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CafeSaxophone Forum
Great Players Making sense of Parker and bebop...
In any art form, people have preferences and favourites, as is only to be expected.
But sometimes it happens that a whole genre - or a particular practitioner - doesn't strike a chord, is totally incomprehensible and leaves you cold - and yet others think that it, he or she is marvelous.
Assuming that these others are not merely intellectual snobs or fashionable poseurs, one starts to wonder why. It becomes an "Am I missing something?" moment... and what if that which one is missing is a revelation, leading to a widening of artistic horizons, appreciation and enjoyment? The thought starts to nag...
This happened to me with Bird - Charlie Parker, one of tragic geniuses of jazz... and to many, the daddy of them all...
It happened a long time ago and was spread over a few days, but is a vivid memory, producing a great leap in my ability to listen to and to follow fresh musical ideas... and to enjoy it - furiously and avidly.
If you haven't yet got to grips with Charlie Parker and his music sounds to you like lots of notes pouring out without rhyme or reason - and if you wonder what people see in him or in bebop - reading what happened to me might produce a lightbulb moment for you, too...
It came about like this: over a couple of years in my early teens I had listened to British skiffle and trad jazz, got into blues, New Orleans, Dixieland, and Chicago jazz, through to Basie and Ellington,too, but on the whole favouring small bands rather than big bands and swing.
I soon started learning clarinet and alto. Some more accomplished friends with whom I used to try to jam with were into bebop, which I didn't "get" at all for a while. It was just strings of notes, played fast.... eventually and by luck, one needed somewhere to park some 78s and EPs and LPs - this is ancient history, man... not just vinyl, but shellac as well... if you didn't like a 78 disk - or it got scratched - some boiling water, some nifty pushing and pulling and you had a plant pot.. complete with a drain hole...
I looked through this borrowed hoard and tried listening to Parker's "Merry Go Round" a few times. I couldn't hear melody. It sounded just like fast noodling for the sake of it - showing off. I didn't get it at all. It didn't make sense to me.
I wasn't alone. Some jazz critics - referred to by beboppers as 'moldy figs' - regularly excoriated this new music and those who played it, and even denied that it was music at all, and certainly not jazz... there were still a few of these sounding off in the 60s, and their earlier critiques were still available... masterpieces of prejudice and willful ignorance, the products of closed minds...
I think it was a few days later I tried "Embraceable You". I played it again. And again. Gradually light dawned. After a few more plays I was hooked - I could follow his lines, his voice leading, his musical ideas. I then went back to "Merry Go Round" and - gradually - more light dawned. It was an awful lot faster, but now that I had a clue as to how to listen and what to listen for so I could hear and follow what he was doing. I listened again and again, and each time I heard more. It needed a quick ear - and an alert mind. It was challenging - but incredibly intriguing because of that.
What I realised - now I had learned to listen - was that two things were radically different from the older jazz.
One was that the notes Parker used in his his breaks, his phrases and his melodic lines were more 'adventurous' than in earlier jazz - he was, I learned from my bebop friends, using intervals that earlier improvisers did not, his music was more 'advanced'... but - having learned to listen, having started to attune my ear to this radically different style of music - it was intensely and amazingly musical and melodic, which before I had not been able to hear. My mind had not taken it on board. This was a remarkable realisation.
The second thing was his timing - far, far less predictable than earlier players, much more sophisticated, and yet swinging like mad... much of earlier jazz was to accompany dancing, so a steady beat and a reasonably predictable background was the norm - this new jazz was not for that at all, but for listeners... and listeners with a quick ear, who were wide awake....
Part of what Parker was doing, I realised, was playing the sort of sweeping arpeggios and scalar runs that technically brilliant pianists like Art Tatum, Fats Waller and classical pianists played, but which horn players had not before achieved - certainly not with his sophistication, breathtaking timing and melodic inventiveness.
One older saxophonist commented to Parker: "Kid, that horn ain't meant to sound that fast!"
That raises what was actually a third element at play. Black musicians felt - often with considerable justification - that music which they created was being copied by white musicians who had more and easier channels to commercial success open to them, merely due to not being black. This was America in the 1940s and 1950s, remember. So a new genre of music - often impossibly fast, with difficult rhythmic and harmonic complexity and sophistication - came into being, due to the prevailing political, economic and racial situation...
