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Su Terry: BOOKS

New edition of the popular "blog book!"

 

Inside the Mind of a Musician, paperback

BOOKS

Inside the Mind of a Musician - paperback

Wonder what joys and terrors lie inside the mind of a musician?  Jump right in with Su Terry and experience the bizarre ruminations of a professional sax player.  Dirty dog club owners, screw-loose bureaucrats and other arrogant cats are all on parade as you ride shotgun on her gigs and watch what goes on behind the scenes in show biz.  Su elegantly dishes the dirt and harmonizes her way through it all, with her trademark jazzy flair.  Whether you're a player or a toe-tapper, you'll groove on these insights from the "Superwoman of Jazz."


"Su Terry stirs up a zesty verbal mix of the comic and the surreal."--Hartford Courant


    “Su combines a few talents in one: hipster, comedian, and above all, observer of life. Being a good jazz musician who has been around the block doesn’t hurt either!  This book is fun to read.”   --saxophonist Dave Liebman

  

 "A delight to read: bites of life from the quirky, zany mind of musician Su Terry (no laymen left in the dark). She is an observer, a mixer, a tummler, getting you into it, and over it.   Learned (two syllables there) and well-traveled, Su Terry has THE BIG PICTURE!"  pianist/singer/songwriter Bob Dorough


    "Su Terry shoots straight from the hip (preternaturally hip), and lets us in on a very cool secret: how to be a creative, centered, and deeply insightful person in a world that views creative output as a commodity, rather than as the amazing gift that it is.         Oh yeah, and while we're at it, let's work hard, have a good bit fun along the way, and not take ourselves so damn seriously all the time.
    Beyond the wry, witty, and altogether amusing observations on what it's like from the inside to be a working musician making very real (and I think very beautiful) music in these challenging days of digitally downloaded, highly disposable pablum pop, Su creates a kind of kinship with her readers (and listeners) that makes you feel like maybe things are going to be ok after all, we're all in this together, and maybe treating each other and ourselves with kindness and respect can be a worthwhile & even rewarding way to spend our days on the planet. And if we can bring a sometimes swingin', sometimes searchin', sometimes contemplative, all-the-times soulful, and other times playful soundtrack along for the ride, well, we might just be getting somewhere." --Amazon reviewer Will Zachmann

Buy INSIDE THE MIND OF A MUSICIAN at Amazon

-------PRACTICE LIKE THE PROS book with 2 CDs ($16.95) ------- - click image to order through PayPal! Or go to SheetMusicPlus.com

Favorite exercises of 20 professional saxophonists, with their bios and exercises notated and explained. Hear each player perform the exercise and go into even more detail on the 2 included CDs. It's like getting a private lesson with 20 pro players! Click image to order safely & securely through PayPal (for an autographed copy, please ask on checkout form!), or go to Sheet Music Plus.com, or amazon.com. PLEASE NOTE: THIS BOOK CAN BE USED FOR ANY TREBLE CLEF INSTRUMENT, NOT JUST SAX. A VERY INSPIRING BOOK FOR HORN PLAYERS!
"I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to get together with all these pros to write Practice Like The Pros! It must have taken a huge effort to nail down all of these people to collaborate on this book. This book is really helping me work on my Major Scale issues and my tone production. My wife has stopped putting cotton in her ears, Ha, Ha!"--Tim Smith, Costa Rica

"Sweet Sue Terry is one of the reasons I picked up the sax again after a 30-year hiatus. Her innate ability to really understand complex rhythms and melodies and turn them into solid jazz conversations continues to drive me to the woodshed."--Jim Glass, Jr., Seattle

Saxophonist & Educator John Temmerman's review on Amazon.com:
"Tremendous Book!, August 28, 2005
Reviewer: John F. Temmerman "Jazzman, saxguy" (Skokie, Il United States)

"This is basically a book of written and recorded masterclasses by top saxophone players based in New York City. There are a number of excellent discussions and exercises on varied topics pertaining to saxophone playing: dexterity and speed, articulation, learning scales, changes, tone production, breathing, the overtone series and much, much more.

While I have seen snippets of a few of the exercises elsewhere, nearly all the exercises have a unique spin to them.

There are twenty different practice routines or masterclasses, if you will. Each has a written summary of the topic and exercise and then the CD has the player explaning the concept in his or her own voice, sometimes followed by some phrases played by the player. The nice thing about the book and the CD is that they are not an exact copy of each other, so each becomes even more valuable.

I disagree with the other viewer, in that this is not a sequential method book, but a book of various unsequenced methods. Players could benefit by reviewing the entire book, choosing a concept to start on, explore it long enough to master it and move on to the next one.

This would be useful for sax players who have played long enough to have a sound concept, some knowledge of construction of major and minor scales, and some interest in improvising jazz. I think it's best directed to high school students, although there may be a few advanced middle school students who could benefit from it.

