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PodchaserG’day, Nigel here. Welcome back to the Sax School Online Podcast.
In this episode, we are discussing what life is like playing sax on tour. Plus, we’ll be sharing some stories from our experience on the road.
I’m glad you can join us today. Joining me for the conversation were two of my best guys from the Sax School Tutor Team, Fred Vigdor and Joel Purnell. Hey guys, how are you doing?
N: I hope you’re ready to share some stories, because I’m interested in digging into this topic today.
But also just real quick, if you do enjoy content like this, it would help us if you could share this podcast with just one other person. We want to reach more people like you, and we would appreciate your help.
In today’s episode
N: So I remember when I was just getting started with my career and I always wanted to hear those stories from guys that were out touring and doing that pro saxophone thing. So I thought it would be fun today for us to share some of our stories and hopefully, it’ll give you a bit of inspiration and ideas about what you might be able to do in your life as a saxophone player too. So there’s lots to dig into there.
Fred plays Earth, Wind & Fire
N: But first of all, as always, I’d love to know what you guys have been up to since we caught up last. Fred, what’s been keeping you busy?
F: Well, in addition to Average White Band, some friends of mine who used to play with Earth, Wind, & Fire have an Earth, Wind & Fire legacy band. And they go out and do gigs.
It’s been a while since I’ve done it, so I have to start to get all that music together again. I haven’t played it in about 2 years, I think. It’s been a while. It’s been since I moved here to St. Louis and there’s some there’s some interesting things in there. You know, those Jerry Hey parts are not easy and there’s a lot of tonguing.
N: I was going to say that. There’s some fierce tonguing in those parts.
F: So don’t ask me how I’m going to do it. Yeah, it’s going to keep me busy.
N: Cool. And what about you, Joel? What do you, what have you been keeping yourself busy with?
Joel on improvising
J: Well, I’ve been working on a sound in improvisation. So I love the sound of what’s called the augmented scale, which is one of the three symmetrical scales.
There’s a whole tone scale and a diminished scale, and the augmented scale, which is a structure that goes minor third, semitone, minor third, semitone, and keeps repeating like that. But it’s got a haunting sound to it, I think. It always reminds me of kind of sci-fi films and all that kind of stuff.
And it’s a six-note scale, so it’s a naturally Hexatonic scale. And hexatonic scales have a particular property, where you can always subdivide them into two triads, and get what are called triad pairs. I did a video on YouTube for Sax School recently about that, and it comes up in a few of my Explore Jazz lessons as well. I’m a bit of a fan of triad pairs.
Anyway, I’ve found a nice one in there. So if it was C augmented, for example, I’d use a C major triad with an A flat minor triad and it gives us a sound that I can only describe as reminding me of Harry Potter. That’s the only way I can describe it! It’s hard to put words on some things in music, but I love this sound.
So I’ve just been finding different ways of using it and trying it over different chord types and just trying to get it into my sound and playing and improv ideas. So yeah, not as fun as what Fred’s been doing, maybe, but my type of fun.
N: Well, I don’t know, a bit of “Expelliarmus”, a bit of Harry Potter-ing – I think I’d rather do that than work on my tonguing! That sounds like hard work.
Well, I’ve been doing something fun. I had a saxophone sent over to me this last week. It’s a Jean Paul 860S. It’s like their pro tenor sax and it’s a silver one. I don’t know if you can see it behind me up there.
So I’ve been working with that, playing it, getting used to it, and checking it out. Because I quite like the Jean Paul saxophones. A lot of our Sax School members use them, particularly the beginner and intermediate players because they’re well-priced. I think they play well too, for that sort of beginner – intermediate phase.
So, the tenor though, is that going to be a good saxophone? I’m not sure. That’s what I’m curious to check out. So I’ve been spending some time playing with that. And keep an eye out, there’ll be a review coming out for that soon. That’s been keeping me busy along with, as ever, still working on Weekender Music. Aren’t I a lucky guy?
