Such brutal honesty! We really are our own best critics. 😅 My favorite part of this clip was your wrap up and explanation of your thought process. I have over a decade on you in my “music journey”, but I haven’t had a mindset of active study/learning (even just from myself listening to recordings) since my junior college days. Thank you for providing this insight and inspiration; I’m going to start with recording myself with the specific goal of review and constructive criticism like you did here. What’s your set up for recording during a gig like you did here? I play around a lot of Latin percussion, so being able to hear myself clearly is my only real need. Cheers.
Hey thank you so much!! I just use my phone which probably isn’t ideal😰 it’s alright if you keep it close to your horn. In the wedding band clips you can hear how quiet I am when my phone is further away. I’d just experiment with a few different angles to see what works best for you! I appreciate you watching🙏🏻
So I just started watching your videos after a 3 year break from playing Alto/Tenor. I really enjoy your clips and playing styles. Regardless, we are our own worse critics, but you are killing it my man!
@@FoolishFrankie keep up the good work, I can hear your "difference" in sound and layers on every video I watched. What are you playing for horns? I am a Conn guy, but am extremely lucky to be the current caretaker of an unmarked custom Conn tenor that used to be owned by Cannonball.
I photograph weddings and YES people love a good solo at weddings! Live bands are so fun, you get so much love and support. They are just there to have a great time. Thanks for sharing all this, I'm a sax player in another life 😅so it's fun to see you talking about my two worlds.
Thanks! Believe it or not, as a long time pro musician, I find your videos really motivating! I think you also have a really great sound, work ethic and dedication that is required to succeed!
It's so cool to see the failures and progression live. It's feels so good to hear and see other musicians be as critic as we can be with ourselves. Seeing only the final productions all the time, you end up thinking it's never good enough. Thanks to you I realise that it's fine to mess up from time to time in live. Thank you so much for this video ! 🙏
Great video man, congrats for being so honest with yourself. I had a teacher that once told me "there's no wrong note, just remember it's your career" LOL. Keep it up.
Man you're sounding great! I can't remember who it's by but the 'four octave saxophone' book was a total game changer for me with altissimo and getting high notes to speak as well as getting intonation and breath control crazy secure - its basically long tones through the overtone series and then exercises based on playing saxophone like a trumpet. Its super hard at first but once you get it you'll be shocked!
I find these kind of videos pretty interesting. I'm more experienced with singing than with playing any instruments what so ever. And because of this video, I just realised that I don't even know how a saxophone is supposed to sound? I mean, I know there are different music genres and different ways it can sound. But you could have played me some of those clips and I wouldn't even know something went wrong. Maybe it's worth remembering that, for someone who is very critical with themselfs :D
STABLEMATES Also I feel you man, I absolutely hate my sound on tenor but I've had friends tell me I sound way better on tenor than I do on alto despite not playing it nearly as much 😅
This is so enlightening. I'm no musician, but it definitely works the same in any career. Self assessment and monitoring will help you reach new heights. And you're only 23! By the time you get to 30 you'll be a huge star. I just know it.
Wow, I've gone through this process of analysis/dissection a thousand times by myself. I've never seen a player do it publicly. I really enjoyed the video. You are a very talented sax player!
After listening to this video I see myself practicing different. I now understand the importance of performing regularily. One thing you mentioned that I totaly agree to is 'being messy infront of an audience is the worst thing we saxophonists have to endure😁💯'. It is for sure. Comment on behalf of many Kenyan saxophonists😁.
What fingering for high G? If your horn has an F# key (I think yours does), try the "Crunch" fingering if you're not. Basically Bis Bb and RH Pointer, Side Bb and High F# Key. Gotta love the Wedding/GB Life. I think it's a fun gig too-and they pay isn't bad compared to most other gigs out there.
Here’s the thing - from an outsider like me who knows nothing about music, I think you sounded great. I will also tell you that probably 95 percent if not more of the guests probably wouldn’t even notice. I think you’re too hard on yourself.
