Sometimes the best writing comes from just playing

Rather than trying to write a particular thing I’ll often just start playing things either on one of my saxes or my EWI. I’ll just pick a key and start noodling around and see if anything strikes me. Once I get a fragment of a line I like I start to play permutations until I have something that really flows. That’s when I hit record (if I haven’t been recording the whole time which I often do – I mean digital recording is practically free) and start trying to fill it out, playing around with it in different tonal areas, figuring out where it might go for a bridge, etc. Later, I can cut and paste parts together to spell out whatever melody I have in mind. At this stage I don’t worry about chords or bass lines or drums because all that stuff can come later…I just want the melody to be something I can believe in and I don’t want to step on parts that other people will most likely play. That brings me to my second point.

Leave the parts to the guys who know them best

There are several reasons I think this is important. First, I can play some keys but I don’t play bass or drums or guitar. Things I come up with for those parts might make no sense to people who actually play them and I also don’t want to adversely affect how they feel about playing their own stuff. Second, anything I come up with would probably pale in comparison to something a real player could come develop. Third, I’ve seen it a lot where someone spends a lot of time working up a part for some instrument they don’t play but when the time comes to bring the actual player in it becomes apparent that they are now so “in love” with the part they wrote they just can’t hear anything else played except what they’ve been listening to and obsessing over for so long…this seriously hamstrings the player and is a disservice to their talent and creativity. Finally, it wastes a lot of time that could be spent more productively and often gives you reasons to procrastinate…which brings me to my next point:

Don’t waste time

Writing music is fun, fascinating, and fulfilling but it can also be darn hard and as such is a ripe environment for procrastination. It comes in a lot of forms whether it’s getting lost in the minutiae of recording techniques or spending hours making the “just perfect” drum part or losing focus to mess with your reeds or mouthpiece or whatever. Finding ways to combat these all too easy to fall into traps will be the ticket to making sure you make the best use of your available time. Here are a couple of hints:

Make sure you are ready to go as quickly as possible – Nothing wastes time like trying to get yourself ready to do what you’re supposed to be doing whether it is writing, or practicing, or whatever. Try to get yourself set up so there is very little barrier to entry. I use my laptop for recording so it’s just a matter of opening up a blank song in Reason and either pulling out a sax or plugging in my EWI. I have a microphone ready to go on a stand and I only have to make two connections to be ready to record live.

Don’t waste time on arranging save it for actual writing – I mentioned this above when I talked about leaving the parts for the experts but there’s another reason. It’s incredibly easy to waste time messing with drum parts and bass parts and whatever else. I’ve gleefully spent several hours messing with trying to find the exact right patch for a keyboard part before realizing it was past time for bed and I hadn’t really done anything. Go with your gut, take a sound that’s close, and stick with the stuff that’s really important. If you really do want to take time to work on parts then just make that the point of your session rather than trying to accomplish both things.

Sometimes the magic happens and sometimes it doesn’t – When things click it’s a great feeling but even the greatest writers have bad days. Don’t beat yourself up. Be thankful you took the time and made the effort and try to learn from what you did. Also save everything because you never know when the kernel of an idea from a non-productive day wil turn into magic on a day when you are firing on all cylinders.

As with my last post, my topic comes partially from a post on Sax on the Web Forum.  In it, a younger player laments how dejected he is and how embarrassed he has been to play ever since the first time he tried to play the horn. This struck me as odd because it’s very rare for someone to be good at something right from the start. Also, I don’t think anyone has ever sounded great the first time they picked up a saxophone without some other prior knowledge like playing another instrument. Luckily, I had saved a link several months ago with the intention of writing a post about it and now I have the perfect opportunity.

I love Lifehacker and I get tons of great advice from them and, yes, even some great ideas for blog posts. Back in November they posted an article that was itself sort of a repost from a blog from a blogger and author named David Kadavy. The post was about giving yourself the permission to suck and it struck me as being both a very interesting viewpoint as well as being very appropriate to musicians. In a way, David’s post was very closely related in intent to another famous statement from Ira Glass who was speaking about writing. You can watch that Youtube video but I actually prefer this version:

http://vimeo.com/24715531#at=0

The point of all of these statements is that everyone has to start somewhere and you will probably not be very good for quite a while. In fact, it’s safe to say that everyone you might idolize whether it is Chris Potter, or Michael Brecker, or Bob Sheppard, or even the person  sitting first chair in your middle school band started right where you were or are and maybe they weren’t even that good. What they have is drive, perseverance, and a desire to improve and that’s something that anyone can have and use. One of the problems we often run into is summed up in another quote:

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel”  Steven Furtick

This is a very important distinction because when you are living your day-to-day life it’s often hard to see any real progress because progress is often minimal and incremental. Have you ever tried to lose weight and you keep looking at the scale and thinking you aren’t making any progress only to have someone who hasn’t seen you in a while tell you how thin you look? The reason that they see it and you don’t is because you are mired in it and they can look fresh from a point of reference that is removed from that standpoint. They can compare you to the last time they saw you so what is incremental and minimal for you could be striking depending on how long it’s been since they saw you.  The same is true for music or art or any other creative endeavor you attempt.

