Product Review: Greg Fishman’s Jazz Apps for iPad

(This review was originally published in Saxophone Today, July/August 2014.)

April 1, 2020 - Important update from Greg Fishman:   "Thanks again, David, for the great review. I have exciting news about the apps. I have a new app designer and we are updating the existing apps and adding new apps. For the first time, the duet books will be available as apps. Also, the new hip licks app will feature user adjustable speed, looping of licks, practice trainers that take you from slow speed to full speed in stages, trading licks with my sax and more. Also huge—these new apps will also work on the iPhone. Still tweaking them, but they will be out in the next few months."

Product Review:  Greg Fishman’s Jazz Apps for iPad

I first became aware of Greg Fishman when his excellent jazz etudes hit the scene.  That first book was a very important addition to the library of any student or educator, as it offered a contemporary spin on a classic format by providing modern jazz vocabulary and play-along cds that accommodated e-flat and b-flat saxophones in one concise package.  Fishman followed up with numerous sequels, an awesome series of duets, phrasing books for beginners, and, most recently, the “Hip Licks” series (see David Demsey’s excellent review in the July/August issue).  With some novel apps for iPad, Greg Fishman brings us fully into the 21st century with a whole new level of flexibility and convenience, all in a very slick and easy to use interface.  At this time, the apps are only available for iPad - presumably because a smart phone or iPod screen is simply too small to work with this amount of content.

I adopted Greg’s books into my teaching a long time ago, and I even use them with my thirteen year-old son, which should indicate how much I like the materials.  When I first downloaded the Jazz Phrasing app, I left it on the iPad for my son to discover, while I spied from the next room.  He quickly figured out how to use the program, and intuitively listened to the recording once, and then played along the second time around.  It was interesting to see how quickly he adapted to the electronic format.  It actually made the practicing fun for him, which is no small accomplishment!  The play-along tracks are very high quality, well recorded, and expertly performed.  They sound fine when played through the iPad’s internal speaker, but I recommend plugging into an external stereo system, if you want to get the most fidelity out of the pre-recorded tracks, especially to hear the fullness of the bass.  (If you tend to play at a louder volume, you may find external speakers necessary.)

The Jazz Phrasing apps, for alto or tenor, were the first to be introduced.  They work very well, providing the full text of the original books, and a tappable table of contents to access each etude.  At the bottom of the screen, you have the option of playing back “rhythm & sax,” or “rhythm only.”  Since these are geared more for beginners, it makes sense to listen to the full recording, to start practicing playing along with the recorded saxophone track, and then to move up to playing along with the rhythm section alone.  Greg obviously worked with an experienced app designer; the interface requires no explanation, and it works very well.  The pages turn automatically, although you might need to adjust your iPad settings, so that the screen doesn’t go to sleep in the middle of your practice session.  The play-along tracks are all at-tempo, which requires that the student practice each piece until it is up to speed.  This is not much of a big deal for these particular etudes, since they are relatively simple, by design.

The Hip Licks apps feature an even better interface, with more flexibility on the play-alongs.  Each set of licks can be played at two tempos, slow or fast.  It is also possible to add, or to remove the sax track on the fly.  I find this feature especially useful when teaching, as I can tap the sax on or off, according to the needs of the student.  This feature is also useful if one wishes to use the rhythm only play-along tracks for improvising without the use of the provided licks.  Greg could have used a digital tempo slider to offer even more tempos, but this would have undoubtedly sacrificed the sound quality, and the high fidelity pre-recorded tracks are one of the best features of the apps, so the fast or slow option is probably the best compromise.  I also like the way the pages “turn” a little more in the Hip Licks apps, opting for a sliding scroll, instead of the diagonal flipping used in the phrasing app (my son found the latter to be visually jarring - even though it looks cool).

For those unfamiliar with the Hip Licks series, Greg has crafted a variety of interesting melodic clichés for various chord types and common progressions.  Rather than taking the “learn everything in every key” approach, he took the time to create licks that play smoothly and fit the range of each key.  This method is similar to the way that most professionals actually improvise.  We strive to play everything in every key, but this is not always practical in real world applications.  The Hip Licks series is a thoughtful way of incorporating a ton of excellent, idiomatic jazz language into your playing, with rhythmic and harmonic context, all guided by the expertise of an experienced improviser.  The author manages to provide essential elements of bop with attention to details such as variations in phrase length and contour.  He also makes sure that the licks start, and end, on different parts of the measure.

