If you can play all the notes of the normal saxophone range from low Bb to the top F at even a slow to medium tempo without any mistakes you can skip this first exercise… if not, let’s get busy cause this is important. Can you imagine calling yourself a saxophone player and not being able to perfectly play all of it’s notes!?
As New to Intermediate Players We All Face One or More of These Problems:
This first video lesson covers the 3 common problem areas of the saxophone’s normal range and what you can do to get past them once and for all and move on:
- transition from 1st and 2nd register
- lowest cluster notes
- high palm key notes
Smooth Fingering
As we start thinking and preparing to developing the altissimo register, we need to make sure that we have the best possible control over the entire normal range of our instrument. It’s not enough to know how to finger and play every note from low Bb to high F. As an initial daily warm up we need to make sure there are no “cobwebs” so to speak, in our fingering and the best way to make sure of this is to do a chromatic scale run up and down the entire horn. When you come to a “rough” spot that interrupts your fluidity, stop. The saxophone comes with some built-in rough spots as I’m sure you’ve all experienced already… it’s time to make these go away… forever!
Full Chromatic Scale Up & Down
Some common problem areas:
1. The middle break when we play C# to D. This is where the 2nd octave kicks in so very accurate fingering along with steady air control is vital to make this a smooth transition from the 1st register to the 2nd.
2. At the bottom of the horn are also some tricky fingerings because of the big clump that’s controlled by our little pinky finger… this is really not fair but something we all need to become strong at.
3. And finally we go to the top end and make sure we have a smooth ending. The trick here is to get fluid with the palm keys. Although you won’t be playing at lightening speed when playing in the altissimo register, the fingering you’ll be learning is not as straight forward as the regular fingering so make sure you’ve at least mastered this part before moving on.
*Tip – you should be doing the full chromatic range without reading the notes. You know how to finger all the notes so just play them all as smoothly as you can, reading each chromatic note will only slow you down!
Bb major chord arpeggio for full range:
*Playing and knowing all major chords is a must but here, just prior to getting into these lessons this one is of particular importance so really get to know the Bb major chord and practice playing it up and down.