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@@jacquelamontharenberg thanks for watching! And I completely agree, you definitely have to do these consistently for a while to see good results. For years I would start every practice session with long tones to warm up, and then overtones for 10 minutes.

I’ll take it! Thanks for joining the community! And thanks for enjoying the videos!

I think of it in relation to G minor for sure. It does begin with a 2-5 to Bb major, BUT Bb major is diatonic to the G minor scale. Honestly I usually think of the beginning of Autumn leaves as a 4 7 3 6 2 5 1 in G minor. It helps you remember the changes but you do need to address the resolutions and alterations correctly. But yes you’re spot on, you can think of that A section as G minor.

Anytime! 👊

@@JayCee-hw4zc thank you! I have been doing these for probably 18 years and still do them at least once a week.

@@marving8301 it’s very doable! Once you have a system in place in your head the sky’s the limit!

@@nelsongonzalez450 yea I had to work on my tonging a lot! I am using a king guardala mouthpiece, I think a 9 opening? And a Rovner ligature. Love the Rovners, they have tons of options too. And I use reed, Vandoren Jazz (green box) 3 1/2. I tried some synthetics and the best one I’ve tried is the Silverstein Plastic Reeds. They are AWESOME! Only flaw I found in their reeds is that they take about 15 minutes of playing for them to get waterlogged and actually respond like a real reed. So you have to warm them up for 15 minutes before you can really go to town. And they can’t handle altissimo over a certain point. I mean for everyday use they’re perfect but if you’re trying to play really high altissimo they just cut out at a certain point. But if I was playing classical all the time I would probably use the Silverstein synthetic ones, they last like 15 months. Excellent reed.

@@phillipmorin1650 Thanks for answering!! Thanks for the tip. Although I had already known about that tongue position from Joe Allard (on video 🤪) I was not attentive to do it. My throat was moving like crazy and I was not conscious about that big detail. I began today your exercise. I need to focus my sound. Thanks!!! And I love your sound!! Anyway try Legere Reeds

If you try Legere pick 1/2 less than your current strength

@@nelsongonzalez450 I haven’t tried those since I was in college I think, I’ll give them a try again!

@@joewhitcombe1365 thank you! 🙏

@@unclemick-synths I hear you, for a while I really got into tweaking my reeds and experimenting. But finally I settled on the vandorens for consistency, and right out of the box they play how I want them to play. Mainly just file and clip for longevity now!

@@peterd3218 Thanks so much! Yea even I get a little lost listening to these old videos 🤣🤣🤣 the notation is key

@@iseabeck9488 thanks mang! We’ve been growing like crazy the last couple of weeks! Very thankful for everyone that’s been enjoying the videos!

@@peterd3218 yea if it’s a genuine modulation you shift your scale degrees to the new key. And when it comes to substitutions or alterations it really depends on the situation. What lick am I playing and what’s the easiest and quickest way to analyze and execute, really a case by case basis.

@@peterd3218 for instance, in the song “Baubles Bangles and Beads” the chords modulate 3 times in the beginning of the song but the melody is exactly the same in those 3 different keys. So I shift my thought process to the new key but the same scale degrees apply because the melody is still the same, just in a new key.

I saw it in one of your more recent videos based on green dolphin street. Seems like when the line just moves around you switch to the new chord. For the 251 that has a line all the way, you base on the 1. Makes sense. To remember a piece you remember the degrees, the changes, and when you use which base for the degrees. Fantastic when you have it down, but some work to do 😅 (I'm in my first year of sax, so really have other things to learn. But even for understanding the song better your system helps!)

@@peterd3218 yea it takes some work for sure! But once you’ve got your scales and basic chords like triads and 7th chords I would start thinking this way. The sooner you start the easier it gets! There are some great ways to practice this I’ll have to make a video about

@@phillipmorin1650 looking forward to those vids. You add something new to sax YT. Thanks!

@@nanackle I’ll add it to the description! But the reed file I use is actually a car file 🤣. It’s a 14 inch “flexible” car file, there are a bunch of different brands but here’s a link to a relatively cheap 2 pack from duragold. I’ve also seen people mount these on wood blocks for easier handling. a.co/d/bsZPi2Z

@@nanackle and I actually just got a used alto sax I’m going to overhaul, I plan on making a video on that this month for yall!

