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What A Ridiculous Key! F#m?!?

Veggie Dave

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This song was originally intended for @rhysonsax's F# Blues Of The Month challenge but as you can hear, it rather migrated somewhat away from a blues song into something else.

I have to be honest and say that I found playing in F#m (G#m on tenor) to be incredibly difficult. Playing the individual notes wasn't a problem but getting them to flow together was. I found my fingers just didn't want to jump from one note to the next with any sort of smoothness. At times I felt like my fingers were a tangle of old typewriter bars. ;)

The other lesson I learned from this was that the more complex the musical arrangement of the song is, the more time you must spend on the mix because if it's not mixed as well as you can make it then the song will song awful. You can get away with murder if you only have sax, drums, bass and possibly piano, but once you start introducing more layers then you open yourself up to a whole new world of problems.

This song has taken me hours to mix, especially because I really wanted it to sound like there was a brass section, which proved to be nigh-on impossible (without buying an expensive VST), but it had to have one as the melody played soley on the tenor sounded dreadful as it was never intended to be heard that way.

Hopefully this song will go down a little better than the others I've done recently. ;)

View: https://soundcloud.com/veggie-dave/the-violence-of-silence
 
I'm obviously going to have to learn to play the trumpet so that I can be my own brass section. ;)

I have a couple I could lend as I'm not able to produce a decent, trumpet like sound out of them! :mad: (Probably need a tutor to point me in the right direction...)

Anyways, I think that you're really going in the right direction. At least, but not only, in finding your own voice with the sax. Keep going. You're obviously not going to stop here.
 
I like it Dave. It's unique. Keep at it and never stop!
 
I have a couple I could lend as I'm not able to produce a decent, trumpet like sound out of them! :mad:

If you lived a little closer I would bite your hand off. ;)

It's unique.

I've heard that word quite often in situations where a band ask someone what they think of their song and the person doesn't know how to break the bad news to them. :D
 
I've heard that word quite often in situations where a band ask someone what they think of their song and the person doesn't know how to break the bad news to them. :D
I meant it as a compliment, trust me.
 
I meant it as a compliment, trust me.

I know you weren't being sarky. Well, I assumed you weren't. ;)

It just took me back to the days when I was properly involved in the music scene (coincidently in Manchester), hearing bands say those fateful five words, 'so, what did you think?' and watching whoever they asked squirm as they tried to explain just how bad they really were without phrasing it in such a way that they risked being punched. :D
 
That reminds me of a time, back in the 80's, when we sent out a million demo tapes to everyone we could think of.
Very few had the courtesy to even reply. ZTT records (Trevor 'Buggles' Horn label) did send one back to us, even returning our tape, stating that they were a specialist record label and the current market did not hold a place for bands such as ours, etc, etc.which was all to be expected really. Then he ended the letter with "So, anyway, what the f*** do you want?", which was the best reply we ever had. I think our singer still has that framed in his bog.
 
Now I'm being reminded of a 1980s classic. The Comic Strip Presents "Private Enterprise", which was utterly brilliant.
 
Hi @Veggie Dave you're right it is a rediculous key. I play in a small band with a female vocalist and frequently end up playing obscure keys to accommodate the key changes needed for the vocal range. Still it all serves to concentrate the mind (and fingers).
 
I play in a small band with a female vocalist and frequently end up playing obscure keys to accommodate the key changes needed for the vocal range.

That was something that really amazed me last week at the jazz jam I went to last week - the pianist was able to transpose to what ever key the singer hummed almost instantly. I would say the same for the bass player, too, but as a bass player I can say it's just not in the same league at all. ;)
 
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:yess:

I'm obviously going to have to learn to play the trumpet so that I can be my own brass section. ;)

I did start for a year or so to play cornet in a Brass band and enjoyed the instrument but they were a competing band so might spent 2 hours going over and over the same couple of bars. Enough to drive you nuts. Took the opportunity to join a Big Band when it came.

What's the difference between a Brass Band and a Big Band?

A. Brass Band = Rum - tee - tum - tee - tum. Big Band = La - Dee - Da - Dee - Da!
 
I dig it. Another song in your signature style, I'd say.

I don't think F# minor is so bad, though (especially if you play pentatonic!) :). To me the hardest keys on sax are concert E and B major. I tend to end up playing in the more difficult keys on sax as I gravitate towards them when I write on the piano.

Anyway, I tip my hat to you, sir.

Oh and is your new profile picture a picture of you? If so, you are scary. :D
 
I don't think F# minor is so bad, though (especially if you play pentatonic!) :).

F#m on tenor is one of my favourite keys, but F#m concert (G#m on tenor) is a rather different kettle of squid. ;)

Oh and is your new profile picture a picture of you? If so, you are scary. :D

Fear the saxophonist!

:D
 
Before tackling any theme in an unfamiliar key it pays to put in a little scale practice, to tune your ear and familiarise your fingers. Chromatic top to bottom to remind your fingers where everything is. Scale then arpeggios then blues scale then a little 12 bar boogie woogie. Half an hour will get the fingers flowing. In a perfect world we'd put in enough practice on all scales to be fluent, but in a perfect world the saxophone wouldn't exist.

It some times helps get your head round a key if you use the other name. G# minor is more daunting than Ab minor. It must be a saxophone thing. Flats we like but sharps intimidate us.
 

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