The key is that it has to be okay to suck and that your gratification may be delayed but if you care about it and want it then you can find ways to improve without losing heart. The other key is recognizing that we’re human and we will always find some comparison that will make us believe we still suck…and we probably do but it should be a call to action rather than a disincentive. Here are a couple personal examples:

• My playing has come a long way over the years and it’s good enough to make me a sought after member of my local community but if I listen to Chris Potter or any of my other idols or even some other players in my area I can find ways that I still suck and maybe even suck really bad. That’s cool, I may never be as good as those people but I’m game to try.
• Last summer I decided to write this blog.  I sucked at it then, I probably still suck at it now but I’m enjoying myself and I like having a place to get these thoughts off my head.  An old Monty Python line comes to mind, “I’ve suffered for my art…now it’s your turn”.
• I used to be a fairly good doubler on saxophone and flute but several years of not having a reason to play them have left me woefully lame on them. I’m getting ready to start at least practicing flute again to get back where I was because I think there’s work out there if I do it…long tones here I come. Clarinet? Not so much but I may start messing with bass clarinet real soon. I’ll suck of course but it’s all about the challenge and entering uncharted territory.
• One of my hobbies is bonsai gardening and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I truly suck at it but it provides me with another chance for expression and a lot of stress relief.  I’ll keep plodding along and I’ll probably sacrifice a few more trees to the bonsai deities but I have every intention of producing show-able trees before I stop. I may even start a blog about my journey to help push myself.

Anyway, I’m probably a little long for this post but check out the various links in my post because I think you will find they say things different and, yes, in some cases much better. But that’s okay.

I spend a lot of time on a forum called Sax on the Web but I generally don’t post a ton. Part of the reason is because there’s a lot of other guys that often jump in with great, helpful stuff. Of course, it’s also the internet so there’s also a lot of hate and misinformation and I generally like to stay out of that kind of stuff. One of the questions that seems to be coming up a lot lately is related to overtones so I thought I would put a post together with my thoughts.

The question that got me thinking about this was someone asking if overtones created your tone or if your tone made overtones better. That was followed soon after by another thread asking why practicing overtones helps at all. The second one might be better left to someone else but the first one is interesting and sort of relevant but maybe also a bit misguided.  I mean of course having a better tone would probably lead to better overtones but I think that’s a little cart before the horse.

First let’s discuss what overtones are in case you’re unfamiliar with the concept. A bugle is an instrument that is played entirely with overtones. A basic bugle has no valve so there is only the tube. The bugler can make a base tone by buzzing their lips so that you are getting a wave that is based solely on the length of the tube – the fundamental. If they blow a little harder and tighten their lips they can get a perfect 5th higher than that.  Further air speed and embouchure increases will then add a perfect 4th, a major third, a minor third, and so on. Some of the partials (the intervals introduced as you go along) are not perfectly in tune but they are functional. You can get the same effect with a saxophone and even change the fundamental depending on what note you start with. We usually work with the fundamentals based on low Bb, B, and C but you can get some partials from many different notes.

So how can overtones help your tone? Well first they are the gateway to the altissimo – notes higher than the “normal” keyed notes on a saxophone. Learning to control the overtone series will really help dial in your ability to control notes in the altissimo. The possibly bigger payoff is how well you can open up your tone by matching partials to the actual fingered note (and vice versa). Try this: Play a middle Bb and then finger a low Bb and try to play the same note in the same octave. It may take a few tries but you will get it – try playing the Bb with the bis key and then quickly adding the low Bb fingering without changing your embouchure. Once you have that, try doing the same thing with a top line F. You can keep the octave key down when you finger the low Bb but later it can be optional. Once again, try to match the tones of the two notes. You can continue going up the overtone series doing the same thing and trust me it will help your tone and help set your embouchure.

