Saxophone Fingering Lesson #2 Part 2

Now there’s technique involved here, even without blowing you can practice your technique. Go to C B now I’m raising my fingers really high so you can see what I’m releasing and not releasing and covering and not covering. But really when were playing we shouldn’t have our fingers flapping really high off the sax like this so don’t get into a habit of that, I’m just doing this to show you.

Keep them close to your horn, and press the middle finger down by itself to make the C then play A B A G F E D C. Listen… that’s 8 notes, you can hear them, you cant hear them in the music but you can hear them off the air holes too. You can practice technique without even blowing into your horn, just like that, you can make them nice and even and for beginners even just getting form that B to C and C to B and down to G that could be a little tricky at first but just do this for a bit and you’ll get smooth at it even without blowing air into your horn. all even.

Really slow at first now after all that technical practicing if you do want to get a little adventurous and want to blow right into your horn you can do that exact same scale, starting form middle C going down, and this is what you get. You recognize that song joy to the world?

So thats a first song you can play just by playing the C scale going down, C scale going backwards basically. So thats something to practice right from the beginning. I’ve got videos on tonguing and embrouchure and air and all that your going to check out but if you’re getting any sound off your horn right now, try that, and don’t use your tongue, just constant air flowing into your horn, and worry about air getting into your horn and your fingers getting on the notes at the right time.

Besides playing joy to the world about a hundred times, you can just play the scale. Try starting on the low C. For some people depending on their equipment and experience and their horn, the low C might be a little hard to produce right off the bat but try it. That’s one of the reasons i suggested playing the C scale backwards because its far easier to hit that low C coming down in a backward motion than it is to hit it right off the bat and go play the scale the regular way going up. As you get lower just force more air into your horn and it will make it easier.

Now if you cant hit that low C don’t get frustrated, all the exercises I have coming up are going to help you to get it. Once you’re comfortable with that C scale and that first part of the notes you can move into the next video where we will get into more and more notes.

You can view this full lesson on video: Saxophone C major Scale