Playing sax on tour – what’s it like?
N: So a big part of most busy pro sax players’ lives is touring, But this can take lots of different shapes. And I want to dig into your experience, Fred, because you’ve been playing with Average White Band for like 20-plus years, right? What an amazing gig. And of the three of us I think, you’re the only one that is still out touring all the time.
But Joel, you and I, we’ve both spent many years out touring doing various things. So maybe we can start with you, Joel. Tell us a bit about the sort of touring that you’ve done over your career.
Joel’s touring experience
J: Yeah, I think we’ve all paid our dues when it comes to touring in one way or another. I’ve done lots of different tours over my career. Lots of jazz tours, smaller tours generally, – maybe a month-long-max, kind of thing. So, I toured quite a bit with my quartet, the inspirationally-named Joel Purnell Quartet. I tried to come up with some other names, but nothing seemed to work, so I just stuck with that one.
J: So I did quite a bit of touring with that band back in kind of the late 2007-9, kind of period. I also did some tours with Rick Zunigar. who was the guitar player with Stevie Wonder for 20-odd years when he came over from L. A. I did a tour with him, which was good fun, very intense, but that’s another story we’ll get into another time! But that was fun.
And, and a few funk tours and soul tours with bands like Capri and Viola Wills, also from I think the L. A. region. I’ve done some medium tours with some pop bands like Embrace and stuff like that. But the long one I did was my first tour as well, so it was a Baptism of Fire. It toured for about three years, pretty much without a break on the road It was the official Belushi Blues Brothers tour. So that was my baptism of fire into hardcore touring, straight out of university.
Long tours on the road
J: I went and did an audition that I saw in The Stage and got the job and off we went. And I didn’t see anybody for about three years! But it was great, great fun. We toured around the UK for pretty much a solid year and then we went off to Europe for a year and a half.
And it was intense. It was one-nighters living on a coach, pretty much, for about 18 months. And they didn’t organize it very nicely. We could be in Sweden and then in Spain the next day. So a lot of travelling.
I’ll tell you one little story from that. I think it was the weirdest gig, and probably still the weirdest gig I’ve ever done in my life. We woke up one morning in Italy and were told that we’d had an extra gig put in during that daytime and we all needed to get ready and get our instruments and get on the coach because we were off. And no one told us where we were going. Anyway, we pulled up at the Milan International Prison and it turns out that they’d arranged a gig for the prisoners! It was interesting. We played things like “Riot on Cell Block Number Nine” and such tunes! And they all just flooded in and surrounded us in the central chamber of Milan prison.
It was interesting and very scary at the same time. But there you go.
So yeah, lots of touring. It’s good fun. But it’s a young man’s game. That’s what I’m going to say.
N: Well, yeah, I mean, Fred might disagree with you, because Fred’s doing it and loving it.
J: Fred’s a young man.
N: Young at heart!
Tour organisation
N: But I think what’s interesting about all those things you mentioned there, Joel, is that they’re all touring things, but they’re all different, right? So the Blues Brothers gig would be quite different to, I don’t know, doing the Rick Zunigar gig or touring with your band, right? Very different, musically very different. And then also the different styles of tours.
J: Yeah, totally. And, you know, also from the point of view of organisation. Because sometimes you organise your tours, you’re the tour manager.
And other times, like the Embrace tour I did, which was a kind of indie pop band, from the UK, it was the most organised tour I’ve ever been on in my life. You’d wake up in the morning, and there were arrows posted on the wall and you’d just follow the arrows. And it would take you to somewhere where they ask you what food you want, and then they cook it for you. It was literally like being kind of rolled along in a pram! It was amazing! I could have stayed on that one for a lot longer. We were very spoilt on that tour. But yeah, they’re all very very different.
Nigel’s experience playing sax on tour
N: Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. I never got a chance to do a pop tour like that. Something I always wanted to do.
