memorized. Now I am playing Melody songs at assisted living facilities for those in nursing homes. Your tips on playing Melody and they more professional manner are very helpful thank you.

[@rreganjjohnn]

As a vocalist for 50 years singing pop, country, blues, rock, jazz standards, and Irish folk music, I had a wide experience of many genres of melody. But it was the Jazz standards of Tony Bennett, Sinatra, and nat king Cole that I really loved and it had the added bonus when listening to these singers that there were ofttimes a great sax playing in the background. This became a longing for me to be able to sing Standards and also play Tenor and Alto sax solos. So now my goal is to get good enough to sing jazz ballads and be good enough to improvise solos in between. before I get too old to do either. .

[@derekakien7379]

Mainly American Rock and Surf music '58 onwards. Steve Douglas, Jim Horn, Ace Cannon, Herman Riley, Martin Willis, Johnny Paris - all on Wiki or KZbin. Bought my tenor in 1963. Guy teaching me said listen to good players! suggested Stan Getz (who) bought Reflections. Then found Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian LPs on a market stall. Fell in love with jazz - job done 🎷.

[@KuroNeko-sh2by]

Mine was Big Band musics. Glenn, benny, Duke even Ray Charles. I joined band club when I was 1st year in JHS. By the time that I left the band and school two and a half years later, other students call our band "Little Big Band" because all we played was a swing jazz style musics. Because of the copyright bs, out of 9 big band songs I've got the band to happily played "Moonlight Serenade and In The Mood" was left intact. But the last part on In The Mood where 4 Trumpets standing up front of the stage, side by side while playing the person trumpet on your left was not easy. But the girls made it and I was very proud of them then. I was Clarinet player then and 3 months ago I decided to pick up Alto Sax from watching your vids. Your KZbin are a great helps. Thanks you

[@ronlang7236]

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon made me fall in love with the saxophone

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Awesome. Have you learned any Floyd tunes on sax?

[@ronlang7236]

@@McGillMusicSaxSchool I'm 4 months into my sax training. I think the first solo intro in "Us and Them" is within my reach to learn. The song "Money" has two altissimo notes that are a big challenge for me. While they are only the F# and G#, they are crucial. I can play the F# but the G# escapes me at my early stage.

[@peterolsson3662]

The Sax Player on darkside has an impressive unique sound.

[@tonycurtis1330]

Boots Randolph was the player. I was 5 years old and my parents had an album of some jazz standards and some popular hits. I listened to the whole thing over and over. Later in jr. high school it was Dav Sandborn.

[@robstevens9590]

Good tips! My musical background, since you asked, was vocal training with the Chicago Children's Choir, singing in church, concerts and operas. As a kid I also took a year of clarinet and piano lessons, but it didn't "click". Growing up on the South Side of Chicago I was surrounded by R&B & (hardcore) blues. When I was in college I taught myself how to play flute. Someone gave me Coltrane's "Chim-Chim Cheree, Nature Boy ..." album & I was in awe. I borrowed an alto sax & taught myself to play. Within a few months I bought a Selmer (Mark VI?) and got hired to play with a local jazz-rock quartet. I had to stop playing sax for about 25 years due to professional, family & dental constraints. I recorded my first (& only) album at age 63 "Colinde pantru cei dragi".

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Wow, thanks for sharing Rob. Great to hear your story.

[@peterolsson3662]

I got started by the Rock Solos of Dave Sanborn, like people people by Tommy Bolin. Jazz came through my teacher who was a Coltrane fan and I got influenced by the classics like Ben Webster.

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

David Sanborn is a great place to start for sure, cheers for sharing Peter.

[@ed_ELA]

Was looking for help on playing the high G and came upon your awesome channel. "Who can it be now" by men at work inspired me. The irony! Thanks for the great channel!

