Play-Along Saxophone (Junior) - Christmas
(Arr.) Richard Graf
Universal, UE 32 695, £9.95
13 Ways of Getting There
(jazzy pieces for alto saxophone and piano)
David Cullen
Schott, ED 12847, £10.99
Take Off with your Saxophone
Chris Holmes
Spartan Press, SP786, £9.99
Easy Pieces for Alto Saxophone and Piano
(Arr.) Robin de Smet
Pan Educational Music, PEM89, £4.95
Latin Nights
Alto Saxophone and Piano (also available for Tenor)
Richard Kershaw
Hunt Edition, HE91, £5.85
Sixty for Sax
Alan Bullard
ABRSM Publishing, ISBN 1-86096-537-7, £6.95
Creative Saxophone - Improvising
Kellie Stanton and Cheryl Clark
Oxford University Press, 0-19-322367-8, £7.95
Compositions for Alto Saxophone / Compositions for Tenor
Saxophone Vol.1
Beginners to intermediate
Graham Lyons
Useful Music, 132, £9.95
A New Tune a Day for Alto Saxophone is an updated version of the Herfurth original "Tune a Day" instrumental teaching method conceived in the 1930s that ran unchanged for decades. I still have my copy for clarinet. The one note per lesson/page has been the basis for most tutors ever since. Clearly the copyright owners recognised the original was well out of date and gave British Saxophonist Ned Bennett the task to do an update and over-all he has done a great job. There are clear photos of the instrument and how to put it together; the rudiments of music are clearly stated. The book is divided into 20 lessons each with a set of goals; learning a new note, a new time signature or a new technique, interspersed with simple tests. I liked the helpful hints and encouragement towards good posture and good practice technique, I also liked the choice of tunes, mostly well known melodies and not too many original pieces. Personally I prefer this approach as many pupils have parents who may have limited musical knowledge but if they know some of the tunes by ear they can at least give some help to the pupil. It comes with the now standard play-along CD. Ned himself is the demonstrator of the musical examples and they are musically played and well produced. From the vast array of possible saxophone sounds his is clearly in the jazz mould, attractive, but some may find it quite bright. The backings to the pieces are well arranged with sequenced drums, and synthesised sounds. As with many of the books reviewed it does sound rather artificial. This might be a tutor with a long shelf life, what a shame the publisher would go for live musicians even if they cost. I can level only a couple criticisms at the book. Firstly I feel the description of the embouchure suggesting that the bottom teeth should not support the lower lip is rather misleading. I recommend support from the teeth through the lower lip with the corners of the lips tight; otherwise one can end up with a bunched up chin. Many teachers will demonstrate the embouchure with no reference to the book so lessening its relevance. Secondly the left hand position of the boy in the demonstration photos is not very good, too much up-and-over the palm keys instead of right angles to the key-work, but really these are just niggles which don't distract from a really good update to a classic instrumental tutor.
Play-Along Saxophone (Junior) – Christmas
is a collection of nine Christmas tunes from around the world for Alto
or Tenor saxophone, with a play-along CD. It took me a while me ages to
figure out what is going on in this rather confusing title. As far as I
can make out these solo books (which are available for violin, flute, recorder,
sax) can be put together with ensemble books where the whole recorded arrangement
can be performed with voice, guitar, harp, kazoo, noseflute... (sorry,
I'm making this up), anyway a neat idea that could work well if it was
more clearly stated on the cover. I found the tunes them rather uninspiring
and rather worthy; the sample tracks don't have a saxophonist playing the
tune, you get violin and trumpet. A young musician (they are pitched at
grade1-2) will probably only know a couple of the pieces and the tenor
part ends up too low for beginners - too many low, disheartening D's. The
book covers too many bases, world music, Christmas, ensembles and solos.
Ironically the play-along CD features real musicians, all credited in the
book and they play very well.
The rather un-catchy title, 13 Ways of Getting There, hides what is a rather attractive collection of original concert pieces is aimed at players of grades 1-3. The conceit is that you are getting there (your musical destination) via different forms of transport, so the titles are White Water Rafting, Dodgems, In a Rowing Boat and so on. The pieces evoke the titles nicely, they are well printed with clear dynamics and articulation. The composer intends them to be similar to jazz influenced pieces one might hear on the TV and although one could argue that in reality there is very little jazz influence in Tracy Beaker's rap influenced intro I guess it is close enough. They are all to be played with jazz stylisations and a strong time feel and most teachers can now demonstrate that. If not then the included play-along CD will demonstrate it for you. The credited live saxophonist and pianist do a great job, musical with a good jazz-saxophone sound albeit with the occasional intonation problem in the sax part. An excellent book and good value.
