Saxophone"Cliches"--Do They Exist?

[Woodwindswins]

I got to thinking about the world of the electric guitar just the other day,and there exists a list of what some would call the"cliche",meaning those riffs & songs that seemingly EEEEVERYONE wants to learn or play endlessly until you want to just smash their instrument over their head. :roll: These include things like the intros to Led Zeppelin's"Stairway To Heaven"& Deep Purple's"Smoke On The Water",or some all-out assault like Van Halen's"Eruption"or Hendrix's version of"Star Spangled Banner".Now since I'm brand new to the Sax world,I just gotta ask all you players that have been"round the track".........Are there equivalents in the Saxophone world? You know,those tunes that get horrendously overplayed or certain riffs/solos that students or anyone else run into the ground? Do Community & High School bands always seem to have an"In The Mood"or some such song that never seems to be given a rest? How about it? Any nominations(so that I can avoid'em? :wink: )??

[Super 20 Player]

"Giant Steps"...or pretty much anything by Coltrane.

[gary]

Well, I kinda got lost in the question, but if you would like a list of songs that sax players should know, go to the Rock and Roll Section and check out:"Standards" in the Blues/R&B/ Rock idiom".

[Dave Dolson]

Woodwind: This site represents a huge variety of styles and musical tastes. It all depends upon what kind of music you are playing. Yes, there are "war horses" in every style - tunes to avoid playing to a discerning audience (and vice versa - tunes that many fans want to hear over and over - the never-ending dilemma - what to play to the whole audience).

I play traditional jazz (1920's stuff - the original jazz) and there are several tunes that the more traditional bands avoid, except when demanded by the audience. The sign in Preservation Hall in New Orleans lists the price of requests and attaches a significantly higher price to "When The Saints Come Marching In." DAVE

[gary]

The sign in Preservation Hall in New Orleans lists the price of requests and attaches a significantly higher price to "When The Saints Come Marching In." DAVELOL. Dave, I toured Europe with a big-band for a couple of years and if I had to play "In the Mood" one more time I would get homicidal! Know what you mean about "Saints". On the other hand, do you get many requests for tunes like "Rosetta". Love it.

[Vortex]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned SONGBIRD! It seems like every time I play somewhere I get at least a couple people asking me to play some Kenny G. It's like the whole world's idea of "saxophone" is him and his stuff, and they judge you by how well you can play it :roll: The best thing to do is start it off recognizably then morph it into something more palatable then bring it back again for the finishing lines.

[rsclosson]

It seldom happens now, but back in the day, I used to constantly get requests for "Yakkity Sax" :evil:

[larry]

'Round these parts, "Mustang Sally" is generally considered the National Anthem of New Hampshire bar bands. :evil:

[sax_appeal]

Standards can be played in so many different ways by sax players that whenever you hear something like The Girl From Ipanema, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Ain't Misbehavin', Take Five its bound to be different from when you last heard something.

If you are playing in a High School band watch out for the following:

Man From Snowy River
Jurassic Park
any Olympics theme
anything by Sousa

....arghhh! I can't take it any longer!!!

[Frank D]

My nominations for the saxophone equivalent of Stairway:

Girl From Ipanema
Songbird
Europa
Yakkety Sax
Turn The Page (Bob Seeger - not really a sax song per se, but if you play in a bar band, this is a frequent request by the musically illiterate guy who doesn't know any other songs that feature the sax)

[pknight]

Bob is Seger. Pete is Seeger.

(I'm originally from Michigan. Couldn't help myself :wink: )

[M Exner]

Yakkety Sax and Songbird came to my mind when I first read this thrdad and now I see there are others that remember Boots and but of course Kenny. Mike

[Jan]

"Hey, Jan! Play some sax music!"

Whenever I hear that one, I have the choice between:

Tequila
The Pink Panther
Careless Whisper
Baker Street

Lucky enough, no one over here knows anything about Kenny G, let alone other saxophone players. :)

[Spaz Johnson]

The benchmark of a sax player in the '50's was (and still should be by anyone wanting to get his feet wet in the music) Bill Doggett's "Honky Tonk" featuring Clifford Scott! No remake or substitute will do!!

This single song contains the basic tool kit for the sax music of that era.

[Dr_sax]

When I started playing sax in 1976 everybody wanted to hear "take 5"

[Frank D]

I stand corrected, pknight. In my mental rolodex it's "Bad Ceegar" anyway. :lol:

[saxofunk]

It seldom happens now, but back in the day, I used to constantly get requests for "Yakkity Sax" :evil:

What's fun is using that song for a warm up at church... there's always one guy who remembers it as the song from the Benny Hill show.

Thanks to Jan for mentioning Pink Panther and saving me the effort!

