Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saxophone Tip #2: Listen to tons of music.

Listen, Listen, Listen, how many times have you heard this?  A lot?  I know I have.  If you want to reach your highest potential musically you need to listen to tons of music.  As much as people want to believe it, music just can't be taught from a book or in a vacuum.  Music is a hearing art meaning you need to learn to hear to master music.  It doesn't matter if your a jazz saxophonist, a classical saxophonist, or something else altogether you need to listen to music daily.  Don't get me wrong books are important and can be helpful, but to sound authentic and real you need to listen to lots and lots of music.

Think of it this way.  How did you learn to speak?  You listened to a model usually your parents.  Keyword there being listened.  You didn't learn your native language from a book.  Music is the same way, it is a language.  The best way to learn a language is by hearing it.  Think of music like a foreign language.  If you want to learn to speak the language you have to hear it. If you just learn the language form a book and never hear anyone speak it you might understand the grammar and structure, but you won't have the proper inflections, articulations and so forth.

I know I'm making a big deal about listening to music, and I know it seems obvious that a musician should take time to listen to lots of music, but guess what, a lot of musicians just don't do it enough especially beginners.  With that being said I guess I should tell you about some of the benefits of listening to tons of music.

For beginners listening to great musicians is key because it gives them a model of how to sound good.  As a saxophonist you should listen to other saxophonist.  What this will do is teach you what kind of sound you should strive for.  It will teach you different ways to approach playing the saxophone, how to phrase and accent musical passages, and it will give you an idea of what you will need to learn if you want to be a successful saxophonist.

For the intermediate to advanced saxophonist listening to tons of music helps you in different ways from that of a beginner.  It can give you ideas that you can later implement into your playing.  You can start to recognize how music theory relates to real music, and you can better understand the different nuances available to you as a musician.  At this point if your an intermediate or advanced player you should feel fairly comfortable on your saxophone,  because of this your focus should lend more and more to stylistic things instead of technique.  This is especially true if you have decided to focus on a specific genre.  As your listening to music really focus on the little things that the performer does that makes the music come to life.  Then try and implement those sorts of things into your playing.  This is especially important in learning to improvise jazz or any other style of music that has improvisation such as rock and roll.  Two people can play the same exact thing, but one person will sound great and the other sounds bad.  Why, the one pays attention to detail and accents and executes the lick in a manner that is stylistically correct were the other just plays the notes but is missing the inflections, articulations and accents needed to sound authentic.  You see this sort of thing all the time when a beginning jazz student tries to play a tune out of a fake book.  They play the tune, but it doesn't sound like jazz.  You just have to remember music is more than notes.  Listening to tons of music is the only way to learn about the nuances that really bring it to life.

So as a refresher listen to tons of music.  This will give you a model of how to  play, it will fill you up with ideas, and it will teach you how to bring the music you play to life.  Until next time.

Caruso

No comments: