Lesson 33

First thing i did today was to play test the mouthpiece which i dropped last nite.
apparently, the side rail got dent in. the mouthpiece suffered some scratches out
the outside but dat did not affect the sound. Now apparently, the dent in the rail
cost it to become thinner! In such, it makes the sound brighter and a little more
powerful because of the decreased surface area dat the reed vibrates against
the rails~ so in actual fact, the mouthpiece should theoratically play better! the
sound hadnt changed when i played on it~ and so it's good dat i can continue
buzzin with it and not spend another one or two hundred bucks on another
piece.. woohoo!

I'm glad dat it turned out to be some blessin in disguise~ anyway, we did some
technical studies again~ with metronome of cos and dat was difficult.. transitions
over the C C# D bridge~ completed the study of scales and moving on to
arpeggios - all 24 of em. should be easy stuff which i can handle on my own~ ever
heard the familair tune over intercom in those old shopping centres before someone
announces sumthin like "paging for so and so please come to the information counter
on the third floor" or some crap like dat?~ the arpeggio is playing the 1st, 3rd, 5th
and the next octave 1st again. Theoretically speakin, you are playing the Tonic (1st
note of the respective scale), Mediant (3rd note), Dominant (5th note), and then the
Tonic of the next octave to complete the whole arpeggio :)

To describe it, it's sumthin like this: In a scale, it sounds like Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.
In an arpeggio, it sounds like this, ascending AND descending: Do Mi So (high Do) So
Mi Do :) dat's the arpeggio~ There are altogether only 24 arpeggios as opposed to
36 scales. 12 less. dat is because arpeggios dun deal with the Harmonic or Melodic
minor variations :) the degrees involve only the 1st 3rd 5th and 1st again, whereas
in the Melodic/Harmonic minor scale, the 6th and 7th degrees are ALWAYS affected :)

Learned one cool technique of playing and dat is doing the Subtone. As opposed to
Full tone, subtone is creating a new sound by dampening the vibrations of the reed
slightly. This is done by pulling the lower jaw in and towards the tip of the reed. Alot
of control and pressure is needed to produce enough dampening effect and still create a gd tone :)

After all the talking, wat then is subtone and how does it sound like? well, a very gd
example of subtoning is heard in Bossa Nova music~ A common misconception is dat
subtoning can or should only be done on low notes. dat is wrong. subtoning can be
done on every register on the saxophone but it especially makes the lower notes
sound alot nicer. Listen to saxophonists like Stan Getz and note his sound. His sound
can be describe as very mellow, and with a slight gush in each note. the subtoning
he does makes the notes very subtle and not direct. subtoning can also be described
as an airy sound like as though air is escaping from somewhere~ dat's the effect
subtone gives and it's very often used in jazz~

You can subtone on all saxophones from soprano rite down to baritone. Subtone
sounds especially great on Tenor~ Subtoning is strictly a jazz technique and never
done in classical music where it is considered taboo! it's one of those techniques dat
rebellious saxophonists developed some time ago~ and there are more such techniques
developed to irk the legit player, such as the 'growl', 'flutter-tongue' and to an extent
'vibrato' etc :P

It's these techniques dat also serve to define a rebellious image of the jazz cats whom
the classical legit players despised~ but there's absolutely no doubt dat we jazz cats
sound a whole lot better than our fellow classical players! haha~ where sax is concerned
of cos~