A Note From Bob

Hello again. I thought I might discuss some of the things I’ve been practicing of late, as well as some of the things I have practiced in the past. With all the writing I do, it is important to maximize my practice time by focusing on the things that are most important.

One of the things I’ve been doing lately is playing a variety of things in all the keys. For example, cycling the blues , rhythm changes, and some select standards through all the 12 keys. In each key I find some different stuff to play based on the particular tone and color of that key, and the way the melodies lay on the horn. I’m also calling upon my ability to play by ear in a big way. You never know when you might have to play the blues in the key of F#.

Occasionally I will pull out some of the etudes I have for saxophone and read through them. The main ones I like to use are: Karg Ehlert Saxophone Studies (two books published by Leduc), the Bach cello suites, which I play out of a flute book titled 24 Flute Concert Studies by J.S. Bach (Southern Music is the publisher), Hank Mobley transcriptions by Gary Campbell (Houston Publications, although this book may be hard to find. I can give you Gary’s # and you can get it from him), and the Guy Lecour oboe etudes (Leduc) which play very nicely on the saxophone.

Ive also been checking out Gary Campbell’s new book on triad pairs (Warner Bros Publications), which organizes the combining of various triads in improvisation in a very nice way. After reading through this book I realized that I have been combining triads for quite some time. Gary’s book gave me a new slant on the concept, and some new things to play.

I spend a good deal of practice time “free associating” or improvising in the name of finding new things to play in solos, and for finding germs for new compositions. You will be surprised what will come out if you get out of the way! The trick then is to isolate a good idea and work on it for a while. Once I have it under my fingers I try to find a context in which to use the new idea, and then practice using it, Say in a tune or a specific setting (one chord vamp, etc.) At least part of this time is spent playing slow broken chords (ala Bach cello suites) during which I try to create a full and complete harmonic setting that is hopefully a little different and interesting.

The last part of my practice session usually involves practicing tunes I’m learning. What I do is play the chords into my computer and cycle the changes so that I can play 40 or 50 choruses of the particular tune (in time and at a variety of different tempos).

I wish I had more time to practice. But there are only so many hours in a day. The days I don’t play the saxophone I spend a good deal of time at the piano. And when I am away from an instrument I am frequently thinking about playing the saxophone, and hearing things to play.

Here’s a quick Buddy Rich story for ya:
The second tune I wrote for Buddy’s band was a shuffle called “Party Time”. I took advantage of the opportunity to write myself a solo into the chart for the obvious reasons (tenor players love to play solos). At the first runthrough, I planned on soloing for 3 choruses on what was a fairly long form. After rounding the bend into the third chorus, Buddy stopped the band and said 2 choruses were enough. (He was right. Musically this was quite enough given the length of the chart.) Being the young, inexperienced fellow that I was at the time, I asked Buddy why I couldn’t strech out a bit more and play 3 choruses. Buddy said “Cause you ain’t playing shit, that’s why.” Ask a stupid question … What I learned from the experience was:
1. Give the band leader what he wants. It's his band.
2. The amount of solo has to be the right length for the overall composition.
3. Being in an ensemble is a team effort (especially in a big band), and there are a lot of people who want to solo.

Well that’s all for now. Remember, strive for tone, and enjoy the moment!

Peace,
Bob Mintzer

Archived Notes
January, 2001