I tried for years trying to play by ear but I eventually gave up & started using my fingers instead and quickly improved! 🤣 (My headaches stopped too!)👍 Anyhoo GREAT video as usual
Great video! Like always! 😃😃😃 For me playing by ear is a ability that needs to be trained. I started doing this about a year ago because I didn't want to be so "caught up in the sheet music" all of the time. The beginning wasn't easy, but I've developed a technique that works great for me. This is how I do it: 1. Find out which key it is. It reduces the number of possible notes. And, it makes it easier to figure out if it's a half step or a whole step. 2. Work on the song bar by bar (never do the whole song/solo at once). Yes this takes time, but it`s very effective. 3. Singing helps 4. A looping app / program also helps because you can reduce the tempo and really listen closely. Listen to the measure over and over again until you memorize it, then try to play it note by note. 5. Start with easy songs. At a certain point your ears are able to pick things out. Scott, I'd still love to hear "I Can't Make You Love Me" from you. That would be so awesome! 😍😍😍
I mastered playing by ear during one intense summer of practice about 3 hrs/day. Eventually I could readily play any recorded number nearly error free the first time having never heard it before. I accomplished this unencumbered by the concept of playing the next note correctly without know what it is is impossible. This all happened in my first year. I could play stuff that was far far beyond my ability to sight read it. As long as it was within my ability to move my fingers I could play it. I didn't have any Paganini recordings. I felt like I was cheating and thought this would be detrimental to my sight reading progress. So I never let anyone know i could do it. If I were playing in a band next to a good player I could "read" as well with my eyes closed as open by just following the other guy. Weird right? I completed my music education and went on to sight read thousands of numbers in various venues in decades of playing. I avoided playing by ear. Only one time did I ear play for someone. After an upsetting comment to friends wife struggling with a Phil Woods solo she said she would like to see me play this. An odd response because she thought I was an engineer not a musician. I barely knew her. She didn't know I had a couple of decades of woodwind experience. When I reached for the Alto she was taken aback and froze. In a moment I said do you want me to play it or not? She chuckled and then reluctantly offered the instrument but was shocked again when I asked for the neck strap. I played a single note to test the reed and said go ahead. I played what she struggled with easily and error free She tells the story "played like he wrote it". She could not accept that I played this right the first time but it never occurred to her that I heard her try twice so it was really my third time. She challenged me on other numbers on the album which I easily played and then she said I have to have this record. I didn't have it nor had a touched an Alto for 20 years. (tenor and Soprano yes). Determine to destroy me she brought out a recording of her band that was an original composition and never played in public. She said I've got something you can't possibly play. I easily did and we were great friends from then on. She never asked me to play again. Sadly she died of cancer a decade later. Although I'm not a singer, I equate ear playing to singing. A singer and to some extent a violin player has no fixed inherent pitch control system. Where as wind instruments have keys and buttons. A singer has to learn how to produce pitches just by ear. If they are singing without accompaniment the note pitches are up to them. Some singers can do this well and some can't. I think playing by ear is just like singing along except the Sax is your voice. The ear playing skill is the ability to think of a pitch and autonomically and accurately produce it on the instrument. I wonder if skilled singers would be quicker to master playing by ear? Like getting to Carnegie Hall, ear playing just takes practice, practice, practice.
I have been playing for three years now, and started practising playing by ear yesterday. I readmusic fine, and have memorised 12 songs so far.but I often play the wrong notes when I’m performing. Therefore, I hope playing by ear would greatly increase my ability and playing anything on the saxophone. I was really inspired by your comment. Thank you so much😊
I am trying to learn Spain of Chick .I slowed the hardest part and write down the notes.then transferred to sax.I think I will achieve soon .not so easy song but slowing down has made my day.I can sing that fast passage and mostly playing that part .Thanks to my ears and you too .
I am a KEYBoard player I desire to play a SAXOPHONE but I have NO accses to saxophone and there is NO teacher here for SAXOphone but there is ONLY a PIANO-teacher and so , I learned to play a PIANO ins-tead . JULY 8, 2021 at 11:00 A.M. Philippines .
Your theory is very usefull to beginner specially to late bloomer musicians who started learning instrument in their 20s but useful also to classical player note reader shifting to pop tunes playing
A song I would really like to play by ear is How Could an Angel Break My Heart. Love your teaching. I am a new sax player, but I'm retired so have lots of time to practice.
Hey Thomas! That's a great tune to start with as it has a lot of scale movement. It's in the key of D major on the alto. The song starts on the 3rd note of the D scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D) and goes up... (1st phrase) F#, F#, G, G, A, A, B, B (2nd phrase) G, G, A, A, B, B, C#, C# That should get you started! If you're looking for some direction in what to practice. Check out my Sax School. www.scottpaddocksaxschool.com
Great tutorial once again! On a side note, the great tone you produce on your alto makes me pick up my own alto more often. I usually play bari. Thanks much, Scott
Thanks for this very good tutorial. May I suggest a part 2 on how to place the melody with the rhythm and backing track. This is where I struggle currently with "my way" soung.
Thanks once again for taking the trouble to help us out. I will certainly be putting your advice into practice. I would love to be able to play Hejira by ear..... maybe one day - 😞.
It would be fascinating to learn how you developed your own distinctive recognizable sound, style. Is it still evolving? Who are your major musician influences? Etc.
I have sat down to do this video several times, and it is soooooooo hard to boil it down to just a couple things. I'll put it on the list and give it another try. Thanks!
i follow you...here in romania it's some kind of double toughing...butt fast...over 160 beats...but they use tip of the toung..up one note ..down one note..and they sincronise fingers...its way another technic that you are explenatbone time how to toughing...if you have some time pleas search romanian sax players..and try to figure out and explain how they do
A lot of excellent advices Scott!! As you said, I’ll add this technique part of my practice. Not an special song, but I would like to know how yo identify the change of the cords and which one are in the song 🙏🏽
Think of PICK UP THE PIECES being Fmaj7 and D-7. So almost the whole tune is jumping around those chord tones with a few scale degrees thrown in. F A C E / D F A C (for alto). Also, listen at 75% or 50%, on RU-vid or a looper app.
It's in F# major on the alto sax and the first part goes: F# G# A# / F# G# A# / F# G# F# Figure out the rest using your F# major scale: F# G# A# B C# D# E# F# (not the easiest key)
