BOTM August 2016 This Masquerade

[Jeanette]

I'll give up playing now.... nice one @Guenne

Jx

 

[Guenne]

Thanks my friends. You are very kind.I hear so many things that need practice..

Anyway, where are the 5 other versions?

Has @Colin the Bear finally learned the song lyrics?

 

[Colin the Bear]

Hardly. Struggling still but it's coming.

 

[Colin the Bear]

It's finally coming together after beating it to death this morning. Recording was another battle. However...

https://soundcloud.com/colin-the-bear%2Fthis-masquerade View: https://soundcloud.com/colin-the-bear/this-masquerade

 

[Guenne]

Very nice,

@Colin the Bear. Very nice time feel. For my taste the sax would have to be more in front of the mix.
The kind of reverb makes the playback more important to my ears.

Cheers, Guenne

 

[Colin the Bear]

It's odd how yesterday my take sounded great but today it sounds less so. Funny reverb and a bit blurred sounding. I'll have to have another go.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Another attempt. Tried to play it with a bit more feeling. Added just a little reverb to the sax track and brought it up in the mix. Mic position seems to play a big part in the finished sound. Tried this one with the mic below the sax between me and a hard surface. It seems to have picked up several squeaks and bum notes that I certainly didn't play

Same backing track.

https://soundcloud.com/colin-the-bear%2Fthis-other-masquerade View: https://soundcloud.com/colin-the-bear/this-other-masquerade

 

[Guenne]

Sounds much better in terms of recording, although the sax is a bit distorted in some places (or it's just the speakers of my Macbook)

Cheers, Guenne

 

[rhysonsax]

A high standard so far and I have enjoyed listening. I'm just back from holiday and trying a new alto mouthpiece that I bought from eBay. It's a Buffet Crampon and I'm liking it a lot so far.

This recording uses the Hal Leonard backing track which is a good one. I think there are some electronic glitches in the sax recording, but hopefully not too distracting.

https://app.box.com/s/wm5yeguw7z0qptc9s4rmz3144wq67gkc

Rhys

 

[Guenne]

a new alto mouthpiece that I bought from eBay. It's a Buffet Crampon and I'm liking it a lot so far.

Hi,
it is a challenge to test it on the melody of this tune, as it is either too high or to low on alto in the usual key
Anyway, well done.
What are the distortions?

Cheers, Guenne

 

[rhysonsax]

Hi,
it is a challenge to test it on the melody of this tune, as it is either too high or to low on alto in the usual key
Anyway, well done.
What are the distortions?

Cheers, Guenne

Thanks Guenne. The distortions are a click, crackling or scratching sound that I hear at several points on playback. But now I'm not sure whether they are on the sax part or on the backing track which I have ripped from the playalong CD from the Hal Leonard book I bought.

Rhys

 

[Tiberius]

Hmm....there isn't enough beginner this month.

Ok, I've been a bit busy this month, and teacher has been touring Scotlanshire on a morobike, so I'm getting round to this late. I've taken the Mark Maxwell (Dr Saxlove) version as the basis as I love his sound. The backing is from his site.

I've used his backing track, but mostly the notes from Chris. Thankfully it's in the same key as the notes from Chris, so I didn't need to migrate it. I have refactored a few of the notes to fit in with something close to what Mark is playing, mostly things like he has an extra D before the G, A, B riffs. The long D on the third line starts off with a C, C#, D...etc. But I think mostly its the same.

No cheating on this one, it's all one single recording, but I have been practising by playing along to the Mark Maxwell version on YouTube. In my mind, I can hear him when I'm playing...sadly when I listen back to it I hear a kazoo

Towards the end of the first verse it goes wrong, I haven't learned that bit yet really. There's also a couple of other places that I play the wrong note...sorry After the end of the first verse...I kinda go into free-play...Just playing some odd notes to fill in the time.

err...it's quite late, this will almost certainly sound a lot worse in the morning than it does now in fact I'll probably delete it in the morning

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97346875/This Masquerade.mp3

Why is there an A# in line 8? Bb is in the key, then it goes to and A natural...I'm lost. I kina understand some of the theory as to why it's sometimes called Bb and other times A#, but I'm lost here, it just seems more confusing to call it A# when Bb is in the key, especially when it's followed by an A.

I kinda grew up listening to the Carpenters version of this, my parents played it a lot. I didn't really know the other versions until recently. My teacher tried to get me to appreciate the George Benson version but I'm afraid that just flew straight by me...I really don't get this singing 'doo be doo be doo' when you're playing.

 

[nigeld]

Cool - your tone is definitely improving.

After the end of the first verse...I kinda go into free-play...Just playing some odd notes to fill in the time.

Most people call this "improvisation" and pretend they know what they are doing.

 

[Tiberius]

Most people call this "improvisation" and pretend they know what they are doing.

Oh...I knew what I was doing..I was going to play bits of the melody, but I couldn't remember them so I played something else instead while I tried to remember it. It didn't sound too bad, so I played it again as I still couldn't remember the melody bit I was going to play, then I thought I needed to play something a bit higher, so I played a bit higher while I still couldn't remember what I was going to play...then I noticed that there was only a couple of inches of the track left in Audacity...so I didn't have time to play what I still couldn't remember anyway. Then it finished without me playing anything that I actually intended to play

 

[Colin the Bear]

So...in a word...Noodling?

 

[Tiberius]

Ahh, noodling is a good word. My fingers moved without too much conscious control from me yeah I think noodling will do.

Each time I play, I think I can do better, that's kinda how I felt the first week I got the sax. Let's see how long that feeling lasts.

 

[Tiberius]

Cool - your tone is definitely improving

Thanks Nigel, sometimes I'm almost happy with it...until I hear it played back, then generally I realise how far I have to go
Unfortunately I can't blame my setup. I have recordings of my teacher playing my gear and it sounds amazing...so I'm afraid any bad is just down to me.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Each time I play, I think I can do better, that's kinda how I felt the first week I got the sax. Let's see how long that feeling lasts.

Hopefully for as long as you live.

 

[Guenne]

Great, @Tiberius! Nice backing, too.

BTW: In doubt, play loud. If wrong, play strong!

Cheers, Guenne

 

[Francisco]

Hmm....there isn't enough beginner this month.

Ok, I've been a bit busy this month, and teacher has been touring Scotlanshire on a morobike, so I'm getting round to this late. I've taken the Mark Maxwell (Dr Saxlove) version as the basis as I love his sound. The backing is from his site. (...) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/97346875/This Masquerade.mp3 (...)

well done, I can hear a big improvement