You Might not know his name but I’ll bet you’ve heard him play…
I first heard Nigel Hitchcock play on with the incredible sax quartet Itchy Fingers in the late 1980’s. He was just a teenager then and as legend goes, he memorised the entire show of arrangements on the journey to the gig!
Read the interview with Nigel where he shares this story here.
After Itchy Fingers, Nigel went on to be an incredibly busy pop session sax player recording with a huge list of artists from James Brown, to Cher, Aretha Franklin to the Spice Girls! He has toured the USA with Mark Knopfler and written for symphony orchestras.
What we cover in this Guest Session
Nigel shares a bunch of tips on his process for learning and improving on saxophone, plus his latest projects including:
New Album: Q4 – “Uphill Struggle”
Nigel’s latest project is a new album called “Uphill Struggle” with the brilliant saxophone quartet Q4 which he runs with Tini Thomsen (another amazing saxophonist, and his wife!)
Nigel shares his process for composing the tracks from the album, plus how he gets inspiration for the melodies. Also, how he approached constructing the intricate arrangements for the quartet – incredible!
How to improve your “time” as a saxophone player
Nigel shares some brilliant tips on why “time” and rhythmic accuracy is so important as a sax player and how he has worked this himself.
How to practice without your saxophone
This tip is amazing, and probably one of the keys to Nigel’s awesome technique on saxophone. Nigel shares how he transitioned from regular practice, to working on his playing “in his head”. See if you can get your “head” around this – incredible!
How to write better horn section parts as a saxophone player
Also in this session, Nigel shares his tips on how to write horn section parts that really work from his years of experience writing and playing with some of the best horn sections in the world.
Plus lots more…
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