Articles on Cafesaxophone

Pete Thomas · May 22, 2025

Different Microphone Polar Patterns Polar patternCharacteristics OmniPicks up signal all round CardioidPicks up mainly in front (and a little off-axis sound from side and back) Hyper CardioidSame as Cardioid but more focussed Figure of 8Picks up front and back (with a little off-axis from the side) Sony C-100: choice of OMNI, CARDIOID or FIGURE of 8 Many microphones have only one polar pattern. Some microphones can switch between the various patterns. Cardioid (and hyper cardioid) This is the most common pattern used for recording pop and rock, when close miking instruments or vocals. Used when separation is necessary, or to avoid excessive room ambience. Very close miking with cardioid pattern tends to create a...

Pete Thomas · Nov 28, 2024

NB: There are main two types of copyright involved with music Copyright in the composition (usually this means melody and lyrics). This belongs to the composer and exists in a recording or sheet music. Copyright in a record work. This belongs to the producer of the track and exists in any audio format, physical or digital including videos with embedded audio. Whenever people ask about copyright laws they often want to be given some hard and fast rules like "you can use 4 notes" or "you can use a sample up to 7 seconds|" or "it's fair use." But often copyright cases are down to down to a judge and/or jury to decide the context. So it is very unscientific and judgements can seem very tenuous and inconsistent. Copyright is often a...

altissimo · Jul 15, 2014

The subject of Coltrane comes up on here every so often, so I thought it best to provide a place to air those opinions instead of us cluttering up other folks threads.. This is purely my own idiosyncratic viewpoint, I'm not trying to be populist here and give you a general introduction to his music, just pointing out some aspects of his playing that may not be immediately apparent. I'm not trying to convert anyone to Coltrane fandom, just showing that there's more to him than you may be (un)familiar with.... feel free to disagree (and I'm sure you will) When people say they don't like John Coltrane I sometimes wonder if they've just not heard the right bits of his lengthy discography. Of course it's not compulsory to like him and there...

Pete Thomas · Nov 28, 2024

1 How do I get work as a composer for film, radio, TV or games? I wish I could answer this question, or at least get paid every time someone asks it. Initially I was interested in composing music for TV commercials. After a long time taking my demos around to advertising agencies and being told The music on your showreel is great, but you haven’t composed for any real commercials yet so we can’t give you a job. I realised I was trapped in a vicious circle: you need to have worked in order to get work. Finally I got a chance, I was playing in an R & B band in a pub and someone in the audience who liked my playing introduced herself as the marketing manager of a multinational corporation and asked her ad agency to try me out. They...

Pete Thomas · Nov 19, 2024

Getting it wrong then getting it right: View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XlGuT3iWY Why combine tone & fingering exercises? I have found this to be very useful, but it may not work for everyone. So the best thing to do may be to try and and see if it does help you. Some people find that pure tone exercises can quickly become boring, and as soon as this happens your mind wanders, and so whatever gain you would get from focussed practice is diminished. OTOH, some people (who are good at focussing or concentrating on something like tone or long note exercises) may find introducing this other element becomes distracting in itself. In other words you start focussing on the fingering and forget about the tone. So what you need to...

jbtsax · Oct 7, 2020

Introduction This is something I have been working on since I retired from teaching in 2002. It is a summary of techniques that proved successful in teaching beginning students. My emphasis from the beginning was on tone production. My reasoning was if students liked how they sound, they would practice more and enjoy playing music. If their parents liked how they sound they would be more likely to support their student and the music program as a whole. The ability to enjoy music through performance is one of the greatest gifts that life has to offer. Passing that gift on to others can be a rewarding experience but it carries with it the very important responsibility to give each student the very best possible chance of success...

Pete Thomas · Mar 11, 2022

I was going to put this in the current thread Help with the next step please, but this somehow grew into something that should have its own thread I think. This is one of those things that crop up from time to time in various discussions My take is that it is now inevitable that mainstream or straight ahead jazz of the 40s/50s (golden era?) is often concentrated on by teachers and learners and is for several reasons: It may be fair to say that jazz (and its evolutionary forms) as we know it mostly started out in the US (with roots in the slave plantations and ultimately Africa) It was originally considered as dance music or brothel entertainment (ie way below Classical in terms of "artform"). 1940s/50s bebop innovations brought its...

Pete Thomas · Oct 5, 2022

Problems with leaky low notes? The issue is very often your G# The G# on modern saxophones has quite a complex mechanism. All saxophone players need to know about adjusting the tabbed/articulated G# as it is one of the most common, and yet easily fixable, causes of leaks. The first thing we need to know is what is a tabbed/articulated G#, and why you would use it. Articulated G# This mechanism allows you to keep the G# key open when playing any note F# or below down to D. In the old days you would have had to let go of the G# to play F# down to D. Example A: play an A major scale from A (in the lower register) down to low D with your G# held down for all notes. It is quite handy to keep your finger on the key - the F#, E and D all...

Saxlicker · Nov 29, 2013

When you buy, borrow or hire your first saxophone without any experience to speak of it typically throws up a few challenges over the coming months. High ranking on the list are squeaks or the inability to produce certain notes. It's probably much less common to be lucky enough to have avoided these genuine issues than needing to overcome them. This in turn throws open many questions about why its happening and then discussions on the variety of ways people are struggling. At this stage the forum gets lots of posts about these problems and old ground is covered on many occasions. The enthusiastic but frustrated learner typically questions some of the following:- The sax, The mouthpiece, The embouchure, The reed strength. Some times...

Veggie Dave · Nov 23, 2017

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyuECL6WgqA&feature=emb_logo Quite a few of us on here love and constantly recommend Reaper, but because it's a real studio application many people assume that it will be far too complicated to use ... especially for simple recordings over a backing track. But it's not. And, hopefully, here's the proof. This is my first ever 'how to' video so it's not perfect but it should get you started. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. And sorry for the lower than ideal video resolution.

nigeld · Jun 2, 2016

Here are some notes about how to use GarageBand to record yourself with a backing track Quick Help If you click the Quick Help button at the top left (the icon is a question mark) a popup window will appear which tells you about the screen areas and controls that the cursor is hovering over. Create a new project Close any existing GarageBand project you have open (File > Close). A window pops up with possible project types. Select “Empty Project” and press “Choose” Select “Record using a microphone or line input” and press “Create” You should see the main GarageBand screen with one track created (“Audio 1”) Add a backing track to the Project Find the backing track file in File Manager Copy Return to GarageBand and position the...

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Articles on Cafesaxophone

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Recording Microphones

Miscellaneous Explaining copyright

Great Players Who's Afraid Of John Coltrane?

Miscellaneous How to become a media/film/TV composer

Saxophones Combining tone and fingering exercises

Teaching Teaching Beginner Students How To Play The Saxophone

Teaching Teaching saxophone: too much jazz of the 50s?

Saxophones Low notes and Leaking G# issue

Saxophones A Broad Look at Beginners' Issues

Recording Reaper - Very, Very Basic Guide (Video)

Recording Garageband Tips

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