I got a number of useful practice ideas out of this, and I plan to use this with my high school and advanced middle school students."


Review from saxophonist Jana Danu, Massachusetts:

"I dig it, it's really great. Thank you for addressing something which I've heard over and over from musicians I know, (not only horn players,) who have a goal in mind, but seem to have "I Can't Get Started" playing in the background as the soundtrack to their life.

People know they need to practice, but sometimes aren't exactly sure how. I've encountered that very problem. I used to know, back in the Hartt days,but in the course of life taking it's toll, I've forgotten more than a few things. Tim has given me so much incredible material to practice on, but some of it's mighty confusing, and I feel embarrassed and completely dweeblike to be at this stage of the game and asking baseline questions. This book clears all that up. I appreciate your writing it. I need to get myself back in shape, fast, and every tool in the toolbox is a great help.

Another thing I really dig is that the pro players represented are both Female and Male. It's nice to see powerful hornwomen. Sometimes this biz looks on the surface, to be such a boyz club. I get so tired of that attitude, it's insidiously demoralising. Good to know we're here. "
Buy this book at Sheet Music Plus!

Other Publications

teach yourself how to play saxophone or clarinet--book/CD set!

PUBLICATIONS BY SUE TERRY - Please scroll down for more books plus free articles

Terry, Sue.  "Musicality VS Virtuosity--or, Music, Music Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink." Allegro, December 2011.

Terry, Sue.  "Equal But Separate." Allegro, March 2011.

Terry, Sue.  Greatest Hits of The Blog That Ate Brooklyn: Inside the Mind of a Musician.  New York: Qi Note, 2010

Terry, Sue. "For The People." Allegro, Mary 2010.

Terry, Sue. "Ears Wide Open: Peggy Stern & Her Musical Journeys." Allegro, April 2010.

Terry, Sue. "Trio of Memories: A Musical Portrait of Three Jazzwomen of Note." Allegro, March 2008

Terry, Sue. "Jackie McLean, Sax Master." Allegro, June 2008

Terry, Sue. “A Personal Sound: Portrait of David Weber at 90.” Allegro, April 2004

Terry, Sue. Step One: Play Alto Saxophone. New York: Music Sales Corporation, 2003

Terry, Sue. Step One: Play Tenor Saxophone. New York: Music Sales Corporation, 2003

Terry, Sue. Step One: Clarinet. New York: Music Sales Corporation, 2003

Terry, Sue. Practice Like The Pros: Saxophone. New York: Music Sales Corporation, 2002

Terry, Sue. “Then & Now—Interview with Dick Hyman (part 1).” Jazz Artist, Winter 2002, pp. 1-3.

Terry, Sue. “Secrets of a Good Woodwind Sound.” School Band and Orchestra Magazine, October 2002, pp. 50-52.

Terry, Sue. “Allegro Interviews Barbara Carroll.” Allegro, March 2002, pp. 9, 14.

Terry, Sue. “The Secret of a Good Sound.” www.saxontheweb.net, 2002

Terry, Sue. “How I Got Vested.” Allegro, March 2000, pp. 6-7

Terry, Sue. “Then & Now—Interview with Charli Persip.” Jazz Artist, Spring 2000, pp. 1-3.

Terry, Sue. “Then & Now—Interview with Bertha Hope.” Jazz Artist, Summer 2000, pp. 1-3.

Terry, Sue. “Then & Now—Interview with Clifton Smalls.” Jazz Artist, Fall 1999, pp.1, 3.

Step One: Play Clarinet--$9.95 - book/CD

Teach yourself how to play the clarinet with this book/CD published by Music Sales Corp.
Buy this book/CD at Sheet Music Plus!
This title is available in music stores, and many music sites!

Step One: Play Alto Sax--$9.95 - book/CD

Teach yourself how to play alto saxophone with the book/CD published by Music Sales Corp.
Buy this book/CD at Sheet Music Plus!
This title is available in music stores, and on many music sites.

Step One: Play Tenor Sax--$9.95 - book/CD

Teach yourself how to play tenor saxophone with this book/CD published by Music Sales Corp.
Buy this book/CD at Sheet Music Plus!
This title is available in music stores, and on many music sites!

FREE ARTICLE! "HOW SHOULD I PRACTICE"

HOW SHOULD I PRACTICE? © 2007 Sue Terry

This question was posed to me by a student named Geni in Albania. It seems this question looms large in the minds of students no matter where they are on the planet. In this article I’ll give you some exercises and ideas that have helped me in my own practice sessions, and those of my students.

