Like last week’s piece, I’ve got another experiment in multitrack recording recording using Audacity and my Logitech Blue Yeti USB microphone (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link at no additional cost to you). I followed a similar workflow, this time using the Voice Memo app on my iPhone to record a percussion part on one of Dr. Wife’s mixing bowls. The blow in question is made from some kind of lightweight metal and has a rubber bottom, so it made for a pretty good drums.
The four sax parts are a bit chaotic. My timing does not always align perfectly, but there is a driving sense of forward motion in the piece. The melody is built on an improvised F major (concert Ab major) arpeggio, then I had a great deal of fun bleeding in different harmonies that sometimes work beautifully, and other times add strange (but, I think, still pleasing) colors, like major seconds and such.
Yours portly has been noodlin’ on the old sax a good bit over the past couple of weeks, so for lack of a better topic—and, uh, to catch you up on my latest adventures in noodling!—here are some recent posts featuring a total of six saxy jams.
The title for today’s Lazy Sunday comes from this classic scene from The Simpsons, which I probably think about every time I pick up the saxophone:
I had a gig a couple weeks back, and it’s gotten me practicing my sax a lot more. It’s also been an opportunity to churn out some sweet, sweet YouTube content. Indeed, last week I featured three quick sax pieces; check them out if you missed them.
This week, here are three more videos of my saxophonic noodling, curated for your listening pleasure:
“Moon River” by Henry Mancini
Just a quick rendition of the classic tune from the classic film.
“The Way of the Ghost” from Ghost of Tsushima
A sax arrangement of “The Way of the Ghost” from the classic Ghost of Tsushima; I play it a bit faster than the original. Good old Ponty requested this cover, so I took the opportunity to arrange it for solo alto sax.
Indeed, you can purchase my solo sax arrangement at the following online retailers:
I’ve got something very different for readers/listeners this Tuesday. I’ve been experimenting with multitrack recording using Audacity and my Logitech Blue Yeti USB microphone (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link at no additional cost to you)—the most rudimentary setup since my early days dangling a computer microphone from an ancient 486 33Mhz computer running Windows 3.11 for Workgroups in front of my older brother’s ancient Crate amplifier (shew—talk about a long sentence).
I’ve done lo-fi recording before, and this setup is actually pretty clean. The Lo-Fi Hymnal and The Lo-Fi Hymnal II were both recorded entirely using the Voice Memo app on my old second-generation Apple iPhone SE. Well, the “drum” part for this piece was recorded using the Voice Memo app on my new third-generation Apple iPhone SE!
I put “drum” in scare quotes because the “drum” in question is actually a piece of yellow, metallic patio furniture that Dr. Wife brought down from her old house:
Photo Credit: Dr. Wife; Yellow Metallic Cylinder Thing Credit: Dr. Wife
While I was carrying that cylindrical “table” (or whatever it’s supposed to be) outside, I whipped out my phone and recorded a quick little drumbeat (the pitter-patter of feet at the very beginning is Dr. Wife’s three-legged dog, Nugget, shuffling along the floor behind me):
My plan was to use that little beat for something at some point. I had a chance Saturday morning, and imported the file into Audacity. Well, I tried to import it into Audacity, but the Voice Memo records in the obscure M4A format, which isn’t supported in Audacity without jumping through a bunch of software hoops that I’ll figure out eventually but didn’t want to mess with while the creative juices were flowing. Instead, I used an online audio converter (the same one I use to get the WAVs that I export from Noteflight upconverted to the proper bitrate for digital distribution).
With a proper WAV file, Audacity took the track. I then copied it and replicated it over the course of about forty-five seconds, after which I grabbed my alto saxophone and started layering in tracks:
I started with a “root” alto sax part that essentially consisted of the root of a A minor (concert C minor) chord, along with some other little bits of noodling. The “harmony” alto added in the minor third, with the lead alto coming last. For “OCD” reasons, I added a fourth alto sax part to the tail end of the “Yellow Metallic Gong” percussion track to add a bit more color into the last chord, an Asus2 (concert Csus2).
The end result is this slithering, mysterious, slightly messy piece, “Sumatran Snake Charmer“:
I had a gig this past Saturday, so I took my practice time as an opportunity to churn out some sweet, sweet YouTube content. Here are three videos of my saxophonic noodling, curated for your listening pleasure:
Note: this post contains several Amazon Affiliate links. I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you.
My students and I are back at the SCISA Music Festival this morning, and yours portly has a saxophone gig tonight. As such, it seemed like a good time to look back at my “Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation” post from 12 March 2025—one year ago today!
