[Blazin Ice]

I'm thinking of composing something for me to play (on the sax) and for a friend to sing...how do you suggest I go about doing this? Should the sax do the harmony or melody on a different octave and the vocals being the melody.

Any help will be much appreciated, I've got the motivation to start but not that actual skill and knowhow.

[robin12smith]

Typically, the singer would sing the melody and the sax (or whatever backup instrument) would fill in when the singer takes little breaks in the music. Hence the terms "breaks" and "fills".

Another trick is to play the hidden inner harmonies that aren't obvious in the music. For example, say the chord progression is |: C-Em-Am-G :| You could play as long notes C (the root of CM) to B (the 5th of Em) to A (the root of Am) to B (the third of of GM) and repeat.

Also, to break up the pattern in the middle of the song, you could play the melody for a chorus and have your singer friend 'scat' some breaks.