I didn’t think I would ever do this but…………about once a month I get an email from someone asking if I can put up some sound clips and lessons on the Yamaha WX-5 wind controller. \u00a0A Yamaha WX-5 is what is known as a wind controller. \u00a0You blow air into and finger it just like a saxophone. \u00a0The air and finger movement trigger sensors in the electronics of the instrument and then signals are sent to a sound module to trigger specific sounds. \u00a0You can trigger any sound that a synthesizer can make. \u00a0There are no limits to the number of sounds you can make with this instrument. \u00a0The cool advantage this has over a synthesizer is that you can shape the dynamics and other characteristics of the sound with your airstream. \u00a0You can’t do that with a keyboard. \u00a0These are really cool instruments that a saxophone player can use to be even more useful in todays music as the saxophone isn’t as common as it was 20-30 years ago.<\/p>\n
Here’s a sound clip of me using it on a gig.\u00a0 Typically when I the WX-5 I would play mostly harmonica, muted trumpet,jazz flute and various string sounds.\u00a0 Once in awhile i would get bored and do some bari sax funk lines on it (I know, I know it’s sacrilege).\u00a0 Sometimes, I would even play some\u00a0 distorted guitar that would totally upset the guitar player.(I still smile about that)\u00a0 Here I am playing a solo on “Have I Told You Lately” using a harmonica sound.\u00a0 Now I will admit to you here and now,\u00a0 I almost never practiced the WX-5.\u00a0 To me it played just like a saxophone so I would just bring it to the gigs and pick it up and play it like my sax.\u00a0 I even set it up so it was in the same key as my tenor saxophone.\u00a0 I had to keep things pretty simple because of this and I could have really improved stylistically with bending and shaping notes by practicing on it more but I was always too focused on the saxophone to give it much time.\u00a0 In this clip I’m using a Roland XV-5080 with the Patchman sounds added as a sound module.<\/p>\n
The biggest benefit for me to using a wind controller is the string lines.\u00a0 There are string lines all over todays pop music and many times the keyboard player can’t play all the parts.\u00a0 It really fills up the sound just to add a few string lines here or there in a tune.\u00a0 I know some of you will email me and ask what I think of the EWI and why did I pick the Yamaha over it.\u00a0 The answer is that I wanted something that I could learn and pick up relatively fast that I wouldn’t have to practice on too much.\u00a0 I had an EWI back in the early 90’s and I had a really hard time adjusting to the touch sensitive keys and the octave rollers.\u00a0 I remember trying to master the EWI for months and I still had glitches with the octave rollers.\u00a0 The Yamaha took me about a week to get down as I remember…………….Let me know what you think. \u00a0\u00a0 Steve<\/p>\n