I have heard some saxophonists express doubt about using a licks-based approach to practicing, concerned that it only creates clones.  I think that the Hip Licks series actually does an incredible job of introducing concepts, and if practiced well, the student will be able to use the materials to create their own melodies.  A certain amount of jazz language needs to be learned in a direct manner before anyone can attempt to form their own voice.  This direct learning can be accomplished any number of ways, such as transcribing solos, learning passages in all keys, etc., but the Hip Licks approach really does offer a unique and interesting way of building a vocabulary for improvising.  This may be about as close to the real world way of learning that our current technology will allow, short of getting lessons from a master teacher, of course.

Greg Fishman is truly a creative entrepreneur and an innovator.  In addition to offering Skype lessons, he has started an in-person Hip Licks workshop, and he has an upcoming book of teaching analogies in the works with illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Mick Stevens, and a foreword by Jeff Coffin.  When it comes to these iPad apps, I find them to be terrific resources, and very fairly priced [check the app store for current pricing].  You can even download a “lite” version of the styles app from the iTunes store for free.  I suspect that anyone that tries out the free version will ultimately decide to spend the money on the full version.  Greg Fishman has set the standard for contemporary play-along studies and I give his iPad apps my highest recommendation!  §

Integrity, and the Value of Voice

(This article was originally published in Saxophone Today, May/June 2014.)   

 “She’s so creative!”  We tend to put creative people up on pedestals, but creativity is not necessarily something as simple as an inherent trait.  Creative people usually follow certain patterns, and they make time to nurture different aspects of their lives.  Most importantly, creative people make stuff, and they frequently do so in prolific amounts.  They are able to balance a hunger for inspiration with a generous work ethic.  You cannot be creative without actually creating, and this involves practice.  In this issue, I offer some thoughts about the patterns and habits of creative people.

 Immerse Yourself

 Creative people go to lengths to keep themselves inspired.  They attend concerts, go to art galleries, read books, and listen to music.  Exploring the creations of others is the best possible route to inspiration and self-motivation.  We never know when, or from where the muse will strike.  From a practical standpoint, it is very important to have a strong foundation in the classics of one’s discipline.  In any art form, there is a standard repertoire that must be absorbed, even if it is ultimately discarded to allow for innovative approaches in later stages of artistic development.  There is also immeasurable value in keeping up-to-date with the newest works, whether they turn out to be significant to the evolution of the art, or to be merely trends of the moment.  Beyond the obvious commitment to one’s area of interest, there is much to be gained from a diverse foundation in the humanities.  Inspiration lurks in the canvases of great paintings, the pages of literary classics, and the study of math and science.

 Keep notebooks

Ideas can pop up at any time.  How many of us have dreamed up something wonderful, only to have it slip away?  I have notebooks all over the place.  I keep them in my desk drawers, on tables where I work, in bookshelves, and in my backpacks and instrument cases.  I have small sketchbooks for jotting down general ideas, and larger books for outlining potential projects in greater detail.  My favorites are spiral-bound with hard covers, and I prefer unlined pages.  That way, I can shift between text and pictures, and even tape or glue things into the pages, unimpeded by preprinted lines.  Of course, I also have notebooks with staff paper, for writing down musical ideas, themes, patterns, etc.  Notebooks with hard covers are a bit more expensive, but they keep better over time, and they can develop a personality.  If you watch for sales and clearance deals, you can stock up on a few higher quality notebooks, so that you always have a few on-hand.  When you lack inspiration, skim through your notebooks and see if anything catches your interest.  Many of my better projects came from sketches that were over a year old.  A concept takes time to fully develop, and sometimes we simply aren’t ready.  Keeping a log of your brainchildren will prevent them from being lost to the wind.

 Vary the format

Speaking of different types of notebooks, creative people often take this idea to other aspects of their work, and sometimes in extremes.  These days, computers are everywhere, but this might not be the best format for all types of work, even if the finished product will ultimately be computer-produced.  Oftentimes, the computer interface can slow down the flow of ideas, or our ability to view the big picture is constrained by the size of computer screen.  For this reason, I often do my first draft on paper with a pencil, or a smooth-writing fountain pen.  I also will use mixed notation, employing graphic notation, shorthand, and descriptive text (such as “voice this out later,” or “try inverting this melody”).  Getting it down quickly with a minimum of effort helps to keep one’s mind the creative “zone,” instead of fumbling for the correct key combination for a certain computer program function.  Fast and messy on paper works best for me, but I know people how are incredibly adept on the computer, so try writing in different formats and see what is best for you.  I find the screen size of a computer limiting, and the same goes for standard sized staff paper.  I like to work on a large pad of orchestral-sized staff paper, where I can take advantage of all the extra space.  Some of my pieces begin as a kind of flow chart with boxes drawn around certain elements, connected with arrows into a roadmap of sorts.  I have also gone so far as to tape pieces of music paper together to form a very long score, so that the music can be written into a long, single line.  These different approaches help me to see the music in a different way, and sometimes the most successful approach will be the result of that unique combination of what works best for the project, and for the artist.

