#85 How To Play The "Epic Sax Guy" Song

Got a bit of fun for you guys this week - it doesn't always have to be technique and hard solos! I'm all about bringing you the world's most iconic sax lines, and what could be more iconic than the "Epic Sax Guy" riff, taken from the song "Run Away", which was The SunStroke Project's 2010 Moldova Eurovision Song Contest entry.

Be sure to pick up your free PDF sheet music for Epic Sax Guy, which has got a fingering chart for every note, for alto AND tenor. Boom! If you want to play along you can use the backing track here. Here are the Q&A topics covered in this lesson, with video time stamps (min:sec). Clicking on the time stamp will take you straight to that portion of the video on YouTube (in a separate tab). Full Time stamps for the video and a complete transcript are at the bottom of the blog.

What is the "Epic Sax Guy" Song? (0:34)

• the Epic Sax Guy song is a looped instrumental segment from Moldova's 2010 entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Oslo. It features a rhythmic sax riff without vocals.
• the original song is called "Run Away" and was performed by the group Sunstroke Project
• Somebody just looped and edited a 4 bar loop from the song and repeated it over and over. The snippet caught people's attention online and took off as a meme song, getting many different fun and quirky re-edits and video cuts
• at some point, the key of the riff was pitched up from concert D minor to concert Eb minor
• in 2017 Sunstroke returned to Eurovision with their follow up "Hey Mamma", spawning a new round of sax memes for the song called Ultra Sax Guy! lol

Who plays the Epic Sax Guy solo? (0:34)

• the sax solo on the Epic Sax Guy riff is played on alto sax by Sergey Stepanov
• Sergey Stepanov is from the small region of Transnistria in Moldova, near Ukraine
• Sergey Stepanov is famous for his hip thrusting dance, and many believe Epic Games based their Phone It In Emote dance in the Fortnite video game on his performance

What saxophone is used for Epic Sax Guy? 

• the Epic Sax Guy sax solo is played on alto sax by Sergey Stepanov
• I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like he might play a Selmer Mk VI alto sax

Is "Epic Sax Guy" hard to play for a beginner on sax? (0:34)

• the Epic Sax Guy riff is relatively easy to play for beginners on alto or tenor sax
• just remember, to sound good playing ANYTHING on sax, you need a good sound and a good rhythmic feel
• if you don't read music, there's a free fingering chart for Epic Sax Guy here

What are the notes for the Epic Sax Guy Song? (2:04)

For full fingerings, get your free PDF for Epic Sax Guy here. These are the notes for the Epic Sax Guy riff, in the original key (the PDF has the riff in two different keys).

* = second octave, ** = third octave

__ = a longer note

• phrase 1 - alto (2:37): F#* (short gap)  F#*  F#*  F#*  E*  F#*__ [X2]
• phrase 2 - alto (2:56): F#* (short gap)  A*__F#*  E*__D*  B  B  C#  D*  B

• phrase 1 - tenor (2:37): B* (short gap) B*  B*  B*  A*  B*__ [X2]
• phrase 2 - tenor (2:56): B* (short gap) D**__B*  A*__G*  E*  E*  F#*  G*  E*

Is there an Epic Sax Guy backing track? (4:07)

• you can find the Epic Sax Guy backing track here

So that's it for this week. I hope you enjoy learning this iconic sax melody. Don't forget to get your free PDF sheet music for Epic Sax Guy, which has all the phrases (in both keys) marked in for alto AND tenor sax, plus all the fingerings! Next week, you'll learn a true sax classic - Pick Up The Pieces by The Average White Band. This is a really special show as I've got some awesome guest musicians playing on the song and we perform the whole thing for you! Until then, keep practicing smart and I'll see you later! 