So back to the original question about whether overtones lead to better chops or better chops lead to better overtones. Like I said, your advancing embouchure will lead to better, more-controlled overtones but it comes down to one of the most important aspects of practice…intention. You may have heard that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. If not, you should check it out because it’s a very fascinating concept. The thing is, he didn’t really do any scientific studies to come up with that number so the time to mastery could be shorter or longer and it may differ depending on the pursuit and the individual. I think that it’s possible to achieve mastery in 10,000 hours or less by just noodling around and playing a lot but I believe that the time could be cut significantly if the time you spend mastering something is filled with intention. You should have something specific to work on and a goal in mind every time you pick up the horn and something like practicing the overtone series is a great pont of intention for your sessions.

If you’re interested in spending more time with overtones and tone development you could try several books that are out there like Top Tones by Sigurd Rascher that’s been around forever. Another great alternative is a book I reviewed a little while back called: A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist by Ben Britton.

Ben Britton is a wonderful saxophonist who I met online a year or so ago. I listened to some of his sound samples and reached out to him because I loved what I heard. He’s a jazz musician, an educator, a blogger, and now an author. With this book, Ben is bringing many years of personal experience as well as a lifetime of lessons from such wonderful players and teachers as George Garzone, Chris Potter, Walt Weiskopf and others. If you are willing to put the work in you could end up with the sound you’ve always heard in your head (or on recordings).

When I was in college I think my sax teacher was more of a Larry Teal guy as opposed to a Joe Allard or Sigurd Rascher guy (the approach that Ben presents). So I was taught to take a lot less mouthpiece than what I do now and my embouchure shape was different although it should be noted my teacher did recognize that I didn’t fully fit into his approach. He liked my sound anyway so he let me go on many things. In the intervening years as I have played more and more in many varied situations I have learned a lot from talking to numerous people and my approach is much closer to what is in this book but there are definitely things I was unaware of and things I have lapsed on that could be better.

The book starts off simply enough with a discussion of air support and embouchure and their importance as a foundation for everything else that you will be adding as you go through the book. There are two chapters dedicated to these important concepts and the stage is set for future chapters as the exercises go from easy to challenging. You can do as much as you are comfortable with and then add more advanced exercises as you feel your progression warrants it. There’s some really interesting stuff in these chapters that I think I’ve always done but no one ever explained to me what was going on or why it was important. The exercises start with mouthpiece only and progress through the expected long tones but then they get pretty advanced with the introduction of bends and sub-tones. I was really excited by the description of how the vocal chords can restrict volume without losing support…I use my vocal chords a lot but I was never sure if it was right.  Now I know that I wasn’t far off and I know how to make sure I am using them correctly in the future.

The book really starts to take off (at least for me) in chapters 3 and 4 where you learn much more about embouchure and air support. One of the key things for me was his discussion of rolling the lip out for more flexibility and a full tone. It’s something I used to do all the time but I discovered that I had lapsed into a more tucked lip especially as my chops started to get tired on a gig. It’s going to be a process to change back but the included exercises once again will help build muscle memory and endurance. Another area I’ve always struggled with is tongue position. I have a tendency to have a lazy (usually positioned too low) tongue but truthfully I never knew exactly where it should be either (or had forgotten). The tongue bend exercises in chapter 4 actually do a great job of showing me where it should be by having me take it where it isn’t supposed to be in the bend.

Chapter 4 is also notable for the grueling overtone exercises Ben includes at the end of the chapter. This is a section you will want to ease into because it’s easy to get tired out very quickly and Ben points out that you should concentrate on tone quality above all else so you should stop when tone is being sacrificed. Don’t worry, playing these exercises as part of a daily regimen will build endurance and facility so there will always be new territory to chart. The exercises are divided into two parts with the second part much more challenging than the first.

Chapter 5 is dedicated to articulation and includes many exercises to make you pick apart what you are doing and get a feel for the correct way to do it. Chapter 6 is a very helpful discussion on incorporating all of the concepts into a daily warm up and practice regimen. Finally, there is a glossary for any terms you may not be familiar with.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, Ben also has numerous audio clips on his website demonstrating many of he key concepts from the book. You can download the whole package as a zip file. It’s very helpful to hear a great player demonstrate the difference between rolling your lip in or out or what the overtone exercises are supposed to sound like. I think having these examples really sets this book apart from other similar offerings on the market.

I think this is a book that anyone could benefit from whether you are just getting started or you’re a seasoned pro. For beginners it provides a great start and an excellent progression and it’s the kind of thing you can take to a lesson to discuss. For advanced players it’s a chance to look critically at your fundamentals and make sure you’re where you want to be. The book is not expensive but the information is incredibly valuable so do yourself a favor and buy it. I’m hoping to see more books from Ben in the future.