But I got to do some quite different things playing sax on tour, which I did enjoy. I’d been doing other things that were mostly land-based stuff like working with symphony orchestras. I was in the Australian army band as a musician for a few years, which was great travelling around the country with that. But that’s a different kind of thing. Very organized. Of course, it’s the military!
But then in my mid-20s, I went out and started working on cruise ships. And I love doing that. I always thought it would be one of the best gigs ever because you’re getting paid to play the saxophone and to travel – the two things that I love more than anything. You know, travelling and playing my sax and getting paid! Brilliant.
So I got to do that all around initially from Australia and then around the South Pacific, places like Fiji, New Guinea and New Zealand and Samoa, places like that. It was brilliant. And then I went out to the States and I worked for Princess [Cruises]. So I did this over a few years and I started as the guy in the band and then I was the band leader. So I was like the musical director. And I got to travel around the world doing that.
And that, as a touring job, is pretty different to what you’re talking about, Joel, where you’re in a coach. Because it’s a bit like being in a permanent hotel room. You’ve got your room, there are places for you to practice backstage, which I always thought was important, and you can exercise. You can eat well, and you can also go and do sightseeing stuff. And because you’re not moving location with different accommodation all the time, you can have more of a sort of established lifestyle, I suppose. So I was very busy while I was doing that.
Band Leader
As the band leader, I was, I was writing a lot of the arrangements that we performed, and we had different artists coming in every week. They were flying in from Vegas and I’d have to rehearse them, maybe write music for them, and perform the show. I was the lead sax player, but I also had a full big band that I was leading. So, a lot to think about. And I enjoyed that.
Big Band Scene
But then when I came to England in 2000, I got involved with the big band scene. I got to do lots of travelling around the UK with that, but I also got involved with a big band-based Broadway show or West End show called Rat Pack Live from Las Vegas. So there are a few different iterations of that.
I was conducting it through Europe for some tours. I was also playing in it. And we would go out for stints to Germany or to then to Denmark, places like that. And that’s more like what you’re talking about, Joel, where you’re flying out somewhere and then you’re doing a string of theatre shows. But it’s all very organized in big hotels and very comfortable.
But at the same time, for about 10 years, I was running a band – like a 50s jump jive type band. There were only five of us and we did stuff a lot of travelling all around a lot in the UK, but also we’d go to Canada to perform every year. We went out to Italy and we went out to lots of different places and that was more like the other thing you were saying Joel – where it was a more scaled-down thing.
We were like a little tight family unit. And that was great from a fun point of view, but very challenging from a ‘where do I practice‘ point of view, or ‘what do I do when my gear gets broken or stolen‘ point of view. So, yeah, it was a fun experience. But very different, I imagine, to what it’s like for you, Fred, working with Average White Band.
So, tell us a little bit about that. You’re just winding up now to go off on a big tour. Do you have like a process that you do to sort of get prepared for that?
Fred’s life as a touring saxophone player
F: Just practising, really, because you got to get out there and give it 100 percent. And the only part of your day that matters is playing that gig.
It’s the same thing with the stuff that you guys were doing. Everything leads up to that hour and a half at night. So it’s what you do for the entire day. You’re finding out ‘Am I going to be able to get to the dressing room and practice in there?’ I bring my Travel Sax with me, on the road, because it fits in my suitcase and I can work on fingerings and stuff like that. Because there is a lot of time waiting around.
And it’s when I started with Average White Band, it was a whole different scene because we were doing more long runs – three or four-week runs in a tour bus. The touring situation in America, especially, but I think all over the place, has changed drastically. There’s not a lot of midweek gigs unless you’re Taylor Swift or something.
Those venues have all stopped. They’re been bought out by the huge corporations like Live Nation or, or whatever. So when I started, we would be in a tour bus and we would tour for three or four weeks at a time.
