Michael Brecker 1996 Interview – Practicing
How Long Should You Practice Sax?
Ideally you should practice for 10 hours a day, accompanied by Ron Carter, Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, and Marcus Miller on bass helping you feel the groove. Steve Gadd should join you on drums and Elvin Jones should be resurrected as well. Piano should be manned by resurrected Bill Evans, Mozart, and Duke Ellington. Benjamin Zander should be off to the side and Sonny Rollins and Roy Hargrove should be there to help you play your horn.
In case you can’t arrange this, possibly because your resurrection machine is currently out of order…..
Practice every day. Even if it’s only 20 minutes.
Practicing saxophone consistently will help you far more than longer sessions sporadically.
Resting during practice can help a lot if you practice for longer periods of time. If you get tired (embouchure specifically) then take a break. You don’t want to hurt yourself.
If you’re working out in a gym, you won’t go into the room, pick up a weight, and constantly do repetitions for two hours. You’ll work on one thing for a while, move to another thing, work on different muscles.
In the same way, you should practice a variety of things on saxophone- working with a metronome, ear training, developing overtones and control of your sound, learning scales, etc.
And take breaks in between! That way you can practice more effectively and longer without hurting yourself.
Personally, I like to have smaller practice sessions broken up into twenty minutes or so at a time, spread out through the day.
Normally I practice two ‘sets’ of 20-30 minutes in a night. I break it up into 1/3 warmup (longtones), 1/3 scales and arpeggios, and 1/3 tunes, playing with CDs, etc.
I do the scales with the metronome, but haven’t focused as much on scales lately.
Practicing effectively is more important than the actual time you practice. One sax player can do more in twenty minutes than another might do in an hour.
Saxophone Tonguing Speed – Getting Faster
Hey Neal, are there any exercises to increase tongue speed. I know the multitude of syllables for tonguing but there is no mention on how to build up the tongue muscle and increase speed. Thanks in advance.
-Barret
Hey Barrett,
Seems like the exercises in the Rubank series would help with that. Classical music seems to require more precision in that department. And using a metronome with them- starting slow and increasing in speed as you master a certain tempo.
Also, just practicing scales, and arpeggios with different articulations will help.
If you really want, you could learn double tonguing. I haven’t myself though.
-Neal
Pareto Principle for Practicing Saxophone
The Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) says that 20% of your efforts will produce 80% of the results. And many many things follow similar patterns.
It seems to be coming up in a lot of books I have read lately.
For saxophone, it might be the long tones you play for five minutes in your practice that account for most of the improvement in your sound.
Or it could be the two minutes you spend practicing the single difficult measure in a song that makes you sound a lot better overall.
Another way to get much more improvment is to simply pracice LESS. Maybe practice 20% of the material that you used to practice. And that smaller amount of material will become much better, strengthen your fundamentals, and therefore turn you into a better player faster.
Saxophone Practice Long Tones Circular Breathing
Hey neal, I have a question. What is your best practice technique. My time allotted for practice daily is about 1 hour. How can i fit a good practice schedule into 1 hour?
And, how can I try to get circular breathing! I’ve been trying for days, and I cant get it.
What does an expert like yourself recommend?
Thanks for the help
-Stavros (ALTO SAX
Hey Stavros,
I always start with long tones. One exercise I do takes about 8 minutes. I spend one complete breath split between two notes. Then progress up and down chromatically one octave from low E to E. Then I usually do some more long tones from a book that I have. After that I do some scales from Jackie McClean’s book. Then I do some jazz exercises- ii V I’s, etc. Sometimes I’ll work on classical stuff out of Rubanks or some other books. And I’ll work on pieces I’m playing with groups and transcriptions towards the end. I used to do more playalongs- abersolds. All that can fit within an hour- it all depends on how much time you have. If I don’t do anything else, I’ll still do the long tones- so then you still feel like you’ve played the next day.
For circular breathing, I talked to a teacher and he told me about how the didjeridoo players do it. How long have you been playing for? One of my teachers could circular breath, and it’s a good effect sometimes, but not the most important thing to learn.
There’s an exercise related to holding water in the cheeks.
-Neal
Learning Songs on Saxophone – Take 5
I’ve heard of Take 5. It’s in the book i’m learning from, and sounds great. It is really hard to reach the tempo that Desmond play it in, but i guess it take time right? Patience, time, and devotion.
😀
-Stavros
Hey Stavros,
Yep, start slow with it. The 5/4 time signature takes a little while to get used to also. You can think of it as a combination of 3/4 & 2/4 (for this song anyway).
I actually just got an alto a couple of weeks ago, so I guess I can play Take Five in the original key now.
-Neal
Splitting Saxophone Practice Time
Hey Neal.
It’s David [] from Denmark. I have a question for you. I play both tenor and alto saxophone, which i think is great!
I practice around 3 hours a day, but is one hour and a half for each instrument enough when playing to types?
Thanks for this service, i am looking forward to hear/see more.
Best regards
David
Hey David,
Good to hear from you. I would say that many of the things on alto and tenor that you practice will transfer easily between the two horns. You should do long tones on both instruments though, since the tone and your embouchure is going to be different between them. Do you play both horns with the same group or in separate groups?
