Monday 16 April 2012

Baker Street


Continuing the theme of the Saxophone, one of the well known pop songs for the Saxophone is of course Barker Street. Barker Street has an amazing Saxophone solo!! This is not the original, but this is Richi Jones doing an extraordinary job on the Alto Saxophone. Hope you enjoy it!! 

Friday 13 April 2012

Bohemian Rapsodie on Saxophone


This a MUST see video that is played the AMAZING National Saxophone Choir in Arcen NL. The choir almost includes every type of Saxophone  and the song Bohemian Rapsodie is played with extreme enthusiasm that will keep you entertained!!!   

Thursday 12 April 2012

Tubax and Soprillo solo together


I was lucky to stumble across this video on Youtube which was uploaded by saxtek. This video is Randy Emerick doing a fanatic job playing a solo on the Tubax then on the Soprillo Saxophone. This video is a must see if you love the Saxophone as much as I do, as it is very inspiring and catchy, as I have listened to it thousands of times and i'm still not sick of it!!    

Saxophone Family

As you probably know there is more than one type of a Saxophone, Saxophones come in all shapes and sizes. These Saxophones include;



Alto Saxophone
(this is the Saxophone I play) The Alto Saxophone is a medium sized saxophone is the most commonly played Saxophone. The Alto Saxophone is mostly seen as a curved J shape but it can also, like many other Saxophones, come in a straight model, this is rarely seen. The Alto Saxophone is in the key of E flat and reads treble clef. 

Contrabass Saxophone
The Contrabass Saxophone is the lowest-pitched member of the Saxophone family. The Contrabass Saxophone is a very large Saxophone, which is twice the length of the Baritone Saxophone, standing at 1.9 meters tall and weighs about 20 kilograms. The Contrabass Saxophone is in the key of E flat and is one octave below the Baritone Saxophone.    
Baritone Saxophone
The Baritone Saxophone is the largest of the more commonly known Saxophones, this being; Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone. The Baritone Saxophone is in the key of E flat and is one octave lower than the Alto Saxophone.  The Baritone is used in saxophone quartets, concert bands,  military bands and in jazz big bands. 
Mezzo Soprano Saxophone
The Mezzo Soprano Saxophone can also be known as the F Alto Saxophone. The Mezzo Soprano Saxophone is in the key of F and is one tone above the Alto Saxophone. 
Saxello
The Saxello is in the key of B flat and is a Soprano Saxophone. What makes this Saxophone different to the Soprano Saxophone is that it has a bent bell and a slightly bent neck. It was designed this way so that the bell would face towards the audience and not to the floor.    

Slide Saxophone
The Slide Saxophone does not have any keys but is almost like a trombone, as it uses a slide which glides between notes, allowing it to have a singer sound to it.
Sopranino Saxophone
The Sopranino Saxophone is second smallest member of the Saxophone family. The Sopranino is in the key of E flat and is an octave higher than the Alto Saxophone.  
Soprano Saxophone 

The Soprano Saxophone can come in straight or curved, but most Sopranos are made as straight models. The Soprano Saxophone is in the key of B flat, this being on octave higher than the Tenor Saxophone. The Soprano Saxophone is the third smallest member of the Saxophone family.   


Soprillo Saxophone
 The Soprillo Saxophone, also known as the Sopranissimo Saxophone, is the smallest member of the Saxophone family, it is 12 inches long and 13 inches with the mouthpiece in place. The Soprillo Saxophone is in the key of B flat, this is one octave above the soprano Saxophone and two octaves above the tenor Saxophone.

