Dave Plummer

Manchester workshop update.

Dave — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:30:38 +0000

Well, I think you can safely say that was a good days playing. 7 players were able to make the day, which meant that there were 3 tutors between 7, so plenty of hands on help available.

We started with a very nice arrangement of my funny valentine for the large ensemble (having heard it today, I am going to try it with my school group tomorrow) and the Moody Mode and Loony Toons for the small groups.

The jazz session worked through Nows the time and so what, with some very good improvisations from every one. some people had never played in a group before, others had never improvised before but everyone gave it their best shot.

Based on the feedback we will be back in that neck of the woods later in the year, and we should have a few more players joining us for the day as word of mouth spreads.

Tony took some video of the day, so once that is available I will let you know.

Its now time to concentrate on the next Leicester workshop on Friday the 8th June, 15 places booked but still 5 to go, are you up for it? Come and try it.

regards

Dave

Free tickets for the Manchester workshop, 27th May 2012

Dave — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:32:48 +0000

Hi Folks

Due to unforseen circumstances, 2 people have had to drop out of the Manchester playday, and so I have 2 paid for tickets to give away rather than let them go to waste.

Its on a first come, first served basis, so give me a call on 07736 471861 or staxofsax@gmail.com

regards

Dave

Manchester Workshop update.

Dave — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:35:20 +0000

We have got 10 players booked for our first workshop outside of Leicester, 2 sops 4 altos 3 tenors and a Bari, If any Bari players out there are looking for something to do on Sunday 27th May, why not come and join us for a fun day of music making. Of course all other sax players are very welcome too.

We hope to have loads of pics to show and will keep you updated as we go.

Cant wait to set the sat nav and meet you folks face to face.

see you soon

regards

Dave

What do I call myself?

Dave — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:23:41 +0000

If you have been reading my posts on here or cafe saxophone, you may have noticed that I played at my first wedding in June 2011. Because of buying the amp etc to do that gig, I then tried busking which I love doing. From the busking has come some more gigs, including 3 weddings and a golden anniversary wedding to play at. I have also had enquiries for a funeral, retirement party and various village fund raisers.

As these gigs have all come about due to busking, and the weather at the moment is awful for that, I thought that I would get an on line presence to see if I can generate some more gigs.

I know I need to put some recordings up as examples, and hopefully on Tuesday I will be borrowing some recording equipment to get this done. I have looked at other players sites to see what sort of tunes are good to know. I have about 50 tunes so far and more in progress.

My main question is what do I call myself? eg wedding saxophonist? I don’t want to limit myself to just weddings because of my description. Any suggestions for name, tunes or ideas would be gratefully received.

regards

Dave

StaxofSax Workshop Friday 8th June 2012, Leicester

Dave — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:09:28 +0000

We are pleased to announce the next workshop to take place in Leicester is on Friday the 8th June.

We will be using the Leicester South Salvation Army Hall as usual and the day will run along similar lines to the last event. We will have a large ensemble session, small quartet/quintet session and the afternoon will be devoted to the improvisation session.

This session is probably aimed at the beginner/intermediate improvisor rather than the advanced. Also this time we will have players stay on in their small groups rather than one large group. This means everyone gets more chances at soloing and we get to explore more tunes.

The day will run from 10am to 3pm and the cost of a ticket is £30.00 per person. If you aren interested on joining us or would like more info then please contact me here or at staxofsax@gmail.com and I will answer all of your questions.

Hope to see some of you soon

regards

Dave

11th April Workshop report

Dave — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:47:42 +0000

The 11th of April was the 11th StaxofSax workshop in Leicester. We had a great day with 19 people joining us. Players travelled from Malvern, Solihull and Bunny (Nottingham) and from the post day comments, everyone had a good time.

Chris’s arrangement of Your Song (Billy Paul version) was very funky and considering we worked on it for an hour, a good presentation was made of it.

The Small groups played tunes like Jericho and Looney toons with some of the groups adapting their tune to suit the ability of the players in that group. This is how you develop musicianship and make the best of the circumstances you have.

