Guys, welcome back to Get Your Sax Together for the last video of 2020. This
week we're going to do the Kanye West song Use This Gospel, which features an
unaccompanied Kenny G solo soprano sax solo in the middle section of it. Now,
I'll be the first to admit I don't have any Kenny G albums I don't have a
picture of Kenny G on my Hall of Fame at the back, however, this is an iconic solo
and it's very well played, very in tune. So let's learn it straight away. Here's
the first phrase played quite slowly for you...
now here's the first phrase played faster...
So far, so good, quite easy. The
second phrase is also quite easy - no problem here,, here's the second phrase
played a bit slower...
Quite a long phrase this one. Here it is, that second phrase, played a bit quicker for you...
Right, that is the first eight bars covered. We've got two more sets of eight
bars to do, so here is phrase three played slowly...
As you can hear phrase three starts to get a bit trickier - it's got these
sixteenths now it runs in it. Here's that third phrase played faster...
Phrase four is where things start to get a bit more dicey. Now if you're an alto
sax this goes pretty high so I would take it down the octave for this
particular phrase. If you're playing soprano or tenor you just play it
exactly in the range in which it was recorded. For tenor obviously that'll (sound) an
octave lower than soprano. So here's that fourth phrase - it's got this big long run
in it, which is almost a major scale but it's got... let's have a quick look... it's
just got one note missing from the major scale in this run up to the beginning of
the phrase. So phrase four, played slowly here we go...
Now here's phrase four played faster. Now you don't have to be 100% accurate on
this run up to the opening note of the phrase. Just kind of move your fingers as
fast as you can! lol Okay, so here is phrase four played quicker. And by the way, this is
a great excuse to practice your scales. I'll put a card up there on my video
about the best way to practice scales but here's a great example of how you
can use scales in the middle of a solo, so here we go,
phrase four played faster...
Phrase five - we'll round off this second eight bar
chunk and for alto sax you can take it back to the way it's written on the
sheet music. You can get the sheet music and the free pdf down in the description,
so go down into that description, click the link and you'll get the free
transcription. A beautiful sheet of music written for soprano or tenor and alto, so
here is phrase five played slower...
Now here's phrase five played a bit quicker...
So far so good, we've got the first eight bars and the second eight bars covered
and what you'll notice is he's [Kenny G is] just playing the melody of the song and then
embroidering it with different runs and flourishes to make it more interesting.
So moving on to phrase six, here it is played nice and slowly. This is the
beginning of the last eight bars of the solo, so phrase six, played slowly...
Again we've got some sixteenth notes in there so take your time, work on it
slowly until you can play it full speed. Here's that sixth phrase, the beginning
of the last eight bars, here's that sixth phrase played faster, here we go...
Phrase seven is another one that will probably need to come down the octave if
you're playing it on alto, so here is phrase seven, got quite a lot of notes in
it, here it is played slowly...
Now here's that seventh phrase, played a bit quicker, and take your time, practice
it slowly until you can work up the speed. Here it is, phrase seven, a bit quicker...
Now to round off the entire solo the final phrase, phrase eight. On alto
you can take this back down to the way it is on the record, and here it is the
final phrase, quite bluesy, played slowly...
Now the final phrase, phrase 8, played faster for you, here we go...
Great! So now
you've got all the material you need to play the whole thing - all three chunks of
8 bars. Once again, don't forget go down into the description, click the link and
get your free sheet music, your free transcription. That is an awesome
resource, really accurately transcribed by Yours Truly, of course, and that'll
really help you learn this solo. So we've got all the pieces we need now. When you
put them together it should sound something like this. I'm gonna play it on
soprano, like the original, here we go...
Now don't forget you can take those hard bits, those high bits down the octave if
you're playing Alto. Unless you're a ridiculously burning alto player that
can do all that stuff quite fast in the high register. So I'm gonna play it again
on alto this time with those phrases transposed down the octave. So here is
what it sounds like on alto...
And so that is all we've got time for this week. I will see you not only next
week but next year on Get Your Sax Together and I'll be teaching you more
of the things you need to be a better saxophonist and we'll be learning more
about the world's greatest ever players. So keep on practicing, keep being sax-tastic
and I'll see you next week! Bye-bye!