Hi i'm pro saxophonist Jamie Anderson and you're watching Get Your Sax Together.
Five weeks ago I taught you how to play the intro melody from Smooth Operator
(linked up there) and following that I was inundated with requests
asking me to cover Stuart Matthewman's solo in the middle of the song.
Well, your wish is my command, so in today's
free online sax lesson you'll be learning how to play
the sax solo on Smooth Operator by Sade.
Smooth Operators from Sade's 1984 debut album Diamond Life
and features the sacks of multi-instrumentalist band member Stuart
Matthewman aka Cottonbelly. This solo section isn't
as easy as the melody part you learned a few
weeks ago, so if you're a beginner on sax you may struggle a bit, especially if
you play tenor. Remember to let me know in the comments
if there's a classic sax solo or melody you'd like me to cover
on the channel, but remember, at the moment I don't cover
vocal melodies that you want to play on sax - just actual sax lines.
Before we learn the first phrase, make sure you go down into the description
for this video and click the link to get your free pdf sheet
music for the Smooth Operator sax solo, which is
lovingly transcribed by yours truly for tenor
and alto sax. And keep watching to the end of the video -
not just because of the usual blooper reel -
but cos I've included a free backing track for Smooth Operator that you can
play along to. So without further ado here's the first
phrase broken down in slow motion. The first phrase is a bit buried
in the mix but I think these are the notes. Quick note if
you play alto - this first phrase is up the octave from
the original, as it goes down to a low A which is off
the bottom of the instrument.
Just before we move on to the second phrase, let me quickly mention my free
Saxophone Success Masterclass. If you want to hang out with me for an hour and
learn how to transform your tone, improvise a great solo or design a
structured practice routine, just go to the link in the description
or you can visitwww.getyoursaxtogether.com/masterclass Okay, let's
crack on now and look at phrase two. Here it is played nice and slowly...
If you listen to the original, or get the free pdf sheet music for Smooth Operator
from the description, you'll notice that Stuart Matthewman
scoops up to certain notes. If you want to learn how to do that
properly, check out the video linked on the card above now which shows
you how to do every kind of bend, fall, scoop or
glissando you can imagine. Moving on then, here's the third phrase
In slow motion...
You might notice that phrase three, and most of the rest of the solo, uses the minor blues scale. E minor blues
scale for tenor and B minor blue scale for alto. I've done a
whole lesson on the blues explaining those blues scales and
much much more. Just click on the card linked above now to watch it.
Here's phrase four now...
Phrase five gets quite high for tenor - top f# and G. Last week I did a
special epic length video on the altissimo range.
If you struggle getting those high altissimo notes out, just go to the video
linked on the card above now and all will be revealed.
That's a totally banging video that one, so add it to your
"watch later" list or whatever. Here's phrase five, the penultimate phrase.
Almost there now, here's the sixth and final phrase. I think this is my favourite
phrase in the whole thing actually. It doesn't really make that much sense,
harmonically speaking, but there's just something about it that i like.
Okay, let's put this whole thing together now - remember to get your free PDF from
the description and follow along with each phrase as I play
it. As usual, I've put together a backing track and after I've performed the song
you can play along with it on your own. As I always say,
it's essential to go and listen to the original song and mimic the phrasing,
timing and tone if you want to sound convincing. In NLP
there's a phrase "the map is not the territory" and in music you
should remember "the chart is not the music". Knowing the notes and
rhythms is only the start if you want to sound good.
There's two bars of percussion, then one more bar after that before the sax comes in.
Here we go
So that's it for this Sunday, thank you so much for watching and supporting this
channel and I really hope you enjoyed learning
the tenor solo on Smooth Operator. Just before we get to the funky
end card music and blooper reel, if you want to learn some more in-depth
sax stuff go to
www.getyoursaxtogether.com/masterclass and get your
free one hour lesson with me. You can support me by giving this a
video a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, click the bell
icon to be notified when I upload new content
and check out my Insta and Facebook pages. Next Sunday I'm gonna do something
a bit different. I've dug out some old sax quintet
arrangements and I'm gonna perform one or two of them for you.
To be totally honest, my brain gets a bit fried making
home run videos every week, and also many of you said you'd like to hear me
perform something on my own for a change, so that's what
I'm gonna do. Until then, practice smart, keep having
fun, and I'll see you next Sunday. Bye!