Ben has some sample exercises, the zip file of audio examples, and a pdf of the table of contents here. You can buy it at Amazon (best price), CreateSpace, or a less expensive digital version at Payhip.  It’s the Christmas season so put it on your list or treat yourself to something nice. I think you will be happy you did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Aq7Rn5g_E

I like how the horns for this song are just minimalist, well-placed hits and some choice long tones with interesting harmonies.  The key when playing playing stuff like this is putting the note exactly where it’s supposed to be because even a single quarter note played on the beat can have as much attitude as a whole Tower of Power tune if you do it right.  Once you are placing the notes exactly where they need to be in time then you need to listen to your trumpet player (or know him really well from years of playing together) and cut off exactly when he does.  The release is just as important as the attack.  The same is true if you’re doing a fall.  Many sax players like to fall chromatically all the way to the bottom of the horn but I always try to be out with or maybe just slightly before the trumpet because it’s their section.

I also get to play about 8 bars of “get hot quick” sax in the middle.  As much fun as it can be to have an open, extended solo to really explore all aspects of a song, there’s something visceral and intriguing about having to make a bold statement in just a few bars.    Something that fits the style and will hopefully give people something to remember as a counterpoint to all the wonderful singing going on and the funky rhythm section.  I’m not saying I think I always pull this off perfectly but it’s always a great and rewarding challenge to try.

I know I said this before but if you’re in the Baltimore area (or Nashville, NYC, or LA these days) and you get a chance to see Emma sing definitely go to hear some cool songs and some great singing.

On Friday night, the gig was in Washington D.C. at a place called the Hay-Adams.  This place is amazing because it commands a nearly unparalleled view of the White House and the surrounding areas.  In fact, I was standing right next to a French door that looked directly out on the White House.  Of course, getting there was another story altogether.  I left my house 90 minutes before I was supposed to arrive (usually a sub 60-minute trip) but I hit traffic basically the second I hit the highway and I was in stop and go for the entire trip.  It was a combination of the usual Friday evening mess combined with driving in and out of torrential downpours the whole way.  My GPS also told me a really dumb way to get there but I couldn’t be confident any other way would be better so I just sucked it up and arrived 30 minutes late but still ahead of gig time.  Not the first impression I wanted to make but the band was fine with it.  I did call ahead and let them know I was running behind.

Being the only horn player in a band you’ve never played with before is fun, challenging, and mentally draining all at the same time.  You really have to have your “ears on” because you never know what key a song might be in or if you’ve ever even heard it before and you definitely never know when they’re going to point at you to solo.  For example, they did Soul Man in G and I know I’ve never ever payed it in that key before.  I really had to be on my toes but luckily I’ve been doing this long enough that I was at least familiar with the vast majority of the songs.  If I would have changed anything I would have brought my EWI to play some synth stuff on some of the more modern songs rather than trying to figure out a sax line but maybe I’ll get that chance in the future.

It was good there was a microphone and music stand for me but I’m used to having in-ear monitors and the sound company didn’t even have me in the monitors so it was really hard to hear myself.  Much like playing outside, the tendency is to hear how dull and lifeless you sound (if you can even hear at all) and try to blow harder to generate the brightness and edge you think you are missing.  Overblowing is the worst thing you can do, though, as you will just tire yourself out and your tone will probably suffer in the long run.  One thing you should do in advance (and in general) is try to find a setup that will let you hear yourself well “behind the horn”.  This is a concept I first heard from another blogger and great saxophonist named Ben Britton and it’s a really important factor in choosing a setup I think.    It seems odd but you really can find a setup that maximizes what you can hear in situations when you are totally acoustic in a loud room where much of what you hear is through bone conduction.  It’s probably going to be trial and error at first to get an idea of what works for you…the only way to be sure is to actually play the setup on the gig.  Another thing you can do is try a different reed.  If you’re trying to combat overblowing you might want to use a stiffer reed.  For me, I have enough experience to keep from overblowing so I actually chose a slightly softer reed to get a little more brightness.  One more thing is to either position your music stand or some other object to get some bounce back from the bell much like the way sax players always play into a wall.  Finally, you could put in ear plugs to maximize how much bone conduction you are hearing but for me this is a last resort.

One more thing about this gig…it was continuous music.  That means the band is on stage for the entire contracted period (four hours in this case) and that was an additional trial for my chops.  Luckily, the band leader was very good at finding ways to give people breaks but even then the last two hours was non-stop stage time for me.  A couple of hints: try to have a solid knowledge of tunes that get called on the usual wedding gig.  That means a lot of Motown as well as some choice standards like Fly Me to the Moon, The Way You Look Tonight, and All of Me.  Also, it doesn’t hurt to spend some time listening to some more modern dance music and playing along just to have an idea of the lines that make up the song and the form.