The next Parker tune I explored, I think, was "Ko Ko"... and so it went on... I could not get enough...
Actually it is a big jump between the "Embraceable You" and "Merry Go Round", if only due to speed of delivery of MGR. The dramatic and magnificent "Parker's Mood", and "Cool Blues", "KC Blues" "A Night in Tunisia" - with the breathtaking.' famous alto break' - would perhaps be better stepping stones to discover Parker.
If you - as I did - find Parker too overpowering, if you can't hear melody and just hear streams of notes, listening to his lyrical ballads and some of the slower blues numbers that I mentioned may give you a 'light bulb moment', too... here they are:
embraceable you
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srMZYVW0T4c
parker's mood
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pVxWdnInWY
cool blues
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubmw5jvRvZU
kc blues
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2EEUbIroMs
a night in tunisia
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_N4M7f5KM
merry go round
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okrNwE6GI70
ko ko
Peer preference and peer opinion encouraged me to listen to Parker all those years ago. It took a bit of time and the right tune to make the penny drop. Different things, different experiences trigger different responses and realisations...
If you already appreciate Parker it may be that how you arrived at that might help someone else to make that jump from puzzlement, or even dislike, to the opposite pole of realisation and digging his music like mad... if so, please share...
If your lightbulb moments was about another musician it would be best to start a separate thread... then people can zero in more easily on what they might feel that they are missing out on... a thread on Coltrane would be good...
But sometimes it happens that a whole genre - or a particular practitioner - doesn't strike a chord, is totally incomprehensible and leaves you cold - and yet others think that it, he or she is marvelous.
Assuming that these others are not merely intellectual snobs or fashionable poseurs, one starts to wonder why. It becomes an "Am I missing something?" moment... and what if that which one is missing is a revelation, leading to a widening of artistic horizons, appreciation and enjoyment? The thought starts to nag...
This happened to me with Bird - Charlie Parker, one of tragic geniuses of jazz... and to many, the daddy of them all...
It happened a long time ago and was spread over a few days, but is a vivid memory, producing a great leap in my ability to listen to and to follow fresh musical ideas... and to enjoy it - furiously and avidly.
If you haven't yet got to grips with Charlie Parker and his music sounds to you like lots of notes pouring out without rhyme or reason - and if you wonder what people see in him or in bebop - reading what happened to me might produce a lightbulb moment for you, too...
It came about like this: over a couple of years in my early teens I had listened to British skiffle and trad jazz, got into blues, New Orleans, Dixieland, and Chicago jazz, through to Basie and Ellington,too, but on the whole favouring small bands rather than big bands and swing.
I soon started learning clarinet and alto. Some more accomplished friends with whom I used to try to jam with were into bebop, which I didn't "get" at all for a while. It was just strings of notes, played fast.... eventually and by luck, one needed somewhere to park some 78s and EPs and LPs - this is ancient history, man... not just vinyl, but shellac as well... if you didn't like a 78 disk - or it got scratched - some boiling water, some nifty pushing and pulling and you had a plant pot.. complete with a drain hole...
I looked through this borrowed hoard and tried listening to Parker's "Merry Go Round" a few times. I couldn't hear melody. It sounded just like fast noodling for the sake of it - showing off. I didn't get it at all. It didn't make sense to me.
I wasn't alone. Some jazz critics - referred to by beboppers as 'moldy figs' - regularly excoriated this new music and those who played it, and even denied that it was music at all, and certainly not jazz... there were still a few of these sounding off in the 60s, and their earlier critiques were still available... masterpieces of prejudice and willful ignorance, the products of closed minds...
I think it was a few days later I tried "Embraceable You". I played it again. And again. Gradually light dawned. After a few more plays I was hooked - I could follow his lines, his voice leading, his musical ideas. I then went back to "Merry Go Round" and - gradually - more light dawned. It was an awful lot faster, but now that I had a clue as to how to listen and what to listen for so I could hear and follow what he was doing. I listened again and again, and each time I heard more. It needed a quick ear - and an alert mind. It was challenging - but incredibly intriguing because of that.
What I realised - now I had learned to listen - was that two things were radically different from the older jazz.
One was that the notes Parker used in his his breaks, his phrases and his melodic lines were more 'adventurous' than in earlier jazz - he was, I learned from my bebop friends, using intervals that earlier improvisers did not, his music was more 'advanced'... but - having learned to listen, having started to attune my ear to this radically different style of music - it was intensely and amazingly musical and melodic, which before I had not been able to hear. My mind had not taken it on board. This was a remarkable realisation.
