Reddit reviews Essential Elements 2000: Book 2 (Eb Alto Saxophone)

Probably best to start with something that might be too easy and work up so here's a good book to start with. Be sure that you play all exercises very, very slowly at first with absolute 1000% accuracy, start by tonguing each note very, very short at first. Imagine a hammer and anvil. Then work on other articulations and work up the tempo. Work with a metronome.

To drill on rhythm read the theory in the back of that book.

Set the horn aside to drill and Clap the rhythms out (on all exercises, then play on the horn later) while counting as suggested in the book; being sure to say the syllables for the divisions of the beat. "One, two, three, four'; (quarter notes) One and, two and, three and, four and (eighth notes), etc. Drill on this night and day until you're doing it while brushing your teeth! Get a pair of drum sticks and pound out rhythms on a table top. Keep up the counting and clapping, tapping! It's very important to be able to count and play simultaneously. The counting may drop into the background later but be able to bring it up to the conscious level at a moment's notice

Then play the exercises on the horn and yes, (music directors will hate this) tap the basic beat with your feet. Learn to suppress the foot tapping to maybe moving the big toe inside your shoe.

Can't emphasize the importance of playing slowly enough at first so you have accuracy BEFORE speed. Playing an exercise too fast will drill in wrong fingerings which will be hard to iron out later.

!Thou Shall Practice Every Blessed Day unless sick in bed. At first about 10-15 minutes (stop when you get tired or you'll just start making mistakes) and then work to about 30 minutes. Ok to do the 30 minutes in two sessions.

The band builder book is a bit short on material so you'll want to find supplementary material right away. The Rubank series are excellent, the exercises with simple rhythms will allow you to practice counting while playing.

I'm wondering if some of your technique issues would be resolved by learning the note fingerings-our cognitive processes here are tricky, we may feel we know the sax fingerings but with so much else going on, the mind has issues resolving what needs to be done next. For this, attack the issue of learning fingerings by silently playing without placing the mouthpiece in your mouth and just finger the notes. Then set the horn down and 'play' the exercise by just saying the note names in strict time. That way you work a different part of your brain which will assist it in pulling up the fingering the note quicker.

I'm a sax player myself (also clarinet) and love to teach music. I'm plowing through Deville's Universal Method for Saxophone; it has an excellent set of drills in the first 100 exercises. Bit pricey but worth it if you want to motivate yourself

Here's website that explores rhythm subdivisions-very important to understand this. Again, take your time and allow yourself to approach this across several days so as to give the mind time to absorb it all.