This is so weird. at 4.36 if I were to play it like that I'd be kicking myself and unable get it out of my mind but watching you play it is fine and feels like no big deal tbh haha. I guess everybody is their own worst critic
Agree about the intonation issues. Regardless, subjectively I think tone is way more important than intonation. It's like with singers. It can be "correct" but soulless, I'd rather I'd hear beauty and forgive some intonation. Of course in a section there's no forgiveness, but that's when there's usually parts written :)
This was so helpful, thank you for sharing it! I'm learning the alto sax and the intonation when going above the first octave drives me crazy (Db is my nightmare). Could you share what do you practice when you work on that? Drones? Playing in front of a tuner?
@@FoolishFrankiejust found it, thank you! I can’t roll my r’s either so I thought there was no hope for me but I’m glad to hear you have the same problem haha. Just gotta fine tune my voicing technique! Thanks again!
The intonation problems, especially on brief notes, doesn't bother me much. If I played them, I'm sure they world. But what bothers me here is the reversed videos!
You must tune your saxophone higher so that you can relax your embouchure and you can support your tuning more with the air than with the firmness of your embouchure. Another exercise that can help you is to always practice playing completely straight without vibrato so that you know where the center of your pitch is. You have very good tone on your alto saxophone but you must work on your tuning. I think you use vibrato a lot because it makes it sound less pitchy.
1:59 I feel this dude. I’ll play something in concert and people will come up after and tell me that it was fantastic when I was literally about to die of shame on stage. That little scoff noise is my entire existence when playing with any of the full ensembles my school has. (I’m the principal trumpet at a small school so the directors pretty much force me to play in everything except the freshmen quintets and stuff. I don’t hate it because I get to play more, but it’s a lot of music to keep track of lol.)
When you say bad intentonation, I cannot hear it. Either I am not familiar enough with what it should sound like or you are just hearing small things to work on.
I usually can pick out when something is out of tune, but it takes a minute to find, does this practically instant recognition of bad intonation just develop as you progress in musical ability?
Frankie popped up in my feed again! Yay! As a jazz musician, or rather jazzy*, I’ve seriously never felt so related to. Hearing you talk about how people will tell you to play quieter HITS HOME. I get if it’s too much for the setting and it can* be totally understandable, but being in the background, I feel erased when they’re so persistent in how quiet it’s gotta be. At that point, what is the point of even having me if I’m just meant to be so meek? They don’t always want you for the sound, but rather the appearances. It’s like I’m a novelty, which I started to realize I sort of am the more people put me on the spot like a clown. When you essentially said, “Do you really* want me for the music?” Truer words have never been spoken even if it’s not exactly what you said. *Quietly plays a 7 chord. Major or minor? You decide.* THE LIKE COUNTER LMAOOOOOOOOOO, like, I liked that a lot. :)
As a bass trombonist (played trombone for 10 years 7 of those on bass trombone) The hardest part of being a musician is messing up for sure But my worst mess up was during a symphonic band concert at what trombone players are extremely good at doing which is playing loud and aggressive (we were playing bruckner 8 if you know you know) and I could not get a grasp on the constant time changes making my playing sound immature and not very good. It sucked but I played my jazz solo in jazz band the next day nearly flawlessly and my lessons instructor gave me a high five after jazz rehearsal which felt good to redeem myself Great video Love from Sweden
2:30 Yes, this! Do you want live music or not? 😄 Aligning expectations can be difficult. I like to see this thought process for evaluating your own playing - it can be quite tough, and for some reason I personally find it harder to accept my mistakes with age. I find it helpful to remember, that rewinding and listening to the same mistake again and again (and would you know, it's still there 😅) is not representative for what the audience experienced when they heard it once. And in most cases didn't notice in the first place anyway. I think you have a great learning mindset about your review process, make sure to keep it 🙂
This is awesome. You say you hope this will be useful for people younger than you, but I'm 40 years older :) and playing a mixture of jazz, rock and wedding type gigs. I find your playing to be beautiful on both horns and the way you break down your playing is awesome and so useful to me! Thanks, man
I have a friend who is on the same high level of pro musicians as you. Plays at weddings with elite musicians, in a salsa band, etc. etc. but doesn't really open up about it. I really appreciate you giving us a look into that world (and the others you interview and let you share about them I thank also). You are a super creative, adventurous, stellar player. Did I mention humorous :) The thing I really like though is how transparent you are about fails. Most people don't post, let alone point them out. Thank you. I think it gives us all a huge lift. I know it does me.
