YouTube Video Blog Posts

Night Train is a tune that holds a special place in my heart. When I was a teenager I used to play in pubs in Falkirk with my Scottish mates Dru and Baz and the song we used to play every gig was Night Train. We were all obsessed with Back To The Future back then and we could quote every line!

Night Train was mainly composed by Duke Ellington and recorded by Jimmy Forrest, but at that time the only version we knew was by the fictitious 1955 dance band Marvin Berry And The Starlighters, who played the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance in Back To The Future. Of course, later on I discovered all the other great versions of Night Train and in today's free online saxophone lesson...

I've always been a massive fan of tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, and Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon has one of his most memorable pop solos of all time. From Simon's fourth studio album of the same name, it's simple, soulful and technically superb - I'm sure you're gonna love learning it this week. It's a bit high for tenor I grant you, but what's a triple B between friends? lol

Be sure to pick up the free PDF sheet music for Still Crazy after All These Years and if you want to play along you can get the backing track here. Here are the Q&A topics covered in this lesson, with video time stamps (min:sec). Clicking on the time stamp will take you...

In today's free online saxophone lesson for beginners on sax (or beginners to jazz), you'll learn what a "two-five-one" chord sequence is, why we use it and what to play over it when you're improvising. This is only a very basic introduction though. You could and should spend the rest of your musical life exploring all this stuff. The purpose of this video is to fill you in on the essentials that maybe nobody has ever explained!

Don't forget to pick up your free PDF for this lesson, which covers all the points from the lesson, has II-V-Is in every key and has five great II-V-I licks written out. If you want to learn more about improvising you can go to my Improvising Playlist...

Nothing says smoochy, romantic saxophone quite like Sade's Smooth Operator. The track was released on Sade's debut 1984 album Diamond Life, and features the tenor saxophone of multi-instrumentalist band member Stuart Mathewman (aka Cottonbelly). For this video, which is Part 1, we'll just be learning the famous melody section at the start. If you want to learn the main sax SOLO, then go and check out Smooth Operator Part 2.

Be sure to pick up the free PDF sheet music for Smooth Operator and if you want to play along you can get the backing track here. Here are the Q&A topics covered in this lesson, with video time stamps (min:sec). Clicking on the time stamp will take you...

On this week's lesson I lay out a simple roadmap that you can use to understand the skills and stepping stones you'll need in order to play jazz on saxophone. I can't teach you how to play jazz sax in one short video I'm afraid (it's a lifetime's work!), but I can outline the best things to focus on, giving you a great snapshot of where you're currently at and how to get to the next level. Don't forget to pick up your free PDF cheat sheet which has all these points written down and a list of useful resources to help you achieve your jazz goals.

Here are the Q&A topics covered in this lesson, with video time stamps (min:sec). Clicking on the time stamp will take you straight...

Boy oh boy, are we in for a treat this week - you're gonna learn the extraordinary stratospheric saxophone solo from Motown star Jr. Walker, on Foreigner's 1981 hit "Urgent". Be sure to get your free PDF sheet music for Urgent and follow it along as you learn the solo. It's transcribed for alto AND tenor sax, and all the phrases from the lesson are marked as well. Plus, you can play along with the Urgent backing track here.

 Here are the Q&A topics covered in this lesson, with video time stamps (min:sec). Clicking on the time stamp will take you straight to that portion of the video on YouTube (in a separate tab). Full Time stamps for the video and a complete transcript are...

Sometimes I like to let you all see what happens "behind the scenes" with Get Your Sax Together, so this informal and amusing vlog let's you see exactly what it takes to produce a YouTube sax tuition video. No Q&As for this one as the video says it all, but below is the full transcript.

Enjoy!

Jamie :-)

Video Transcript

What's the difference between a keen amateur and a pro saxophonist? Well, there's many differences, including tone, timing and technique, but one of the most striking differences is always phrasing, or articulation. In other words, how notes are tongued, and what notes are long or short. In this week's free online saxophone lesson for alto or tenor sax I teach you the most important basics of tonguing and how to use it to drastically upgrade your playing.

Don't forget to get your free PDF cheat sheet for this lesson and remember there's loads more easy to follow sax technique videos here. If you want to enjoy the funny story of how I didn't tongue at all for the first two years of my...

Sooo excited this week! This is one of my favourite EVER sax solos - Gerald Albright's awesome tenor solo on "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen. It's masterclass of how to play a memorable and funky eight bar solo solo, executed with precision, soul and flawless intonation. You can pick up your free PDF sheet music for Forget Me Nots here, which is lovingly transcribed for alto AND tenor sax, and if you want to play along with the backing track click here.

Oh yeah, I almost forget to say, if you want a real laugh then keep watching to the end of this video as my kids hi-jacked my studio and took over!

Here are the Q&A topics covered in this lesson, with video time stamps (min:sec)....

Us And Them by Pink Floyd is a song that I'm constantly being asked to cover on Get Your Sax Together. Quite simply it's one of the most iconic and famous sax tracks of all time. However, it's almost eight minutes long! After a lot of thought I decided just to throw all my chips on the table and breakdown ALL the solo sections that Dick Parry plays through the whole song, although I can't deny, I spent the next two weeks of work regretting that decision! lol

Although the original is on tenor, the free PDF sheet music for Us And Them has all the notes for alto and tenor sax. Also, I'm constantly being asked for the backing tracks for my videos, so this week you can play along...