Robby Kilgore ‘Rotator’

It has been my dream for a long time to build a Rotator as Robby Kilgore calls it. You can see it in action in some videos below.

I first got to know about this through my friend Bernhard Wagner and he also just built it so I could fool around with it!

To tell you shortly what it is, it is a software that adds a second note to whatever I am playing on the EWI (or any other MIDI device) with set intervals. It also rotates through this settings so I will have different intervals every time I change or replay a note! As a horn player, I can’t tell you how exciting it is to create harmonies! (I even started playing accordion some years ago to get harmonies)

To read more see Robby Kilgores own website like: http://robbykilgore.com/?p=19

 

Here is Mike Brecker using the Rotator (for some reasons the video didn’t play on phones but on most computers)

EWI Crash Course

Just starting to get on friendly terms with my EWI (it’s a 4000s for you gearheads) and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on practicing this instrument.

When I got it I had too little time to really dig into it, but past weeks I’ve been having and taking the time needed to get into this. Partly because I’ve been traveling without any other horn, and partly because I’ve broken my wrist and it is way easier to play ewi than an 50s Buescher tenor with a broken wrist. But most of all, I’ve always loved synthesizers (my dad’s being a great keyboard and synth player and lover) and I found the right motivation and inspiration from instagram and his birthday coming up.

1. Setting up the EWI

Once you’ve got your instrument you’ll probably want to play around with it and get some feeling for the instrument, I’ve got stuck in this stage for almost a year but maybe you’re quicker?

After that you should download the Vyzex editor (if you’re on Mac) and make sure you’re instrument runs on the latest software update. Mine was a demo instrument before I got it and doing this resolved a bunch of malfunctioning. There is a manual and although it is boring and time consuming it is a very good idea going through ALL of it and make sure your fingering ect. is what you want it to be. As a sax player I chose sax fingerings, but oboe, flute, and others are available too! But I frequently go through the manual again to fine tune the instrument to work as good as possible for me.

This is probably the most important step!

2. Choosing a sound

Although the EWI has a lot of built in sounds, I found most of them dull and boring so I’m sticking to one of the presets for practicing with earphones but connect it to a desktop synth with lots of patches in it to get a fatter sound. I find that using both of the sounds together is the way to go for me. But as my dad remarked it is important to find your synth sound and when listening to great synth players like Zawinul, Zawinul or maybe Zawinul you realize that he has a very distinctive synth sound that he uses all the time. Although there is variations, it has the same expression from the musicians standpoint. So I spent some time finding a sound I am happy with.

Also, as a saxophone player that suddenly is using AMPS at gigs to be heard at all, it is wise to start practicing and rehearsing with amps and find out that there is a jungle of amps and sounds out there. It is a strange notion not necessarily having your sound close to you as with a saxophone. And don’t do the mistake of placing your amp at the floor and turn up the volume until you hear good enough. Angle the amp towards your ears or put it on a chair so that you get most of the sound. Or else you’re gonna start a volume war with your band mates.

You’ll hopefully see which one to go for in the picture below.

3. Practicing the ewi

It is basically just like practicing any instrument, and in particular the saxophone. I’ve been doing my regular scale exercises, my flute fingering exercises and mostly, playing slow transcriptions that I did in the past just to refresh my technique for the EWI. One of my favorites is the one below, I’ve been searching for the origin with no success, but I belive it beeing a flute exercise.

The hardest part have been the thumb, it is still hard, my broken wrist makes it harder to move my thumb, but as all EWI players know going between octaves can be a real hassle. But from Björn Arkö which is a big inspiration for EWI I learned that you should initiate the switch before it actually happens by starting to move the thumb, kind of like playing piano. This seems to work fine although there is still lots of work to do. As always when dealing with music, thankfully 😉

Feel free to ask anything or leave a comment if you feel like I can help with your EWI.