STARTING YOUR SESSION

I always start a practice session with longtones. Those of you who’ve been to my masterclasses are familiar with my battle cry: do your longtones! Detailed info about longtones can be found in my article “The Secret of a Good Sound”, so I won’t go into more depth here. Let’s just say that ‘a few longtones a day keep the doctor away.’

SCALES

Players should spend part of their practice session on scales and other patterns. It’s important to be able to play the chromatic scale and all the major scales from memory. The fingerings that you use in the scales will cover at least 90% of fingerings that you will come across in songs. If you learn the melodic and harmonic minor scales as well, that will basically cover the other 10%. If you learn all of the above scales in thirds, you might discover some fingerings that haven’t been invented yet! (Just kidding. I think.)

A lot of melodies in Western music (meaning Western European-derived music, which is what much American music is based on) are diatonic, which means they only use the notes in a single major scale. That’s pretty cool, because it means you can figure out thousands of songs by ear, just by mixing the notes in a major scale. But don’t try this at home until you can really play at least one scale-- forward, backward, in thirds, sideways and any other way you can think of. Otherwise, you might throw some unauthorized notes into the mix, and that will stop you from figuring out the song you’re working on.

SCALES ARE NOT BORING

There’s no reason to get bored practicing scales. A scale is a beautiful piece of music all by itself. When you practice your scales, try to make them sound as pretty as the songs you’re working on. With the assistance of your metronome, someday you will be able to rip through all your scales with speed and grace. That will free you from struggling with technique, and you’ll be able to concentrate on other important things, like tone, interpretation and creativity.

USING THE METRONOME

Frequently students are obsessed with being able to play fast. The musical results of this obsession usually include inappropriate tempo fluctuations, tonal and rhythmic inaccuracies, and general sloppiness. Not to mention that guilty feeling of knowing, consciously or subconsciously, that you aren’t really nailing it. I will now divulge the amazing secret of playing fast: play slowly! Here is where your metronome comes into the picture. If you don’t have a metronome, please obtain one immediately.* If your metronome is gathering dust on the top shelf, get it down, dust it off, replace the batteries, and set it to 60 beats per minute.

For your first exercise, just listen to the metronome. Start to feel the tempo with your body, so that you can tap your foot along with it. It’s essential to develop a relaxed relationship with the time. True ease of playing, at any tempo, depends on mental and physical relaxation as opposed to tension, and building your technique from the ground up, slowly and gradually. Take a difficult passage, and find a tempo on your metronome at which you can play the passage easily. It doesn’t matter how slowly you have to play it to start out. Every day you will increase the metronome marking by one notch. If, at any point, you cannot play the passage accurately and with a relaxed approach, stay on that metronome marking for as many days as it takes to do so. Don’t spend more than 20 minutes per practice session on this exercise. By practicing in this way, eventually you will ride out the plateau and be able to move the metronome up again, until achieving the desired tempo.

INSPIRATIONAL ANECDOTE

Do you remember a movie called “Karate Kid”? This kid wants to learn karate from an old Japanese master, so the kid shows up at his house every day for lessons. But every day the karate master just makes him wax his car, moving the cloth in a slow, circular motion. After the kid does that for a couple of weeks straight, he has to paint the fence, with short brush strokes up and down, slowly, exactly the way the master says. After a seeming eternity of waxing the car and painting the fence, the kid complains to the master that he’s not learning any karate. Whereupon the master comes at him with a karate move, and shazzam—the kid blocks him with his ‘waxing the car’ move. Then he blocks the master’s next move with ‘painting the fence.’ The kid does it naturally, fast as heck, without thinking. I hope you’re seeing the analogy here.

Being a longtime practitioner of T’ai Chi Chuan, which is a martial art form that is practiced very slowly, I can attest to the effectiveness of this method. It works with a lot of things, and works wonders when applied to practicing your instrument.

FINDING THE WEAK LINK

If you have a song with a difficult melody that you want to feel more comfortable on, it’s essential to pinpoint EXACTLY which measures are difficult. Often, you can already play most of the song, and it’s just a few sections that are hard. Usually a hard section hinges on 2 notes. Find those 2 notes. I always say ‘a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.’ So you need to find the weak link in your chain, and fix it. Otherwise, the song will ‘train wreck’, as we say in the business, every time you get to that part. You’ll discover that focusing on the weak links in a song, and fixing them, will do wonders for your ability to play the entire song all the way through without stopping, which is what a player must do in any performance, professional or otherwise.

MEMORIZING

Another aspect of playing is memorizing some pieces, so that you’re not dependent on having sheet music in front of you to play. I think anyone who calls her/himself a musician should be able to play things by memory, and also by ear. When you’re learning a piece by memory, you can use a similar approach to the ‘weak link’ theory: Take a small piece of the song, say, the first two measures, and memorize that. You’ll often find that you already have the beginning memorized, without even realizing it! Keep adding parts in small sections, a little every day, until you have the whole piece memorized. Usually a song will have repeated sections, and of course that helps, since when the repeated section comes around, you’ll already know that part.