Weekend gigging
And now it’s weekends. It’s like we’re flying everywhere. I haven’t been on a tour bus in probably eight years or something like that. We might fly to one city and then rent a couple of vans. It’s much more scaled down because it’s so much harder. It’s just so much harder to do now. The cost of a tour bus is exorbitant. It’s prohibitive.
So, the gigs aren’t there. They don’t have those midweek gigs, which were what paid for us to stay out on the road to do the big gigs on the weekends – the big festivals or big halls. So that part has changed a lot.
Before Average White Band
F: And, you know, before I did the Average White Band, I played in a blues band for a year and a half. I was with Matt Guitar Murphy from the Blues Brothers. That was my first road gig. We had a van – a Chevy van, and a Cadillac. That’s it. No tour manager. We were moving a Hammond B3 [organ] every night.
I was just out of college, so I was in my 20s and you had to learn to bring it every night. Because those, those blues fans, they’re into it. They want to hear it, They’re shouting and screaming, and there might have been some alcohol involved. At the end of the night, we would sit down at a table, and Matt – who didn’t have to do this – would take all the money and just divide it up between the five of us. And it was a very egalitarian situation.
But we would do a lot of dartboard gigs, where we would be in one spot and then we would have to drive eight hours to the next gig. And then go back to where we were, or something like that. It was dues.
Learning on tour
N: I’m curious though, Fred, when you were doing that, you said you’re paying your dues working with Matt Guitar Murphy, but I bet also it was a fabulous learning experience. From the life on the road thing, but also as a saxophone player performing and connecting with an audience. I bet that was amazing.
F: Oh yeah, I mean, because, as I said, they came to party and it didn’t matter how you felt, you had to produce every night. You had to give 150 percent high energy. And you know, it didn’t matter if you were ill, you can’t call a sub or anything like that. You had to go out there and do it every night. And I learned to play in E, I’ll tell you that.
N: Absolutely. Hey, that’s a great skill – playing with guitar players. Absolutely. important. So you said that things have changed a lot now with Average White Band and the type of schedule that it is. Does that bring different challenges to you as a saxophone player?
Touring Schedule
F: It does. Well, because, – as you guys would know – there’s nothing like playing continuously. Like once in a while, we’ll do a week someplace. And when you’re playing continuously like that, it’s great because by the last night, everything is firing on all cylinders and you know, it’s BAM BAM and everything is incredibly tight.
Well, we do that occasionally now. But the next time I’ll see these guys is in March. We don’t rehearse. We haven’t played a gig since December – I think that was our last gig.
So we’re going to get on stage now.We know the repertoire at this point, you know, and we get up there and if we’re lucky, we’ll get a sound check. Because sometimes when you do festivals, the sound check doesn’t happen. And you just get up there and test your mic and Boom! So you don’t really get to warm up as a band. You just get up there and do it. But fortunately, I’ve been playing these songs for 26 years.
N: So you probably know them by now!
F: Yeah. Almost, I got them down. Yeah.
Preparing for touring
N: Yeah. But as a saxophone player, there’s probably something that people are curious about, if you’ve never done touring work like this. You’re probably curious about the sort of process of preparing for it. And that is a big thing. I mean, you do need to do your homework beforehand.
You need to make sure that you know the stuff and also that you’re physically fit. You know you’re tour fit. So that you’ve spent the time working on your long tones and your intonation – that sort of stuff. So when you get on stage you can deliver without being stressed physically.
Because physically it can be quite demanding, depending on the gig. And equally playing a blues gig with Matt Murphy has challenges. But going and doing a theatre show in another country, where you have to play a bit of flute and a bit of piccolo, and a bit of clarinet and a bit of saxophone, – you need to be ready when you are called to go out and do those sort of things.
Practicing while touring
Because, the reality – and Joel, I’m sure you’ll agree with this – is that often when you are out on that tour, you don’t always get the luxury of being able to get your practice in, like you would at home.