Tenor Saxophone
The Tenor Saxophone is slightly larger than the alto and unlike the alto Saxophone it has a small bend in the neck. The Tenor Saxophone is also one of the most common Saxophones along with the Alto Saxophone. The Tenor Saxophone is in the key of B flat and reads treble cleft. The Tenor Saxophone is used in many different types of ensembles, including concert bands, big bands, small jazz ensembles and marching bands. 
Tubax
The Tubax is a newly designed Contrabass Saxophone, also known as the Subcontrabass Saxophone. The Tubax has a narrower bore than the Contrabass Saxophone and needs less air to blow. The Tubax sounds like the Baritone Saxophone but is is one octave lower. The Tubax is like the Contrabass Saxophone as the Contrabass Saxophone is twice the size of the baritone, the Tubax is about the same size as the Baritone Saxophone but it has twice the length of tubing.       
Conn-O-Sax
The Connosax was made in 1928 by Conn. The Conn-O-Sax is a cross between a Saxophone and a Heckelphone, or Baritone Oboe. The Conn-O-Sax is in the key of F.   
C Melody Saxophone 
The C Melody Saxophone is in the key of C and is one tone above the Tenor Saxophone . The C Melody Saxophone is larger than the Alto but smaller then the Tenor. The C Melody Saxophone was popular because it was not a transposing instrument. This meant the musician could read regular music (music for the piano, flute, oboe, violin or voice.) without having to transpose it into B flat or E flat, like other Saxophones.   
Bass Saxophone 
The Bass Saxophone is one of the largest members of the Saxophone family and is larger then the well known saxophone- The Baritone Saxophone. The Bass Saxophone is in the key of B flat and is an octave below the Tenor Saxophone.  








Saturday 17 March 2012

Minuet and Trio

Hi guys, I have another one of my projects to share with you. Its on the form Minuet and Trio. This is the first time I have ever made a prezi and I found the program really easy to use. My prezi is a very simple one as I had a speech to go with it but here is the link: Minuet and Trio Prezi  
This is what I said for my speech for Minuet and Trio:
Minuet and Trio first appeared around 1650 as a dance at court of Louis XIV of France.  The dance was danced in the Baroque period and was a triple metered dance. The dance was danced lightly on the balls of the feet, with heels only just of the floor and feet turned out slightly.  Minuet then moved into the symphony and is used as the third movement of the symphony. Minuet and trio was made for listening as it was quicker than the dance music.  
The number that describes minuet and trio the best is the number three. This is because it is commonly heard as the third movement of classical symphonies and string quartets. Buts that not it minuet and trio is in triple meter for example 3 4 and it consists of three main sections. Within these sections they are broken down into three parts.  A minuet and trio is in ternary form, this meaning a b a. in each of these parts they break into their own ternary forms.
So a minuet and trio brakes into a minuet, b trio then a minuet again.  Instruments 
In the a (minuet) it plays a then repeats it then b followed by a again then a and b are repeated.
After the minuet the trio is played.  The trio got its name as in the early days the middle minuet was traditionally performed by three, henes the name trio.  Within the trio c is played then repeated then d followed by c is played and then d and c are repeated.
After the trio is played the minuet is then played again but this time without repeats. So it goes a then b then a again.This video will help you understand minuet and trio form a bit more. The name of the piece is eine kleine nacht musik, this means a little night music.

What is the difference between trio and minuet? A trio is traditionally performed with three interments. The trio is softer than the minuets.  The minuet is performed in the tonic key and the trio is performed in a different key.

So what are the characteristics of minuet and trio? It is in moderate tempo, trio is performed with three interments, ternary, trio is softer than minuets, third movement of symphony, quicker music than the dance music.

Minuet and trio is in the symphony what comes before and after? The symphony consists of four movements. The first movement is fast and is sonata form, the second movement is slow this can be sonarta, sonatine, rondo or theme and variations. The third is moderately and this is minuet and trio or scherzo and trio. Finally the fourth is fast this can be sonatas, rondo or sonata- rondo.     


The minuet later devolved as the scherzo. This was a liver form of the minuet. It is usually faster, more playful and often includes rhythmic jokes. Scherzo is an Italian word for joke, because it would be a joke to try and dance to it.      

Impressionist Music

Hi guys, I was looking through my folders on my computer and I found some old projects I did for music, in fact this is the first video project I did. So because it's my first don't expect anything flash it is a photo story on impressionist music. I made it in year 8, I think, and so there are quite a few spelling mistakes and also I was unable to pronounce some of the french musicians' names. But all in all I hope this gives you a little information on Impressionist Music :) 

        

Cool Jazz

Hi guys, here is another project I found it's on Cool Jazz. I made it last year in year nine. It has a lot of information about Cool Jazz and it also includes some awesome tunes by Cool Jazz musicians. I hope you can make sense out of my video and get some good information from it. Even if you don't need information on Cool Jazz watch it, just because it is just so interesting and entertaining :)