Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- Holiday thoiughts- stuff to shed.

A couple of people, were asking about use of altissimo- and ways to do it. This uses chords and a nice chord sound to get your high end chops stronger and..practical. Enjoy.
 
There is not just one way. BUT- To really put it to use, you got to use it as_part of the horn_in a harmonic way. Some of my favorite players like Joe Farrell, John Handy, Michael Brecker or Charlie Mariano did just that! Here is a chord study using the full range of the horn. This is NOT sight reading, You'll get results, and it will also be useful.Take you time and go at a workable tempo- Remember Newark wasn't built in a day - Hope this helps.

 

  Learning to be thankful is an essential part of being happy. It helps us appreciate the things that we have right now. You might feel that don’t have a lot to be thankful for. However, you should realize that there are people out there who would want to trade places with you.
These Thank you so much, images is one way of reminding yourself that you have so much to be thankful and grateful for.  Be thankful that you are still breathing, that you have friends and family around you. Be grateful for the beautiful world around you. Smile to a random person at least once a day! It will make you both feel better. AND- BE THANKFUL YOU CAN PLAY MUSIC...for those dear readers who read this blog who are musicians. It's another kind of gift.

  Whether it's playing with a cool band,or some friends playing Monk tunes, writing a really good line of poetics,learning some new ideas or tunes, or connecting with and enjoying your students.All are gifts that I continue to be thankful for, and always will be.We now have to believe in our true selves and realize that what we do is a gift!

BELOW. . . Is a recipe for soup for the holidays...your going to have some fun!!!

I make this Christmas Soup for the holidays every year. In other words, it’s a tradition.

1. 1 pound kielbasa, sliced 1/4-inch thick, on the bias
2. Vegetable oil, as needed
3. 8 cloves garlic, minced
4. 1 pound dried red kidney beans, soaked for at least 4 hours or overnight
5. 2 quarts chicken broth
6. 1 pound red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
7. 6 ounces fresh kale, washed, rinsed and torn into 1-inch pieces
8. 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
9. 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

PROCEDURE

1. Brown the kielbasa in a 7-quart Dutch oven and set over medium-low heat until it has rendered most of its fat, about 15 minutes. Remove the kielbasa from the pot and set aside. If you do not have a least 2 teaspoons of fat, add enough vegetable oil to make 2 teaspoons.
2. Cook the garlic in the fat for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the garlic from burning. Add the beans and chicken broth and cook, covered, for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, stir in the potatoes, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Toss the kale into the pot, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes, or just until it is tender, but not mushy.
4. Sprinkle with the vinegar and pepper and stir to combine. Return the kielbasa to the pot and cook just until heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve hot.

  So- till next week - practice hard and eat more vegetables and fruit. Don't forget to do something nice for somebody too, remember compassion is essential with each other. I hope these words help motivate you to explore your music even more. Keep the channel ope

 
Enjoy the holiday and the moment. Thank you-Tim ......

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- Rickie Trujillo- a must read ; book review.

Compulsive reading! 
The book is a page turner till the very end.
Plenty of twists and turns. Makes for a great read that is hard to put down. Looking for a book that not only is fresh and well written but also so real that you start to assume that a movie will be bound to follow.

Nicholas Bradley is a skilled writer and he takes you on a fast paced and wild ride. 
Nicholas characters are always interesting, yet all still believable.Highly recommended and I sure hope there are more to follow for this one of a kind gifted writer with a true sense of realism, conflicts, successes and mystery that develops like a well paced jazz solo.

Rickie Trujillo- a must read and get yourself to amazon.com ASAP.
https://www.amazon.com/Rickie-Trujillo-Nicholas-Bradley/dp/0998490628/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510799953&sr=1-1&keywords=Rickie+Trujillo


Even though Rickie Trujillo is a novel, it is very reminiscent of my childhood experiences, with baseball being the only thing that kept me out of trouble.
--Danny Arambulo, Sergeant, Los Angeles Police Department 

About the Author

Nicholas Bradley worked as an English and ESL teacher in junior high, middle, and high school in Los Angeles throughout his thirty year career. The schools where he taught were in the center of neighborhoods of poverty and crime, gangs, drugs and graffiti, the setting of his novel, Rickie Trujillo. Many of the students he taught and tutored during his career were, like Rickie, active gang members and/or taggers.
During the ten years in Los Angeles preceding his teaching career, Bradley worked as a road musician, truck driver, messenger, and pianist. 