One of the first catchy tunes I learned was Bill Justis' tune, Raunchy.
Then there's the into intro to The Heat is On.
Good thing is, no one remembers either of these.

[Balladeer]

IMHO, though some songs may no longer be fun to play for the musician, the song is not the culprit cliche. The cliches that guitarists use are finger patterns and riffs within their leads. Regardless of the tune, it is artiscally 'healthy' to avoid falling into the rut of depending on a 'bag of tricks'. As for the tendency of guitarists to do this, I speak from 30 years experience as a lead guitarist (I kept my sax on a stand at playing height so that I could easily switch between vocal/guitar and sax). The guitar fretboard is layed out such that the same finger patterns work in each key; only the anchor fret changes. Wind instrument fingerings are not consistent across keys. Therefore, we are less likely to fall into the pattern trap...but we can. It is artistically desirable to use every opportunity to explore new creative possibilities.

[pat_27]

In The Mood also played too often here, i think. last fall my HS band played "Johnny's Mambo" and "Pretty Fly". Found out that 3 other regional HS were also playing the same thing. We'd just play them at their home games so we'd go first and tick'em off real good.

[averageschmoe]

tunes to avoid... anything from the omnibook. we've all heard as much horrible confirmation as we can stand and more so. classicaly, the intro to the ibert gets old at conventions.

[Dave Dolson]

Gary: The only requests I hear for ROSETTA are from other musicians in the group. The folks I play with like that tune but the audience doesn't seem to care much either way. The mouldy fygges in the audience squirm whenever a trad band plays a war-horse - but many jazz fans seem to like most anything as long as it is played well. DAVE

[JL]

There are really two topics here: cliche tunes and cliche licks. I agree with Balladeer that a lot of musicians fall into a bag of typical licks. However, some use of typical cliches can be effective since it connects with the listener. When playing the blues, you probably need to throw in some blues scale cliches so the listener will recognize it as the "blues." Similarly, certain bebop phrases can be very effective when playing jazz. I really think it is more important how you deliver these phrases, than whether or not they are cliches. Listen to Bird. He used, and invented, many cliches that he mixed up and used in different contexts. The bottom line question for me is: does it sound good?

[bruce bailey]

When I started in the late 50s (the decade) it was "Tracy's Theme"-Percy Faith, "My Three Sons" and "Wild Weekend". Then in '62 "Take 5" and now I am working on open C#! One tidbit of useless knowledge: Fred MacMurray was a sax player, thus the theme song.
Some favorite patterns: Start with high C>C#, B>C, Bb>B, etc. and another is: middle Cmaj arpeggio up one octave, B arpeggio down, Bb up, A down, etc.

[Frank D]

Bruce, that last lick - the chromatic arpeggios up and down - is one my sax teacher taught me back in jr. high as a means of learning the major chords. I still play it in practice to this day, and have expanded it to cover minor chords, diminished, etc. Makes a good warm up exercise as well.

[Bill Mecca]

! One tidbit of useless knowledge: Fred MacMurray was a sax player, thus the theme song.

more useless info (believe me I have a ton!) I believe in the first season or two he actually played alto in a couple episodes, that was before Ernie, the kid next door became the third son with the departure of the eldest... now if I could only remember that character's name!) see I don't have ALL the useless information. ;-)

[Super 20 Player]

I believe in the first season or two he actually played alto in a couple episodes, that was before Ernie, the kid next door became the third son with the departure of the eldest... now if I could only remember that character's name).The eldest Douglas son's name was Mike (played by Tim Considine - remember him from "The Shaggy Dog"?). Check this link for an interesting history of "My Three Sons":

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/mythreesons/mythreesons.htm

[bruce bailey]

Frank - I bet your teacher went to U of Miami. Jerry Coker was my teacher who used the pattern.

[Frank D]

Bruce, thanks for that info. I kind of thought that exercise was something that's been passed around for years.

As far as my teacher, this was in Ohio back in the 60s. My teacher was an accountant who played sax (very well) on weekends. Don't think he went to school for music, much less in Miami. He was a cool guy, actually took me to wedding gigs once I could carry a tune by myself and would let me sit in playing the head on a few tunes. This was probably when I was junior high age.

[Bbtenor4LIFE!]

Originally posted by sax_appeal:
Standards can be played in so many different ways by sax players that whenever you hear something like The Girl From Ipanema, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Ain't Misbehavin', Take Five its bound to be different from when you last heard something.

If you are playing in a High School band watch out for the following:

Man From Snowy River
Jurassic Park
any Olympics theme
anything by Sousa

In middle school, our teacher made the 7th & 8th graders play Jurassic Park...it was a bit too easy, especially as trumpets always played lead :twisted: