Ryan

Good work this lesson! Warm up using this material:

#1. Low register fade-in longtones (F, Eb, D, C, Bb).

  • Remember that the goal of this exercise is to create a gradual fade-in from a whispertone to a full, deep tone using an open throat (like yawning). Practices that maximize the vibration of the reed will help out: taking more mouthpiece in your mouth and removing some of your lower lip from inside your mouth to stop it from blanketing the vibration of the reed.

#2. Double-tonguing exercise.

  • For now, practice this on one note, nice and slowly with a metronome at 60 bpm. The goal is to get the ‘ka’ sounding as similar to the ‘ta’ attack as possible.

I know things are busy, but see how much you can get done of our objectives for this week:

#1. Work your Eb scale up to 100 bpm in sixteenth notes.

#2. Ab Voxman etude, from the beginning to the star at 70bpm. Keep in mind the techniques you practiced in your low register fade-in warmup.

#3. Transcribe at least the next 4 bars of Dexter Gordon’s solo on Blue Bossa.

  • I suggest buying the track (or even better, the whole album ‘Biting the Apple’) from iTunes or another source. Playing back a recording from a file for the purposes of transcription is much easier.
  • Longer-term goal: memorize his interpretation of the melody, including the subtleties of his time feel and his additions to the melody.