The second thing was his timing - far, far less predictable than earlier players, much more sophisticated, and yet swinging like mad... much of earlier jazz was to accompany dancing, so a steady beat and a reasonably predictable background was the norm - this new jazz was not for that at all, but for listeners... and listeners with a quick ear, who were wide awake....
Part of what Parker was doing, I realised, was playing the sort of sweeping arpeggios and scalar runs that technically brilliant pianists like Art Tatum, Fats Waller and classical pianists played, but which horn players had not before achieved - certainly not with his sophistication, breathtaking timing and melodic inventiveness.
One older saxophonist commented to Parker: "Kid, that horn ain't meant to sound that fast!"
That raises what was actually a third element at play. Black musicians felt - often with considerable justification - that music which they created was being copied by white musicians who had more and easier channels to commercial success open to them, merely due to not being black. This was America in the 1940s and 1950s, remember. So a new genre of music - often impossibly fast, with difficult rhythmic and harmonic complexity and sophistication - came into being, due to the prevailing political, economic and racial situation...
The next Parker tune I explored, I think, was "Ko Ko"... and so it went on... I could not get enough...
Actually it is a big jump between the "Embraceable You" and "Merry Go Round", if only due to speed of delivery of MGR. The dramatic and magnificent "Parker's Mood", and "Cool Blues", "KC Blues" "A Night in Tunisia" - with the breathtaking.' famous alto break' - would perhaps be better stepping stones to discover Parker.
If you - as I did - find Parker too overpowering, if you can't hear melody and just hear streams of notes, listening to his lyrical ballads and some of the slower blues numbers that I mentioned may give you a 'light bulb moment', too... here they are:
parker's mood
cool blues
kc blues
a night in tunisia
merry go round
ko ko
Peer preference and peer opinion encouraged me to listen to Parker all those years ago. It took a bit of time and the right tune to make the penny drop. Different things, different experiences trigger different responses and realisations...
If you already appreciate Parker it may be that how you arrived at that might help someone else to make that jump from puzzlement, or even dislike, to the opposite pole of realisation and digging his music like mad... if so, please share...
If your lightbulb moments was about another musician it would be best to start a separate thread... then people can zero in more easily on what they might feel that they are missing out on... a thread on Coltrane would be good...
46 Replies
·
17068 views
Saxophones C Melody Saxophones
I've been interested in C Melody saxes, for a while.
Apparently, they were quite common in the 1920s-30s, and the general concensus seems to be that the designs got better as time went on. Earlier models were often made in High Pitch (a tuning system that predates using A=440Hz), and should be avoided, unless you want to accompany a Highland bagpipe player.
From what little research I've done, it seems Conn made some of the better sounding ones, and their later models were improvements over the earlier ones. The ones with a "straight" neck, similar to an alto, are supposed to be good. Personally, I don't really like the S shaped neck on a tenor.
Anyway, here's one I've asked about recently. I've posted a couple of these pictures in Ads's review discussion thread of the Sakkusu C Melody sax, but here's all I have.
This is a 1924/1925 Conn C Melody, currently for sale at the Trevor Jones shop in Bristol. It's in low pitch, has had a partial repad, and is ready to play.
Bristol is a bit far for me to visit so I asked if they could send me photos, particularly of the hand positions, because the ergonomics are a bit different on these old saxes, and C melody saxes in particular.
Ermm... there seems to be a 2 file upload limit. Hopefully, that's per post
The thumb rest is apparently soldered on, so can't be adjusted easily, but the position looks good for reaching the right side trill keys (Bb/C/high E). This seems to be an issue on the Sakkusu / Thoman C Melody (see https://cafesaxophone.com/threads/sakkusu-c-melody-saxophone-review.13705/Ads's Sakkusu C Melody review[/URL])
The "L" stamped below the serial number indicates it's built for "Low" pitch - i.e. designed for modern A=440Hz tuning. I've read different accounts of what was meant by High Pitch (and maybe there was more than one definition), but the consensus seems to be it was at least A=450Hz, or A=453Hz - kind of between semitones, in modern tuning, and too far out to compensate for by positioning the mouthpiece differently etc.
