Every month my friends on SOTW (Sax on the Web) do a fun thing called “the tune of the month”.\u00a0 Each month a different member of the site calls a tune that many of us will do a recording of.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a great tradition because it gets many of us out of our comfort zones and perhaps learning some tunes we have not played before.\u00a0\u00a0 It also is great because you get to hear how many other players approach the same tunes.\u00a0 Some of the participants are intermediate players and others are advanced players.\u00a0 Regardless of a players abilities or level everyone has been encouraging on the “Tune of the Month” threads and there has also been some great advice and ideas that have been shared.<\/p>\n
The tune for this month (December 2010) is\u00a0 “My Favorite Things” by Richard Rogers.\u00a0 Of course for sax players, probably the most famous recording is that of John Coltrane’s.\u00a0 It’s hard to even play the tune without having thoughts of Coltrane on it.\u00a0 I recorded this version with a track from Jamey Aebersold’s Volume 90 Odd Times.\u00a0 This is a great Aebersold\u00a0 to have because it has some common tunes on it that are played in odd time signatures.\u00a0 This version I am playing on is in 11\/4.\u00a0 You would think this would be hard but it seems like the tune just seems to fit perfectly with this time signature.\u00a0 For most of the solo I’m playing around with some blues scales,approach notes,3 tonic chromatisisms and the dorian scale. \u00a0 If you have any interest in any of these sounds or ideas feel free to check out my lessons on these subjects found at my lesson store<\/a>. I’m using a Theo Wanne Gaia 7 soprano mouthpiece with a Vandoren Java #3 1\/2 reed on a Yamaha YSS-62 soprano saxophone. There’s a tiny bit of a squeak in the sound because of a dry reed when I start but that soon goes away as the reed gets wet.\u00a0\u00a0 Enjoy!\u00a0 Let me know what you think.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Steve<\/p>\n