prelude from lute suite IV for alto saxophone

J.S. Bach’s lute suites have been inspiring me lately, so much so that I’ve adapted BWV 1006 – Prelude from Lute Suite IV to fit within the range of the alto saxophone.  I’ve been working on this piece as a warm up and it’s been very refreshing and therapeutic.  Here’s a video of master guitarist John Williams performing it:

Below you can download both the original concert pitch version, and my Eb variation for alto sax in PDF file format:

considerations for saxophonists:

Try practicing this piece in several ways:  With a metronome, without a metronome; with a metronome in half notes and offset to every 16th note; slurred, tongued and 4-note articulation combinations thereof, and with dynamics.

For even more practice, try learning the piece in the concert key provided or try reading it backwards (in retrograde).  If you’d like a PDF for that, please feel free to contact me.

behind closed doors

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London-based improvising saxophonist Simon Rose and I got together one afternoon to play freely.  Two alto saxophonists blowing their asses off simultaneously has the potential to be nauseating, but this encounter was really intuitive and refreshing.  We played completely free, a total improvisation without any set parameters or compositional ideas.  I like to do this  sort of thing with musicians I first meet, it’s like a handshake of sorts – you get to feel each other out on a whole other deeply personal level.  Afterward, I left the room feeling like a huge weight was lifted off my chest.  It’s kinda like therapy – music therapy for improvisers!

Listening back on the recording, it sounds like there are more than just two saxophonists playing at once.  I think that was the coolest part of this experience – bending reality so to speak.

simon rose – alto sax
curtis macdonald – alto sax