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Upper Hand Press LLC; 1 edition (September 11, 2017)

 


 

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- Keep an open mind- be vigilant.

My philosophy about personal musical growth is that musicians should learn how to think, listen and talk about music. Likewise, I pass this on to my students of all ages. IT'S WORKING! If your in 5th grade or a Doctor studying jazz clarinet with me for fun. There's something we all have. It's this criteria: brain, ears, and voice. Naturally, these three are interrelated. If you think about music, then it follows that you can easily talk about it. Listening is the most important part. Without ears, music would not exist. If I had to pick the most valuable musical tool for shaping musical growth, it would be personal taste. Always visualize only favorable and beneficial situations.Music helps with this.Try to use positive words in your inner dialogues or when talking with others. Once a negative thought enters your mind, you have to be aware of it and endeavor to replace it with a constructive one.Persistence will eventually teach your mind to think positively and ignore negative thoughts.It does not matter what your circumstances are at the present moment. Think positively, expect only favorable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. It may take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they do. A student once asked me if a particular note "worked" in a particular setting; my response was, "only if you like it". Take it a step further Bob Dylan plays the same C7 chord that Pat Martino does. Same 4 notes, likewise when Sonny Rollins hits a D minor 7th, it's the same chord that Jeff Beck might play or Keith Jarrett. It's how YOU deliver it. Lots of cooks use tomatoes and basil you dig? Same deal.Keeping a open mind can create a path for a student. There's a big difference between Bud Powell and Duke Ellington. But they both have a message. Think about it.Personal musical taste expands infinitely. This allows for musical evolution. Just live it. Go for it. Play it. Write it. Above all, use your own personal, ever growing, musical taste. Hence, music is the real teacher. Share the music and propagate it as much as you can. As always,strive for tone and help your school music programs, in every way you can.


For the shed; I have some very interesting concepts here, and things that are fun and provoke some fresh ideas on II-V. II-V-I Patterns: Starting on the Tonic of the II Minor 7 Chord.
This lesson in seven parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 , August 2002 This is a very clear and useful lesson using II-V. Lots to play/study. http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/II-V-I-Patterns1.html I've taken a basic study and then moved it through six steps. Then I included one of my own based on a variation of some of the first six. I think it's always good for all of us to go back to a basic pattern study to clear our ears and refresh our chops. Look at all six shapes. As you start to hear the line, go back and write something of your own based on mine. Minor 7b5 to Dominant 7b9 August 2001 http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Aug01.html 2 Bar II-V Phrases - via Entire Range of the Sax.http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Sept01.html This is designed to assist you in using your saxophone fully! Full range! HAVE FUN.
This might help add some new ideas to your playing and keep your shed time fun. Enjoy~

On You Tube- There is so much great music out there. I recently heard Henry Grimes, Andrew Cyrille and Paul Dunmall taking it all the way out. Saxophonists NEED to listen to Paul Dunmall- he is fantastic and just a joy to hear.Wonderful!

Till next week, Keep an open mind.

BE VIGILANT! Think about others more than yourself!

Enjoy- Tim Price

Tim Price Bloggin' For D'Addario Woodwinds- 66 Years in the Scorpio Lane;Making a living with a horn in my hand!

66.years in the Scorpio lane.
Making a living with a horn in my hand!

