Back in the day, when books didn’t come with a play along or demo CD/DVD—since those technologies were still at least a decade away—I picked up a book that would prove to be a foreshadowing of my future music career. Improvising Rock Sax, by Pete Yellin, was something I found in a music store, back when I was in junior high school.
When I first got the book, I had only been playing a couple of years, and many of the techniques that Yellin wrote about were then over my head. However, I knew I really wanted to be able to play like the players he mentioned. I wanted to employ the techniques he wrote about. And most importantly, I just wanted to sound like a rock sax player.
Fast forward 33 years, and I’ve certainly achieved my junior high goals. I can sound like a rock sax player when I want to—or jazz player, or whatever else the music calls for. I use all the techniques (plus a whole lot more) that Pete Yellin wrote about in Improvising Rock Sax. My style of playing is also very consistent with the rock sax players of the past and present—my style and techniques change depending on the music I’m playing at the time. For example, I don’t play multiphonics when we’re playing a traditional version of Flip, Flip, and Fly.
When I was in my teens, Improvising Rock Sax became something of a bible for me, since at the time there weren’t a lot of materials available on how to play rock ‘n roll saxophone. The book gave me info on the areas I wanted/needed to focus on, and some tips and exercises on how to work on the various techniques required to be a competent rock sax player.
To give you an idea of the scope of the book, here are the salient sections from the table of contents. (I have left out the “etudes”.)
- Rhythm
- Tonal Concept (Acoustical Equipment)
- Getting the Sound
- Special Tonal Effects
- Growling
- Bending Notes
- Super High Notes
- Alternate (False) Fingerings
- Glisses and Fall-offs
- Articulation
- Double Tonguing
- Triple Tonguing
- Single and Legato Tonguing Combined
- Improvising
- Backing Up Vocals and Playing “Fills” and Short Solos
- Putting It All Together
- The Saxophone and Electronic Effects
The section of Improvising Rock Sax that always fascinated me the most, was the last one. “The Saxophone and Electronic Effects” chapter captivated my attention then, and is likely why I am still fascinated with things like Selmer’s Varitone.
Since Pete Yellin’s book is out of print, I have chosen to reproduce the two pages from “The Saxophone and Electronic Effects” section. These pages provide an interesting historical reference into what was happening in the rock sax scene at the time this book was originally written (1978). BTW, I have the original edition. The covers you see on the ‘Net are from newer editions published in the early 1980s. I believe these have a different publisher.
Since technology has changed so much over the years, it’s not surprising that all the effects that Yellin mentions here, are available in one unit now. My Boss VE-20 does all of those effects, plus many, many more, with a simple dial of a knob, or stomp of the foot pedal.
Speaking of evolving technology, the Lyricon really was a harbinger of things to come in the synthesizer world. The wind controllers of today, like the Yamaha’s WX5 or Akai’s EWI 4000S, allow saxophone players a greater level of electronic expression than ever before.
It’s really a shame that this book was never revised, and reissued for contemporary audiences. There is a lot of really good material in here, and sadly, despite there having been an abundance of new saxophone resource material published over the past 30+ years, very little of it pertains to rock sax.
If you can find a copy of this book at a reasonable price, pick it up. It’s a good book to have in your saxophone library.
