My name is Derek Brown, and I’ve been teaching saxophone, flute, clarinet, and piano at JESM for almost a year now. For a freelance musician, I guess you could say I’ve had a pretty traditional musical education: I started playing saxophone in middle school band, did marching band and jazz band in high school, then went on to get my Bachelors and Masters in music performance. However, during this more traditional education, I was always intrigued by the nontraditional. I was amazed at Tuvan throat singers, who could sing two pitches at the same time; by finger-style guitarists who would tap and scratch their guitars to make their own percussive accompaniment; or by beatboxers, who would mimic a drum set with their mouths.
Yes, I worked hard at traditional saxophone things like long-tones, scales, and etudes with my teachers (and these still are very important to me!), but I also would secretly work on much less traditional things like slap tonguing, circular breathing, and double tonguing, not even really knowing where it might all lead. But in my years as a full-time jazz director at Abilene Christian University, I found myself getting asked multiple times to perform at various events for free. Not wanting to ask other band-mates to play for free, but still wanting to support these events, I found myself doing a lot of solo saxophone performances. And this was where I discovered that I could put some of these nontraditional techniques to use.
I realized I could create a percussive “pop” sound that could be used like a snare drum, providing a steady backbeat in my solos. I then realized I could also slap tongue the lower notes on the saxophone to create a bass line, while playing higher melody notes in between. At this point, things really started to open up and I became obsessed with seeing how full of a sound I could get with just one acoustic saxophone.
So fast forward a few years to the present, and I’m now known as the “BEATBoX SAX” guy. Since last year, I’ve posted multiple music videos and tutorials of my style to Youtube. Here are a couple if you’re interested in seeing what I’m talking about:
Some really cool opportunities have come out of various people seeing these videos (like various saxophone endorsements, and traveling overseas to perform). Looking back even a few years I’d never have guessed that this way of playing the saxophone would become my “thing” at this time in my life, but it’s been a fun ride, and I’m excited to see what’s next around the corner!
And finally with all of this, I hope to inspire other musicians to experiment with their own instruments, finding unique sounds and ways of playing. Don’t limit yourself on what is or isn’t possible with your instrument. The sky is the limit!