It's important to check for that when buying any brass or woodwind instrument from that period. I think military bands kept it going for a while longer, in Britain. Scottish bagpipe and Irish/Scottish Bb flute players tend to still use it, as I understand it. It's certainly the normal tuning for 5 or 6 key Bb flutes.
Apparently, they were quite common in the 1920s-30s, and the general concensus seems to be that the designs got better as time went on. Earlier models were often made in High Pitch (a tuning system that predates using A=440Hz), and should be avoided, unless you want to accompany a Highland bagpipe player.
From what little research I've done, it seems Conn made some of the better sounding ones, and their later models were improvements over the earlier ones. The ones with a "straight" neck, similar to an alto, are supposed to be good. Personally, I don't really like the S shaped neck on a tenor.
Anyway, here's one I've asked about recently. I've posted a couple of these pictures in Ads's review discussion thread of the Sakkusu C Melody sax, but here's all I have.
This is a 1924/1925 Conn C Melody, currently for sale at the Trevor Jones shop in Bristol. It's in low pitch, has had a partial repad, and is ready to play.
Bristol is a bit far for me to visit so I asked if they could send me photos, particularly of the hand positions, because the ergonomics are a bit different on these old saxes, and C melody saxes in particular.
Ermm... there seems to be a 2 file upload limit. Hopefully, that's per post
The thumb rest is apparently soldered on, so can't be adjusted easily, but the position looks good for reaching the right side trill keys (Bb/C/high E). This seems to be an issue on the Sakkusu / Thoman C Melody (see https://cafesaxophone.com/threads/sakkusu-c-melody-saxophone-review.13705/Ads's Sakkusu C Melody review[/URL])
The "L" stamped below the serial number indicates it's built for "Low" pitch - i.e. designed for modern A=440Hz tuning. I've read different accounts of what was meant by High Pitch (and maybe there was more than one definition), but the consensus seems to be it was at least A=450Hz, or A=453Hz - kind of between semitones, in modern tuning, and too far out to compensate for by positioning the mouthpiece differently etc.
It's important to check for that when buying any brass or woodwind instrument from that period. I think military bands kept it going for a while longer, in Britain. Scottish bagpipe and Irish/Scottish Bb flute players tend to still use it, as I understand it. It's certainly the normal tuning for 5 or 6 key Bb flutes.
577 Replies
·
71133 views
Miscellaneous US/UK linguistics - different words and spelling
Prompted by an hilarious joke I made at jbtsax's expense I was thinking about US spelling vs UK
To me the US seems to have gone the way of phonetic spelling with certain words; plough is plow, humour is humor, tumour is tumor, potato is tomato (I think I'm right)
So....
What happened to route? The spelling stayed the same but instead the pronunciation changed
Why?
To me the US seems to have gone the way of phonetic spelling with certain words; plough is plow, humour is humor, tumour is tumor, potato is tomato (I think I'm right)
So....
What happened to route? The spelling stayed the same but instead the pronunciation changed
Why?
159 Replies
·
8519 views
Saxophones Pork Tales: Saxophone Repair DIY Adventures.
Tales from a pig that likes to stick his nose into everything.
Paint that S. How difficult could it be ?
1) Search the net.
2) Find the color.
3) Order color.
4) Study task on University of YouTube, aka; For destruction by DYI presented by pro tech.
Do the cleaning & prep.
Paint and cleanup / detail the edges with hard cotton swabs. Sounds easy……
Yeah tha guy Matt makes it look easy.
Anyone remember your first experience cooking bacon crispy while still in the frying pan !
Paint that S. How difficult could it be ?
1) Search the net.
2) Find the color.
3) Order color.
4) Study task on University of YouTube, aka; For destruction by DYI presented by pro tech.
Do the cleaning & prep.
Paint and cleanup / detail the edges with hard cotton swabs. Sounds easy……
Yeah tha guy Matt makes it look easy.
Anyone remember your first experience cooking bacon crispy while still in the frying pan !
1020 Replies
·
56828 views
Saxophone beginners If you had to do it all again
Evening all.
I'm returning to playing the sax after nearly 25 years, used to play alto (played in various bands, gigs in pubs, clubs, fesitvals, weddings & wakes, recorded some albums). I've only gone and bought myself a tenor off of ebay by accident and i'm planning to do some practice, mostly so I can get some half decent sounding brass parts down on my computer based deep house noodling.
