A Sax Lesson from Frank Nizzari
The late, great player of all reeds Frank Nizzari was on the faculty at Berklee College of Music. He told this story about a young saxophone student who got a lesson he wasn’t expecting. The student came in for his regular weekly lesson, said hello, unpacked his horn and put the music on the music stand. Then all hell broke loose. “Suddenly the kid is blasting out a million notes a minute, not one of which had anything to do with the music,” Frank related. “Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?” “I'm takin' it outside, man!” “Okay, I'll tell you what, ” Frank says, “how about you first learn how to play the tune inside, and once you've got that down, you might think about taking it outside.” Oh, yeah. —Terry MacDonald |