Mastering The Dominant Bebop Scale The Dominant Bebop Scale is a scale that can be used over a dominant chord. It has both the major 7th and the flat 7th in the scale so in the key of G the scale would be GABCDEFF#G. The reason that the dominant bebop scale sounds so great is […]
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Vandoren V16 Hard Rubber T6
This is a Vandoren tenor sax mouthpiece I picked up in a local music store for a student of mine. I tried a Vandoren T7 and this Vandoren T6 and I liked this T6 quite a bit more on my tenor. It has a long roll over baffle that continues right down into the chamber. […]
Approach Note Books and Lessons
“Approach Note Velocity” by Steve Neff Approach Note Velocity is a book that I created for myself so that I could master all the different approach notes in every key. I have divided the book up into sections by key and have written out the exercises so that you can practice them and read them […]
RS Berkeley “Virtuoso” tenor sax review
About 6 months ago I had a new member to my site named Les Silver. Les signed up for online lessons and we exchanged quite a few emails and phone calls talking about my lessons and in our conversations he told me about his saxophone line that he has been developing over the last few […]
Getting the Most from Neffmusic Online Lesson
To get most out of my NeffMusic Online Lessons I would suggest a few simple ideas. 1. Focus on one topic like Blues scales, Approach Notes, Pentatonics……..etc. In my mind it’s always better to focus on one topic at a time and master it. Working on bits and pieces of 10 different lessons and not […]
Two Chris Potter Transcriptions from “Song for Anyone” CD
Here are two Chris Potter transcriptions that I received from Corey Armstrong for tenor sax. I haven’t had the time to check them out note for note but these are two great solos from the “Song for Anyone” CD and must have taken quite a bit of time to figure out. Corey said I could […]
LAW Medium Chamber Bright (MCB) .110
This is another LAW mouthpiece by Lawrence Waldron in the UK. It was in the same package as the LCD(Large Chamber Dark) piece. This piece is a MCB(Medium Chamber Bright) piece. It has a roll over baffle that slopes more gradually into the chamber than the LCD piece. This gives it a bit more power […]
Lamberson J8
Here is a Lamberson J8 tenor mouthpiece that I bought a few months ago.
Sugal Super Gonz I 7*
Sugal Super Gonz 7* Here is a Sugal Super Gonz I tenor mouthpiece that I bought off a friend of mine. This is from the mid 90’s and started out as a 8*. I had Brian Powell bring it down to a 7* and clean up the facing quite a bit. I played a Super […]
LAW LCD (Large Chamber Dark) .110
This is another LAW piece from Lawrence Waldron. Every once in awhile he sends me a package in the mail with some pieces to try. These are as great as usual. This one is a LCD(Large Chamber Dark) and has a .110 tip opening. I really liked the sound of this piece. I actually didn’t […]
Joshua Redman Transcription “Blues for Pat” Solo
Joshua Redman is one of my favorite tenor sax players out there. I especially love his early albums “Moodswing” and “Timeless Tales”. Here’s Joshua Redman transcription from the album “Live In San Francisco” with Pat Metheny. This tune is called “Blues for Pat” and it’s a great solo on a blues form. Redman does a […]
Chris Potter: Transcription of Body and Soul
I received this Bb transcription from Kevin Jones who teaches at the University of South Carolina. This is from a version of Body and Soul that Chris played on for “Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis: Season 1 Vol. 3”. There are some great elements to check out in this solo. I haven’t played through […]
No USA Florida Link
No USA Florida Link .105 This is a Florida Link I bought off ebay awhile ago. I bought it because it was refaced and the seller didn’t know who had done it. When I saw the pictures I was pretty confident that it was Theo Wanne’s work. I can’t be 100% certain but I’ve had […]
Saxscape Hudson Model .113
Saxscape Hudson Model Refaced by Brian Powell to .113 I received this piece from a friend who wanted me to try it out. It was made by Ken Barry at Saxscape mouthpieces. The person who owned it before me had Brian Powell reface it (I’m not sure why) It has berg like baffle in it […]
How Much Should My Child Practice?
I get asked this question quite often by concerned parents. What I usually recommend for fourth grade beginning students is 3 15-20 minute times a week. I find that if students do this they will make steady progress during the first year with no problems. Of course, if a student is really excited and wants […]
Poll of 9 Tenor Mouthpieces
I decided to run a poll for 9 sound clips I just made of my last 9 tenor mouthpieces. I’m having a heck of a time deciding which ones to sell and I figured it would help me to play them side by side and record them. On all 9 clips I’m just playing a […]
100 Top 40 Tunes Every Working Sax Player Should Know
The other day one of my students said he wanted to get out of the house and start gigging and making some money. We’ve been working on standards and jazz improvisation over the last year or so. He asked me if I thought he was ready and we got into a discussion about playing out. […]
Sax Mouthpieces: The Length of the Facing Curve
I’ve been doing a lot of experimentation into different facing curve lengths on my alto and tenor saxophone. On my alto sax, I have been using mouthpieces that were all refaced by Brian Powell to .080 tip openings but with different facing curve lengths. These are what I’ve been using: Florida Hard Rubber Link-20mm facing […]
NeffMusic Lessons: Learning How To Learn!
I’m writing this article to all my Neffmusic members to help them get the most out their lessons at Neffmusic. In order to really get the most out of my lessons there are some skills that you need to develop. These lessons are a bit different than going to a teacher and taking one on […]
Free Saxophone Intonation Tracking Graph
I made a video lesson on saxophone intonation where I taught about charting your intonation tendencies of your saxophone by using a tuner. What you do is play naturally for a few seconds and then end on the target note and while holding it turn and look at the tuner. You then put a mark […]
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