Exactly!

@@richardhess7313 you’re welcome! Thank you for enjoying the video!

Thank you so much! I really wanted to try to stay true to my original vision with this one, and I think I did!

@@jfinneynowable you’re very welcome! Thanks for enjoying the video!

@@terryblack5381 you will! It definitely doesn’t happen over night, it took me a long time to be able to wrap my brain around it. And don’t work on this all the time or it will brun you out. Couple days a week of really focusing on thinking like this and analyzing like this and in a couple weeks you’ll notice the difference! And the more you do it the easier it gets!

@@terryblack5381 definitely start with this in the practice room. It will begin to translate to live performance eventually, but give it time.

@@jonball1511 thank you! Glad I could share some knowledge with fellow musicians out there!

@@nicolaycunha thank you! I’m so glad you took something from it!

Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the lesson! And that’s a great tune, that’ll be a fun exercise for sure!

@@jukarodrigues4039 thank you! 🙏

Well the good thing about music is it's never too late to start learning! Glad you're diving in, and Bach is a great place to start! I'm unfamiliar with the Burgmuller method, but I'll have to check it out. I think you definitely need a good balance of both technique (especially for piano) and understanding theory. I think they go hand in hand, as you are learning how to play you should also be learning what you are playing. An exercise I loved doing when analyzing Bach was analyzing it from 3 perspectives. The key it is in, the relative minor or major of that key, and then the 5th of the original key. You also use the relative minor of the 5th and related secondary dominants for these tonal centers and write out the roman numerals related to the music in every one of these keys. After a while you can visually see how the piece of music is modulating between keys and how it is doing it! Very cool exercise, very time consuming but fun to do.

@@phillipmorin1650 Wow. I can understand what you're saying, though much is out of my pay grade. Luckily I'll show this to my teachers and they can help me. Merci.

@@lawrencetaylor4101 je vous en prie!

I completely agree! This is a topic I have yet to address in these videos, but I have experienced the same in my own playing. If you're thinking too much about the theory behind what you're playing it distracts you from listening, and that in turn distracts you from responding. It's like being in a conversation with a few people and the whole time you're trying to analyze the syntax of what you're about to say. This method is to get you to a point where this kind of thought process and analysis becomes second nature, background thought. My absolute best playing and improvising is when I have a musical Idea come to mind and I execute it, and while I'm executing it I'm "noticing" what I'm doing, in a theoretical sense. It's like I'm watching someone else play and thinking "Oh how interesting, I really like the approach to the 5 chord". It's a strange juxtaposition of thoughts and action, with analysis not getting in the way of listening and responding. And learning your theory in this way gets you to that point. But in truth, the biggest help I found was professional performing. Meaning your money depends on understanding, analyzing and executing immediately at the highest possible level. Nothing aligns your thoughts faster than when your life depends on it.

It helps to take a break from this kind of thinking every now and then, pick a song you know and love, and simply play. Don't try to play licks or think at all. Just listen to the natural melody's that come to mind and try to play them. Pass or fail doesn't matter it's just to create. If you haven't checked it out yet I highly recommend a book called "Effortless Mastery" by the piano player Kenny Werner. His insights and knowledge on this kind of topic are invaluable!

​@@phillipmorin1650 If I were to paraphrase the bulk of your response it seems like you are saying "work on this way of practicing to the point where you don't have to actively think while playing this way". I might be mistaken in my assessment and feel free to correct me if I am. I guess my only lingering question is how you actually practice the merging of those two kinds of awareness because it seems like all that's being practiced by being aware of functions is ultimately being aware of functions. This is incredibly useful in terms of getting by on gigs where you have to transpose tunes on the fly but I guess I don't understand how working on music this way allows you to play in a non-neurotic way. I can see how it would gradually become easier but the part of my brain that's concerned with being as efficient as possible wonders why I wouldn't just go straight into the ear side of things immediately and practice the theory side to a serviceable level rather than practicing the theory aggressively and expecting that the ear will gradually catch up to it (which is what I've done for the bulk of my playing career with mixed results). I'm really not trying to be argumentative. More than anything I'm just trying to understand and be efficient with my practice time.