[@garyreid6165]

Hello , Nigel. Great video . When I was little, the first time I heard the saxophone was when I was 4. I listened to The Isley Brother’s song It’s Your Thing. And then Tequila by The Champs. I was not just surprised by what I heard, but how it made me feel. I became fascinated by the guitar sounds and stylings in rock, pop , soul, r&b, and country, too. I then was also interested in the violin and drums. But the saxophone and guitar became the two instruments I had actually had my hands on. Both instruments helped me with my sight reading in high school where I started playing alto sax(I really wanted to play the tenor because I loved the sound of it). The first pop tunes I played by ear were portions of Survivor’s Eye Of The Tiger and Mickey made famous by Toni Basil. I was having a lot of fun trying to transcribe these and other songs. Jazz, was, a little too much of a challenge to play according to those players in the section. And they were right at the time. I became fascinated with the film scores of composers like John Williams . I began listening to classical music and wondered if there were pieces for saxophone. There were but not for the tenor. There were plenty for alto.

[@garyreid6165]

I have been able to learn the tenor and play the blues and pop standards. The first tune on tenor that I played in college was CCR’s Bad Moon Rising and later on I learned how to play Three Dog Night’s Easy To Be Hard and Elvis Presley’s I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You. The most important thing for me when it came to practice and performance was how I felt because it can be heard by an audience. Sorry about the double posting.

[@lisawanderess]

I’m definitely a melody player. What first drew me to saxophone was the 80s tunes of my teenage years. I was given an old Conn Tenor and was really into the brass of Madness and other ska music and of course I worked out how to play “Your Latest Trick” and “Careless Whisper” solos. I got roped into playing in my high school stage band even though I was a play by ear player, I had to learn to read music really quickly! I still mainly play by ear and transcribing my favourite songs. My catalogue of songs to transcribe should keep me busy for the next ten years! My big dream as a teenager was to play for Split Enz one day (no idea why but I was a huge Split Enz fan and thought they needed a sax!) I’m really wanting to join sax school as I loved my 14 day trial and as soon as I can afford to I will for sure!

[@FunkyPieMaster]

Mick Morris out of Painters and Dockers, Maceo Parker from the Horny Horns, Lee Thompson from Madness, and Candy Dulfer who I met after a show in the Netherlands.

[@garywoodworth8335]

Switched from Clarinet to Sax in high school. Loved the sound of big band jazz so joined jazz band initially playing bari. Absolute favorite sax player back then and probably to this day was Grover Washington Jr.

[@stanley-saxman-jones]

The horn player that inspired me to play saxophone 🎷 is Junior Walker

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

What a legend! Love Junior Walker!

[@martintodd370]

Thanks Nigel, 1st sax players that got me interested were Paul Desmond and Tubby Hayes. Can't remember which was first, -- it was a long time ago! Still playing at 82, though have recently had to give up playing in public in soul bands. -- It's down to the breathing ! Martin.

[@DynamixWarePro]

Growing up in the 90s I always had a big interest in music and learned to play keyboards, Irish whistles and flute by myself and got pretty good at playing them. I always had a passion for saxophones though. This was due to how versatile they are and how unlike most other instruments, you can get your own personal sound on them that is different from anyone else. I was especially interested in them after hearing Lisa Simpson's Bari sax in The Simpsons, Baker Street over and over and TV shows with saxophone music in them. Living in Northern Ireland I didn't know anywhere I could get a saxophone and I assumed it would be too expensive to get one, there wasn't any saxophone teachers near me and I didn't know anyone who played the saxophone and as the web was pretty limited then, I didn't have that as a helpful resource. I did know a few trumpet players and thought about learning to play the trumpet as there are trumpet teachers near where I lived. In 2017 I had started listening to many saxophone players, especially Paul Desmond and was drawn to his dark, dry tone and having the resources online to find out about saxophones, players, online teachers etc... was really helpful. I started listening to recordings of a lot of saxophone players and in 2018 when I had a steady income, I was able to buy my first alto sax online and haven't looked back. Although my first alto sax was a cheap Chinese sax and it wasn't very good and I kept feeling frustrated with it, but a few months on I got myself a Yamaha YAS-280 and its been great to play on and it stopped me wanting to give up playing and made me want to keep playing. Since I still didn't have a physical teacher, I taught myself from online videos and it took me quite a while before I started getting comfortable in playing as I didn't know until I went to my dentist that my bottom jaw is slightly shorter than my top jaw so working around that took me more time that normal, but I eventually started to progress in my playing once I had found a mouthpiece setup that suited me physically. At the time, I thought I'd like to play slow Irish music or country as that is what I was into then and had never heard traditional Irish music played on saxophones so I started to learn classical style and play Irish music that way. I wasn't that into Jazz, Bebop or bight pop styles but now over 2 years on, I have found that style a little too straight for me. Since March and having a lot more free time, I have been playing 2 hours at least every day, got myself a straight soprano sax and I have have recently started incorporating the swing style into my playing as I have been drawn to that, especially after watching videos of the Lawrence Welk Show and hearing the saxophone players like Bill Page and Dave Edwards and really liking their style. I am working on playing more fun upbeat melodies while adding techniques used by some of my favourite saxophone players into it to define my own style of playing and have defiantly had more fun playing now than I did when I was just playing purely classical styles and I am hoping by early next year to have saved enough money to upgrade to my first professional alto sax.

