Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- ZOOT !

Zoot Sims was one of a group of tenor saxophonists born in the mid-1920s whose early professional experience came in big bands and who idolized Lester Young.Zoot was one of the most important tenor saxophonists in jazz ever.The basic jazz skills of most of these reedmen were developed by the time they had reached their early twenties. But their styles flowered in the bebop atmosphere in which jazz matured so dramatically following World War II.If you play tenor saxophone...you need to hear and study Zoot Sims now. Listen to everything you can get your hands on, this man was one of the wonders of the world. A real jazz tenorman. Timeless, important as anyone and never ending in creativity.Charlie Parker, who had been shaped by Young's example in his own formative period in the late 1930s, became the second great influence on this talented collection of tenor men. They melded Parker's complex harmonic discoveries with Young's sound (light, dry, sunny) and rhythm (powerful currents of swing beneath a laconic surface). In addition to Sims, some of the most accomplished members of this school of tenor saxophone were A/ Cohn, Stan Getz, Paul Quinichette, Allen Eager, Brew Moore, Herbie Steward, Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper, Richie Kamuca, Dave Van Kreidt, Bill Holman, Phil Urso, and Don Lanphere. Zoot Sims had neither a top-forty record nor mass box office appeal.He played and had something more important- HE WAS REAL.What he played night to night meant something. But almost from the beginning of his career, be had the unreserved admiration of virtually all jazz artists, whatever their generation or musical persuasion. Over the years, his following among listeners steadily grew. Musicians and aficionados alike recognized the basic human qualities of honesty and warmth that Sims projected in his playing without in any way diluting musical values or contriving to find an acceptable style. This is a player that opens the door to things in jazz that are NOT in books or learned at University's. - - Go to YOU TUBE...Listen to Zoot play..." You Go To My Head". See ya next week...Tim Price

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds-The common bond of jazz, communication and application.

Check out this blues lesson I have on Sax On The Web about Thin man Watts; http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Blues1.html#Watts It's a lick from his CD-" Return Of The Thin man".I took three sections of Charlie Parker's solo on "Buzzy" and open it up through the keys.I chose...The first four bars of his last chorus on "Buzzy" via four bar phrases through twelve keys. The second four bars of his last chorus on "Buzzy" via four bar phrases through twelve keys. The last four bars of his first chorus on "Buzzy" via four bar phrases through twelve keys. Listen... to the phrase shape through the four bars. Bird was a perfect phraser. Beautiful! Listen to the note choice, rhythmic twists, tension and release. This is the ultimate in blues playing! It doesn't get better than this. It's nasty and dirty low-down and hip all at once. Listen how these three phrases work.HERE IT IS- http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Blues2.html I hope this brings some light to your shed time and also let me add, my feeling is that if you've absorbed a lot of the known vocabulary of the greats , then you'll naturally gravitate to looking for other things , or even begin to hear things of a different nature. Bird-ology phrase study on "Ko Ko".....http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Bird-ologyStudy.html Study "Ko Ko" and then try some phrases like this on your own. It's a life long process-. When you're twenty yrs. old, you just run off desire and youthful animal energy to practice. In the long run, the creative person needs to find a way to maintain a level of interest and aliveness in his art. This takes work and intelligence,it is not separate from living, just another aspect of it. The concept of daily practice is an important one and is the best way to make any kind of musical progress. Daily effort keeps you finely attuned to continuous movement and the accumulation of effect. Practicing sporadically causes you to lose the thread of your practice and is thus much less effective. Through diligent , consistent daily work, a tangible musical substance is incrementally developed. First of all, you develop physical stamina through the repeated effort. Also , from day to day, you accumulate ideas and expand on the themes of your practice. If you are working Major chords; the first day you might just work on arpeggios, the next day you might see some connection with other musical sources, such as songs, or through or whatever is interesting to you. By continuing to work with focus on the same things from day to day, you will find that your level of proficiency has risen and expanded to include all these other sources. Your practicing every day results in the acquisition of technique, musical intelligence, improved tone, and stamina. Just the quest to continuously find something to practice will increase you creativity. There are so many variations of scales melodies, and melodic patterns. So many sounds to make, articulations, songs to learn, music to listen to and analyze, technical problems to sort out. The only limitation is your focus and creativity. For example: let's say that you have adequately practiced your horn and now want something else to work on. You could sit down at the piano and transcribe a song, learn a song by ear that you may have previously learned by wrote. This , is one of the most beneficial practices you can do. Ear training, learning songs, listening to other players, hearing bass lines, melodies or whatever. Ok. Now you've spent a few hours and learned a tune the way its supposed to be played. You know the tune inside and out, in essence a great organizational mind skills study too. However your mind works. Don't overload-otherwise nothing sticks. Your capacity will increase after you have spent more and more time. It's amazing how connections are made,they seem to occur in a fashion which is beyond the conscious ability to plan and organize.Daily practice also allows me to imprint the material in my mind until it becomes instinct. One long practice session will not do this. For most players, useful techniques can only be acquired through repetition. I always try to work new materials into songs, lines and grooves that I like. For me it's sort of like upgrading my musical mind so that my playing becomes reoriented in the directions I choose. Increasing familiarity with they materials is a good thing. It's like learning a language--music is a language. ....WORK HARD....Have a great week- Tim Price

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- Keep the channel open.