When i started learning (early 90s) I taught myself, never had a lesson and subsequently developed a load of bad habits. These days there's something called youtube and it's full ofAI slop tutorials for people to learn off so I've had a look around.
I'm planning on focussing on my embechoure first (long notes, stupid face exercises), intonation then finger placement (always moved my fingers too much and hit the pads too hard).
So my question is, if you had to do it all again - how would you go about it, what would you concentrate on?
Coke Escovado - I wouldn't change a thing
I'm returning to playing the sax after nearly 25 years, used to play alto (played in various bands, gigs in pubs, clubs, fesitvals, weddings & wakes, recorded some albums). I've only gone and bought myself a tenor off of ebay by accident and i'm planning to do some practice, mostly so I can get some half decent sounding brass parts down on my computer based deep house noodling.
When i started learning (early 90s) I taught myself, never had a lesson and subsequently developed a load of bad habits. These days there's something called youtube and it's full of
I'm planning on focussing on my embechoure first (long notes, stupid face exercises), intonation then finger placement (always moved my fingers too much and hit the pads too hard).
So my question is, if you had to do it all again - how would you go about it, what would you concentrate on?
Coke Escovado - I wouldn't change a thing
23 Replies
·
2437 views
Miscellaneous What is “Politics”?
In the current thread on AI, Pete reminded us to keep politics out of the discussion, and to put side queries in another thread. So here is the side query…
When does a discussion become political? If something is an important societal topic (e.g., the state of music education, or the emergence of AI), there are certain to be politicians and government employees involved somehow. (Well, maybe not in music education, more’s the pity.) I’d like some clarity and perhaps a discussion on where the line is.
Case in point - government involvement in and support of health care. In most of the developed world, this is a non-issue. In the USA it’s a political hot potato. But this topic is important culturally and socially. Studies on strategies for extending lifespan. What tests to get, and where and how to get them. Seeking advice on a particular health condition. Etc. Here in the US, this can stray very easily into political waters - because of the various money, power and philosophical opinions around the subject.
So if I say “I think taxpayer funds should be used to provide a sensible baseline of health care support for everyone”, is that political? Or do I have to add something about a particular politician, or perhaps discuss specific legislation, to make it cross the line? “Joe Blow is an idiot because he thinks Medicare should be cancelled.”
I ask because topics like AI and healthcare affect us all, both as musicians and as humans in society. (Also as saxophonists, because some AI systems seem to think one needs 7 or 8 fingers per hand to play one!)
In the current discussion of AI, which is important IMO, there are obvious cultural and societal implications around the uses of AI. And these very easily stray into discussions of current political topics because various governments and government agencies are actively involved. Some guidelines on where to draw the boundaries of the discussion would be helpful.
When does a discussion become political? If something is an important societal topic (e.g., the state of music education, or the emergence of AI), there are certain to be politicians and government employees involved somehow. (Well, maybe not in music education, more’s the pity.) I’d like some clarity and perhaps a discussion on where the line is.
Case in point - government involvement in and support of health care. In most of the developed world, this is a non-issue. In the USA it’s a political hot potato. But this topic is important culturally and socially. Studies on strategies for extending lifespan. What tests to get, and where and how to get them. Seeking advice on a particular health condition. Etc. Here in the US, this can stray very easily into political waters - because of the various money, power and philosophical opinions around the subject.
So if I say “I think taxpayer funds should be used to provide a sensible baseline of health care support for everyone”, is that political? Or do I have to add something about a particular politician, or perhaps discuss specific legislation, to make it cross the line? “Joe Blow is an idiot because he thinks Medicare should be cancelled.”
I ask because topics like AI and healthcare affect us all, both as musicians and as humans in society. (Also as saxophonists, because some AI systems seem to think one needs 7 or 8 fingers per hand to play one!)
In the current discussion of AI, which is important IMO, there are obvious cultural and societal implications around the uses of AI. And these very easily stray into discussions of current political topics because various governments and government agencies are actively involved. Some guidelines on where to draw the boundaries of the discussion would be helpful.
35 Replies
·
550 views
Animals Show us your Wildlife
Inspired by the convolution of the Show us your pet and Help a Hedgehog threads...
