I've a question for you lot :)

[miss-saxophone]

I'm struggling to learn Bb major at the moment - confused fingers!

I've got a question: What's the most difficult thing you've learnt or are learning on sax?

Fi. x

 

[Nick Wyver]

I don't do difficult these days. The most difficult piece I've had a serious go at in the dim and distant past was probably the Dubois Concerto or the Ibert Concertino da Camera.

 

[Jeanette]

Every time I turn a page in my book the next exercise seems to be the most difficult thing :shocked:

Jx

 

[Jazzaferri]

Changing my embouchure To Dave Leibman/Joe Allard very loose lower lip.

A suggestion if I may. Play the scale really slowly at say 60 bpm quarter notes once and note at which points your fingers don't move correctly. Stop relax take a deep breath hold it and let it out. Finger the note (or first of the notes if more than one) that you got wrong. Play a nice long tone on it. Take another breath, relax and play the note and the note immediately before it. If that feels nice and relaxed play a little rhythmic pattern alternating between the two. Then starting at the long tone go through the same process with the note above. Go back to the long tone and play a slow rhythmic pattern alternating between the two. Just make them up on the spur of the moment trying not to think about whether it's a good one or anything like that. It should feel relaxed and childlike. After you have gone through all the points where your fingers got mixed up stop relax for a few breaths, take another deep breath hold it relax and then with the metronome at 60 again. Play the scale. If you have been really relaxed and continue really relaxed it will be a breeze.

 

[Jazzaferri]

I should add that IMO most people teach and most students try and move on before the thing being worked on is truly mastered.

Our deadline driven society does that. I still have to work at playing in a very relaxed state but I am getting better. My goal is to be able to lay something as effortlessly as using my fork when I eat.

 

[kevgermany]

I guess you're comfortable with F major - so think of it as F major with one extra flat, and a different start pooint. But taking it easy and slow is excellent advice!

 

[gladsaxisme]

Practicing a chromatic scale might not be a bad idea where you start at the very bottom or top and go up or down playing every note on the way.This way your fingers get to know where all the notes are automatically and then when you practice scales you are only having to remember the variations in the notes you are playing.I found practicing the chromatic scale vastly improved my ability to play scales it's just remembering them that is difficult for me,what ever you do take it all very slowly as has been said before

Regards....John

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

"You lot" ? you are one of us lot... Charlie Parkers Yardbird Suite...or at least playing it convincingly...but if we'r talking scales, well i always found B major sticky (back in the day) that was.

 

[MandyH]

"You lot" ? you are one of us lot... Charlie Parkers Yardbird Suite...or at least playing it convincingly...but if we'r talking scales, well i always found B major sticky (back in the day) that was.

I am currently practising scales based on B and F for my grade 7.
B starts hard and gets easier, as you go through mixolydian, dorian, then Jazz melodic minor (one less sharp each time) F starts easy and gets ever harder (one more flat each time). Bmajor is played 2.5 octaves, so right to the top of the instrument and all but one semi-tone to the bottom

But as for difficult things, I am trying to get to grips with the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba for a Sax ensemble recital on 4th June in the Priory. She is really not my friend; and I'm not sure if I care whether she arrives or not at the moment ))

But.... I've just played with the school Jazz band. We play Hawaii Five-O. Apparently the tempo marking is "uncomfortably fast" and tonight, I DS'd at the right time and to the right place and still made it to the end with the rest of the band! Oh Yeah :welldone :welldone )) ))

 

[saxplorer]

Curiously I've today been practicing a piece by Morris Goldberg called "Pedal Pusher" (part of my Cape Jazz kick), which happens to be in BMaj (on alto), and involves a run down from high D# all the way down to mid A#, so I guess I can claim to be practicing my BMaj scale too...

Short clip available here ... http://www.virginmedia.com/music/browse/morris-goldberg/songs/1792824

 

[Tenor Viol]

I am currently practising scales based on B and F for my grade 7.
B starts hard and gets easier, as you go through mixolydian, dorian, then Jazz melodic minor (one less sharp each time) F starts easy and gets ever harder (one more flat each time). Bmajor is played 2.5 octaves, so right to the top of the instrument and all but one semi-tone to the bottom

But as for difficult things, I am trying to get to grips with the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba for a Sax ensemble recital on 4th June in the Priory. She is really not my friend; and I'm not sure if I care whether she arrives or not at the moment ))

But.... I've just played with the school Jazz band. We play Hawaii Five-O. Apparently the tempo marking is "uncomfortably fast" and tonight, I DS'd at the right time and to the right place and still made it to the end with the rest of the band! Oh Yeah :welldone :welldone )) ))

How unsporting to all arrive in a dead-heat - no winner!

 

[Jazzaferri]

If talking scales I had the hardest time with C#/Dbqq

 

[jeremyjuicewah]

Tap dancing. It is very tricky shape for heel and toe work.

 

[ArtyLady]

Altissimo has been pretty elusive up until the last year or so but is now getting more and more established and am now incorporating it into my scales and exercises :welldone
Subtone on the low Bb, B and C can be elusive occasionally too - working hard on it!
Pieces - keeping up with the CD without messing up the tricky passages on Bob Mintzer's Rhythm check for my grade 8 :shocked:

 

[Pete C]

patterns in Ab melodic minor ascending - b**** of a key

 

[navarro]

Hi Fi, I am a 75 year old who took up sax 5 months ago never played any instrument since schooldays 70 years ago then usual recorder etc. Okay I practice nothing but scales for an hour every day and start with a chromatic run. Most difficult finger wise A Flat major B flat minor and Eflat 7 Likewise the Dflat progressions. In fact just understanding the jargon dorians etc. My break through came when I asked the question `Chord signatures are strangling me` on the forum I had nothing but great advice and moved on swiftly. Next most dificult thing for me is distinguishing the chord changes in a jam session which I have regularily with my teacher. Could be due to the fact that I am partially deaf in one ear. Lastly I have just joined a beginners big band and find I can not relax sitting down with the sax (alto) Best Regards N.

 

[Tenor Viol]

I still count myself as a complete novice. I am curently playng on Saturday mornings for an hour in a beginners' orchestra and I'm blowing bubbles by the end of an hour's playing. Need more practice.

Generally, the hardest thing I've ever been involved in musically was probably singing in Britten's Spring Symphony - not a tune anywhere and rhythmically very difficult. Currently the hardest thing I'm doing is the cello line in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the main Saturday orchestra - I need a map to find some of the notes required (e.g. the E a 10th above middle C - I think there's one there somewhere, just not quite sure where exactly....)

 

[zootsaxenberger]

"i mean you" Thelonius Monk. like most Monk pieces weird timing, chords which shouldn't work,and a complete joy to play!

 

[saxplorer]

"i mean you" Thelonius Monk. like most Monk pieces weird timing, chords which shouldn't work,and a complete joy to play!

I love these guys' take on it ... (Even better on the "Live in Europe" album)

 

[miss-saxophone]

I love these guys' take on it ... (Even better on the "Live in Europe" album)

Isn't saxual freedom great?!