@@aaronmetz8707 I hear what you're saying and your summary was pretty spot on. What's the famous quote? "You learn all of this so you can forget it?" Or Charlie Parkers famous quote "First you learn the instrument, then you learn the music, then you forget all that $hit and just play!". It is a fine balance of learning and also trying to be creative, and everybody must find that balance for themselves. But Learning music in this way allows you to think SO fast that it doesn't get in the way of your creativity. The point I'm at now with theory is really to serve my internal transposition, if you will. A lot of times I'll have a phrase or idea pop into my head and a lot of times it just comes out of the horn without thought. But there are times I will hear something in my head, or from another band member and with this technique I can analyze it instantly! I I can recognize "Oh that was a cool diminished phrase! Whats the related diminished scale for this song? Where would I start?" That happens in a fraction of a second and I now know what it is, where to start and instead and now I set the theory aside and just play, it becomes a shape that I can manipulate as I play it. but It is a very fine line to walk. The very analytical theory side of practicing allows you to not be limited by your ear on the bandstand, if that makes sense. To your point though I will say, my absolute best writing and improvising comes from my ear and not thinking about theory at all. But the combination of the two got me to that point.

@@phillipmorin1650 That makes alot of sense. I can relate to what you are saying to in that I've noticed that what this toolset allows me to do is to make "mistakes" work and it allows me to always reposition myself when I get lost if my ear gets sidetracked. Thank you for the lengthy/detailed and thoughtful responses!

Ah I see why you would be confused by that scale. The melody is in D minor, but I wrote out that scale to show how the D minor scale differs from D major. Any natural minor scale, no matter the key has 3 flats; a b3 a b6 and a b7. So I was illustrating with that scale how to think about D minor in relation to scale degrees. 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7. Hopefully that helps!

D major has an F# when you "flat" a sharp note it cancels out to F natural hence b3 in D minor is F natural and not actually F flat.

@@jamesarmstrong1195 thank you, thank you 🙏

@@solomann940 thank you so much!

I can understand how that would be a little confusing. What I mean is the scale degrees don’t line up with chord tones. Any melody is going to have strong resolutions to chord tones, i.e. 1 3 or 5. And the scale degrees of the melody in F Major don’t do that. They resolve to the 6 in bar 2. So from that we can tell something is not quite right.

@@arunkohli0 thank you! And thanks for becoming part of the community!

@@stevepinnell453 man thank you! I’ve got a lot more of those on my channel, though some of them don’t translate that well to guitar. Happy practicing!

@@lawrencetaylor4101 I’m glad I could add a little clarity! You can think of your natural minor scale as the relative major, but that can also get confusing. Like I said in the video, D minor is the same scale as F major. But minor scales are tricky because you alter the scale to get your resolutions. That’s why there are 3 minor scales. You use a different version of the minor scale depending on your situation.

@@masonthomassax YYR mang! Not that you need more licks, you talent son of a b!

@@phillipmorin1650 bro I ALWAYS need more licks!

I’ve been planning on it! Almost got the studio done and then I’m back at it!

Michel, please forgive me for not responding for a year! I really appreciate you getting something from my videos, and I’m back making more! This time hopefully even better!

@@phillipmorin1650 Great news!

Hahaha I get that ALL the time!

Thanks Johnny Rock!! You Rock!

Thanks man!!

Thanks Jillian!

Thank you so much! It was a lot of work getting the song done, and even more putting the video together so I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Chuck!! Glad you enjoyed it my brother!

Thanks Bryan!! Glad you like it my brother

Thank you Madeline!! I was not expecting those to be the most challenging shots to get out of the whole video, but they definitely were! But I am super happy with how they turned out.

Cannonball did play on a Meyer 5, but the 6 and 5 are so close in size that I don't think switching mouthpieces would make that much of a difference. What kind of reeds do you use? Cannonball used a size 2, so very little resistance... Definitely contributed to his ability to play long lines because he didn't have to use too much air to get his horn to speak. Maybe try softer reeds? Or work on breathing exercises. I still do breathing exercises on the regular, it's always something I have to work on. I hope that helped and happy new year!

@@phillipmorin1650 Thanks for your comments. 2 and sometimes 2 1/12