Blues For One - Lesson
With
James RaeJames Rae walks you through ‘Blues for One’, a 12-bar blues built on the swing rhythm from exercise 4 - play it accurately, then add a little swagger to bring it to life.
Copyright © 2023 Universal Edition (London) Ltd., All compositions by James Rae except where otherwise indicated.
What's in the course
20 lessons (0h 46m) · 1 free
Lesson transcript
Blues for One
Here's a little 12-bar blues which incorporates the swing rhythm we discussed in exercise 4.
Typical Blues Structure
- Lots of repetition: Try to match each phrase.
- Variation at the end: We change things a little bit at the end, just for balance; otherwise, it will get monotonous if it's all exactly the same.
Playing Style
Think about the style as you play:
- Not just the rhythm, but the actual dialect of what you're playing.
- It might not seem very interesting, but with a bit of swagger, it brings the whole piece to life.
Tips for Performance
- Always aim to play as accurately as possible.
- Occasionally let your hair down within the parameters of what's written to make it sound jazzy and bluesy.
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Meet your guru
Meet your guru
James Rae was born on Tyneside in 1957. He studied clarinet, bass clarinet, piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1975 to 1979, under professors Yona Ettlinger, Stephen Trier, Meriel Jefferson and Patric Standford respectively. Since leaving the Guildhall, he has pursued a highly successful and varied career across three areas: performing, writing and teaching.
James Rae has worked in many West End and Royal National Theatre productions, including Sir Peter Hall's award-winning Oresteia with music by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and has received many freelance engagements with some of the country's leading orchestras and ensembles. He is the leader of the Phoenix Saxophone Quartet, who over the years have given many recitals and BBC broadcasts, and have recorded the complete works of Carey Blyton on two albums, 'The Return of Bulgy Gogo' and 'Sherlock Holmes meets Dr Who'.
As a composer, James Rae is one of Europe's most published writers of educational wind music, with over 250 publications to his credit, mainly published by Universal Edition. His music includes instrumental study books, sonatas, tutors, baroque, classical and jazz transcriptions, plus many volumes of duets, many of which feature on all the major wind examination syllabuses worldwide. He has also written four musicals for schools with Mike Cornick, and his larger commissions include The Turn of a Wheel, a major work for concert band that premiered in November 1999 for the North Tyneside Concert Band, of which he was a founder member as a boy, and the overture Moving On in 2012.
James Rae has worked extensively as a syllabus consultant and composer for both the Associated Board and Trinity College London, and has been highly involved in developing the woodwind sight-reading requirements for both exam boards. As a teacher, he has held many posts in both the state and independent sectors, and currently works at King's College School Wimbledon, where he directs the Wind Orchestra and Concert Band, and Shrewsbury House School in Surbiton, where he coaches three large bands and a chamber group. That teaching experience runs right through his saxophone series for MusicGurus, which takes you step by step from your very first notes to a confident, stylish player: First Notes, New Keys & Low Notes, Expanding Your Range, Scales & High Notes, Extended Range & Rhythm, and Polish & Style.
