Question:
Two Saxes in worship band
Here's a great problem to have.
I've been playing mostly soprano in a contemporary worship band. The music is the usual Matt Redman-Chris Tomlin pop/contemp with older favorites sprinkled into the mix. Recently, a new sax player to our congregation started playing tenor. I was very busy this fall (musical family with 6 kids), so I didn't play much. Likewise, the other sax player is in the Army band and wasn't always available either.
The busy season is over and now we are both showing up at rehearsals. It would be easier for us to just trade sundays and stay out of each others way. But what I would like to do is work together as a horn section. I am looking for ideas on how to make this work. We've tried doing horn lines on a few upbeat songs but is hard to make it up on the fly and sound good. Often one of us will play fills while the other pads or sits out.
What's the best voicing, tenor-tenor or tenor-soprano? I could play alto but it isn't my first choice. You know how it is. The guitar-playing worship leader gives you a page with words and chord symbols with "capo 2" at the top. It would be mental gymnastics on Eb.
What can we pull from to create horn section lines that will work with this type of music? Should we keep it simple and just pad? If so, would it generally sound better to have the high voice play the root (7th when available) and the lower voice play the 3rd (4th or 2nd on such chords) or should we follow voice leading, stay off the root and play other chord tones? If it were jazz, it would be easy. Stay off the root, guide tones are good. But it isn't jazz, so I'm not sure where to go with it.
Any ideas how to make it work well or a completely different approach to the situation?

Answer:
RCNELSON (another SOTW member) and I have played together in a worship band - we usually switch off between alto & tenor (take turns usually, although we each have our favorites) and since Ron doubles on flute we would also mix flute and soprano which really had a mellow sound.
Usually we would play 'chords' over each other, then take turns on small solos. I dont think we consciously picked which voice (high or low) would play root - we pretty much just figured it out as we went.
It worked. No fear over 2 saxes.

Answer:
I would think that alto/tenor, or tenor/tenor would blend better than sop/tenor. Since you only have two horns, you pretty much have to play a third apart, or a sixth (reverse thirds). So much more can be done with three part harmony, but that's another story! Good luck!

Answer:
Hey Doug.

I've experienced the same situation in our most recent job relocation / settle into a new church home. I've also had the experience of me on tenor playing alongside a trombone player. And perhaps the easiet to deal with was me on tenor & soprano with flute (only) player beside me. I really love the opportunity to play alongside somebody else. It's been a blessing and a privilege to play for the Lord for the past 25 years, and it's definitely been an interesting ride watching the music evolve.

A couple of thoughts - have you talked to the guitar playing worship leader about his thoughts/preferences/ideas?

Also, with the new guy being there in your absence for awhile - is there any deference to you as the "veteran" on the team now that you're back?

Is the talent/skill level of both of you comparable so there's no perceived "leader" between you? (whoops, I just re-read your post. If he's in the Army band, he's probably not a slouch )

Without trying to be overly religious about it - are you and the other player not only talking about, but praying together about the situation resoultion so that your joy is not diminished and your ministry isn't stymied?

It sounds like our team uses a similar mix of music as you described above. An observation I think I've settled on, is that much of the current music being used today is written by and for guitar playing leaders. As such, it becomes necesary for your/my worship leader to open up the holes for us to be able to riff/fill/lead/solo, etc. If that doesn't really happen, then it will be up to us to follow the Holy Spirit and be ready to step in with a lead ride when He opens the door for it.

I guess that would brings us full circle back to my first thought listed above about talking to your leader.

Well, this is getting long, and rambling. Sorry for that. My braing is tired tonight. I am confident that the spirit I'm reading in your post will allow you to work out a wonderful solution, and I'm confident that God will bless you because of your good attitude and servant heart. Be blessed and keep playing for Jesus.

NewLifeSax
Tyler, Texas

Answer:
Hi Doug
Newlifesax has a good point, but to take it one step further, I would suggest you chat with the other sax player. You might find that hes not too keen on the idea of harmonising/parts etc etc and would prefer to alternate Sundays or alternate songs on a Sunday. You could go ahead and do a lot of work and find hes maybe not interested.
I say this because I have the luxury of being the only saxophone and only solo instrument (ie no flutes, violins etc) and should someone else come a long, I am not sure I have time to be looking over charts or parts and might prefer to swop songs about or play every other Sunday. Also, I dont naturally find harmonies and perhaps the other guy is the same?
At one stage, we had various players, a violin and flute. Generally one of those would melody, one would harmonise and I would do fills and links and some (we shared) solos. This seemed to work ok, but did require communication!!!
Just a thought before you do a lot of work!!
Good luck
Jason

Answer:
I can relate. I am the only horn player in our praise band performing similar songs. I usually get the song chord charts a few days ahead and go thru the effort to key them into finale, write out any intro/outro melodies, add the chords and then tranpose them for alto and tenor/sop. I play all three horns almost each week and just pick the horn that works best. I know I should just learn to transpose all the chords the 6th for alto but once I get all the songs into Finale, the work is thru - just print out what I need for next week. I've probably got 50 songs in this format which we cycle thru.
You and the other horn player could likely work out some intro and outro harmonies and take turns filling in spots. Of course, the advance prep I mentioned above makes this much easier.
We are in the process of adding more horn players. Once we do that, I will no longer be responsible for detemining what I play each week that way you are and I have been. We're going to move to more published charts and arrangements for priase band - in some ways more fun but I will lose some of the freshness and improvising.