Follow through

This gets back to the most defining characteristic of creative people: they create.  No matter how many sketchbooks you might fill with ideas, the creative process only becomes whole when you see an idea into conclusion.  Many people have no trouble getting inspired to begin a project; the starting is easy, but finishing can be much more difficult.  This is especially true when one is particularly attached to the project.  I always recommend to my students that they keep a schedule, and that they adhere as closely as possible to their deadlines.  Dividing a larger project into smaller sections with “artificial” deadlines can be very helpful, providing a series of landmarks that will ultimately help to keep you on task.  This can be as simple as requiring a certain amount of work each day, writing a chapter per week, or composing a designated number of measures in a set amount of time.  These deadlines carve the work up into digestible bits and pieces, so that the overall amount of work does not seem so overwhelming.  It is also a good idea to make a relatively conservative schedule that allows some extra time, in case something goes wrong.  When my students are preparing recitals, I recommend that they have everything ready to go one month before the performance.  This leaves plenty of time to do some practice runs, and to polish up anything that isn’t quite mastered.  These mini-deadlines will only work if you adhere to them, so try to forget about the extra time and just stick to each marker as it arrives.  The follow through is a test of work ethic, and we should remember that creative people are often prolific . . . they are not only inspired, but they are also driven.  Your finished product does not have to be perfect, but it does need to be complete.  You will gain more by setting a reasonable amount of time for five different projects that you complete than you will by over-editing and romancing a single project to death.  At a certain point, you must get it done and move on.

 The creative lifestyle

 Creative people take pains and make sacrifices for their art, but they also stop to smell the flowers (literally).  It helps to be friends with accomplished, creative people, both in and out of your discipline.  When I’m getting low on creative energy, I try to hit a café with an inspiring person, to recharge my personal batteries.  Successful artists reward themselves for a job well done, but they also don’t put too much stock in accolades and awards.  Enjoy the feeling of completing a successful project, but try to get back in the saddle while you still have that feeling of accomplishment.  Creativity is a habit, and anyone who can incorporate creativity into a career is lucky indeed.  Practice well!  §

Circular Breathing

(This article was originally published in Saxophone Today, March/April 2014.)

Circular Breathing

            At its worst, circular breathing is a parlor trick.  It snuffs and snorts, screaming “Look at me!”  The audience is drawn out of the music, focusing instead on the magician and his cheap trick.  Circular breathing can be a crass distraction, a puffy-cheeked monster that ironically sucks the air out of the music.  Of course, when used artistically, the technique allows the performer to do things that would normally be impossible.  There are any number of interesting pieces out there that require constant exhalation – Christian Lauba’s Balafon, Steady Study on the Boogie, and Worksong all come mind.  Jazz improvisers, notably the legendary Rahsaan Roland Kirk, have also used the technique to increase tension and intensity.  When used in a subtler manner, circular breathing can make it possible to slightly extend the range of a single breath.  It can assist a saxophonist in making a very long, unbroken phrase, or in arriving at the end of a phrase without having to gasp for air.  In this issue, I offer some advice for developing circular breathing into a true, musical technique.

 Circular breathing has been around for a very long time.  It is used on all sorts of folk instruments, from all over the world, and whether one is playing an Australian didgeridoo, an Armenian duduk, or a saxophone, the technique is generally the same.  The performer creates a pocket of air in the oral cavity and squeezes this reserve out while sneaking in a quick inhalation through the nose, resulting in an uninterrupted, continuous tone.  The cheeks puff up and are then used as bellows, generating just enough air to briefly support the sound.  The classic exercise illustrating the technique is to blow bubbles in a glass with a drinking straw.  To successfully inhale through the nose while squeezing the air out of the cheeks, the back of the throat must temporarily be closed.  A good way to experience this is to fill the mouth with water and hold it while breathing through the nose.

Keep the embouchure firm!

Circular breathing presents some unique challenges.  Consider that a vibrating reed requires support from the embouchure and the air stream, and that when one is reduced, the other must increase to make up for the loss.  As the air support decreases, the embouchure must tighten.  Things go from bad to worse as the reed squeezed to the point of muting the vibration, until it finally closes up and the sound stops.  As an experiment, try forming an extremely loose embouchure and slowly start blowing air until you get a decent sound.  Try the opposite, setting up a normal embouchure and blowing up to the sound.  Classical saxophonists are very familiar with the latter, since it is precisely this technique that allows for a super quiet entrance, sometimes referred to as an air attack, which is far less violent than the name implies!  The point of this summary of the relationship between air and embouchure supports is that, by the very nature of the technique of circular breathing, the moment when the cheeks puff out that little bit of air results in a dramatic reduction in air support.  This can only be compensated for by providing as firm an embouchure as is practical, but a sudden change in the embouchure will surely affect the tone quality, and the intonation.