PLAY BY EAR

Spend a few minutes of every session practicing playing ‘by ear.’ This means to play a piece of music without seeing it written down. First, SING a simple song (it doesn’t have to sound good, it’s only you listening!) like a folk song, children’s song or Christmas carol. We’ve all heard these types of songs since we were babies, and they are really a part of us. It helps to know the words to the song. If you can sing it, you can play it! If you get stuck on an interval (the distance between two notes), use the ‘weak link’ method again. Practice singing those two notes, with their words, so you really have the sound in your head. Find the first note on your instrument, then find the second note. This ability is what’s known as ‘relative pitch’, meaning that your ear recognizes the intervals between notes. And as Einstein discovered, everything is relative!

SUMMARY

• Always start your practice session by LISTENING to the sound of your instrument. If you are a wind or string player, or vocalist, listen to the tones as you hold them out, one by one. If you are a pianist or percussionist, you can still listen deeply to the tones, even though they cannot be sustained as long.

• Know your major scales, for they are the building blocks of most of the music you will play.

• Use your metronome, it keeps you honest.

• Find the weak links in your pieces and fix them.

• Play something by memory, and something by ear.

         * Watch for my upcoming article “10 Fun (And Completely Legal) Things You Can Do With Your Metronome”

 

Saxophone soloist, composer, and educator “Sweet” Sue Terry has performed and recorded with many jazz VIPs, and has been a frequent performer at international jazz festivals and venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Kennedy Center. Her discography contains over forty recordings, including her latest releases “BANDLEADER 101” and “Gilly’s Caper,” and her solo saxophone recording “Pink Slimy Worm.” She’s been a jazz soloist with several U.S. symphony orchestras as well as jazz orchestras, and leads her own quintet. She is the author of four instruction books, and is a regular columnist for Jazz Inside Magazine. Sue is also a clinician for Yamaha, Hal Leonard, and  the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music in London. She is a Yamaha artist. See www.suterry.com for more information.

NOTES FROM PIERRE'S LESSON - By sharing what we have learned, all can benefit.

Notes from Pierre's masterclass with Sue Terry

CONFIDENCE
Comes from skills, musicianship, controlling one's terrain, attitude

JAZZ CONCEPTION
Eighth notes are played straight, using accents and ghost notes in following the contour of the line. We watched two YouTube vids-- Paul Desmond on Emily, Coltrane on Green Dolphin St. Idea of 'swinging' the eighth notes is a misconception. 

SHADOW TONE
it is a background pitch that exists behind the more obvious 'edge' aspect of the tone. It can be of a slightly different pitch than the note you're playing-particularly around the low Eb where the airflow changes direction. 

Do not try to force yourself to hear it-perceptions cannot be forced, they can only be allowed to happen. 

PLAYING WITH GREG FISHMAN BOOKS.  
All tunes are based on standards and jazz repertoire. 
Included sax tracks allow playing along with him to work on phrasing, articulation, groove, etc
Rhythm-only tracks for soloing
Can be played on soprano and clarinet as well

EXERCISE:separating and extracting musical elements into:
Melodic structure 
Harmonic structure
Rhythmic structure

Making new compositions or improvs using rhythmic structures borrowed from other tunes. 

LISTENING VERTICALLY
more profound listening will create more profound playing. Not just a 'page-turner'-a good story yes, but leave the listener with more than that. Events of seismic proportions originate from the depths, e.g. Volcanos, tidal waves, earthquakes. 

AWARENESS
 "scooping" -same effect could be made in more controlled manner.

RESTS
Putting space (rests) in new etudes and compositions. Think of a bowl:it is the space within that makes it useful.

MOUTHPIECES
Smooth out chambers in mouthpieces with professional equipment. Aerodynamics of setup are very important.

DIFFERENCE TONES
these have other names too-Hindemith called them "combination tones" in his book The Craft of Musical Composition. They are an acoustical phenomenon resulting from two tones fairly close to each other, producing a third tone sounding in the ear. Also see Robert Dick.   

SOUND
Listening to the beauty of the sound as we create it. Holding onto that no matter what we are playing. A phrase exists from our deepest place, then we can put that phrase wherever we want in our music-fast or slow, any style, etc

Pierre you have a very pleasing sound, particularly on soprano and flute. These may be the horns you want to focus on in creating your Jazz identity. 
Your notebook of etudes is a beautiful piece of work.  Your new pieces should include rests; this will help your sense of inner time, as well as creating more meaning in a compositional sense. Practicing sulch pieces will help you avoid "playing automatically".  

ST
Studio Dojo
Pennsylvania, August 2010



 

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