J: Definitely not. I struggled on that tour. I’d gone from being a pretty excessive practicer, particularly in my uni days. Sometimes I would get 8 to 12 hours practice in. It’s literally what I did all the time. I was obsessed with it.
I went from that, to being sat on a bus with 20-odd other people. And there’s just not a lot you can do in that situation. You try and grab a bit of practice time, maybe before the gig, if you have time. Like Fred says, sometimes you’re straight in there and straight on – it’s already set up, particularly because we had a crew with us on that. They knew the sound settings and the lighting was already done. They’d got there a few hours before you.
So sometimes we would get changed and go on [stage], then get back on the bus, and off we went to another country. So yeah, it was challenging and almost a little bit depressing from some points of view.
But we found our ways of practising. Even if it was just in the breaks, we’d do things together. Me and the trombonist would have little jams, and little things like that. But from the point of view of the type of practice I’d like to do, yeah, I found that particular tour challenging. And it was a long tour, three years without that. I was really good at blues when I came home! I was excellent at blues.
Efficient practice routine
N: Yeah, there was something else that I got from doing that sort of playing. Because it was several years between the cruise ship thing and then doing the other stuff when I came to England. And over several years when I was doing that sort of playing, I got good at working out which things I needed to work on, to maintain that minimum standard. So I knew I could get up on stage and do what I needed to do.
And that’s a different way of thinking, to when you do have that luxury. I was the same as you, Joel. When I was studying, I was a big practicer and I did hours and hours and hours, which was great. And you do get better. But then when all of a sudden you don’t have the luxury of that, you’ve got to be efficient.
And that’s a good skill to have though. Because in the last episode we were talking about warm-ups that work. And that is a product of having our experience touring around, where we didn’t have a lot of time, but we still need to get our skills on point.
J: Yeah, totally. It makes you focus, doesn’t it? That’s the thing. It makes you focus on what’s important. And I think the thing you get from touring is consistency. You start to learn what’s important, and efficient ways of working on that. And also just how precious practice time is.
It’s precious. And, you know, when you come back from things like that, you really are keen to get back into that.
I mean, I played Soul Man – I think we worked it out – seventeen hundred times. And when I came back, all I wanted to do was do some jazz gigs. But all I got offered were more soul gigs. ‘You’ve been on the Blues Brothers. Do you want to do this soul gig?’ No, no, I don’t. I just want to play some jazz.
So, you know, you realise exactly where your heart lies from a musical point of view. And also where efficiency lies from a practice point of view. So, it’s good for you, even though it’s kind of bad for you.
Staying motivated
F: I just want to say, because of the way that we do it, and it’s not consistent anymore like it used to be, I find that if I haven’t practised when I’m home, when I get out there, I’m in trouble.
You know the old saying, ‘if I don’t practice for one day, I notice it. And for two days, the other musicians notice it. For three days, the audience might notice it’. I don’t think the audience notices. So it’s up to us to be conscientious and be motivated to do it. Because I know I can play the gig without doing it, but it hurts.
And you know, there’s blood. Seriously. There’s blood involved at times. When we do one of those shows, after an hour and a half, I’ll look on my reed and it’ll be red. Because that always happens if haven’t been practising at home. I so I have to keep it up.
N: Yeah, I think the other thing that I find is that it keeps me inspired if I practice. You know if I can grab that extra 10 minutes to just blow through some exercises, then I’m more inspired when I go out to perform that night. I’ve got an extra little something in my improvising pocket, you know, and that keeps it fun.
Dealing with the unexpected
N: So, you know, I was thinking about touring one of the things that I didn’t expect, but that I came up against.
I remember with my small band, we were flying out to Canada to play a house party. So this is something we’d done several years in a row where we’d be flown out to play literally in somebody’s lounge room in Canada – a lovely family.
But I had to check my saxophone in on the plane. And I always hated when that happened, but sometimes it happens right? So I got to the other end and wouldn’t you know it – the saxophone it must have been dropped from shoulder height and it was completely unplayable.