Here's one from another thread;
Red Squirrel
(They exist in Norway)
Here's one from another thread;
Red Squirrel
(They exist in Norway)
872 Replies
·
41269 views
Cafe Moderator
Café Supporter
Miscellaneous Daily Check In
Good morning,
We thought it might be good to have a thread where you can just come and say hi, tell us what you are doing today, have a moan, share an idea that you wouldn't necessarily start a thread for ( we can always create a new thread from posts here if it became a substantial discussion).
It doesn't have to be sax related🙂
Basically an easy way to connect on a daily basis.
So to kick us off, I am writing this whilst prepping a casserole for the slo cooker as I am playing sax today with café sax and need a quick easy tea when I get home.
I am still suffering with a cough which will impact my playing today and I am worried as we are playing our first care home gig next Sunday!!
Have a lovely Sunday
Jx
We thought it might be good to have a thread where you can just come and say hi, tell us what you are doing today, have a moan, share an idea that you wouldn't necessarily start a thread for ( we can always create a new thread from posts here if it became a substantial discussion).
It doesn't have to be sax related🙂
Basically an easy way to connect on a daily basis.
So to kick us off, I am writing this whilst prepping a casserole for the slo cooker as I am playing sax today with café sax and need a quick easy tea when I get home.
I am still suffering with a cough which will impact my playing today and I am worried as we are playing our first care home gig next Sunday!!
Have a lovely Sunday
Jx
2799 Replies
·
80806 views
The dates have been announced for the 2027 International Saxophone Symposium hosted by the Navy Band at George Mason University: January 8-9.
Plan your trip now if you're coming from afar.
Plan your trip now if you're coming from afar.
18 Replies
·
689 views
Saxophones Windcraft WAS-110 Alto
Me again !!
I have been offered the above complete with mouthpiece, care kit, strap, and case, for £215 (+ p&p) - wondering if this is a good deal?
@Steve Howard reviewed one of them some time ago and gave it a reasonably good review at the time - are they still worth picking up or would a Jupiter or Antigua Winds be a better option (for a beginner)?
Any thoughts / comments appreciated......
Thanks
I have been offered the above complete with mouthpiece, care kit, strap, and case, for £215 (+ p&p) - wondering if this is a good deal?
@Steve Howard reviewed one of them some time ago and gave it a reasonably good review at the time - are they still worth picking up or would a Jupiter or Antigua Winds be a better option (for a beginner)?
Any thoughts / comments appreciated......
Thanks
48 Replies
·
4582 views
Cafe Moderator
Commercial
Miscellaneous Do you have a “pet peeve”
And care to share it with us?
176 Replies
·
9287 views
Mouthpieces Jody jazz DV Chicago tenor.
Anyone using one on tenor? What are your impressions and thoughts? Cheers!
8 Replies
·
182 views
Blog Tenor Viol's musings
OK. I've thought about doing this for a while - setting up a general thread for me to post in, rather than necessarily creating a separate new thread every time for relatively minor matters, or discussion of how things are going etc.
So, the first item is my FB page got me with an Amazon advert and I seem to have ordered a jazz theory book... It will get delivered to the Amazon lockers at work on Monday
Tomorrow is a Café Trio/Quartet...Septet day where @trimmy is going to demonstrate ascending chromatic scales in augmented fourths, and descending in diminished fifths... 😀
Yesterday was a wind band concert in Maghull. There were about 85 of us playing. We had a contrabassoon in the band...
So, the first item is my FB page got me with an Amazon advert and I seem to have ordered a jazz theory book... It will get delivered to the Amazon lockers at work on Monday
Tomorrow is a Café Trio/Quartet...Septet day where @trimmy is going to demonstrate ascending chromatic scales in augmented fourths, and descending in diminished fifths... 😀
Yesterday was a wind band concert in Maghull. There were about 85 of us playing. We had a contrabassoon in the band...
1918 Replies
·
109606 views
Playing the saxophone Falling from Altisimo A? (and falls in general)
In an arrangement of Oye Como Va, by Johnny Ferreira we have
DFDFDFA on the second register, then at the top.
I'm just about stable on D to altisimo A - good exercise for me!
But G is quite far away, fungering wise..
My best alt A is L23+a side key.
How would you approach the fall?
Thanks.
DFDFDFA on the second register, then at the top.
I'm just about stable on D to altisimo A - good exercise for me!
But G is quite far away, fungering wise..
