(Part 2) Top products from r/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.

This by far was the best starter book for songs that I found -

https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Pop-Melodies-Alto-Sax/dp/1480384305

Incredibly well done AND easy to play.

This books works well for learning -

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elements-2000-Alto-Saxophone/dp/0634003178/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=alto+essentials&qid=1562175637&s=books&sr=1-1

Gives you the next "challenge" to work on great from a complete beginner's perspective. If you do every exercise in that correctly until at least half way through you'll be playing the previous book easily and the music is written so well for it you could play it on the street if you wanted to. Also lets you log in to hear how it's played and so you can play along.

I would recommend using this random sheet music generator to practice playing playing notes faster the first time you read them -

http://www.randomsheetmusic.com/

An instructor will be needed to make sure you are doing things correctly like getting notes out etc. I would recommend getting also 1.5 reeds because it's almost impossible to not get the note out with them.

In terms of horns, you should go with which one captivates you the most. For me, the tenor is remarkably close to the human voice and it feels more personal.

Once you get the horn, you'll obviously have to run through fundamentals. There's a good book in our sidebar called The Art of Saxophone Playing which I highly recommend you read through. I also suggest you grab a copy of the Rubank Elementary Method Saxophone to work through to build up some technique and understanding. The Basic Jazz Conception in the sidebar is also a great resource to build technique and work on jazz fundamentals. After you get going, you're going to want to start transcribing (I suggest starting with Young, Hawk, or Webster) as you'll want to begin learning the jazz language.

Also, I highly recommend that you get a good teacher (in your case someone specialized in jazz) who can keep you pointed in the right direction.

Start with a beginner method book. It doesn't matter how many years you've played clarinet, you are a beginning saxophone player now. It's what I did when I first started teaching. I would play through the method with each instrument until I was comfortable with it. Other that that the fingerings should be very familiar, especially in the clarion register. Just remember to take it slow and focus on progress, make sure each rep sounds better than the last. Most importantly, find some saxophone players to play with. Whenever you're trying something new, or even something you've been doing for a long time you will always learn the most from spending time with those who have more experience than you.

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P.S. If you need a recommendation for a beginning method I recommend the Ed Sueta Band Method. It is very old but still widely used, and for good reason. Otherwise you can use whichever method you used in middle school to learn the clarinet since you would already be familiar with the approach.

https://www.amazon.com/Ed-Sueta-Band-Method-Saxophone/dp/1566170303/ref=sr_1_3?crid=36E36KFVTXUEZ&keywords=ed+sueta+band+method+book+1&qid=1565467687&s=gateway&sprefix=ed+su%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-3

5 min: Warm up with long tones and overtone exercises.
40 min: Scales & related exercises.
15 min: Practice upcoming concert/lesson/recital music.

There is nothing that will make you a better player faster than knowing scales and having that muscle memory in your fingers. It's much easier to play when you don't have to think about what notes come next. Those scale exercises are not just straight up and down. Returning scales, scales in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, arpeggios, etc. Get a good book of exercises (something like this), and just keep working. Go slow enough that you aren't making any mistakes.

It SHOULD go without saying, but in case it needs saying, make sure you're also playing with good tone, solid intonation, and musicality. Just because you're doing technical exercises doesn't mean you get to ignore the rest.

Easy answer: practice overtone exercises such as the classic:
fingering low Bb and changing your throat position to play a Bb up an octave, and then F a 5th above that, and Bb a 4th above that, etc.

Personal experience: what I found while developing my control of the altissimo register was that I often tried to capture higher overtones by biting more in my embouchure and blowing harder, when I needed to be utilizing throat positioning instead to reach higher overtones as well as to develop better control of them.

Check out these books for a much more comprehensive understanding of the altissimo register:

Top-Tones for the Saxophone: https://www.amazon.com/O2964-Top-Tones-Saxophone-Four-Octave-Range/dp/082582642X

Saxophone High Tones: https://www.amazon.com/Saxophone-High-Tones-Eugene-Rousseau/dp/158106005X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=T61FKP0VVR5H1CHJRB5W

Beginning Studies in the Altissimo Register: https://www.amazon.com/Saxophone-Beginning-studies-altissimo-register/dp/B00072ZF9C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505855702&sr=1-1&keywords=rosemary+lang+altissimo

I also put the sax down and picked it up 17 years later. After the basics of muscle memory for fingerings and embouchure were back I was able to jump straight back into the method books I had from back then.

After about six months of noodling around I enrolled in a jazz ensemble improv intro class. I’m obviously the rustiest one there but I’m out-sight-reading the other saxophonist in the class. (I’m getting my ass kicked in theory and transposition though, so that’s where I’m studying)

You don’t need to start on the basic basics, you got that down almost 2 decades ago. Push yourself a bit, it’ll come back pretty quick! Go get a jazz method book if that’s what you want to learn! I got The Jazz Method for Alto Saxophone (Book & CD) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1902455002/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_tlWCDbQSBFYWH and it’s been a good jumping off point, though I did also find the really early pages suuuuuper remedial.

David Baker's "How to Play Bebop" is a good starting point.

I'm coming back having taken a few years off. This is a book I picked up that has links to MP3's and PDF's of the sheet music if you get the right version: https://www.amazon.com/WF139-Used-Play-Tenor-Saxophone/dp/0825889987.

Honestly I'm getting most of my practice by playing in a concert band on a weekly basis. That gets you back in the groove really quickly.

For a detailed book on this (and it is a fun read) see:

https://www.amazon.ca/Devils-Horn-Story-Saxophone-Novelty/dp/0312425570

You can never go wrong with getting a real book but make sure you order it in the right key

Get this book and use the play along CD to imitate different styles. The recordings are of the North Texas Jazz Band so it's top notch. It also talks about jazz history, artists, and improvisation.


https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elements-Jazz-Ensemble-Comprehensive/dp/0793596211/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=essential+elements+for+jazz+ensemble+alto+saxophone&qid=1563503857&s=gateway&sprefix=essential+elements+for+jazz&sr=8-1

Patterns for Jazz -- A Theory Text for Jazz Composition and Improvisation: Treble Clef Instruments https://www.amazon.com/dp/0898987032/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_KPo7Bb69TW55C

Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849759331/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Embouchure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0QTEEQi3g4

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Sorry this took so long to send back!