Self-discipline is like a muscle. The more you train it, the stronger you become. The less you train it, the weaker you become. Think of the results- just for you.Confidence before an audition! Confidence when picking up your horn to play in a new setting- your primed and ready. Relaxed and confident! We all possess different levels of self-discipline. Everyone has some — if you can hold your breath a few seconds, you have some self-discipline. But not everyone has developed their discipline to the same degree. Check it out- it takes self-discipline to build self-discipline. Similarly, the basic method to build self-discipline is to tackle challenges that you can successfully accomplish but which are near your limit. This doesn’t mean trying something and failing at it every day, you must start with challenges that are within your current ability. Old opportunities will dry up. New opportunities will begin to appear.Your mind set does change- and so does your ability on whatever you are working on with discipline. Invitations that once attracted you will seem boring, while others will become interesting to you.People will change how they relate to you. Some will become more distant while others will zoom closer.Gigs will appear, you'll enjoy things more. Things you used to merely dream about will begin to seem possible for you. Celebrate your success! Keep the channel open, and try your best.You'll learn something special. Been talking to my students about the many aspects of the creative mind set. Trying to just expand more ideas and thoughts. Here's some things that I'm coming up with ; Creativity is the bringing into being something which did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought. Right? So let’s apply this to ALL levels of saxophone playing, thought and improvisation. You would be demonstrating creativity if you: · Played something which has never existed before. · Reapply an existing lick or concept into a new area musically. · Develop a new way of looking at something (bringing a new idea into existence). · Change the way someone else looks at something. We are all creative every day because we are constantly changing the ideas which we hold about the world about us and our relationship with it. Creativity does not have to be about developing something new to the world, it is more to do with developing something new to ourselves !! When we change ourselves, the world changes with us, both in the way that the world is affected by our changed actions and in the changed way that we experience the world. It’s a thought process. It’s past a mouthpiece change..it’s a MIND SET !! Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with a new idea. It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before. New ideas are formed by developing the current ones within our minds. This evolution HAS to be brought on by practice. Ongoing creative thinking is the continuous investigation, questioning and analysis that develops through education, training and self-awareness. Ongoing creativity maximizes both accidental and deliberate creative thinking. It is a quest for improvement which never ends. It is an acceptance of and a looking for continuous change that differentiates between ongoing creativity and mental inflexibility. Ongoing creativity takes time and practice to become skillful. Ongoing creative Keep the channel open, and try your best.You'll learn something special. Been talking to my students about the many aspects of the creative mind set. Trying to just expand more ideas and thoughts.See you next week- enjoy your music- TIM PRICE Here's some things that I'm coming up with ; Creativity is the bringing into being something which did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought. Right? So let’s apply this to ALL levels of saxophone playing, thought and improvisation. You would be demonstrating creativity if you: · Played something which has never existed before. · Reapply an existing lick or concept into a new area musically. · Develop a new way of looking at something (bringing a new idea into existence). · Change the way someone else looks at something. We are all creative every day because we are constantly changing the ideas which we hold about the world about us and our relationship with it. Creativity does not have to be about developing something new to the world, it is more to do with developing something new to ourselves !! When we change ourselves, the world changes with us, both in the way that the world is affected by our changed actions and in the changed way that we experience the world. It’s a thought process. It’s past a mouthpiece change..it’s a MIND SET !! Creative thinking is the process which we use when we come up with a new idea. It is the merging of ideas which have not been merged before. New ideas are formed by developing the current ones within our minds. This evolution HAS to be brought on by practice. Ongoing creative thinking is the continuous investigation, questioning and analysis that develops through education, training and self-awareness. Ongoing creativity maximizes both accidental and deliberate creative thinking. It is a quest for improvement which never ends. It is an acceptance of and a looking for continuous change that differentiates between ongoing creativity and mental inflexibility. Ongoing creativity takes time and practice to become skillful. Ongoing creative thinking soon becomes an attitude not a technique. The first step to take is to learn the creative thinking techniques so that you can use them deliberately to come up with new ideas. You will then be at an immediate advantage to those who do not know how to use them. You should then practice them to increase your skill at ongoing creative thinking. With practice you may even find it unnecessary to use specific techniques because you may soon have too many ideas without using them at all. The first step to take is to learn the creative thinking techniques so that you can use them deliberately to come up with new ideas. You will then be at an immediate advantage to those who do not know how to use them. You should then practice them to increase your skill at ongoing creative thinking. With practice you may even find it unnecessary to use specific techniques because you may soon have too many ideas without using them at all. TIM PRICE