Firm, not tight!

The simple solution is to make the embouchure firm for the entire passage, so that no change is necessary when switching between diaphragmatic air support and the bellows-action of the cheeks.   There is a big distinction between firm and tight.  The ideal embouchure is formed in the same way that one whistles.  The lips purse forward, as in the syllable “ooh,” and the corners of the mouth come together and forward.  Making this shape with your mouth, you should be able to easily move the flesh of your bottom lip with your finger.  The embouchure must be firm, but also flexible.  Practice making this mouth shape as an isometric exercise.  It helps to also try to hold the embouchure shape in position while opening the jaw.  This is best accomplished by whistling, although it isn’t necessary, just helpful.

Gently puff the cheeks

The next step in this progression is to form the embouchure shape and to blow a fast stream of air.  As you blow the air, squeeze the corners of your mouth inward and forward.  Blow the air as fast as you can, through as relatively as small an opening as possible, like a jet.  Take care to focus your mind on the muscles of the embouchure as they tighten.  Once this has been mastered,  loosen your cheeks and let them puff up with air.  As you keep the embouchure firm and the air-jet moving, gently let your cheeks fill with air.  This should happen in a very relaxed way, letting the air naturally find the easiest place to let the cheeks puff out.  Keep the cheeks puffed and continue to blow air and to keep the embouchure firm.

The bellows

Finally, close the back of the throat (as when holding water in the mouth and nose-breathing) and quickly squeeze the air out the cheeks while holding the embouchure as firmly as possible.  Ideally there should be no change in the embouchure as you flatten your cheeks out for that little burst of air.  It isn’t necessarily important to inhale through your nose as you work on this part, although it should eventually be incorporated, so that the exercise can go on without interruption.  It will feel as though the embouchure is tightening when the cheeks squeeze out the air, but this is actually the sensation of the lips fighting the urge to release pressure.  It is very helpful, and highly recommended to do this part of the exercise while watching the mouth in a mirror.  With practice, it should be possible to do this exercise for minutes at a time, with the primary purpose of maintaining a stable, whistle-shape embouchure.

Don't rush to the horn!

All of the above is accomplished without any saxophone, making it excellent to practice late at night, or whenever it isn’t practical to be using the horn.  The final step will obviously require playing the saxophone, but skipping ahead to this last step too soon will not yield the desired results.  I cannot overemphasize this point.  When the horn is introduced to the process, the player must already be able to execute everything from the previous paragraphs with a minimum of effort.  As I have been typing this article, I have been practicing the technique, and my embouchure feels tired.  If you aren’t feeling “the burn,” you should keep working.

The path of moderate resistance

As one begins to use circular breathing while playing the saxophone, it is wise to begin on a note that is easy to play and offers a moderate resistance.  I recommend open C-sharp as a good place to start.  As with the previous exercises, begin with a normal embouchure.  Make a nice, strong middle C-sharp.  Think about your embouchure muscles and try to squeeze at the corners of the mouth, forward and together.  When this is accomplished, gently fill the pockets of the cheeks with air.  Avoid any change in the quality of the sound as you do this.  Once the cheeks are slightly puffed, continue to make a sound with the cheeks filled.  The cheeks should not be overly filled, or forced into an uncomfortable position.  Simply find a relaxed position where there is enough air to allow for the bellows-action.  As before, squeeze out the cheeks while maintaining the sound, but don’t worry about inhaling through the nose just yet.  First, make certain that you can keep the sound going, and that the quality of the tone is unperturbed by the filling and flattening of the cheeks.  Listen carefully and try to feel for any motion in the embouchure.  Through all of this, let the mirror be your friend, and watch your embouchure intently.

Once this has been mastered, start taking air into the nose while squeezing out the cheeks.  The inhalation should be quiet and relaxed.  Just take a small amount of air (you won’t need a full tank anyway), and try to avoid making any big “snorting” sounds.  Circular breathing, when executed properly, should be sneaky; nothing draws attention quicker than a noisy inhalation.  As you gain success with the middle C-sharp, repeat on different notes, working your way up, and down the horn.  Notes in the extreme registers are the most challenging to support with cheeks, so just do your best.  It took me years to be able to circular breath through the lowest notes on the saxophone, and I’m still working on mastering the high notes.  Make this a part of your long tone routine, and expand the range slowly, focusing first on the middle register.  At this stage, we are still practicing the mechanics of good technique, so it is not necessary to try and sustain for long time.  Just hold a note, fill the cheeks, squeeze them out while taking a little bit of air into the nose, and go back to a normal sustaining of the note.  If you are doing it correctly, the sound will be smooth and even throughout the exercise.