 

Nuvo jSax

The Nuvo jSax:

nuvo_jsax

While I was on vacation in Amsterdam a week ago I didn’t bring any kind of instrument but just some few hours after landing my urge to play got too big so I started walking around stores to find a saxophone. What I came up with eventually after asking for ”any saxophone” and ”the cheapest horn you’ve got” was the new Nuvo jSax!

img_4366And at first sight it is a pretty cool little horn! You can see right away that it has got the features of a saxophone, and anyone that is familiar with music will spot it as a saxophone. The fingerings is, for me anyways, pretty straight forward. BUT I have to say, I am a bit disappointed about them. I love that there is a G# key, but I would also like to play F# in a ”normal” way and Bb in a normal way. The F# I think could be fixed pretty easily with a rod or something similar pressing down two keys but leaving the hole open.

The horn sounds good! To be at around €100 it is incredible. You can hear that it is a saxophone, sounding like a soprano is has a pretty sweet sound.

Intonation is another matter, some of the notes are really unclear what notes they really are supposed to be, but then, it works like a soprano so the amount of adjusting with pressure or embouchure is not that big. But as a small kid or beginner, it might sound off.

I threw away the standard mouthpiece first thing and replaced it with my standard soprano mouthpiece Vandoren V16 with Vandoren ZZ reeds. My friend and colleague didn’t and had a hard time playing it, and came back complaining to me that it’s a hard instrument. I later tried that ”mouthpiece” and plastic reed that followed in the box but I would recommend anyone a real mouthpiece if even Yamaha 4c with a 1 1/5 Rico reed.

Conclusion:

If you take it for what it is, a small cheap plastic saxophone with recorder fingerings and limited to 1 1/5 octaves and a stupid mouthpiece (but frankly all saxophones come with a stupid mouthpiece) it is a really cool little toy, or first saxophone for beginners, or for people like me that like most portable woodwind instruments.

Köttets lust – Teater C

Just nu spelar vi föreställningen ”Köttets Lust” av Teater C på Köttinspektionen i Uppsala. Det är jag på sax och flöjt, Emil Ingmar på piano och dragspel samt Michael Näslund på gitarr, bas och sång!

”Premiärkvällen innehåller så vitt skilda uttryck som elegant stepp, poetiska prosamonologer, sjuttiotalsschlagers med ironi, högklassig mim, vemodiga visor, vild jitterbugg och blues.”
”Ingen vet hur kvällen kommer att gestalta sig, inte ens de medverkande.”
”I förställningskonceptet ingår också att ingen av de tio planerade föreställningarna kommer att vara den andra lik, att gästartisterna kommer att växla .”

Läs hela recensionen här: http://unt.se/kultur-noje/scen/trivsam-scenlust-4413054.aspx

Boka biljetter på kulturbiljetter.se

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Ljudteknik

Efter att ha hållit på med ljudteknik sedan jag var i förskolan så funderade jag ett tag på att pensionera mig, men har nu bestämt mig för att satsa på det, jag har ju ändå grejerna.I alla fall på uthyrning!

Så jag håller nu på att gå igenom alla sladdar, mixerbord, högtalare, monitorer, slutsteg mm för att se till att allting är i bra skick och i bra ordning samt se över var jag behöver investera i.

Så behöver ni hyra ljudutrustning med eller utan ljudtekniker, hör av er!

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Uppsala Musikklasser

I am happy to announce that this fiscal year I am starting to teach at Uppsala Musikklasser, leading one of their orchestras.

Uppsala Musikklasser is a high school with music ”profile” and very good reputation. I am very excited about this opportunity and more so since me myself spent my high school years in this school.

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Oskar Forsberg

Uppsala Summerchestra 2016

So finally I have contemplated enough to be able to share this summers events.

With 25 young musicians divided into 2 orchestras with 3 weeks each, we did 40 gigs in total. With some interest in media as well as a huge number of applicants I think it is not too brave to say that it has been a success!

