hi i'm pro saxophonist jamie anderson and you're watching get your sax together. i sax up your
sunday every week with free online saxophone lessons, bringing you great technique tips
player profiles and breakdowns of your favorite sax solos. right, get your jacket sleeves rolled
up for today's free lesson because nothing says pop sax quite like curtis stigers' "i wonder why"
well, christmas is all over bar the shouting so it's time to get back into the sax hall
of fame classics and man you can't deny how epic curtis stigers' soaring alto is on the opening of
i wonder why. no matter how cool you are you just gotta clench your fist and bite your bottom lip [sax plays]
i wonder why is one of those songs that you thought was in the 1980s but it was actually
released in 1991 - a swan song of pop sax creeping into the 90s just before sax stopped being cool.
curtis stigers is actually an awesome singer and bloody good sax player. he's got a powerful
soulful tone, his intonation is bang on the money but, all that aside, i played with curtis at ronnie
scott's and i can tell you that he's also a jolly nice chap. if you like these hall of fame breakdown
videos go to the card linked above now because believe me everyone's a winner, and hit the link in
the description to get your free pdf transcription for i wonder why for alto or tenor sax. plus,
there's the usual free goodies in the description including my deluxe saxophone fingering chart and
my free one hour saxophone success masterclass. finally, in case you're not on my mailing list,
my comprehensive sound production course total tone mastery is now available.
just follow the link in the description to give yourself a late christmas present.
okay without further ado let's start learning the song and keep watching to the end because
after i play it through i let the backing track run for you to play along with.
by the way i'm experimenting with the mouthpiece that syos sent me, and i'm actually playing
a legere signature for the first time, so let me know what you think in the comments.
right! to business! first of all unless you're banging on altissimo,
this is gonna be a real challenge to play on tenor in the original range.
i've written the whole thing down the octave instead and all the fingerings are for the
notes down the octave. i'm assuming that if you're a good enough tenor player to play up the octave
then you're good enough that you don't need to know the fingerings. lol
secondly, this is one of those time signatures that most people aren't used to reading. it's basically
in three four like a waltz but each beat is divided into triplets, which makes it 9/8. three
eighth notes per beat and three beats per measure. that said, let's now learn the opening phrase, slowly.
this solo has got loads of scoops up to the notes but if you want to sound halfway pro
you have to do the bends with a combination of larynx bending and using a grace note a semitone
below. you can see the video linked above for an explanation of all this.
if you try and bend the notes just with your lip you're gonna sound,
well, let's just say learn how to deal with your larynx! lol anyway when you come to perform i wonder
why you'll need to take a huge breath before phrase two because even though i'm teaching them
as separate chunks phrases two three and four are all done in one breath. here's phrase two.
you might be confused by the way the rhythm is written for the third phrase,
but the fourth tuplet just means imagine it as a normal beat with four sixteenth notes in it. it's
one of those things that's easy to play and sing but just looks super janky on the page.
here's phrase four now. i've shown the high f sharp alto fingering that i used and i don't
have a high F sharp key, but if you get the fingering chart from the description you'll
get six different fingering options to play that note - just choose the one you like best.
here's phrase five now. the way curtis stigers plays this solo is quite loose
and actually there's nothing to stop you taking the basic melody and making it your own as well.
just in case you hadn't already noticed this whole thing (apart from one grace
note) is all on the major pentatonic scale. A for alto and D for tenor. you can go to the
video linked above now to find out all about the most ubiquitous scale in pop.
here's the final phrase, which winds down the intensity into the first verse.
right you're all set to go now. take your time to learn the phrases one at a time
then build up the speed until you can play the whole thing at tempo. of course the devil's in
the detail with these things. most people can get a basic grip on the notes but the big difference
comes with the sound, the articulation, the vibrato and the time feel. go and check out my total tone
mastery course linked in the description if you want to nail down the tone and vibrato parts
and you can try and play along with the original recording and copy it exactly if you want to get
better at timing and articulation. there's a bit more to it than that for sure but hey, this
is youtube, so i've got to tell you how easy it is and how you can do it in five minutes! lol
i'm never quite sure what the best format is for these videos as i want to include everyone,
so this time i'm putting the music on screen with the note names for you to play along with.
if you read music you can just read the music and if you don't
you can just look at the note names above. anyway, i'll give you two bars of click before you come in -
that's six clicks. i'll play it then you can play along with the backing track yourself.
i haven't got sleeves but if you've got sleeves make sure they're rolled up for this one! have fun.
so that's it for this week. consider your sunday well and truly saxed up. i hope you
enjoyed learning curtis stigers iconic sax solo on i wonder why. there's links in the description
to get your free pdf, your free fingering chart including full altissimo, and your free one-hour
saxophone success masterclass. you can also find the link to get your hands on my total
tone mastery course or you can buy me a coffee if you want to show some love for the channel.
you can help me out by subscribing, making sure you click the bell icon for notifications when
i upload or go live, give me a thumbs up, drop me a comment, and check the old socials.
That's a lot of stuff to do isn't it? just watch the video man, it's fine! okay, the next lesson will be
the first of the new year so happy new year to you guys, but until then, practice hard, practice
smart, and enjoy your music! see you later!
and my free one hour saxophone success master... class
the vibrato and the time feel... I've emphasized [sings] sound too much... when when i was reading it