Answer:
Yes, as Mark5047 stated, it does work. The only issue is the lack of rehearsal time that we all face. You always want more time to perfect the sound, especially if you are going without written arrangements, like Mark and I have done most of the time.

Answer:
I strongly agree with the above, that you need to find out where this other horn player is coming from before you get any ideas. You should find out what this horn player (or any other instrumentalist for that matter) is willing to accept.
Sometimes presenting musical avenues can result in a clash of personalities and be perceived as an assault of one’s turf. This conflict heightens when two instruments are in the same range.
This other horn player apparently has a military background which may be more structured that what you are used to – maybe not. But, you need to find that out before you proceed with any suggestions on how things should be done or how things could be done.
For example, working with folks that have a strictly classical background can be a pain if you are from either a garage band or jazz background. Classical folks ONLY take directions from the director and that’s it. Trying to collaborate with a purely classically trained musician is almost impossible unless the director tells the instrumentalist to collaborate and see what they can work out. That doesn’t make a classically trained musician a bad person, it’s just the way they were trained. It’s really not their fault. Since the military is known for their “chain of command” it might be wise if you factor this into the equation. Otherwise, you could be viewed as trying to play General before you have even enlisted.
You are both part-time, the reasons for not being there are insignificant. It might come down to chops given the situation.
It’s all going to depend on the chemistry between the both of you. The better the chemistry – the better sound. The saxophone is a very expressive instrument, if there is competition, it will come out in your sound. Especially, if you are trying too hard.
You can lead a horse to water... but first, it usually helps if you find out how thirsty the horse is first.
It’s not about what YOU can plan. It’s what the both of you can collaborate on. And what you come with next week versus what you come up with six months from now. This will depend upon the chemistry you develop at this point.
Allow for growth, and keep it simple at first. Then see where is goes from there. And always be willing to learn from other people.
Start with the tone and the blend, then you can add theory later. Allowing some time for you two to acclimate to each other first. It will serve you better in the long run.
Be accepting of all other instrumentalist and where they are at musically, and they shall treat you the same way.

Answer:
There's a lot of good advice in the previous posts. I have played with some guys that think very much like I do and things come together intuitively. Some approach the music differently making it advantageous to write out parts to literally keep us "on the same page". It also depends on the music played. Some pieces the horn part is more obvious than on others. Others are better suited to soloistic fills (two guys can quickly turn a praise song into Dixieland or free jazz!)
I find that in worship music, when in doubt, play less.

Answer:
With two tenors I find octaves work pretty well,and playing fills for part of a song and switching roles as the Spirit leads.If there's a solo,one sax per tune.I find myself doubling the vocals alot,which is good on tenor because there are'nt many male voices to fill the bottom at my church.

Answer:
I too am the only horn player in our worship band and I am use to creating my own fills and solo work to match the music. Our worship leader charts out the music using the Nashville numbering system and sometimes I read the music as written but mostly improvise with harmony, fills and solo work as needed. I feel that I could adjust to having another horn player besides me on the team, but I like Mrsax 100s idea of switching out Sundays the best. We have two worship teams and there is no horn player on the second team, so my guess is that the other player would start there first.Our sound as a team,for now, fits with just one horn player as my worship leader says that he likes the Dave Matthews look and feel that we have.So if you are in this position as I am in then alternating Sundays might be your best bet as well.God bless all of you on this thread for turning your gifts over to the Lords work.

Answer:
Originally Posted by jgsax Our worship leader charts out the music using the Nashville numbering system and sometimes I read the music as written but mostly improvise with harmony, fills and solo work as needed. What is the "Nashville numbering system"? I have not heard that term.

Answer:
This may not be applicable to worship music, but anyways, here goes:
Orchestration for Saxophones -

Answer:
Originally Posted by hornimprovement What is the "Nashville numbering system"? I have not heard that term.
In short, it's a system used in Nashville for writing chord sheets without writing them in a particular key. Numbers are used to designate the chords, and the chord type is assumed (i.e. 1, 4, 5 are major, 2, 3, 6, are minor, 5 is dominant, 7 is half-diminished).
The main reason for it is that charts can be written in a single form, and the song played by the musicians in whatever key is called for.

Answer:
Saxmangeoff, that makes sense. Thanks for the info.

Answer:
I do a lot of section work and the smallest section is usually trumpet and tenor; it works well with both horns in Bb and the octave transposition making a fat sound really easy. So, sub soprano for trumpet and you have a pretty good format........