With this amount of skill, you will already have a useful tool in getting through longer phrases, written or improvised.  Remember that it is easiest to sneak a breath when you are playing a long note in the middle register.  In the same way that a musician should plan spots for breathing, usually marking those spots into the music, circular inhalations should also be planned.  The substantial difference is that a circular breath can be taken anywhere in the phrase, independent of the musical shapes and rhythms.  In other words, the circular breath can be placed wherever it is best hidden.  The beginner might take the largest breath possible and wait until nearly running out of air, then gasping in through the nose at the last moment.  A far better strategy is to start with a moderate breath, and to take in a small amount at the earliest convenience.  As an example, I use circular breathing in Bach Cello Suites.  In the following YouTube clip, I perform the opening of the fifth suite.  I use circular breathing throughout, but not always for the effect of continuous sound.  Instead, I take little “extra” breaths to help me make it to the ends of phrases – especially the ones that end on low notes.  It is much easier to play these phrases with strong endings by getting a little extra air in the middle of the phrase, which is easy enough, Normally I would apologize for poor video quality, but in this case, it actually helps to obscure the circular breathing.  Watch and listen, and see if you can catch where the extra breaths are happening.

Don't start with a "full tank"

It is worth noting that, in this particular video, I am not starting with huge, full breaths.  I take just enough air to make my best sound, and to comfortably make it to the designated circular inhalation point.  If that spot is relatively close to the initial breath, I won’t take a very big breath at all.  Circular breathing is really more about air management.  Early on in my experiments with this technique, I frequently found myself getting backed up with stale air, to the point of needing to let some air escape along the sides of the mouthpiece.  This is a frequent problem, even when breathing traditionally on instruments that have more resistance, such as soprano saxophone or oboe.  If you find yourself feeling a strong urge to exhale, try starting with a smaller initial inhalation.  I have my students practice this by exhaling completely, starting a note with that little air that remains in the body (which isn’t very much at all), and then immediately taking a circular inhalation.  Learning to play on a medium tank of air with frequent and relaxed circular inhalations will ultimately make it easier to manage long passages without feeling stressed from too little, or too much air in the lungs.

In a future issue, I will present some ideas about using circular breathing in moving passages, scales, and more.  The implications of mastery of this kind of breathing are wide reaching, and although I advocate its use in subtly musical ways, I also like to use it for extreme effects, when the situations calls for something special.  I leave you with this YouTube video of my recital at the World Saxophone Congress XVI.  The first piece is an etude of mine, titled Shake the Hive, that uses circular breathing in radical passages of alternating multiphonics and lip shakes.  This is a bit more athletic than the Bach excerpt, and it is very obvious to see (and hear) where the circular breathing is taking place.  Practice well!

Beyond Boundaries: The Creative Saxophonist

(This article originally appeared in Saxophone Today, January/February 2014.)

Beyond Boundaries:  The Creative Saxophonist

            “Are you a classical saxophonist who plays jazz, or a jazz saxophonist who plays classical?”  Every time someone asks me this after a performance, I get that feeling of deep satisfaction that can only come from a job well done.  The very fact that someone would feel the need to ask this question indicates that I have performed at high enough level to obscure any hint of favoring one style over the other.  This is not an accident, but rather the result of many years of hard work.  I have never been terribly interested in being a “crossover” artist, as this implies that there are distinct boundaries that must be crossed.  Lines in the sand serve only to separate, no matter how often we cross over them.  The purpose of this column is to explore creative approaches to our instrument and to eliminate any imagined limitations.  The labels “jazzer” and even worse, “legit,” (my least favorite stylistic reference ever) will have no place here.  This will be about making music, pure and simple.

What Are You?

When an earnest audience member asks me the classical-jazz question, I never give them an answer that fully satisfies them.  They seem to desperately want me to pick a side.  But I have never met a pianist and felt compelled to ask, “So, are you a Classical pianist or a Romantic pianist?”  Imagine asking a clarinetist if they only played Mozart, or were they really a Poulenc clarinetist!  The idea that you could only do one or the other is silly.  Obviously, musicians will have specialties, but having a certain expertise does not automatically preclude ability in other areas.  Our tendency to compartmentalize music could be a result of our human predilection for sorting things (give some blocks of different shapes and colors to a toddler and see what happens . . .), or perhaps it is the lingering influence of record companies and radio stations, narrowly defining music so that they might have an easier time selling it to us.  We have even managed to take styles like fusion and world music and dilute them into bland, tasteless versions of the artistic adventures that accidentally created their respective genres in the first place.  I’m fairly sure that most music fuses elements from different sources, and it is all certainly from somewhere in the world!

