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It's school holiday time Down Under. Two weeks of rest, (read scrabbling for pick up jobs to pay the bills), and two weeks of preparing lessons for next term.
Most of my older kids have all their concert band music down, and some are working on preparing an Omnibook tune and solo choruses as part of the audition to move up to the Concert Band next year. It's a joy to teach 9 year old kids who'll give "Billie's Bounce" (including Bird's solo) a go on sax and clarinet.
For their last lesson of the term, I decided to let them have a little fun. There was no way they were gonna knuckle down to work, so I just said "let's have some fun. What do you want to learn?"
Surprise, surprise. No Kenny G. No Britney.
They all want to learn to play Rock n Roll Sax (or clarinet :shock: )
I spent the lesson just teaching them simple background parts for tunes such as
"See you Later Alligator."
"Shake Rattle n Roll"
etc. Then we had some fun with the major pentatonic scale and developing these riffs into a solo.
Had a blast!
The kids loved it. The other kids and parents were crowding the doorway and peering in the classroom windows. The joint was rockin'.
Now the little terrors want more.
It always seems to work well, for kids and for myself, to have a base to build upon. More advanced rock solos are easier to play, remember and use, when you've got some basic solos and background parts under your fingers and in your ears. I think the basic stuff provides a set of mental "pegs" upon which you can hang the progressively more advanced stuff.
So often, we advise beginners to "go listen to these guys" and give them a list of great players, playing ripping solos, at tempos well beyond a young beginner/intermediate player. Sure, some of the kids will knuckle down and learn a difficult solo, but I've often thought that a simpler solo that can be refigured and adapted to varying feels and tempos, is more useful.
With that in mind, how about suggesting a few exemplary tunes/solos for various sub genres, that will give the young kids some useable licks,motifs, background parts.
Preferably, simple stuff that they can adapt to many types of tunes and feels. I always feel that you want at least one adaptable solo (with background parts), up your sleeve for each of the following. A bag of tools that'll get you through most any Rock n Roll sax tune.
slow, sultry, Blues
faster Jump Blues
Old-time, 50's Rock n Roll
Doo ***
Funk Groove
Boogie style tunes
I'm missing many styles, but you get the idea.
If you were a teacher and you had to pick one or two tunes for each style. One or two, "learn these kid, and you can blow your way through anything" tunes. What would you choose?
Remember, nothing too tricky, these are kids (or adults) building a rock n roll foundation.
Happy Holidays
Most of my older kids have all their concert band music down, and some are working on preparing an Omnibook tune and solo choruses as part of the audition to move up to the Concert Band next year. It's a joy to teach 9 year old kids who'll give "Billie's Bounce" (including Bird's solo) a go on sax and clarinet.
For their last lesson of the term, I decided to let them have a little fun. There was no way they were gonna knuckle down to work, so I just said "let's have some fun. What do you want to learn?"
Surprise, surprise. No Kenny G. No Britney.
They all want to learn to play Rock n Roll Sax (or clarinet :shock: )
I spent the lesson just teaching them simple background parts for tunes such as
"See you Later Alligator."
"Shake Rattle n Roll"
etc. Then we had some fun with the major pentatonic scale and developing these riffs into a solo.
Had a blast!
The kids loved it. The other kids and parents were crowding the doorway and peering in the classroom windows. The joint was rockin'.Now the little terrors want more.
It always seems to work well, for kids and for myself, to have a base to build upon. More advanced rock solos are easier to play, remember and use, when you've got some basic solos and background parts under your fingers and in your ears. I think the basic stuff provides a set of mental "pegs" upon which you can hang the progressively more advanced stuff.
So often, we advise beginners to "go listen to these guys" and give them a list of great players, playing ripping solos, at tempos well beyond a young beginner/intermediate player. Sure, some of the kids will knuckle down and learn a difficult solo, but I've often thought that a simpler solo that can be refigured and adapted to varying feels and tempos, is more useful.
With that in mind, how about suggesting a few exemplary tunes/solos for various sub genres, that will give the young kids some useable licks,motifs, background parts.
Preferably, simple stuff that they can adapt to many types of tunes and feels. I always feel that you want at least one adaptable solo (with background parts), up your sleeve for each of the following. A bag of tools that'll get you through most any Rock n Roll sax tune.
slow, sultry, Blues
faster Jump Blues
Old-time, 50's Rock n Roll
Doo ***
Funk Groove
Boogie style tunes
I'm missing many styles, but you get the idea.
If you were a teacher and you had to pick one or two tunes for each style. One or two, "learn these kid, and you can blow your way through anything" tunes. What would you choose?
Remember, nothing too tricky, these are kids (or adults) building a rock n roll foundation.
Happy Holidays
