Tonight by the Tracks: The Foibles of Practicing the Saxophone When You’re Me

I’ve found a new place to practice my saxophone along my beloved railroad tracks.

If you’ve followed the musical side of this blog for any length of time, you know that I do most of my practicing in my car, parked by a CSX line that threads the countryside from Grand Rapids to Lansing. Living in an apartment has forced me to find a suitable “studio” away from my living quarters, and since I’ve loved trains since I was a kid, the tracks are it. I don’t mind this arrangement at all. I’ve been getting in my practice this way for years, even a couple decades, and I like it so well that even if I owned a house, I would probably still venture out to the tracks frequently.

Anyway, these past couple of months I’ve begun parking in a little turn-in next to the tracks between Alto and Elmdale, which is like hanging out halfway between Huh? and Nowhere. I love this spot. Parking parallel to the tracks, I can see the distant signal lights both behind me in the mirror and in front of me through the windshield and can spot the headlamps of approaching trains from far off. It’s great.

Of course, the sight of a car parked off to the side with its lights out and the dim outline of a person sitting inside it looks a bit suspicious, and once in a while, the cops stop and check me out. I don’t mind–they’re doing exactly what they should be doing, and usually they’re pretty nice about it. The guy who investigated me tonight was a good example.

I was sitting there ripping through “Ornithology” with my Aebersold CD when a patrol car pulled up and melted both of my retinas with its spotlight. Okay, no sweat. I kept on playing, figuring that doing so would provide the quickest explanation for what I was about.

I figured right. When the policeman walked up to my window, he was laughing. “What’s the matter? Wife won’t let you practice at home?” he said. I explained my living situation and how I had been parking by this stretch of tracks for many years. “Yeah, I think I’ve seen you out here before,” he said. “You know, my father-in-law plays trombone, and my mother-in-law gave him crap for playing it last Thanksgiving.”

“Hey,” I said, “someone understands!” I handed him my license and let him run his routine. Then we wished each other well, he took off, and I returned to my practicing. It was a clear January night with a new moon, not very cold, and through my side window I could see Orion the Hunter striding through a riot of stars in the southern sky. In my rearview mirror, a green signal light announced the approach of a train still miles down the line. Such are the perks of practicing by the railroad tracks. Why would I ever trade them for playing indoors?

January 9, 2013 by
Filed Under: Jazz, Life, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: , , , ,

Fourth Patterns with Altered Dominants

This post builds upon a jazz improvisation post I wrote a month ago titled Fourth Patterns: Three Exercises to Build Your Technique. That post gave you some quartal patterns to practice that took you around the cycle of fifths. While I pointed at the harmonic possibilities, I left you to sort them out for yourself. In this post, I’m providing a specific application by applying fourth groupings to altered dominant chords (V+7#9).

fourth-pattern-with-altered-dominant
Click on the image to your left to enlarge it. The first thing you’ll encounter is a brief exercise that takes you through a fourth pattern moving by whole steps, first down, then back up. It’s a simple exercise. Once you’ve got it down, practice it starting on the note F instead of Eb; you’ll be using the same notes you’ve already practiced, but you’ll reverse the direction of the patterns.

From there, play the same exercise starting on the note E. You’ll now have a different set of notes. Finally, start on the note F#. Once you’ve worked that into your fingers, you’ll have covered all the possibilities.

Moving On to Application

The material you’ve just practiced is designed to help you develop technique specific to the application that follows. Now we’ll move on to that application, as indicated by the chords.

For each chord, you’ll find two groupings of the fourth pattern spaced a major second apart. Together, the two patterns contain the following chord tones: #9, b9, b7, +5, +4*. The patterns are arranged in eighth notes that resolve to a consonant chord tone, thus:

    •  In the first two bars, the b9 resolves to a whole note on the chord root.
    •  In the second two bars, the #9 resolves to a whole note on the major third of the chord.

I’ve written down the applications for six keys. I’m sure you can figure out the remaining six on your own, and you should. Don’t be lazy! You need to become familiar with all twelve chords. Moreover, I encourage you to experiment with variations on these patterns. This exercise will open up your technique for altered dominants–and other harmonic applications–but you should view it as a springboard for further exploration.

As is so often the case, the material I’m sharing comes to you fresh from my own practice sessions. It’s a chronicle of my personal learning curve, and I hope it assists you in yours.

If you found this article helpful, you’ll find many more like it on my Jazz Theory, Technique & Solo Transcriptions sub-page.

Practice hard, practice with focus–and, as always, have fun!

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* If you add two more tones–the chord root and the major third–you’ll get a complete diminished whole tone scale. In this application exercise, the whole notes use those two missing tones as resolutions.

September 17, 2011 by
Filed Under: Band, Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Sax Practice by the Airport–Now Verboten?

It seems that practicing the saxophone now poses a threat to homeland security.

Surprised? Not nearly as surprised as I was when I first found out last night.