Saturday night the band was in St Michael’s, MD at the Maritime Museum for another wedding but this one was outside in a tent.  As I mentioned, we had a section for this gig.  Being outside we had the additional challenge of having the horns get cold whenever we weren’t playing.  That meant that the horn would be quite flat until it warmed back up again.  I usually try to lip up as much as possible rather than trying to push in and then pull back out but depending on how cold the horn is you may not be able to get all the way up to pitch this way.  Luckily, brass warms up pretty quickly.  Because they were expecting the horns they brought books but as fate would have it, most of the songs didn’t have charts so we were left with making up parts as we went.  This was a little challenging since the three of us had never worked together as a section but ultimately we sounded fine and had a good time hanging out and telling war stories.  Another tip: Try to spend time practicing making up quick and easy horn lines and also practice finding simple harmonies for those same lines.  It will come in handy in situations like this.

The food at Hay-Adams was awesome even if I didn’t have much time to enjoy it.  It was salad, roast chicken, steamed veggies, and a risotto with asparagus in it.  Dinner in St. Michael’s was also chicken but it was accompanied by asian noodles, a different type of salad, and pre-packaged cookies.

I think we’ve all seen those pictures in the beginning of the method books where some dull looking dude in a suit demonstrates the proper posture for playing both sitting and standing but it just looks so boring and I want to be a hip jazz dude or a wailing rock guy; I don’t need to worry about posture I just want to look cool.  The real truth of the matter is that bad posture actually worsens your performance, keeping you from breathing correctly and constricting air flow.  Also, there are tons of examples of hip and cool players that have excellent posture…look at guys like Eric Alexander, Paul Booth, or Bob Reynolds.  Even the coolest guy ever, Clarence Clemons, stands very straight and tall while he plays.

There are several things that contributed to my bad posture including a lifetime of being at least somewhat overweight (and being self-conscious about it) or spending a lot of time in front of a computer without knowing how to set up my work area but playing the saxophone has been a major contributor.  One reason was my ignorance or misunderstanding of how to best position the saxophone and neck strap.  The other is the simple fact that hanging anywhere from 5 to 12 pounds (alto to bari on average) on a strap around your neck for prolonged periods of time is probably a bad idea.

Here’s a great article on how to check your posture in various ways and some exercises you can do to fix it if its bad.  One simple test that is missing from the article is checking your hands when you are standing straight with them at your side.  If they are naturally facing inward toward your hips, then your shoulders are lined up correctly.  If, on the other hand, they face backwards then your shoulders are slumped and you should do some of those shoulder strengthening and repositioning exercises.  I’ve learned a lot about my own posture over the years and for my part I’ve done many of those exercises as assigned by a physical therapist as well as a lot of pushups but I’ve gotten much better results and understanding by studying both Yoga and Tai Chi for the last few years.

Of course, none of that is any good if I didn’t take steps to fix my posture with the saxophone in my hands.  There are many things you can check but here are some tips:

• Stand tall with your weight equally distributed between your feat (side to side and front to back).  Try to feel weight in all four corners of your feet.
• When sitting, keep your back straight and keep both feet flat on the floor.
• Adjust the neck strap so that you don’t have to crane your neck in any way especially forward.  This usually means raising it higher than you might think you should.  It will probably be uncomfortable at first but it’s a great adjustment to make.
• Try to keep your shoulders lined up over your hips rather than twisting to one side or the other.  Check out mountain pose in Yoga or preparation posture in Tai Chi to get a feel for this.
• Try to be aware of your neck and shoulders and take steps to relax and straighten if you feel tension.
• Let your arms hang naturally from your shoulders and bend at the elbow to find the keys.  Try to keep your wrists flowing naturally from the end of your arms rather than bending or arcing them.

These guidelines are just that, guidelines, and you should still have fun and express yourself when the time is right.  You can do the opposite of all of those things for short periods of time if the mood hits you but for most of your playing take my advice and pay attention to your posture for your long term health and for the betterment of your playing.  Eliminating twists, relaxing your body, and standing straight will allow you to fill your lungs more fully and maximize your airflow.  Plus, your back and neck will thank you in the long run.  I am still a long way from a perfect posture but it gets better all the time.  In fact, every time someone posts a picture of me on Facebook I’m usually way more worried about whether my shoulders look rounded or if my neck is bent forward rather than how cool I look…I mean of course I look cool right?…right?  Never mind.  

One thing I am planning on buying to try over the next month or so is one of these straps.  I’m hoping that actually taking the weight from my neck and constantly pulling me forward will help but that’s for a future review.