The thrust of last year’s post was that, for under $400, you can purchase a decent—not great, but serviceable—alto saxophone. Indeed, I’m playing at this very same saxophone tonight:
Here are the updated prices for the items I listed last year; remarkably, the price is lower than a year ago; however, Slade seems to be phasing out the horn, as there is only one sax available at the time of writing:
Slade alto saxophone – $216.69 (down $43.21 from a typical price of $259.90 in 2025); only gold is still available
Last week I made a big deal about how I’m shifting Open Mic Adventures into New Music Tuesday, and how it’s inaccurate to call these features “Open Mic Adventures” because they’re not really at open mics—blah, blah, blah. All of that is true, but this week, I have a bit of a conundrum: what do I do if I don’t have any new, original music, but have a cover of a song?
Well, my hasty solution is to use the old “Open Mic Adventures” label for those pieces that covers, as 1.) anytime I feature a cover, it’s me playing it, even if it’s not at an open mic night; and 2.) I don’t want to further muddy the waters with some other title, like “Saxophone Covers Tuesday” or whatever. What a nightmare!
So, here’s how it’s going to be going forward:
Any performance that is a cover of someone else’s work will be an Open Mic Adventures
Any live performance will also be an Open Mic Adventures
Any original music—whether electronic or me playing a piece I’ve composed—will fall under the new New Music Tuesday feature
Shew! Hopefully that’s all sorted.
With that tedious business out of the way, let’s get to this week’s piece! A potential client is booking a saxophonist to play the BeBe & CeCe Winans song “I Found Love (Cindy’s Song)” for their wedding. The piece will play as the bride walks down the aisle. At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for the official booking (fingers crossed), but I recorded a quick, abbreviated version of the piece on my alto sax Sunday afternoon [read my full guide on buying a budget sax if you, too, want to start your saxophone empire—TPP].
Here’s my humble attempt at noodling out this smooth gospel/R&B classic:
Want to play the sax like yours portly? Read my ultimate guide to getting started for under $350.
Years ago, my dear mom found a copy of The Usborne Book of Piano Classics (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you) at a book sale and picked it up for me. I have used that book countless times over the years for gigs, piano lessons, practice, arranging, etc. My High School and Middle School Music Ensembles have performed arrangements based on those in the book many times at the annual South Carolina Independent School Association Music Festival.
While it consists of piano arrangements of famous pieces from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, I often play the pieces on saxophone. I found myself pulling the book out in preparation for a gig this past Sunday (a wedding proposal—the client’s girlfriend said yes!), and came upon a melancholy piece from the Baroque composer Henry Purcell, “When I am laid in earth,” perhaps better known as “Dido’s Lament.” It’s from Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas.
Pick up my newest releases, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Säx, for 50% with promo code storm (promo code is good for any release and works through 1 October 2025).
Another glorious Labor Day has dawned here in the United States. I hate the Communists, but God Bless those red diaper babies for getting us a random day off in September.
This Labor Day is particularly auspicious: I’m releasing two albums today, Electrock III: Euroclydon and Säx. I was hoping to release a third, Ringtone Circus, but my distributor, CD Baby, took issue with the use of the word “Ringtone” in the title. Apparently, that set off some kind of filter against what they call “pre-cut ringtones,” which they do not and will not distribute.
I pointed out that I was using the name euphemistically, and that the pieces are not ringtones, but, alas, I had to change the title of the album and its related track. So now I’ll be releasing the album as Triple Deluxe on Monday, 15 September 2025.
I’m also working on Spooky Season IV, which still has a long way to go before it’s ready for distribution and release. It will likely be my last full-length release for the year, with Leftovers V landing the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Otherwise, I’m not sure what today has in store for yours portly. I do know that the first couple of weeks of school have already kicked my butt (but they’ve been awesome), so I’m hoping to catch up on some rest today. Dr. Fiancée has to work, sadly, but such is residency.
I’m continuing to dig up ancient MIDI compositions (now converted to glorious, lossless WAV files) from twenty years ago (give or take). This weekend I’m sharing some digital saxophone compositions with readers.
I probably intended these pieces to be played by an actual saxophone quartet/quintet/sextet at some point. I played in a saxophone quintet in high school (two altos, two tenors, one bari) and a saxophone sextet in college (I can’t recall the exact instrumentation, but I think it had soprano, two altos, two tenors, and one bari), so I did quite a bit of arranging and composing for those groups. I also arranged a ton for Brass to the Future, the brass quintet (with saxophone) that my brother and I played in for a number of years in the early 2010s.
Now they exist as ghostly digital instruments, honking and squawking through the musical musings of a plump young Portly with a head full of dreams and a belly full of Cheez-Its.
“Saxophonic Organ”
I’m not sure what the original title for this piece was meant to be, but I do remember wanting to emulate the sound and rhythms of a 1970s classic rock organ in the context of a saxophone ensemble. “Saxophonic Organ” is the result of that experimentation, and I rather like it.