I have been blessed with certain professional advantages that have allowed me to pursue music in my own unique way.  Academia provides an environment that encourages risk taking in the name of preserving culture and promoting art.  I do not rely on commercial success to feed my family, at least not in the same way that a full-time artist must sell CDs and concert tickets to survive.   I am free to pursue music that I find interesting and worthy of study, regardless of whether or not it can generate a profit.  I also have the unique position of teaching, and therefore studying, the gamut of repertoire for the saxophone.  By design, my job allows me to explore music, to invent and to interpret.  I am grateful for these opportunities, and it is a privilege for me to share my work with you.

The story of how I became a saxophone professor has a few twists and turns, unexpected even to myself.  When I was a child, I was exposed to all sorts of music.  Two of my favorite recordings were Heifetz’s RCA “Living Stereo” Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and a Miles Davis album called “Jazz Track,” which included a side of the “Kind of Blue” band (that album is now known as “The ’58 Session” and is included with the alternate material on “Kind of Blue.”)  In retrospect, those two LPs really formed the musical foundation of my career.  I learned to value tone quality, melody, technical brilliance, and “vibe.”  Those two records are plentiful in all of those characteristics.  (They are also incredibly well recorded, which might explain my audiophilia, but that is for a future column.)

Heifetz (and other shredders)

After a few years of playing a cheap electric organ by ear, and then learning the flute in school band, I finally moved over to the saxophone at age thirteen.  I practiced a lot.  I played along with the radio.  I recorded pop songs onto cassette tapes and learned all the saxophone solos.  I played along with Coltrane and Clarence Clemmons.  I also loved the guitar shredders of the 1980s, and I played along with Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.  There was never a point where I drew a line in my mind between Jascha Heifetz and Eddie Van Halen.  I just wanted to be able to play everything that I liked.  To be honest, there wasn’t much music that I didn’t like.  My first big stadium concert experience was Grover Washington, and my second was YES.  It was just music.  Great music.  It wasn’t until I went to college, and started hanging around with serious musicians, that I started forming opinions on what I disliked.  Admittedly, many of my proclaimed dislikes had more to do with appearing cool than anything else.  At a certain level of musical maturity, we form our own opinions, but this takes time and experience.  In those middle years, we tend to adopt the opinions of people that we respect, or our friends whom we are trying to impress.  I don’t really get the thrill from Grover that I used to, but he gave me a lot of youthful enjoyment and inspiration.  The point here is that if we continue to grow, there will always be some things that we eventually outgrow.  Interestingly, I still love those Heifetz and Miles albums, even after decades of serious study.  Maybe my appreciation for them has actually deepened.  Substance takes time to fully reveal itself.

Remembering John Paynter

Moving forward, I found success as a young jazz musician, but my first deeply emotional experience performing music came when I was sixteen, in the Massachusetts All-State concert band.  We played under the baton of the late John Paynter, legendary Director of Bands at Northwestern University.  We performed Frederic Fennell’s transcription of Wagner’s Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral.  This was the most devastatingly beautiful thing that I had ever performed, and the first time that playing in an ensemble of that size brought tears to my eyes.  Once you have had an experience like that, you will chase after that feeling for the rest of your life; it alters your brain chemistry in a permanent way.  I loved jazz, and my major collegiate studies were in jazz improvisation and composition, but I never stopped studying and performing classical repertoire.  In fact, I took an extra year to complete my undergraduate degree because I spent so much extra time taking classical lessons and performing in concert ensembles and saxophone quartets.  In those early years, I developed an appetite for all kinds of music.  This hunger still burns in my musical belly.

Discovering Ryo Noda

There were a lot of little revelatory moments along the path, but none quite as potent as my first exposure to the music of Ryo Noda.  Improvisation I is a well-known warhorse from the “contemporary” (and I use the quotation marks to indicate my disdain for the use of that label to describe music that is decidedly no longer contemporary) repertoire for unaccompanied saxophone.  Written in 1972, coincidentally the year of my birth and therefore my contemporary (!), Noda drew upon traditional Japanese styles.  The piece contains some graphic notation (such as squiggles to indicate vibrato), pitches that require improvised rhythms, and techniques that include flutter tongue, portamento, and “cutting tone.”  The most glaringly non-traditional aspect to the score is the complete lack of barlines.  If I was intrigued upon hearing the piece in performance, seeing the score made my head explode with possibilities!  I studied the piece, prepared it for my lessons, and I set to composing my own music.  It was around this time that I composed my solo tenor saxophone piece, Soul of the Elephant.  I became increasingly interested in using multiphonics to express harmony, or to enhance melody, rather than to simply act as a noisy effect.  Over time, this kind of performing and composing became a very important part of my life.  I built a reputation for my multiphonic techniques, and saxophonists started performing my compositions.  I had never really intended for any of that to happen – I was only pursuing the music that satisfied my curiosity.  If I became known as “the multiphonic guy,” that was just a good stroke of luck that helped me to launch my career.

