I'm Feeling Blue

I’m Feeling Blue!
The main motivation for learning the saxophone was growing up with the likes of King Curtis and Lee Allen. Reading between the lines, whilst Rhythm and Blues requires a good knowledge of basic technique, a lot of it is about being able to feel the music and well so it seems make it up as you go along! Piece of cake I thought!
Apparently, the quickest way to play rhythm and blues on the sax is learn the minor blues scale and once you get to grips with this learn how to use different phrasing and riffs so this week I have mostly been learning and learning AND learning the minor blues scale. I cracked this two days ago and feeling confident I picked out my favourite R & B CD to play along to. This is it, this is what I have been aiming for - I was very excited!
My first challenge was working out which key to start in which involved listening to the track a few times. Determined to ‘feel’ the music I listened to the track and the lyrics before making my first attempt. I took a sharp intake of breath and started to play the well rehearsed minor blues scale and well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought! I am still working on loosening up as at the moment I sound like I am playing in the school orchestra! Playing along to music that I know and love rather than to piano backing track of nursery rhymes makes a real difference to my playing.