So I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I had a gig to do the following day and I had a saxophone that was just nnplayable.
And, that was an interesting challenge. Because where do you start? I couldn’t get it repaired. I did find a repairer, but they couldn’t fix it in time. And I ended up having to go and hire a saxophone from the local music shop. And luckily they had a decent saxophone in, and that’s what I used for the gig.
N: Have you guys ever had that happen to you?
Flying with your saxophone
J: Yes. I have, yeah. I had my beautiful (still my current) Mark VI, which I hadn’t had for very long then, absolutely trashed on a flight. The repairer said the only way the damage could have happened was if the entire body of the instrument had flexed. And basically every single rod had popped out of its sockets even though the sockets were all still in the same place. And it had a very large dint. I found that when I opened up the case at a soundcheck in Aberdeen in Scotland, where we’d flown to from Heathrow.
Anyway, I think this was the first year I had a mobile phone. And luckily I found some guy who happened to be a repairer in Aberdeen. He also had a Mark VI which he very kindly lent me while he repaired mine.
And when we flew back to Heathrow, I was so paranoid about that happening again. Because then they just checked them in. It went in with all the other equipment we were touring with at the time… So it was a Saturday afternoon, we got into Heathrow, and I thought, I am not leaving this airport until I’ve tested this saxophone. Because, not discovering it until the sound check meant, from an insurance point of view, I couldn’t prove it was damaged on the plane, when it blatantly was.
So, Saturday afternoon, busy Heathrow airport. I got out my saxophone and I blew down the range of it. Everyone was looking at me. I thought, I’m not leaving. I blew down the range of it, I got to the bottom – to C – nothing. There was nothing coming out and I was cursing and shouting at the tour manager. Anyway, then I put my hand down the bell and pulled out my sling. That was the issue, and it was fine, fortunately, but I never I lived that down.
N: Oh, that’s funny. What about you, Fred? Has that ever happened to you?
F: Well, well, that has happened to me. I’ve left the sling in the bell. But I have to knock wood right now, because in my 27 years of playing, I’ve never had that happen. And I never, ever check my saxophone. I bring it on the plane.
Heavy Duty Saxophone Case
F: But just in case I have a heavy-duty carbon fibre Kevlar saxophone case. It’s very lightweight, but it’s pretty much indestructible. But believe it or not – you guys are going to find this very hard to believe – I can be extremely charming when I walk on the plane. I can make sure that the flight attendants allow me to check my saxophone. And I’ve never had an issue with that. And I fly the same airline all the time. So that probably has something to do with it. I know what to expect. But that is a nightmare.
It happened to Cliff, my partner – the other saxophone player [in Average White Band]. The last time we played in Seattle, we were playing there for a week. And he’s the most meticulous guy in the world, so I can’t believe this happened to him. After the first night, he picked up his saxophone and he forgot to latch the case. And we had just finished the first show of five for that week. And the saxophone just went.
Fortunately, Tom Politzer of Tower of Power lives in Seattle.
And Tom had a spare alto and hooked him up with a repair guy, and let him borrow his alto. Everything was good.
I haven’t had that happen. But I’ve had calls from touring musicians when I lived in Atlanta who where playing a show that night and they’re like, ‘I need a repair man’ and that type of thing. And that happens all the time. You have to develop a network of guys, wherever you are. And I’ve been fortunate as far as that goes, but I haven’t had to use it yet.
J: It’s the stuff of nightmares. Absolutely. The stuff of nightmares.
F: Literally! I have nightmares about it. Literally.
Follow the Podcast
N: Hey, just a quick reminder that if you do want to improve your sax playing this year, don’t forget to follow the podcast so you don’t miss out on any of the future episodes that are coming along. And if you did enjoy today’s episode, then it’d just be awesome if you’ve got a spare minute in your day to leave us a five-star review. We’d appreciate it.