Take Off with your Saxophone is a collection of 14 graded original pieces for alto saxophone (although which sax it was not clear until I put the CD on). The tunes are attractive and well graded by an experienced teacher/composer who clearly knows his AB levels. There is plenty of rhythmic repetition, indeed one piece is call and response, a good teaching method. The composer has chosen not to include any performance markings, his suggestion being that as a learning exercise the pupil should add these by listening to the track. I can see this working well as the saxophone performance is clearly defined but it need diligence from the teacher, perhaps a sample marked up piece would be helpful. However the book lets itself down in few areas. The un-credited saxophonist on the play-along CD does a really good job but the synthesised arrangements are cheesy in the extreme, horrible sounds, lifeless and over-quantized (this is where the computer pulls notes onto the right beats). Perhaps a pupil will not be so critical but it is the teacher who has to listen to it time and again. A piano part would be really helpful and would allow the piece to be played in concert. Finally I just wish it looked more attractive; low-resolution, pixellated images on the cover and the odd typo makes the book look amateurish and is really unnecessary these days.
Easy Pieces for Alto Saxophone and Piano is
a collection of eleven perfectly nice tunes, from Amazing Grace to pieces
by Corelli, C. Franck, and Tchaikovsky, all clearly marked up, and well
arranged. I'm sure these pieces do have their place in getting saxophone
players to play more "classical" sounding pieces, not everything
the saxophonist plays has to be jazzy - does it? But, there is nothing
extra offered, no insight into the pieces, no performance tips, nothing
about the composer to get the apathetic pupil interested. It all comes
over as rather dull especially compounded by poor cover design (a yucky
red with an awful amateurish sketch of a sax player). Spartan Press distributes
Pan Educational - do I see a pattern here?
With some trepidation I opened Richard Kershaw’s
Latin Nights for I noticed Spartan Press were involved again. Yes, the
cover is not the best, what looks like a Venetian mask to represent a collection
of South American pieces, no indication of the composers motivation or what
standard the pieces are, but the four short pieces themselves are good, strong
melodies, good harmonies and clear markings throughout. They are all about
grade 3 standard. For the tenor edition the piano part has been transposed
rather than the saxophone, which keeps everything within an easy range.
Sixty for Sax by Alan Bullard is a collection
of sixty unaccompanied, progressive, original studies covering grades 1
- 8. It is an attractive book, well laid out with clear markings. Alan’s
aim is to explore the saxophone’s versatility and he has created
pieces that cover a host of styles. Each of the studies is evocatively
titled and Alan manages to get the word “sax” in each one,
no mean feat. I’m guessing that a family brainstorming session went
on to think of them all. They range from “Sax Steps Out” to “Reeling
Sax” to “Sax Fax”; you get the idea. Alan is a great
composer and each study is well constructed, easily accessible in the early
ones, steadily becoming interpretatively more challenging with explorations
of more contemporary sounds. This is a great addition to the study repertoire
for the saxophone and will find a use from beginner right through to post-grade
8.
Creative Saxophone - Improvising is a “how
to improvise” book. There are many of this type on the market and
Ms Stanton and Clark are up against stiff opposition from the obvious might
of the Jamey Aebersold empire so they are to be congratulated on doing
an excellent job. The problem with the Aebersold material is that you really
need to have book 1 to make sense of the rest (now over 100 titles); with
guidance it is a phenomenal resource but can be daunting to the less experienced.
This new title brings together essential learning material in a small package.
It consists of eight original pieces based around the basic jazz “feels”;
modal, blues, II-V-I, minor blues, funk etc. They are presented in a standard
lead-sheet format with tune and chords symbols. Two CDs one for Eb and
one for Bb saxes are included with piano, bass and drums. These are well
up to the Aebersold standard, well recorded and superb playing. The opening
pages covers basic scale and chord theory and exercises to get the complete
beginner started and each tune has suggested licks and phrases to feed
the imagination. Many jazz books move too quickly and assume too much but
this strikes a good balance. Many of the tunes are quite tricky with lots
of syncopation to catch out the novice. Of course a teacher well versed
in the jazz language will best be able to guide the student through the
book so for those less confident perhaps a top-class recording of the melodies
being played would have been a welcome addition to round off what is an
excellent publication.
Graham Lyons’ Compositions
for Alto Saxophone / Compositions for Tenor Saxophone is a collection
of 43 original graded compositions for saxophone with either piano or CD
accompaniment. This collection is fantastic value. Mr Lyons has been very
clever with his packaging. The CD not only has the backings but also pdf
files of the piano parts so reducing his printing costs, it also has pdf
files of six extra pieces for two saxophones and piano and all the backing
tracks as mp3 files! The book is very attractive and clearly laid out.
Where Mr Lyons excels is writing a good melody and an attractive accompaniment,
every one was a winner with my guinea pig student. The only criticism I
can make is about the CD backings. The arrangements are generally good
but personally I find the sounds too artificial, too synthesised but anybody
that calls a piece “Wonderful, Wonderful Wolverhampton” gets
my vote!