My best alt A is L23+a side key.
How would you approach the fall?
Thanks.
20 Replies
·
249 views
Mouthpiece/Lig FS for sale - Phil-tone Isotope tenor mouthpiece, 8*
for sale - a rare beast, the Phil-tone Isotope. This has been discontinued for a while, it was a collaboration between Phil-tone and Theo Wanne -beautifully made piece as you'd expect. Comes with the original wooden box. Big step baffle so unsurprisingly leans towards the bright side with a clean, modern sound, but I found it to be capable of a bit more warmth and versatility than a guardala for example.
Always used with a patch, I've removed this to give it a clean up for selling and you can see on the photos there's a bit of a colour difference on the beak where the patch has been stuck on. There's also some discolouration on the table which I've shown in the photos below, this was there when I purchased it (I'm not the first owner) but doesn't affect playability - table is flat and rails are unblemished. I've found myself to be more comfortable on rollover baffles, but this needs to be enjoyed by someone instead of sitting on my shelf. UK postage only please.
Always used with a patch, I've removed this to give it a clean up for selling and you can see on the photos there's a bit of a colour difference on the beak where the patch has been stuck on. There's also some discolouration on the table which I've shown in the photos below, this was there when I purchased it (I'm not the first owner) but doesn't affect playability - table is flat and rails are unblemished. I've found myself to be more comfortable on rollover baffles, but this needs to be enjoyed by someone instead of sitting on my shelf. UK postage only please.
1 Replies
·
81 views
Mouthpiece/Lig FS for sale - PPT 8* tenor mouthpiece
Selling my PPT tenor mouthpiece, 8* tip opening. Very lightly used, always used a mouthpiece patch but have taken this off to clean it up for sale here. Will be posted with the original packaging and tube. Nice versatile piece, lots of reviews/demos on the site already for you to peruse. UK postage only please. Thanks for looking!
0 Replies
·
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Member Blogs (currently active)
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Saxophones Pork Tales: Saxophone Repair DIY Adventures.- Started by PigSquealer
- Replies: 1K
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Saxophone beginners Come on now, join the band....(Beginners blog)- Started by cappers
- Replies: 380
Trending
Popular Discussions on the Café
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Saxophones C Melody Saxophones- Started by Andy Hornblower
- Replies: 577
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Playing the saxophone The Cafe Trio grown to Octet down to Sextet- Started by trimmy
- Replies: 844
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Saxophones How will Tariffs affect Sax Prices?- Started by Ivan
- Replies: 462
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Great Players Who sparked your love of Sax music- Started by jools
- Replies: 619
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Saxophones Carrying a tenor on a (motor)bike?- Started by Jay
- Replies: 757
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Playing the saxophone Learn to play by ear or by reading music- Started by Taz
- Replies: 1K
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Tech/maintenance My new "DIY" pads...- Started by DavidUK
- Replies: 393
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Theory & Impro Do we really need theory?- Started by jbtsax
- Replies: 497
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Misc Reviews Yamaha YDS-150 Wind Synth
- Started by Acc6441
- Replies: 301
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Playing the saxophone Learning to Read v Playing by ear- Started by BigMartin
- Replies: 505
Featured Classifieds
Latest Song of the Month
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SOTM SotM September 2026 - Autumn Leaves- Started by mrblackbat
- Replies: 20
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SOTM SOTM June 2026 "And You Just Smile" (from ear to ear- training)- Started by LostCircuits
- Replies: 11
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SOTM SOTM May 2026 - Always Remember Us This Way
- Started by MikeMorrell
- Replies: 39
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SOTM SOTM April 2026 - Freedom Jazz Dance- Started by rhysonsax
- Replies: 14
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SOTM SOTM and PETE (Play by Ear Training Exercise)
- Started by Wade Cornell
- Replies: 16
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SOTM SOTM Feb 2026 - On Green Dolphin Street
- Started by mrblackbat
- Replies: 44
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SOTM SOTM January 2026: Our Love Is Here to Stay- Started by GCinCT
- Replies: 46
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SOTM SOTM December 2025: Wexford Carol
- Started by MikeMorrell
- Replies: 37
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SOTM SOTM November 2025 - Red Baron- Started by sax panther
- Replies: 36
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SOTM October 2025 - SOTM - Autumn In New York
- Started by mrblackbat
- Replies: 63