Today I turn 66, and you know what? I'm glad I'm the era, and foundation as a person that comes from the dues that comes with that age.
As a young man I was taught to respect experience, listen and learn. God knows I did! Otherwise I would not be here writing these blogs !
I came up in the time period when I'd go to hear Count Basie and couldn't wait to hear Marshall Royal and Lockjaw Davis. Sure they were older men, but that was where the music was. The real essence of time spent at a craft, and hard work. You listened and you learned. The results were there but you had to take the time to find, listen and apply. Same as with my Berklee education, I was with the masters. Guys who were in the field, and earned stripes. I carried that vibe all through my life and guess what? IT WORKED.


So many times, and I note with extreme interest that people feel the need to juggle the numbers in their age. Why? Let your experience and dues paid
lead the way.The years post-Berklee as I say many times here, riding through the South in Motown band buses with acts like Billy Paul, Lloyd Price, Chuck Berry on
through major road big bands, where you were living on the bus for months and months traveling,and major rock bands.Gigs in Boston as a student,when you were EXPECTED to be inside the gig,playing with musicians two times your age,dealing and learning. Experience that could never be bought, on AND OFF the bandstand.Think about it.

As a teen- my years were way different. I was playing high school dances, and later bars by the time I was 16, the thrill and the chase of getting into bars like my friends was kind of old hat after a few dozen working gigs. Going drinking was something different, and meeting women was immediate.You learned fast on both counts- or the dues would haunt you big time.I came to play,to learn and as I found out years later survive.


Rehearsing big bands in local bars where stale beer and tobacco smell was the call of the day. I also did some theater things, but I was working three nights a week and playing shore points in Jersey in the summer or Philly suburbs. The bands paid higher and I needed back up cash for Berklee- as I was dead set on going there. The summer gigs were a ball, most times from 8 to 2. There was more after hours places, that ran from 11 at night to 6 in the morning.You held your schedule, and stayed on track. The bands always car pooled, or in the summers had comp rooms at shore points. The money was excellent! It sure beat the alternative, I was working with older players, in places where I had to conduct myself, and be responsible to be on the sets on time.
Plus- knowing all the music without a Ipad in front of you, or a real book touch screen for a tune you should of known before you took any gig.It still baffles me how a University level tenor saxophonist can not know the bridge melody to " Body & Soul"! Those kind of things when I was 18 you had to know, There was no excuse. There was NO coddling, I just could see John LaPorta's face with some things these days.But as I grew ,through my saxophone, I could gain entrance into another world that most never dreamed of. ~ AKA-Making a living with a horn in my hand!

I embrace getting older.I walk proud. I'm getting stronger, more experienced, learning to live our life to the fullest, it's actually a process of continual mental development. Each day is better.

I will always have the sense of freedom I had in my 20's. The older I get, the less I care about what others think of me. Therefore, the older I get, the more I enjoy life.It works that way with the music also.Teaching as well.

I'll leave you with a quote that sums up what I 'm after ;

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.
Henry Ford

Learning to live stress free and without negative thoughts, is the key to staying positive.The key to staying positive, is living through a lifetime of stressful and negative situations with a positive outlook.
I choose early on to be positive, it works.

BY THE WAY- The picture at the top of the Blog is me when I was 19 at Berklee
At that time, we'd session every Tuesday-Thursday on the 2ed floor. In this great room that Hal Grossman ( Saxophonist Steve's brother )who was Berklee faculty and a great friend made sure I had access to. In other words a key for myself! That room was the best, great piano, sound etc. Many times other Berklee faculty would come by and join us. Many times Steve Grossman and Junior Cook would come by when in town and we'd know we had much more work to do! LOL. Understanding that in my late teens was an asset for realizing the sun didn't rise and set when I wanted. I had to work for it- I was never feeling entitled. The music is bigger than all of us anyhow!

ALSO- I WAS PLAYING RICO BROWN BOX #5 REEDS. Great times- great reeds and this was about 1970. I used 5's on Bari too! LaVoz medium hard on alto. Those LaVoz boxes from that era-the black and green box. THE HOLY GRAIL OF ALTO REEDS!



I never had to work a day in my life,because I love what I do! And I say that all the
time- good times or bad.

Till next week- Tim Price