Jamie :-)

Video Timestamps

0:00 - intro performance

0:07 - brief intro and titles

0:34 - about epic sax guy

1:40 - how to get your free sheet music for Epic Sax Guy

1:52 - how to get your free one hour masterclass

2:04 - the notes

2:37 - phrase 1 breakdown

2:56 - phrase 2 breakdown

3:07 - putting it all together

3:31 - FULL PERFROMANCE

4:07 - BACKING TRACK

4:47 - sign off

5:45 - end music and bloopers

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m pro saxophonist Jamie Anderson and you’re watching Get Your Sax Together. Every week I sax up your Sunday with free online lessons covering technique stuff, tips on improvising and my unique breakdowns of the world’s most famous sax lines. And what could be more famous than the internet sensation that is Epic Sax Guy.

[TITLE MUSIC]

The Epic Sax Guy song is actually from Moldova’s entry in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. The song’s real name is “Run Away” and it was performed by the SunStroke Project, featuring the hip thrusting alto sax of Sergey Stepanov. Founder band member Stepanov, has put Transnistria in Moldova on the MAP and his legendary eight bar sax break has been variously looped, remixed, re-pitched and re-edited into a multitude of different online versions, including my personal favourite that features Gandolf nodding out of time for ten hours. Hmmm. To me, it seems likely that Epic Games copied Stepanov’s performance for their Phone It In Emote sax dance in the online video game Fortnite. You can learn the Fortnite sax riff on the video linked on the card above now by the way. After coming seventh in 2010, SunStroke made a Eurovision comeback in 2017, coming third with their song Hey Mama, which subsequently became the Ultra Sax Guy song. If you want to learn the Ultra Sax Guy riff, let me know in the comments below. Keep watching to the end, cos I let the backing run for YOU to play along with, and use the link in the description below to download your free PDF sheet music for Epic Sax Guy, which also features a fingering chart. Yes! Due to popular demand I’ve included a fingering chart for this one. And just before we learn the riff, be sure to go and check out my one hour Saxophone Success Masterclass, which is an awesome FREE lesson with me covering all things saxophone. Just click the link in the description or use the link below.

[STING: The Riff]

Right, without further ado, let’s learn the Epic Sax Guy song. There are two phrases to learn, and this is a nice easy one to learn if you’re a beginner on sax. I’m teaching you this in the original key of concert D minor, which is B minor for alto and E minor for tenor, although many of the online versions have it pitched up a semitone to concert G minor. If you get your free PDF sheet music for Epic Sax Guy from the description, I’ve written it out, with fingering charts, in BOTH keys. Here’s phrase one, which you are going to play twice.

[phrase 1 slow]

The only tricky thing about this song is the fast tonguing. Go to my Tonguing part one video, linked above now, to get up to speed on the basics of articulation. Here’s the second half of the riff now, in slow motion.

[phrase 2 slow]

Now we can put it ALL together. As usual, make sure you observe the right long notes and short notes when you play this if you wanna sound convincing, and really try and dig into the rhythm. If you wanna sound more pro and LESS like a beginner, check out my recent YouTube Live Session linked on the card above now. After I’ve played it a few times the backing track will then run again for YOU to play along with. Have fun!

[PERFORMANCE]

[BACKING TRACK]

[STING: Before You Go]

So that’s it for this Sunday, I hope you enjoyed this slightly more off the cuff lesson, learning the Epic Sax Guy song. Hey, I love my hardcore Coltrane, but it doesn’t always have to be too serious, does it? Don’t forget to pick up your free PDF from the link in the description and if you wanna learn some more in-depth sax stuff go to double-u double-u double-u dot get your sax together dot com, forward slash masterclass to get your free one hour lesson with me. As always, thanks for watching and supporting me and if you’re loving this channel, give the video a thumbs up, leave me a comment, subscribe to the channel, click the bell icon to be notified when I upload new content and check out my Insta and Facebook pages. Next Sunday you’ll be learning how to play one of my favourite sax tracks of all time - Pick Up The Pieces by the Average White Band. Until then, practice hard and practice smart, but above all have plenty of fun. See Ya!

[ROLL END TITLES]