Making Music

In the long-term, I never strayed very far from my interest in stylistic hybrids.  For my masters degree recital in jazz composition, I wrote wood flute pieces based on Haiku poetry, an Egyptian-style duo for saxophone and darabuka (goblet drum), and a piece inspired by Jimi Hendrix.  Through all of this, my love for playing and teaching the saxophone continued to grow.  I gradually discovered that teaching classical saxophone was something that I looked forward to more than anything else, and that I had a real knack for helping saxophonists find creative solutions to their problems on the horn.  My inner voice spoke to me, loudly and clearly, that I needed to become a saxophone professor.  Until that point, I had been thinking that I would teach in jazz studies, directing a big band and teaching improvisation.  This required a shift in my efforts, and a serious dedication to learning the traditional repertoire for “classical” saxophone (again, with the snarky quotation marks).  Focusing on that repertoire required tackling my problems head on.  I took everything to a new level, and I have continually renewed my commitment to raising my personal standards on the horn, and in my head.  No matter what I am playing, I strive to play with great tone, intonation, phrasing, and control.  My philosophy is that it doesn’t matter if you are playing a jazz tune, a classical etude, a concerto, or a simple scale: you are either making music, or you aren’t.  I aim to make music, every time.

So, the subject of my column turns out to be inevitable.  I never really understood that there were boundaries between styles, so I simply ignored them.  When I heard my peer jazz students say that they took classical lessons “to build technical chops,” I couldn’t understand why they had such a narrow view of the value of studying concert music.  I was studying to learn as much as possible.  It was, and remains to be, overwhelming at times, but I didn’t feel like I had any choice in the matter.  I often found myself spread too thinly, but I kept working.  The music, by which I mean The Music, took over my life.  I still consider myself to be a student, and the act of sharing my work with my own students constitutes an important part of my teaching.  I try to teach from the body of work that has contributed to my success.  If I am going to teach a methodology, it has to be something that has already worked for me.   This way of teaching can be challenging, and it requires a whole lot of personal practice, trial and error, and humility.  I am willing to change, and to admit that I was wrong.  I think that my students respect me for taking this position, and they appreciate that I talk about their lessons as “our work together.”  I try to take everything that I know about learning to be a good musician and to bring that to the level of each individual student, using the information as a kind of fuel.  A teacher is only a guide; the student must choose the work.  The work is a lonely business, fraught with risk and disappointment.  It is also the thrill of a lifetime.  I constantly remind myself of the fact that I make an excellent living teaching people how to make music with a strange and fragile machine, invented by a nineteenth century eccentric Belgian instrument designer.  Today, the saxophone has risen to essential status at any reasonable conservatory or state school of music, but this was certainly not guaranteed from the beginning.  If my own father had been a musician, he would have had a difficult time finding a university that would have allowed him to study the saxophone as a primary instrument.  A great deal has changed in a single generation, and we are the beneficiaries of the acceptance of our instrument.

  I plan to use this column much in the way that I teach my students.  I will share things that I am currently working on, and I will demonstrate strategies for developing skills that are universal to good music making, regardless of style.  Taking full advantage of the digital format, I will include video, audio, and more.  I hope that you will contact me with your questions and thoughts.  The subject material is purposely broad, with creativity binding it all together.  As the technology grows, I hope that our connection will widen, and deepen.  I am grateful to have this 21^st century platform, and I look forward to our work together.  Saxophone Today!

An Open Letter to Students

Dear Students,

  In these difficult times, I wanted to reach out to students everywhere.  While I can't speak for everyone in my profession, I think that many of us are unified in our efforts, and in our concerns.  We are in this together and we will have to collaborate in new ways, but please know that your teachers and professors are thinking about you all the time.

First of all, I have to confess that I despise online teaching.  I got into this profession because I love working closely with individuals and small groups.  One of my former students, Bill Whitney, put it so well when he wrote to me that much of what we do is about "vibe" and "sharing the air" with our students.  I have always politely refused requests for online lessons and encouraged students to instead seek in-person lessons with the best teacher in their location.  Many a morning, I have walked to campus with a smile on my face as I contemplated the teaching ahead.  I love my work and I am devastated to lose this wonderful piece of my life for the foreseeable future.  The sense of loss is almost unbearable.  I can only be grateful that I can continue to work from home and that my financial security is in place, at least for now.