And the music! Each and every member of the two bands have performed flawlessly and way beyond my expectations and their previous level. I am so happy to have been leading these young musicians.

Flute Night

So tonight, as a part of the Swedish Flutefestival I performed a set of jazz flute together with Emil Ingmar, Daniel Forsberg & Daniel Olsson in the ”Uppsala Jazz Group”. Might not sound that strange, but I think it is the first time I’ve performed as a solo artist without my saxophone. I actually brought the saxophone with me on stage in case I would feel too lost, but the band performed beautifully and it was fun to play! I got a lot of positive comments afterwards, but I’ve got no idea weather they where right or not.

After me there was the Finnish flute goddess Annika Gummerus-Putkinen performing with the same rhythm section, which was very nice! After that there was Janne Bengtson and Anders Åstrand playing some songs too! So it was a full night 🙂

The three guys in Caius Cat back together

We where finally re-united the whole group of three guys of Caius Cat in Alicante and Elche in south of Spain last week!

The same day we arrived we did some rehearsing and a gig at the Jazz Bar in Alicante Villavieja 6. That was huge fun and felt great to be back together! Next day we spent the whole day in the studio, what a great place to be and really pleasant engineers working with us. Pedro was interviewed for a Spanish Jazz Radio station, keeping updated how and where you could hear it.

On Saturday we played at a big concert hall in Elche with great sound engineer and light engineer and aweseome staff! Super acoustics, it is really fun to play in concert halls from time to time although I prefer the intimacy of clubs. After that had a great night out with some really cool guys and girls!

Sunday morning then was the last gig at a music school where they have concerts from time to time. I was really honored when a couple came to that show, they told me afterwards that they had been to the concert the night before but wanted to come and see us again while they had the chance.

 

Sax Encounters

The ”newly” started project Sax Encounters is bringing me a lot of joy and happiness lately!

We have started to find a shape and form of the music and getting the sound together. At first when starting with the sax quartet I thought the gig opportunities would be few and that the audience would be pretty scarce. But when you start getting into improvisation, listening to Brass bands, Balkan bands, other great sax quartets such as SaxShop we’ve been getting new ideas. And after making a few concerts where the crowds have been plentiful and super excited I am not having any doubts about this anymore!

We now have a pretty big repertoire of classical music, jazz, traditional jazz (ragtime and new orleans) and party songs. This band is awesome for parties, background music, concerts and big venues all the same thanks to a very varied program and highly skilled musicians!

In the band we’ve got:

Bo Frick – Soprano Sax

Nicklas Dahlin – Alto Sax

Roger Nordling – Tenor Sax

Oskar Forsberg – Baryton Sax

 

And further down the line we will see some doubles and maybe even some guests!

Feel free to like our facebook page and share and you know the drill!

 

Best regards

 

www.facebook.com/saxencounters/

Music Power Maffia

One of my young students have a project called Music Power Maffia, which is young musicians playing and working for charity causes. I am very impressed with the way Wilhelm is running this and it is going to be exciting seeing the future of this project which I am somehow a part of.

Check it out here:

http://www.musicpowermafia.com/

The music syndicate MPM was founded in 2014 by the Swedish saxophonist Wilhelm Fredlund, on his 13th birthday. All young artists in the project work individually or in groups to bring joy and support with the power of music to young and old who live an exposed life in the borderland.
MPM provides help organizations with contributions collected through the artists gigs, concerts and similar events. We cooperate among others with Barncancerfonden who fight childhood cancer and ensures that affected children, youths and their families get the care and support they need. The vision is to exterminate childhood cancer. Learn more about the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation through the link below.
http://www.barncancerfonden.se/In-english/About-us…

MPM works from basic values to provide entertainment, beneficence, equality and gender equality. For us it means that we oppose any form of racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying. Our mission is to achieve a powerful musical imprint in the name of solidarity.All participating artists are contributing with valuable efforts to comply with the MPM’s mission and vision.