My teacher and Alex are longtime friends, they both played in Jaco's big band back in the early 80s (etc). Alex is staying at his house for a week or two, and I had a 2-hour lesson last night, so it was basically us hanging out in the living room for 30 minutes talking about his history and gear, etc, then an hour+ of getting a 2-headed lesson. A few highlights-
1. He complimented my tone, which was a nice boost.
2. We worked on I'll Remember April. He said he mostly plays by ear and is obviously at the point where he doesn't have to "think" about what to play, it just "comes out". He told me I needed to improve my knowledge of scales, and the faculty at which I can play them.
3. I should be able to play all scales incredibly fast, like almost a glissando. He said this is what Coltrane worked on.
4. He told me to spend 1/3 of my practice time on long tones up and down the entire horn. He liked my tone, but noted that I could benefit from a little more control/command of the horn.
5. He told me to "find the strong notes" of each song and each change in the song. For instance, we were just going change by change in the tune, and he was running a scale over each chord and finding the notes that felt the best over each change. It starts in Amaj, and he liked the Amaj scale running from C#2 up to E3 (as an example).
6. Approach improv like a singer. Use the whole horn, focus on phrases. Use space, don't just play constantly. (these are probably specific to me)
Gear-wise he is on a JL Woodwinds tenor and a Lebayle "prototype" HR mouthpiece. He plays Legere signature reeds (endorser). On alto he's playing RS Berkeley (horn) and a Yani soprano (with HR Link 8).
I'm hoping to tag along with them both tonight to a jam session in town to watch them melt minds. Really cool guy who has played with a LOT of people, not to mention his 25 year history in the SNL band.
1. He complimented my tone, which was a nice boost.
2. We worked on I'll Remember April. He said he mostly plays by ear and is obviously at the point where he doesn't have to "think" about what to play, it just "comes out". He told me I needed to improve my knowledge of scales, and the faculty at which I can play them.
3. I should be able to play all scales incredibly fast, like almost a glissando. He said this is what Coltrane worked on.
4. He told me to spend 1/3 of my practice time on long tones up and down the entire horn. He liked my tone, but noted that I could benefit from a little more control/command of the horn.
5. He told me to "find the strong notes" of each song and each change in the song. For instance, we were just going change by change in the tune, and he was running a scale over each chord and finding the notes that felt the best over each change. It starts in Amaj, and he liked the Amaj scale running from C#2 up to E3 (as an example).
6. Approach improv like a singer. Use the whole horn, focus on phrases. Use space, don't just play constantly. (these are probably specific to me)
Gear-wise he is on a JL Woodwinds tenor and a Lebayle "prototype" HR mouthpiece. He plays Legere signature reeds (endorser). On alto he's playing RS Berkeley (horn) and a Yani soprano (with HR Link 8).
I'm hoping to tag along with them both tonight to a jam session in town to watch them melt minds. Really cool guy who has played with a LOT of people, not to mention his 25 year history in the SNL band.