I surely wasn’t aware of the risk I presented when I parked my car near the railroad tracks at the end of Kraft Avenue, a stone’s throw from the hurricane fence that circumscribes the perimeter of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. I’ll grant you, it’s an unusual location for a person to hang out at, but it’s by no means anything new for me. I’ve been parking there with varying frequency for roughly 25 years, practicing my saxophone and watching the trains go by.

Of course I’ve been checked out numerous times by the police. I haven’t minded at all; rather, I’ve appreciated that the cops have been on their toes and diligent in doing their jobs. The officers, in turn, have invariably been courteous and usually friendly, and often enough I’ve enjoyed some pleasant conversations with them. Once they determined that I was eccentric but harmless, they always drove off and left me to practice my horn in peace. Over time, a number of them came to recognize me. (Cop, peering in at me: “Oh, it’s you. Enjoy your evening!” Heads back to car and drives away.)

I’ve never had any problems at that location. Not ever. Until last night, that is, when suddenly and inexplicably everything changed.

What I’m about to share is not a rant. I’m not angry, just sad. Maybe once I gain a better understanding of whatever federal laws and/or local ordinances I’m dealing with, I will feel angry at having been jerked around. Or maybe I’ll just have a better understanding of what happened. Right now, though, I have the sense that the policeman I encountered last night was simply doing what he believed was the right thing. He didn’t project a nasty, belligerent, or power-drunk attitude; he was simply adamant that I had to leave my practice spot by the railroad tracks and not practice there in the future.

Just like that. It’s kind of like being told that the old fishing hole where you’ve fished for a quarter of a century is suddenly off limits. You’re given a reason, but it doesn’t ring true, and you get the sense that something you value has been taken from you without your ever having a voice in the matter.

Why all of a sudden? If homeland security was really the issue, which is what I was told, then why did none of the scores of other police officers I’ve encountered in that location over the long years ever mention it to me? Even in the tense months following 9/11, no cop ever requested that I relocate due to security concerns. Not that security–albeit not homeland security that I’m aware–hasn’t always been an issue in that spot. Some of the cops told me that vandalism had sometimes been a problem, and on a couple of occasions I was able to answer questions by the police concerning other visitors at the site. I’d like to think that my presence there has proved, if anything, helpful at times rather than a liability.

So here’s what happened: I was hashing out the Charlie Parker solo to “Dewey Square” yesterday evening when a police car pulled up behind me and the spotlight appeared in my mirror. No sweat; as I’ve mentioned, I’m used to having law enforcement check me out. I set down my horn in the passenger seat, handed the officer my driver’s license upon his request, and then waited while he ran a background check on me. He returned to my vehicle in a couple of minutes and handed me back my license, and at that point I figured things were clear and I could get back to my practicing.

Not so. The cop informed me that I was trespassing (perhaps because I had pulled off the road closer to the tracks, where I could see the semaphore lights, but that had never been an issue before); that I was parked in a high-risk zone less than 100 feet from airport property; and that in order to avoid compromising homeland security, he needed me to move.

Say what?

I reiterated to the officer–I had already mentioned it to him when he first appeared at my window–that I had a long and trouble-free history of practicing at this site; that I was here because the place was convenient and I enjoyed watching the trains go by; that I had been checked out countless times by the police over the years and never experienced any problem; that some of the cops had become familiar with my unusual but harmless habit; that never once had any of them asked me to move; and that this was the first time anyone had ever mentioned the issue of homeland security.

The officer in turn suggested that I relocate to the airport viewing area on the far side of the airport, where I could watch the planes. I appreciated that he was trying to offer what to him seemed like a reasonable solution, but I repeated that I liked to watch the trains. Again he raised the security issue.

“Look,” I said, “I’m not out to argue with you. I’ll leave if you insist. But I’m trying to wrap my mind around what you’re telling me, because for as many years as I’ve been coming here, and as many times as the police have checked me out, this is the first time I’ve ever been told me to leave.”

The officer said he was sorry, but that I would have to find another place to practice. Henceforth I would have to consider this location off limits.

Wow. After 25 years, suddenly out of the clear blue somebody sticks a “No Fishing” sign right in front of my nose at the old fishing hole.

Very well; I had made my case, and it’s my policy not to argue with law enforcement officers. They are, after all, the embodiment of the law, and even when I don’t agree with them, I will comply with them. As I’ve already said, this cop didn’t come across as nasty, just inflexible, and I don’t know what realities he was dealing with. Perhaps a recent change in local ordinances, or even federal law, required him to deal with me differently than what I had experienced in the past.

Then again, maybe nothing at all had changed and the guy was just being a jerk. I don’t know–right now. But I will make a point of finding out. If I need to secure some form of permissions from CSX or the airport, I’ll pursue that avenue. I hate to have a convenient and enjoyable practice place that I’ve resorted to for so many years get suddenly and seemingly arbitrarily yanked out from under me.

Even more, though, I hate the erosion of freedom that such an event reflects.

October 16, 2010 by
Filed Under: Jazz, Life, Michigan, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,