So you’ve got a gig playing behind a singer, which is awesome – I bet you can’t wait to be up on stage jamming out with that singer.
But do you know how to play sax with a singer? Because if we are getting real here, most saxophone players completely butcher this the first time they try it.
And that’s because, without a clear strategy, it’s really hard to know what notes to play and even how to do this convincingly.
So in today’s session with the help of Matt from the Sax School tutor team, we are going to talk about 3 tactics that you can put into play straight away. With these 3 tactics you can make great choices about your notes and the ways you construct melodies, and rock it, up on stage with that singer.
Tactic #1: Playing in the gaps
If you’re brand new to how to play sax with a singer, what’s the very first thing to focus on?
“My biggest mistake that I did was overplaying, playing too much and trying to show off too quickly,” says Matt. “So we definitely want to focus on playing in the gaps. Give the singer a moment then respond. It’s like a conversation.”
A great example of this is Billy Joel’s New York State of Mind. “It’s one of my favourite saxophone pop saxophone moments when Billy will sing, and the sax player will play a little bit. They have that moment where the sax gets to shine, but it’s a lot of give and take and a lot of conversation,” says Matt.
So playing in the gaps is the first step.
And that’s a simple thing too. Just identifying the spaces in between, where the singer is not singing. And then there’s a space for you to come in as a saxophone player.
Example: Kanye West’s Good Life
Let’s look at a hip-hop example.
So if you were approaching how to play sax with a singer for the first time, what would be your process to find where those gaps are?
First, listen through and seeing exactly what he’s doing. Kanye West is a very lyrical rapper, so let’s take a listen through.
Let’s find the spaces and maybe mess around in those little spaces.
By the way, if you want to check out more about how to play sax behind a singer, and learn how you can develop those skills in your playing, then check out the lessons that Matt’s doing for us inside Sax School. And as I’m filming this, we’ve got a 14-day free trial. The link for that is down below.
Using these tactics
Matt has been doing a whole bunch of amazing gigs over the last few years, including touring with Brandon Flowers
“The Brandon Flowers gig was a blessing because it was very straightforward,” says Matt. “but, I get calls a lot to play with hip-hop artists. So specifically CyHi the Prynce on Kanye’s label when he was putting out a song called Long Damn Time. The producer sent me over, ‘Hey Matt, we want you to play over this song’.
With these recordings, Matt is using the 3 tactics we’re talking about today. “They’ll just send me the song and say, ‘we want saxophone- figure it out’. So I do very much utilize these skills because it’s exactly what I have to do.”
I think what’s also interesting about this conversation with Matt is what he’s doing for real on albums that are going out. But it’s the same process you can use, even if you’re just starting to play sax with a singer, local to you.
“Absolutely,” says Matt.” It doesn’t matter what level…these principles apply to everyone from the beginning to the most advanced player. I wish I had these when I was coming up.”
Tactic #2 Note Choices
So we know now not to play over the singer. We know we want to play in the gaps.
So how do we start making our note choices?
“Well, when they say there are no wrong notes, they lie!” says Matt. “So, I like to take inspiration from the track. I love to take inspiration from what the singer is doing. Or perhaps what a guitarist is doing or a synthesizer is doing. “but in hip hop, specifically this track, it’s great to take inspiration from the bass line.”
So for this process, you can listen to the track and specifically the bass line. Try to identify the notes and find them on your sax.
“I’ll listen to the bass line. I’ll write it down and just use those notes,” says Matt.
This is a brilliant tactic. You know those notes are going to work, because the bass player is actually using them.
And the bass notes are also often quite easy to identify, particularly in this sort of music, where the bass line might be quite repetitive.
And if you were in a gig and you didn’t have the luxury of taking the time to write those notes out, you can just speed up that process and do it on the fly. You can try to identify the notes on your sax.
“It doesn’t have to be all the bass notes,” says Matt. “If you’re having trouble hearing it or it’s muddy in the mix… if you get two or three notes then start with those. It doesn’t have to be the whole bass line, and you don’t have to play verbatim.”
That’s great advice. I know those players who are more experienced, get much faster at the process of hearing something and playing it quickly. But if you are newer to saxophone or earlier on your journey, it can be harder to find those notes.
I often see players who find one or two notes. And then as their solo goes on, or as the song goes on, they’ll start to discover more notes. And they’ll build up a little group of notes that they can use that they know are safe. It’s such a nice, easy way to make a solo that works.
“As you start playing over it, your ears open up, you get more accustomed to the song, and you start hearing things that you didn’t hear before,” says Matt. “And then you start to open up your arsenal into things that sound good.”
Tactic #3: Add interest with rhythm
Now you know when to play, and what notes to choose, how can we make it sound awesome when we play sax with a singer?
The answer is in the way we use rhythm.
Just one note
“And what’s fun about rhythm… is all these jazz cats – Miles Davis, Chet Baker, all these amazing players – they can play a rhythm on one note and it could sound amazing and captivate an audience,” says Matt.
“…I know it sounds crazy, but you use one really good note and change up the rhythm and make it fun, make it simple, make it intricate… It’ll sound amazing. …And if it sounds good, on one note, think about if you just had two!”
Keeping it super simple is a great thing to have in the back of your mind. And it’s a great tool if you’re feeling a little bit stressed or pressured when you’re having to make up these solos.
Take rhythm ideas from the song
But there’s another great way that you can come up with new ideas too. Just like when we looked at the bass line for melody notes, we could look at the song itself for rhythmical ideas too.
“Absolutely. There’s a nice sample in this Kanye song. You can play that [rhythm] the whole time and it would sound amazing and you could do it on one note and it would just groove,” says Matt.
Again, the most effective solos are often the most simple. When you’re going to play sax with a singer, it’s easy to make the mistake of thinking it needs to be complicated. “that’s not what people want to hear with a pop saxophone over a pop track,” says Matt. “….You just want a groove. And so if it’s a simple melody with just one or two notes but it grooves, whew, that’s all you need! You’re good.”
And when you’re taking rhythms from the actual texture of the song itself, it’s familiar. You already know it works, but it’s familiar to the listener too.
So in every way, it’s going to be an easy choice for you, and an easy thing to listen to for the audience. So it works.
Watch as Matt demos how this works with a track.
3 Bonus Tips
- It’s not about you. When you play sax with a singer, you’re there to complement what they are doing.
- Keep it simple. Play strong, clear melodies and rhythms. Whatever you play, play it confidently and it’ll sound good.
- Practice makes perfect. So you might feel uncomfortable when you’re doing this at the start. If you can employ these simple tactics we’ve been talking about today, it’ll make it easier.
- But every time you do it, it’s going to become more comfortable for you. You’re going to be more confident, it’s going to be easier. And most importantly, you’re going to have a lot more fun.
Learn more awesome tactics for playing sax with a singer in Matt’s course, inside Sax School PRO. Get access with a 14 day free trial here.