Student Question: Tonguing
N: So our student question this week is from Suzanne, and she’s struggling with her tonguing. How she can speed up her tongue and get it light enough so that when she’s playing faster phrases, it feels a bit more natural?
So she’s looking for some help, some inspiration of what things that she could work on. Do you have some go-to tonguing exercises, Joel?
J: Yeah, so if we’re going to talk about articulation, obviously we articulate all the time when we speak. and we use syllables. Syllables are a useful tool to think about when we’re articulating.
So, for light articulation, I tend to think ‘da’ is good. ‘Da da da da da da da da da da da.’ It’s nice and light and quick.
Or ‘dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee.’ Any of these, or ‘noo noo noo noo noo’. There are lots of different ones that might be suitable for that light articulation.
But if we’re talking about working on consistency and speed, this is a great use of a metronome.
So put on a metronome at a really slow tempo. Decide on whatever articulation you’re going to use for it, or what type of articulation you’re trying to practice. So ‘today I’m just going to play really evenly at – let’s say – 40 bpm’. And off you go.
Now I’d always say keep your airflow going through. Don’t pause your airflow through it. So it’s all about interrupting that airflow rather than stopping the airflow and articulating, particularly if you want that light sound.
And then the next day, just go up either 5, or a maximum of 10 BPM and just keep doing that every day. So you’re locking in that consistency and accuracy.
I used to live with a very good saxophone player and composer called Saffron Beagley. And she decided to practice her fast articulation and she was a meticulous practicer. She started on day one, slow, probably 10 BPM with this articulation. I mean, it was painfully slow. She was in the room above me. And by the end of that year, you had never heard anything like it. She went up 5 BPM a day, and it was like listening to a bee articulating by the end of that year.
It was incredibly fast and incredibly accurate. So she was proof that the metronome method works. So try that one out.
N: Yeah, definitely being consistent and working up gradually is important. I think some people naturally have more fun with tonguing, and others find it more challenging. I’m one of the people that find it challenging.
And even back in the days when I was doing lots of full-on classical stuff, I had to spend a lot of time working on my timing to get it fast. And I do the same as what you’re talking about there, Joel.
I’m curious about you, though, Fred, working on these Earth, Wind & Fire tracks. Do you have a technique that you use to speed up your tonguing?
Building up stamina
F: I find that for me it’s not so much the speed always, but the stamina. Because a lot of these Earth, Wind and Fire things are repetitive. And you have to keep playing the same… And it’s just getting that muscle in shape.
I’m finding it’s not something you can not do for a while, then pick it up, you know? I have to get on it every day and develop the stamina to be able to play it consistently. Because you start to get tired towards the end of the phase, and things start to drag a little. So I’ve just got to keep working on it and and be consistent.
N: Yeah, absolutely. And as you said, Joel, thinking about that syllable that you’re using, keeping it a small movement. I always think about making sure that my tongue is moving as small as possible and I’m being efficient with it, and keeping that airflow. And if you can combine those two things with a metronome, then I’m sure, Suzanne, you’ll be making some progress there. So good luck with our tonguing.
Next Steps
Well, if you’d like to revisit this episode, you can get the full transcription from today’s show – that’s episode number 3 over at saxschoolonline.com/podcast.
J: And if you’re not already a Sax School member, make sure to check out our website. There’s still the 14-day free trial, and there are thousands and thousands of videos and tutorials on there to get you going with all things saxophone.
N: Absolutely, and you can also connect with thousands and thousands of other saxophone learners. I think that’s the fun part. We’re always jumping in and doing livestream things with our members and getting involved with them in the Community. It’s a fun place to be.
So if you’re looking for some inspiration, some learning, and to connect with a fun group of people just like you, then go check out Sax School.
I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun in there too. So for now, though, thanks very much for joining us. Keep practising hard, and we’ll catch up with you next time.
