Lord Winston and the Old Castle

[Pjonah]

Linky_Lee wrote:
I'd agree with you that the Apollo aren't the best, though I was lucky enough to meet Rob Buckland who plays Alto for them and he is very very good, and pretty inspiring on the Soprano.

He has some great ideas and can really teach well, I learnt so much in the two days I had with him.

Linky,

Rob Buckland is unquestionably talented beyond a level to which I aspire, just not my cup of tea.

In many ways it was like an outfit called Sticky Fingers, incredibly complicated arrangements, they start appealing only to fellow musicians who can appreciate their complexity and technique. Almost losing the point of music really.

Dare I say it in here, but I hated Ronny Scott for the same reasons. Eeks, I'm going to be so banished from this forum!

Simon

 

[saxplayer67]

John, I believe the two go hand in hand. If one is not inspired, they won't absorb the technical aspects as quickly and thoroughly and they won't be inspired to practice and practive EFFECTIVELY. I think that showed up strongly in the programme, after Winston spoke with Dankworth and Pine, he was inspired ANEW.

 

[suethesax]

I really enjoyed it too. I thought Johnny Dankworth and Courtney Pine did more for his confidence than John Harle. I know it was only a snippet of 5/6 months work but if the sessions were typical then perhaps it is just as well he doesn't often tutor beginners.

I actually love ther versatility of playing classical sax and play in a classical quartet on sop and do enjoy Appollo.

Pjonah have a look at Rob Buckland with Sax Assault and see if you like his non classical playing any better:

http://www.saxassault.com/home.html

 

[mfox]

im almost sure his sax was a yamaha.. it had a yamaha case..

 

[griff136]

definately a Yamaha and most likely a 875 /custom.

 

[saxplayer67]

griff136 wrote:
definately a Yamaha and most likely a 875 /custom.

Skip on over to SOTW, where their thread about Winston tells exactly the sax hired, then eventually bought (plus a clarinet) by Professor Winston. One of the contributors works at Howarths in London, who were approached by the production company to hire a sax.

 

[bobk]

Could someone explain the scale that Courtney Pine was showing Robert Winston? Although Courtney called it a blues scale it had more notes than usal (i.e more than 8) rather than the five I'd expect.

thanks,

Bob

 

[mfox]

in c he played:
C.Eb.F.F#.G.Bb.B.C
now go a practice in all keys..

 

[Saxlicker]

Haven't seen it but does this help?

http://www.jazzbooks.com/jazzhandbook/30_blues_scale.pdf

 

[saxplayer67]

I found there's an interview with Winston on Howarths of London's website, where he bought his horn and also one over at a Klezmer website, about his new-found sax life. The Howarths one furthers the story we saw in his Play It Again episode and it appears he's now great pals with John Harle, the player we love to hate... 😱

 

[saxplayer67]

I have been in email correspondence with Robert Winston. I mentioned that the saxophone community thought Harle poor as a teacher, to which Robert replied 'bugger the saxophone community'! Seems the programme's editing may be to blame for how it came across.

I thought the following Diane Abbott piano episode was most inspirational. Then the Beeb who never have any faith in their programmes, took it out of the schedules, with the final episode (Bill Oddie on electric guitar) being held back until today, Monday 7th May at 7.00pm.

 

[RedBottom]

Saxplayer67 wrote:I mentioned that the saxophone community thought Harle poor as a teacher, to which Robert replied 'bugger the saxophone community'! Seems the programme's editing may be to blame for how it came across.

What that highlights is the importance of finding a teacher who 'suits' you. My first teacher was a very dour, brutally honest Scotsman who, if you played rubbish to him or were attempting stuff at the wrong level, would tell you so in no uncertain terms. I liked and respected him for that, plus the fact that he could walk the walk too, and I wasn't the only one who thought that. But I know he wouldn't have suited everyone as a teacher.

Those of you who teach will have no doubt come across the importance of learning and teaching styles. Maybe Harle just teaches in a way that happens to match Lord Winston's learning style.

 

[peter_fitton]

Err...perhaps it's just me but I didn't think John Harle came across at all badly on the programme. Ok, he was a bit abrupt a couple of times, but justifiably so, I thought.

And we saw so little of the actual lessons that it's impossible to make a judgement on him as a teacher, I would have thought. For example, the subject of tongueing was not even mentioned once on the whole show - that's how little of the lessons we saw.

I dunno whether Harle is a great player or not. I have a recording of him playing Debussy's Rhapsody for Alto Sax and Orchestra, which seems perfectly fine, but I don't know anything else of his.

Did anybody see the Bill Oddie plays electric guitar show tonight? Wasn't Oddie appalling? Terrible.

Cheers

Peter

 

[bobk]

Peter Fitton wrote:
...Did anybody see the Bill Oddie plays electric guitar show tonight? Wasn't Oddie appalling? Terrible.

Cheers

Peter

Yep - in so, so many ways!

 

[Rogerb]

Regarding Lord Winston's reply, I say "Good for him!".... I think it was rather discourteous to criticise the teacher (whatever one may think of him as a performer) when we saw so little of the teaching.

And, as has been said, with teachers, it's not "One size fits all" 😉

I thought Diane Abbott was very courageous to take-on so much, and to stick with it.

Didn't see Bill O... perhaps I was just lucky!

 

[saxplayer67]

I have to say, I laughed like a drain when I saw Robert's opening reply! :laugh:

 

[Linky Lee]

I saw the Bill Oddie one too.

I thought the whole show was terrible this time.
His Daughter's band is dire IMO, even for indie music and his guitar playing just wasn't good enough for someone so naturaly musical.

The best bit was Knopfler's studio, looked like a lovely sound room.

I thought the guitar tutor was actually quite good, she was down to earth and really tried her best to make him understand that he needs the basics.

I taught myself how to play, and I (progressed?) like he did, until I started drilling those clean chords and scales.
Once I had those my playing took right off. I even cracked out the telecaster yesterday to see if I still 'had it'.

I was decidedly rusty for a few hours, and I can't remember a single tune. As expected really.

 

[jadoube]

Oddie seems happy to have met his relatively low ambitions - pootling about "playing the odd note" to himself for relaxation.

This programme might even achieve its objective and encourage folk with similar aims into music. Didn't make it the most interesting episode for me though.

Overall through the series I thought the women stuck to their goals manfully. 😉 Some of the blokes expected to skip the basics, fire or disagree with their teacher, and hated being shown on camera being less than perfect.


John

 

[RedBottom]

Jadoube wrote:Overall through the series I thought the women stuck to their goals manfully. 😉 Some of the blokes expected to skip the basics, fire or disagree with their teacher, and hated being shown on camera being less than perfect.

On reflection, there were only two women to four men, and both women played keyboard instruments - and a more classical style at that. Perhaps if the BBC 'play it again' they could even things out a little by having women who want to learn the 'power' stuff - rock and jazz, bass guitar and trumpet etc etc., and maybe feature some guys who are more interested in, say, flute or classical violin.

We have a lad plays flute with our concert band who's about 11 or 12 and is turning into a very proficient little player - his teacher reckons he's a natural and his mum tells me he lives for the instrument. Yet he's the only boy in the whole band who plays flute (although in a year or two that could be to his advantage :whistle: ). The clarinet section, however, is awash with boys at the moment and they're all into jazz. A good thing, maybe, but a little one-sided, gender-wise. I wonder how much of this is down to the role models they see around them.

 

[philthd]

when i was in wind bands the clarinets were mostly girls as well, the boys were mostly brass players

but the "cool" girls were the ones who played percussion and the one who played tuba