In the afternoon, Nick joined us again and for a change we stayed in the smaller groups for the jazz session. Nick had arranged four tunes so that the performances at the end made a mini jazz concert, rather than have a large group all playing the same tune and everyone having to wait a long time for their chance of a solo.
This was a big success and was appreciated by all that attended.

Thanks to Mandy for the recordings of the small group and improvisation session, I will get them posted here as soon as I can.

It was great to meet Clare, Pauline and Peter for the first time, and I hope that they will join us again.

3pm seems to come around pretty quickly on these events, but at the end of the day we are all ready for a cup of tea or something stronger.

I hope that some of you will join us for the next one on Friday June the 8th for our next Leicester event, I will keep this site updated with details. Let me know if you are interested.

Keep blowing and see you soon

Dave

Does Your Town Need A Busking Licence

Dave — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:17:08 +0000

As you probably know if you have read my blog that I am a busker. Well one of the problems that buskers face is finding out if they need a licence for a particular town.
I am going to start a list of towns with licence details and the date that it was added to the list.

Leicester (city Centre)-no licence needed (2/4/12)
Market Harborough -no licence needed(2/4/12)
Northampton- no licence needed (at the moment, but it may be changing)(2/4/12)
Rugby- a licence is needed (2/4/12)

If you have knowledge of any other towns please let me know and I will add them to the list.

The information is correct on the date it was added, but you may want to check with the local council incase anything has changed since.

Manchester Workshop 27th May 2012

Dave — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:26:21 +0000

I am pleased to announce that we are running our first workshop outside of Leicester. We are going to Manchester and the date is 27th May (Sunday) at

Maunders School of Popular Music,
Wilson Park,
Monsall Road
Newton Heath
Manchester
M40 8WN

The day will start at 10am and finish at 3pm, it will include large ensemble, small ensemble work and a Jazz Improvisation session in the afternoon. The day is aimed at players over the age of 11 with a minimum of 12 months playing experience, but is also suitable for players of all abilities. Our arrangements are written specifically for the people who are attending, so grade 1 or grade 8, you will be sure of not being out of your depth, whilst having a challenge too.

We have run 10 of these events so far and they are going from strength to strength with 22 players joining us for a fun days music making on our last day.

Check out the StaxofSax facebook page for details of previous events.

Cost of the day is £30 per person

We hope that some of you can join us for the day and look forward to a good days sax playing

Regards

Dave

11th April 2012 StaxofSax workshop

Dave — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:05:01 +0000

The date for the next workshop is April 11th in Leicester (south wigston). We have got a lot to live upto after the last one, but we are working hard to make it as good.

It will be run along the same lines as the last event (large ensemble, small groups and improvisation)with one exception, the improvisation section will be split into small groups, each with their own tune to work on, this will make the performances more interesting.

If you would like to join us for the day, please contact me either through here or staxofsax@gmail.com

cost of the day has remained the same, £30.00 per person.

We look forward to hearing from you, please don’t delay in booking as 8 of the 20 places are gone already.

see you soon

regards

Dave

February 13th Workshop update

Dave — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:28:15 +0000

If you didn’t make this workshop, you missed out on what was probably the best one yet. 22 players coming from far and wide had great fun with James Brown’s I Feel Good, in the large ensemble session. We had 3 sopranos and 2 Baritones plus balance made up of Altos and Tenors, so all the parts were evident and we managed to complete it and try it with plenty of different soloists in the improvisation section. Its an arrangement I would certainly recommended to any group.

The small ensembles played the Baby Elephant Walk, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Night Train and Bare Necessities, with good performances from one and all.

After lunch Nick Hislam led the Jazz session, getting the group to look and play the chords for Sweet Georgia Bright, then back to the small groups again to work on the improvisation, whilst the other group members invented a backing for the soloist. For the last 30 minutes we had a Jam with everyone who wanted too, taking a go at improvising a solo.

Yet again the feedback has been really good, with 6 people already booking their places for the 11th April event.

We had 5 new players this time, which is always good to see, and another new one booked on the April gig.

I took some videos of the Jam session and once I have worked out how to upload these then I will let you know.

If you would like to join us for our next session, then please get in touch either through here or at staxofsax@gmail.com

Well yesterday guys you made it a really fun day

Thanks

Dave