Hello. I have an audition for 2nd part alto sax with a Huey Lewis and the News tribute band. I'm a descent player who can read music, but not very good at figuring out harmony parts by ear. I have looked all over for a scored arrangement and can't find anything. Can someone please point me in a direction?
Need Sheet Music! Huey Lewis Tribute
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Lots of sheet music outlets online offer a free trial during which you have access to search and usually download anything you want to like a fully pledged subscriber. A friend of mine who used to be the music director on cruises told me about this trick.
Did they ask you specifically to play the second alto part for your audition? Perhaps they have a chart for you.
Wasn’t “The News” the Tower of Power horns? They have two tenors, bari, and no alto...
If you’re not hearing the harmony part(s) well enough to pick them (yes, it’s hard to do at first), you can learn the lead line and use the chord changes to help you find possible harmonies until you “discover” the right lines. You can find the chord changes doing a google search for the lyrics and chords to just about any song to get a guitar rendition, just (transpose) and play the roots along with your recording to make sure you get one in the right key...they often capo and/ or transpose to easier guitar keys.
Did they ask you specifically to play the second alto part for your audition? Perhaps they have a chart for you.
Wasn’t “The News” the Tower of Power horns? They have two tenors, bari, and no alto...
If you’re not hearing the harmony part(s) well enough to pick them (yes, it’s hard to do at first), you can learn the lead line and use the chord changes to help you find possible harmonies until you “discover” the right lines. You can find the chord changes doing a google search for the lyrics and chords to just about any song to get a guitar rendition, just (transpose) and play the roots along with your recording to make sure you get one in the right key...they often capo and/ or transpose to easier guitar keys.
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Unless your band has charts ready made, you're better off going to youtube, finding the song you need to learn and start playing along with it. This is a crucial skill for playing pop music, and if you're not good at it now, you can only get better.
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Yep, what Grumps said.
If you're playing in any kind of contemporary band oriented around rock, pop, funk, soul, RnB, hip hop, and so-forth... you HAVE to get your ears in shape. The chances that the band leader of this tribute act actually has written parts for the horns are very, very small, and if he/she did, you probably would have seen them already. That means that, like most contemporary bands, they'll be expecting you to learn and know all your parts for all the tunes.
Maybe the horn section leader (if there is one) has written arrangements, and that would be a good person to ask... but even then, that horn section is probably going to want all its members to have ears that are good enough to hear and pick up harmony parts.
The ability to read music is almost inapplicable to many or most contemporary working bands, in my experience. Your ears are far and away the most important things in your tool chest. If you're not good at figuring things out by ear, make progress by doing steady daily ear training (plenty of fun apps like Earpeggio can help you get started).
Of course, I could be wrong about this particular group, and maybe they have great, clear charts for everyone! That would make them a relatively rare exception, these days.
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I've come across a few people in my musical travels who couldn't play by ear. They had to have the music. Some people just can't and it's not just relegated to "those damn kids today". Some can't improvise either. There are just players with different abilities. Then there are the few that can't read and can't play be ear.............oh my.
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Yes! Thank you for taking the (always unnecessary) ageism out of it. Some of the best section players I've been in bands with weren't ear players or improvisers, but teach them a part and they never forget it...plus, more solos for me
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The big benefit of transcription is that you have a permanent record if you forget the part. Just look it up again. Of course, if you transcribe wrong, well GIGO as they used to say.
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Have you asked whether the band has charts for the horn section?
Did they stipulate 2nd alto? As mentioned above, the horn section was Tower of Power (two tenor saxes).
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Much of Huey Lewis sax was just Johnny Colla (when no TOP section).
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OK, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the need for a 2nd alto when there is no 1st.
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I guess I missed something. Which Huey Lewis song score are you looking for? SAXSOLOS.COM has "I Want A New Drug" which has tenor and alto parts. And Curtis has a lot of Johnny's solos scores.
https://saxsolos.com/solo-list/
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Alto being the second part, I assume. I've seen parts written that way. Cornfusing.
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This outfit has most of the horn band charts you could want and often in slightly different arrangements or configurations that you can work with to match to the horn line you have. As mentioned above most of Huey's horn licks were arranged and played by the TOP horn section so your best bet to make them sound good would be to have something close to that. http://www.horncharts4less.com/
The site is very simple and hasn't been updated in years so navigating it requires a bit of patience. I find after going to the second page I change the page numbers in the URL to jump around instead of using the "Next" and "Back" buttons but they'll eventually get you were you want if you don't mind all the scrolling.
WOW, Thanks for all the feedback. The audition is not only for horn, but rythm guitar and backup vocals as well. Horn is going to be my weak spot. The good news is that they are doing a 2 part horn section where the second horn is a trumpet with Huey Lewis and the News in a small horn set up. They have the parts written out. I'm gonna do the trumpet parts on alto to get a higher tone in the mix. Bad news is now I have to transpose all of the music to Eb. Been 25 years since I did that. It's gonna be a good lesson for me. Guitar has been my bread winner for the last 20 years. I'm descent at improve, but with a "tribute" band accuracy is key to make the audience happy. Well, precieved accuracy.
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