Regards,
Neal
Herman Riley Tribute
About Herman Riley, Lavay Smith said, “The way he played was everything I love about jazz,” Smith said. “He was so unbelievably soulful. When I listen to the record he recorded with us, I love it. It’s just as good as it gets.” (Stewart article)
I knew him through the Monterey Jazz Festival, since Herman Riley taught at the summer jazz ‘camp’ connected to the Monterey Jazz Festival for several years.
When I was about 12 years old, I went to him and asked about sound on saxophone.
He told me that you need to know “what to practice, and how to practice” and “what to listen to, and how to listen.”
That has always stuck in my head.
Herman Riley was a great sax player. Unfortunately he passed away a few years back.
His “hard-driving, soulful playing as a sideman and accompanist with artists such as Count Basie and Jimmy Smith earned him critical acclaim” (Stewart article)
Herman Riley was born in New Orleans on August 31, 1933. As he told us in saxophone class, he tried sports in high school, but when that didn’t work out, he took the discipline he learned from athletics and transferred it to music.
In New Orleans, Mr. Riley saw jazz from early on. He went to Southern University and played with the marching band before his draft call came and then he played with a military band in the army.
Herman Riley played saxophones, clarinet, and flute.
“His primary goal was to attain that level of spontaneity that comes from building the vocabulary in jazz,” Jackson said. “He loved Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane. We talked about the dues that they paid, and our willingness to pay dues like that to get to that level.” (Stewart article)
Herman Riley had one album as a leader, “Herman,” in 1984.
Here is a clip of Herman Riley on tenor sax, live at Giannelli Square on April 30, 2006
Herman Riley – tenor sax
Roy McCurdy – drums
John Giannelli – bass
Llew Matthews – piano
Source: Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times | April 26, 2007
Practicing Saxophone ♫♫♫
Pacticing . . . . the first thing is to be sure to practice everyday. Even if it’s only for ten minutes. By practicing a little each day you’ll get better, and practicing a bit more each day will speed it up.
You can get reeds, mouthpieces, and other equipment you need from music stores/catalogs/online.
“When you struggle to reach for something you don’t know, that’s where the most interesting stuff is.”
-Herbie Hancock
Long Tones– I like to start practicing with the long tone exercise I got from Sherman Irby. To do it, you start with the note low E as quiet as you can play it. You keep that note going for about half as long as one breath will last and then go up chromatically to the next note. This continues two notes at a time up one octave and then back down. On the way up I just play the notes, but then on the way back down I use a tuner to check to make sure that I’m in tune. Checking intonation before you’re warmed up isn’t really helpful, but as Bruce Foreman said one time he doesn’t like to go out and play a test note that is completely off.
Major Scales– After the long tones it’s good to work on some scales. First you should learn the major scales. They can be played along the circle of fifths, circle of fourths, chromatically, or in other intervals. It’s good to change the order and starting point also. I use Jackie McLean’s warmup book, which includes scales and arpeggios.
Other Scales– After you know all twelve major scales you can start learning minor scales, diminished scales, whole tone scales, etc. Most other scales can be understood in terms of the major scale though. Learning every scale possible is not really necessary. Something like the Hindu Ruptured 9th Inverted Heptonic Scale is probably not too useful on a regular basis.
Books– Practice books can also be useful, especially earlier on. Rubanks makes a decent book, with some classical excerpts. The Lennie Niehaus books are also good and try to show jazz phrasing. If you play some classical music or even if you mostly play jazz, it can be beneficial to study from the classical perspective.
Rubank Method is a series that ranges from beginning to advanced. It includes scale exercises, fingering challenges, classical melodies, and other exercises.
Rubank Elementary Method Saxophone
Rubank Intermediate Method Saxophone
Rubank Advanced Method – Saxophone Vol.1
Rubank Advanced Method – Volume 2 (Saxophone)
I have the Advanced Studies volumes 1 & 2 for saxophone and used the advanced book for clarinet.
You should definitely haveThe Jazz Theory Book.
As James Moody says, “The Jazz Theory Book should be in every musician’s library regardless of the level of their ability.” As author Mark Levine says himself,
“A great jazz solo consists of:
1% magic
99% stuff that is
Explainable
Analyzable
Categorizable
Doable”
You’re on your own for the magic bit, but his book will help you with the 99% part.
And while The Jazz Theory Book is great, Mark Levine is a piano player and for saxophone specific issues the Art Of Saxophone Playing can help. But it can be slightly dry.
Intervals– I have been told by many musicians and have found myself that using intervals to think about music can be really helpful. If you learn a song in one key that’s good and all, but someone else (like a singer) might want it in another key. If you learn the intervals it can be easier to switch between keys. Something like ‘A Night in Tunisia’ has a minor second, minor third, major third, and major fifth for one part. Knowing that will direct you in all keys.
Piano– Even though I only play a little, I’ve found that learning a little piano can be great. It will help you learn what chords and progressions sound like. It’s also good to know how to play more than just a single line so you know more about how music works.
Jamie Abersold– To practice improvising the Jamie Abersold books are great. Maiden Voyage is a good one for beginners. The Body and Soul book is also good.
Band in a Box– This is a software program that acts somewhat like Jamie Abersold CDs. You can input chords, feels, time signatures, etc. Files are available online for Band in a Box that contain entire fake books of songs also. Even without the chords you can use the program as a slightly more interesting metronome.
In the end though:
You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can’t practice to attain wisdom.
-Herbie Hancock
You can practice to learn a technique, but I’m more interested in conceiving of something in the moment.
-Herbie Hancock