[@saxramirez-diaz1189]

Excelente posibilita a ver nuevos horizontes en el sax

[@Samuel-ge7im]

Hey Nigel, good to see you again just tuning in now. I completely agree with your sentiment.

[@zazootaverner3451]

The sax sound that I love is the blues players

[@drielinghToolsTraining]

I started playing just riff's in soul music like amen, sad song, knock on wood, mustang sally, but only knew those riff's in That Scale. Never played an instrument before in my live. But the band was succesful with 3 -4 gig's per week in our part of the world. Now I want to learn how to really play and jam with others

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

Wenzl McGowen, and Mike Wilbur are why I started learning saxophone.

[@michaelbaker3228]

Really liked Curtis Amy in Touch Me by the Doors, Johnny Alimond on John Mayall California and The City by Nark Almond, Tom Scott

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Brilliant, some classics here. Actually Tom Scott is doing a special session for my Sax School members in March. Should be Epic!

[@MrSamzeke]

Great Tube! Who? Boots Randolph- Smoke/Tequila/Charlie Brown/Unchained/and on and on

[@guydelorme417]

Hello Nigel, I am at the melody stage. The next stage will be improvisation. I guess that taking your course would take me there. Great video.

[@tetyanashevchuk45]

Thank you so much!!!☺️

[@elnauta9525]

1st one was Stan Gets, listening his performance with Tom Jobim's album "Girl of Ipanema" I realize tha magic of the saxophone in the music. But my 1st aproach to the music was in home: listening Salsa (Larry Harllow,Papo Lucas in the piano, etcétera), Barry White, Paul Mauriet, hard to say.

[@ddaigneault1]

Paul Desmond on the album Time Out with Dave Brubeck

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Classic!!!

[@marysmith5426]

Great!

[@paulkuczera4098]

2Tone music. Lee Thompson from Madness and Saxa from The Beat

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Cool Paul. A bunch of SKA lessons in Sax School. It’s great fun to play on sax.

[@paulkuczera4098]

McGill Music Sax School any plans for any more?

[@kathleenbrown9212]

The first one I choose to play was uptown funk

[@marcowenzel8889]

Most of all Stan Getz: the Girl of Ipanema (Getz/Gilberto, the Latin American songs) and Ben Webster (Romance...)

[@timsanduleac1646]

You should interview Daro Behroozi from Lucky Chops

[@dougsmith7616]

Melody is all you got. All technique on sax is to facilitate the production of.......(wait for it.......) MELODY, as YOU would hear it, or, (in the case of harmonics, multiphonics and other rude noises) to annoy the neighbors. I state the obvious because this is my nature. Thanks all for your kind attention.

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Cheers Doug!

[@saxramirez-diaz1189]

I like pop music But the more i lear i like more like jazz

[@dsprags2012]

George Howard and Najee

[@bryansmalltree8970]

Initially dark side pof the moon inspired mylove of saxdont know the na name of the player on tha album

[@layschips3252]

I got an ad from sax school on a sax school video 🤦

[@NicholasSladenDew]

Paul Desmond.

[@McGillMusicSaxSchool]

Love his playing!

[@Stefsax]

Wesley Magoogan