At this point, you should have gotten ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ and ‘Godfather Theme’.
This one is going to be more of a challenge. It’s probably in a less familiar key. On tenor and soprano, you start on C#, on alto and bari you start on G#. You could think of those notes as Db and Ab if you want to.
The notes are listed below the video. They’re not listed all at once though. They’re listed one at a time. You can scroll down to see one and then if you want to check the next one, you’ll need to scroll down farther. In this way, it’s a slight bit of a hassle to check the next note and I would encourage you to not look unless completely necessary.
The rhythm of the music looks like this as I play it:
In the audio recording, I play first at tempo (pictured above), then slowed down and once more slightly faster than the slow version. Feel free to listen to this on repeat or work on a small section at a time.
Download Audio File (mp3, right click and save as)
First Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
C# (Db)
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
G# (Ab)
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Second Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
D#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
A# (Bb)
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Third Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
E
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
B
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Fourth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
F#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
C#
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Fifth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
G#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
D#
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Sixth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
E
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
B
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Seventh Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
G#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
D#
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Eighth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
G
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
D
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Ninth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
D#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
A#
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Tenth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
G
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
D
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Eleventh Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
F#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
C#
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Twelfth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
D
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
A
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Thirteenth Note
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
F#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
C#
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The next part should seem very familiar, you play the first seven notes as you played in the beginning.
After that, it changes. Try to get the last five notes on your own, you can scroll down if you really need to.
The first thirteen notes:
Tenor Saxophone & Soprano Saxophone:
C# D# E F# G# E G# G D# G F# D F#
C# D# E F# G# E G# C# B G# F# G#
Alto Saxophone & Baritone Saxophone:
G# A# B C# D# B D# D A# D C# A C#
G# A# B C# D# B D# G# F# D# B C# D#
(or)
Ab Bb B Db Eb B Eb D Bb D Db A Db
Ab Bb B Db Eb B Eb Ab Gb Eb B Db Eb
To sign up for the saxophone ear training class, go to this page
Doug says
Cheers!! And it just sounds right now also.
Doug says
Hey Neal, Now you know as a beginner I am racking my brain on this and I think the change should be the next to the last D to a D#
G# F# D# B D# F#. Boy its a good thing flying airplanes wasn’t this hard!!
Doug
Neal says
You got it Doug! Good job. Learning music by ear just takes some practice. As you do it more, your ear recognizes when things are off faster and eventually your fingers go to the right places much more automatically.
Doug says
Hey Neal, I tried this and believe the change from the F# to the G makes the difference needed. G# G D# B D F#
Doug
Neal says
Hey Doug,
Not quite, that’s not the note I would change. So leave that one alone and try changing a different note. The G# and F# are fine, it’s one of the last four notes.
G# F# D# B D F#
Doug says
Neal, I just worked those notes over and I believe it should be G# F# D# B D F#. I havent tried it on my Sax yet so not 100% sure.
Doug
Neal says
Almost, all of those notes are right except for one. I’ll let you try to figure it out for now.
Doug says
Thanks Neal I will work on it and get back to you. Would a G# be what I am looking for to start with? I will just have to work it out.
Doug
Doug says
Hey Neal,
I have a question about the notes for the lesson on the lick “In The Hall Of The Mountain King”. I have worked on this for some time and I come up with a total of 26 notes made up of 13 followed up by the first 7 and then 6. I have it as follows.
G# A# B C# D# B D# D A# D C# A C# G# A# B C# D# B D# Now the last 6 I am not sure of the notes but here is what I have come up with. G F D A# D F or this set which I don’t think works right but here they are. Upper octave A G E C E G. I have listened to this many times and it seemed to have two notes missing but I am just learning here and may be wrong.
Let me know what you think.
Doug
Neal says
Hey Doug,
You’re doing pretty well. I had left out one note on the page in the first thirteen, just fixed that.
So your first 13 notes and the second 7 notes are right. After that you get a little bit off. But you’re close, like a half step away. What you did was play that piece in a new key, so it sounds pretty close, but you start in a different place.
You wrote out two groups of six notes, one is too low, one is two high. Very close. So G is too low, A is too high. What’s in between?
Thanks
-Neal