As much as I hate the idea of teaching online, we all have a responsibility to give you the high quality teaching that you deserve.  It isn't going to be the same, but we will find ways to connect with you.  I'm working hard on selecting readings, making listening lists, and planning short video presentations to augment our online lessons.  In some ways, we will cover areas that we haven't fully explored before.  I am thinking every day about topics that I have always wanted to approach, but didn't have time because we were so busy preparing for performances, recitals, and juries.  This can be a truly unique opportunity to do something different that is just as valuable as our usual routines.

I am also very focused on avoiding any "square peg"  substitutions.  If it doesn't make sense, or if it isn't working, I won't do it.  I am not going to go through the motions.  Our interactions will be precious from now on and I want to give you valuable content and instruction.  I am also very aware that everyone has a different situation at home.  I am going to be as flexible as possible.  If you have extenuating circumstances, be sure to tell your teachers.  We are here for you, but we aren't mind readers.  Tell us about your specific situations so that we can help.

This was the toughest year on record for mental health issues among students.  We are all thinking about mental health right now, including our own!  This isolation is going to be hard on us.  Patience and kindness are more important than ever.  (Remember that many of your teachers are trying to do all of this while caring for our own families, and in many cases, home schooling our own children.)  Try to have a schedule,  to set goals, and to do your work.  If you can safely go outside, get some fresh air every day.  Try to eat well and exercise.  Also, make time to do things that you love.  Read that book that you have been putting off.  Watch your favorite movie.  Listen to the music that makes you feel deeply.  Take time to contemplate, but try to avoid cycles of worry and anxiety.  I'm going to have to try to follow my own advice on this one!

Humans are pretty amazing.  Our ability to adapt has made our species so successful.  We will get through this, and I fully expect that I will learn things in this period of online teaching that will make me better when we return to in-person meetings.  Until then, please know that while this isn't going to be the same, we will make the most of every situation.  No amount of reading blogs and taking webinars is going to make me a master distance teacher in the coming weeks, but I am going to do my very best because it is what you deserve, and that is my promise to you.

With love and respect,

David Pope
Professor of Saxophone
James Madison University

Advice for College Students Receiving Online Teaching Because of COVID-19 Coronavirus

In an unprecedented response to the global pandemic, higher education is being forced to move to online modes of teaching.  If you are a student, your spring break probably is ending very differently than you expected.  Believe me, in twenty years of university teaching, I never could have imagined that we would find ourselves here.

This is going to be challenging for everyone.  We will all do our very best to manage the situation and while it isn't going to be easy, we will do everything that we can to act in the best interest of students everywhere.  You are going to be frustrated, but there are things that you can do to make this easier.  I have some ideas, and I hope that this is helpful to you.

BE PATIENT AND KIND

Things are not always going to work smoothly.  Your teachers are stressed out.  I am stressed out.  Don't trash us on social media.  We read your posts and it hurts our feelings.  We are trying, and we will try to be kind to you online as well.  If you have difficulty making technology work, ask for help.  If your professors are having difficulty making technology work, try to help them.  Most of all, don't be a jerk.  We need to be patient and kind to each other.  For all we know, the internet might buckle under the stress of all this increased demand.  We are in this together.

TEMPER YOUR EXPECTATIONS

A college education is not deliverable online.  If it was, universities would not exist.  You can't get something worth a degree from reading books, watching videos, or talking on the phone.  As an experienced teacher, I know that it is important for me to be in the room with you, and that I must be an expert in figuring out if you are "getting it," so that I can change teaching tactics quickly and in the moment.  Online teaching is going to suck, by comparison.  We have to do this for the safety of our society, but it won't be as good as in-person teaching/learning.  Our grading policies will be more flexible, so please try to be as flexible with your expectations.

BE ON A SCHEDULE AND HAVE CLEAR GOALS

You are about to have a lot of free time.  How you use that time is up to you.  It will be all too easy to spend too much time sleeping in, playing video games, procrastinating, and partying.  You will also be dealing with heightened anxiety and/or depression.  Make a schedule that takes into account all that you have to do.  If you can approximate your normal schedule, do it!  Goofing off will eventually make you feel worse.  Set out your goals for the rest of the semester and make a plan to meet them.  Study, practice, read, and do a little of everything that you normally do every day.  As always, a paper day planner is always a smart idea.  Your teachers cannot make you learn.  You are in charge of your learning, whether you are on campus or at home.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TIME

We always complain that we don't have enough time.  I wish that I had more time to read books.  I wish that I had more time to make art.  I wish that I had time to listen to more music.  I wish that I had time to meditate.  We have just been given that time!  Don't waste this opportunity to do the things that you have been avoiding.  There is a silver lining in this dark cloud, but only if we make it happen.

This doesn't have to be the worst semester ever.  You are in control of more than you might think.  We will get through this together!