Hi,

I've been working on the Histoire Du Tango by Piazzolla for a little while now, I'm performing it on Soprano Sax with piano accompaniment. Night-Club 1960 is a hot fave along with Cafe 1930...

The thing is, in Night-Club 1960.. when it gets to bar 54 - I'm not sure of the etiquette!.. there is rhythmic notation marked 'T T TKTK' etc. underneath. I know how this works on the flute but I am having problems translating this to the sax whilst making it sound audible over the piano.

Does anyone here know of what exactly should happen in this section??

Thanks

Andy

??

I am guessing it just means to double tongue it?

Yeah, that's what I would do on the flute.. which it is originally written for.. but it just doesn't come across quite the same..

If you're not familiar with the piece, these markings "T K TKTK" are written one letter under each note, but the notes are not actually notes, they are just crosses, like hi-hat notation..

On the flute I would tilt the head joint slightly so I was blowing more into the whole than across it - finger the note that was marked with the X, and do the whole double tonguing thing.. this creates a nice pan pipe style swipe at each note - mainly it's a percussive sound but with a small element of the fingered note underneath it.

As you can imagine, this can't be done on the saxophone audibly without just playing the note that is written in a double tongued style (a bit pointless as it makes little difference and means you end up playing solid notes) - ..so maybe we're on the right lines after all and it should just be played in solid notes but double tongued. It just seems like it's one of those direct transcriptions which doesn't take into account technical differences between instruments... and it's also a real shame I can't think of a suitable "special effect"* to use in it's place - because that bit sounds really good on the flute when I listen to my fave interpretations on CD!

Thanks for your help so far Sarah, I think it may be the only way forward other than using a "wah wah" effect (which would mean taking the originally notated low D up an octave)..I'm still weighing it up.. all other suggestions most welcome!

Andy
x

Perhaps an insteresting alternative would be to slap tongue it?

The reason it looks like percussion notation is because it's intended to be percussive You kind of slap the keys whilst blowing air through the sax without making a note. It's difficult to explain...that's how I've heard others play it as well.

I'd recommend you get a recording of Nobuya Sugawa playing it to see what I mean. It's on his CD Cafe 1930. Andy Tweed said I should get it, and he said Sugawa was slap tonging, although I'm not convinced. It's difficult to tell...it should just basically be a percussive effect.

Ben.

Hi,

I recently did the piece for grade 8 sop sax. I was taught to finger click the keys. l/h 3 fingers slap down top 3 keys for one letter (T) then bottom fingers slap down the bottom 3 keys for the (K). I've not really explained it all that clearly, sorry it's hard to explain, but it was effective, and I got 29/30 so it must have gone down o.k


Hope it went well if you've already done the exam etc!

Thanks Saxgirl!!

I'd almost given up on this thread and hadn't checked it for almost 2 years!! It must be time to get the Night Club back out and give it another try using this slap key technique. . . I understand exactly what you mean in your explanation - did you blow through the sax whilst doing this or not??

Thanks everyone else for your suggestions - I don't think I'll ever get the slap tonguing up to a speed where I can repeat it on such quick semiquavers..

Yay.

Ax

Hi,

No I didn't blow through the sax, or even have it near my mouth whilst doing the finger clicking.

I've had a break through this week in that I think i'm starting to get to grips with slap tonguing, though have some way to go still I think! I'll be digging out my Pequena Czardas again as a result!!

Piazzolla rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saxgirl.