hi i'm pro saxophonist jamie anderson. you're watching get your sax together and in this week's
special christmasy free online saxophone lesson you're going to learn how to play
this christmas by donny hathaway.
ah, christmas time is back again! a magical time full of festive cheer mince pies and of course...
christmas classics played on sax. i'm gradually building up an awesome library of christmas
songs for saxophonists of any standard just go to my christmas playlist to pick your favorite.
the Jobim-inspired bossa version of little donkey is wicked and the backing track
is laced with sexy alto flutes, so what's not to like? This week you'll learn one of
my favorite christmas songs of all time and that's donnie hathaway's 1970 classic this
christmas. yeah i know i always say i don't do sax versions of vocal melodies on this channel but hey
what good are rules if you can't break them now and then? especially for donny! even though it's
december now and we're officially into christmas, EVERY week is christmas on get your sax together
just go to the description of this video to get a bunch of awesome free goodies
like my deluxe finger chart, my one hour master class and of course the free pdf for this song,
written out for alto and tenor sax. anyway, there's mulled wine to drink and those chestnuts won't
roast themselves so let's get on with learning this song! oh and make sure you watch to the end
because there's a backing track for you to play along with to entertain your friends and family.
Even if you're a beginner on saxophone you'll be able to manage this song as all the notes are from
a d major scale for alto or a g major scale for tenor. in fact if you get the free pdf using the
link in the description you'll see that almost all of the notes are from the major pentatonic
scale, so even LESS notes to think about! as always i've broken it down into manageable chunks where
i'll teach you in slow motion and then once you're up to speed you can play along with the backing
track at full tempo. here's the first phrase in slow motion this is the first part of the verse.
here's the second phrase now. this is the second half of the verse.
when you perform the song you'll play phrases one and two again then go on to
phrase three. this is the pre-chorus part of the song here's phrase 3 broken down for you.
phrase 4 is the second half of the pre-chorus.
phrase 5 is the start of the chorus here it is in slow-mo.
phrase 6 is the second half of the chorus.
now here's the thing - the next thing that happens is that cool hook section with the instrumental
melody and the missing beat, but if you're a beginner just miss this bit out. your performance
will still sound cool without it. this is the last phrase to learn and you'll play it twice.
i'll recap the song structure in a sec, but after you've played all the phrases through there's an
eight bar section over the verse chords that you can take a solo on. if you don't want to,
then just repeat phrases one and two again instead. if you DO want to have a little crack at an improv
then just use the major blues pentatonic. that's d for alto and g for tenor. you can see the notes
on screen now. after your 8 bar knock you go back to the pre-chorus which is phrase
3. so you've now got all the phrases you need to assemble the whole song. if you go and get your
free pdf transcription for this christmas you'll see how the structure works. play the verse (phrases
one and two repeated), the pre-chorus (phrases three and four), and the chorus (phrases five and six),
then the optional instrumental hook (phrase seven times two). after that you can either take an eight
bar solo or repeat phrases one and two. then it's back to the pre-chorus (phrases three and
four), the chorus (phrases five and six) and you'll finish by playing phrase seven, four times. just
before i demo all remember that this is a vocal melody so you can add your own little variations
wherever you want. you can add little twiddles from that blues pentatonic, change the octave,
or just to flex the rhythms a bit. that's what i do in this run through. and in case you're wondering,
all the notes in my solo will be from the scale i showed you - i won't cheat,
i promise! so if you want to jazz it up a little bit, get familiar with the main melody first, then
add your own tasteful expressions. the intro is the instrumental hook played once. here we go...
so that's it for this week - consider your christmas well underway and thoroughly saxed up. there will
be more sax christmas songs coming up and remember to check out my christmas playlist
which is linked in the description which has got some awesome backing tracks featuring alternative
treatments of familiar classics. the hard swinging bassy style jingle bells is one of my faves.
don't forget to pick up your free pdf using the link in the description and if you want to
learn some more in-depth sax stuff go to get your sax together dot com forward slash master class
to get your free one-hour lesson with me. you can also help me out by subscribing, click the
bell icon for notifications when i upload or go live, and give me a thumbs up and a comment.
if you want to contribute even more, you can buy me a coffee using the link in the description
and thank you so much if you've already done that. i read every comment and i really appreciate your
generous support. next week will be another festive winner but until then, practice hard,
practice smart and enjoy your music .see you later!
choking choking choking choking on a mince pie