I’m in Sri Lanka right now.

Before leaving, I had studied a little bit of the language.

But now I find that certain parts helped and other parts were completely useless.

Similar to ‘Spanglish’, Sinhala has a few elements of English.

In the material I studied, ‘Good Morning’ is ‘subha udasanak’

They just say ‘Good Morning’ though.

In music, you’ll practice things- scales, exercises, patterns, etc.

You’ll have to apply them in a real musical situation on your saxophone.

Sometimes they work well, other times they’ll seem outdated.

For example, your Rubank Method book might teach you all the trill fingerings.

In a contemporary jazz situation, however, you won’t be using these too often.  It wouldn’t quite fit in the same way it does in classical music.

A lick from a reggae song could be modified and used in a completely different style of music.

So things you learn from studying music will help you musically, but to be a great saxophone player you need to figure out which pieces to apply and where.

By the way, Sri Lanka’s a sweet place to travel.  Went in the Indian Ocean and then saw wild elephants today.

One fingering between F and Eb is rather clumsy, while another one can be done smoothly.

(Click on this link to check out all the Saxophone Fingerings)

This combination of two notes doesn’t come up all the time, but it does enough that’s it’s good to note a better transition.

The fingering that most sax players learn for F, or I did at least since it’s in the standard fingering chart, is somewhat clumsy in a some cases.  Chromatically it makes sense, but not all the time.

It involves all three of the spoon keys, the octave key, and the top key in the row where the side Bb key is.  The other fingering uses the ‘high F’ key with the pointer finger of the left hand and the middle finger of the left hand pressing the C key (and the octave key).  Here’s a diagram of both options.

Here’s a picture of me playing the second option.

To go from that second fingering to Eb or from Eb up to F is much easier that way.

I noticed this transition recently come up several times in the Jackie McLean warm-up book since the scales go across the range of the saxophone, as well as some etudes that I have.

What alternate fingerings do you tend to use the most?

The notes in the middle of the saxophone generally are not a problem.

It’s when you play the lowest or the highest notes that issues more often come up.

Low notes can be tough partly because they require more air and also because they will reveal any leaks that your saxophone has.  These leaks will build up and affect the low notes more than other notes (if you have any leaks).

So when you practice scales, don’t just practice them in the middle of the horn.  Go to the top and the bottom.

When you practice chords, go up above and down below.

Practice these areas so they sound better when you use them in your solos.  And they’re going to come up in written music too.

Be prepared!

What is a jam session?

Karaoke for instruments?

Not exactly.

Many times a place will hire a small group that will play and later in the night other musicians can sit in.  Other times musicians just get together to jam.

People come to watch, but if you play and bring your sax, then you can join in.

If you don’t play and the musicians know you, you might get heckled!

A lot of times the main thing that gets played is a set of ‘standards’ – songs that everyone knows.  In jazz those could be songs like Misty, Stella by Starlight, Sugar, etc.

Playing them in new ways is also something that happens.

So brushing up on some tunes that you could play with the other musicians can be good preparation.

Jam sessions are a great place to play with other musicians and try new things.

Here’s a jam session that happened at Berklee.

You can watch a Shakespeare play or you can read it.

Depending on the actors, you maybe get more out of it by seeing it or possibly more by reading.

With music and saxophonists, what you get from listening and learning by ear depends on to whom it is you listen.

With written music, the notes and rhythms vary in accuracy to the real music.

There have been many musical masterpieces that were written.  You can literally see the works of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach from the classical side.  In that case, the music is interpreted from what has been preserved.

The act of writing also implies a great deal of time spent, especially on the revision process.

So written music can be cleaner in some senses than improvised music.

Hearing music is closer to being ‘music’ itself if it is played well.

When you learn a language, you’ll become fluent by actually speaking it and interacting with native speakers.  In preparation and in learning how to write yourself, using books and written materials is crucial.

So a saxophone player who only learned from sheet music may sound stiff and predictable.

A saxophone player who only learned by ear may sound less refined and will not be able to write their own music.

You should take both approaches to reach the sound you want on saxophone!