Playing the saxophone Singing the saxophone

[thomsax]

I listen to lots of music. I listen more than I play. And I also try to sing along when I hear something that I like. Sometimes I learn the lyrics and sometimes I just hum along. I can play a song 10-20 times to get it into my head ( thanks for the new digital players). This is roughly what I did as a teenager as well. Listen-play-listen-play again-listen ..... .

I use to find I nice corner where I can stand and play my sax for 30-45 minutes. No sheet music, no backing tracks/recording, no headphones, no recording stuff .... just me and my saxophone playing the melody/singing lines as I remember it. The melody and words are running in my head while I'm playing my saxophone. This brings back other songs (fragments) from my memory. Not complete songs, but parts that I like. And not in the way I listen and remember it the first times.

For a week ago I listen and played along with Jimmy Carpenter's recording of Allen Toussaint's song "All These Things". A song that was easy to get into my head. When I played "All These Things" other songs (fragments) were picked up from my memory with other musicians. Charles Brown, Ivory Joe Hunter, Amos Milburn, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding .... ballads, more up-tempo, Christmas songs ... . When I put down my sax I don't know what I've been doing/playing. I just know that I started to play something in the style of Jimmy Carpenter's recording of Allen Toussaint's song "All These Things". I'm not particularly good amateur/hobby player but I think this will make me better? And It's also a fun way to expand/refresh my memory. An adult way to deal with music?

View: https://youtu.be/-LWvTRwxt9Q?si=CbPvoijg2ewoe9Cr

 

[Pete Thomas]

In terms of learning to play any instrument, I think this is just as important as (or maybe more important than) reading music.

Reading music is an easy technique to learn and once you can do it there is little to improve except maybe the speed at which you can do it if necessary.

But learning by ear improves your musicality every time you do it.

 

[thomsax]

.... why don't we see more instructions to learn by ear? I guess many are interesting ..... .

 

[Pete Thomas]

.... why don't we see more instructions to learn by ear? I guess many are interesting ..... .

Do you mean telling someone to learn by ear or telling them how to learn by ear?

 

[thomsax]

I mean how learn a person to learn by ear. A real challenge. We are all different. Some thoughts ....

• Learn to "sing" the melody/singing lines. Lyrics or just hum? Key words, meaning ..... .
• Play harmonies, fillings, backgrounds, riffs ..... as well.
• To learn a song by ear on keyboard, bass, guitar drums are IMO easier because you can see your fingers and sing/hum along. How to deal with sax?
• How to cut up a song in parts that the player can handle. No sheet music and no chord charts ..... your voice/ears decide.
• If you love the song, life will be easier! You just play the songs that you keep close to your heart or if you have a problem to solve?
• Play safe but also expand your technique.

Just a few thoughts.

I would like some kind of "spelmansträff" with the Rock & Roll Saxophone in focus.

 

[Wade Cornell]

Being able to play what you hear in your head is, and will always be, the key to being a proficient musician. Even the best "classical musician readers" get this as they can "hear" what they are reading...otherwise what they play has no expression/feeling. Every brass player has to be able to hear the note they play as otherwise any one of the other harmonics can come out of the horn.

You're on a good trajectory by being able to play what you hear. The next steps are to engage your creativity and not just be playing practiced songs (or bits of them) that are in your memory.

In my opinion the next step beyond playing random (practiced) existing songs is to be playing variations (improvisations). Beyond that, you're into the realm of spontaneous composition...unique melodies/stories that can communicate to others. Having a lot of musical references is a great help (your head's musical library). Again, the extension of this is to expand that library into areas that may not have immediate relevance to your style/genre. Having lots of "modes", a large repertoire of rhythms, and a variety of stylistic ways of playing can give you the ability to hear and enhance whatever you play.

Challenging yourself is the key to progressing. A good teacher will help if they aren't stuck with being proficient in only one style/genre. Too often (in my opinion) teachers and players follow a linear approach with being proficient in one style being the goal. A talented player can eventually make the head/ear to your instrument connection, but would get there much faster if encouraged to play by ear.

 

[Wade Cornell]

I mean how learn a person to learn by ear. A real challenge. We are all different. Some thoughts ....

• Learn to "sing" the melody/singing lines. Lyrics or just hum? Key words, meaning ..... .
• Play harmonies, fillings, backgrounds, riffs ..... as well.
• To learn a song by ear on keyboard, bass, guitar drums are IMO easier because you can see your fingers and sing/hum along. How to deal with sax?
• How to cut up a song in parts that the player can handle. No sheet music and no chord charts ..... your voice/ears decide.
• If you love the song, life will be easier! You just play the songs that you keep close to your heart or if you have a problem to solve?
• Play safe but also expand your technique.

Just a few thoughts.

I would like some kind of "spelmansträff" with the Rock & Roll Saxophone in focus.

You're mostly saying what one does when already able to play by ear. Singing, or at least hearing what you want to play,
is the first step. The hard part that takes years is to automatically play what you can sing/hear. This isn't taught by most teachers, with the exception of the Suzuki method for very young children. They learn to imitate what they hear in the same way that one learns to speak. The older we are the more difficult this is, but the principle is the same. You can start with simple phrases that are imitated NOT MEMORIZED, NOT ANALYZED. By learning to imitate immediately what you hear you're making the connection between hearing and playing...that's the key!

There is a youtube exercise for this, but I don't have the reference. It's the closest thing to teaching playing by ear for adults that's out there. Worth searching for.

The advanced exercise (that I used for years) is to put on random radio stations (NOT just your genre of interest and NOT songs you know). You then see if you can play along by either improvising, playing harmonies, counterpoint, etc. This requires that you're listening intently and anticipating where the music is going. That engages several processes:
1. your concentration is on the music and not your instrument,
2. you understand the music enough to anticipate where it's going,
3. you hear a line to play that will work.
4. your playing is in "real time".

There is no magic bullet that instantly makes one able to play by ear. It takes a lot of practice. The most important thing to to ensure that one is not confusing playing memorized material with playing by ear. The difference can be demonstrated easily. Sing a tune, or have someone else sing a tune you have never played. Can you play it accurately? Can you change the key it's in and play it as accurately? This is about hearing notes then playing them without analysis, or memory, playing on the spot in real time as you hear it in your head, or are imitating what you have just heard.

 

[Ivan]

To learn a song by ear on keyboard, bass, guitar drums are IMO easier because you can see your fingers and sing/hum along. How to deal with sax?

The way I play by ear is to (thinking-wise) visualise my sax fingering as I play... I don't know whether that is what is commonly done and I would like to know if there's a more musically dynamic mental picture that a sax player can create

 

[thomsax]

I started this thread 2+ years ago. Today I play more slow "rock" ballads than up-tempo rock songs. I still like to try to play like Keys, Clemons .... in the upper register of the sax but the slow ballads in the lower register is the thing for me today. I play the baritone more today. I hardly read music. I listen to the lycics and plays the words.

I play Solomon Burkes songs and to play "Cry To Me" is a challenge. I use the "tacky" vibrato.

" .... nothing can be sadder than a glass of wine, alone
Loneliness, loneliness, such a waste of time, whoa, yeah"

On baritone I think old swedish folk songs, hymns .... comes out good. When I hear Freddie Wadling singing "Blott En Dag" I want to play the baritone.

View: https://youtu.be/flbvcrYvRgI?si=Q66-x81p65-jOPje

 

[AlonW]

Ben Webster believed in the importance of knowing the lyrics of songs to properly interpret the melody, articulation, and emotional meaning of a piece.