Can you please explain to me how scales work.

(How many of the major scales do you know)
To be true none.

My biggest problem is timing there’s no one with me to tell me my timing is way out. Now I’m use to that way. I need to get out of that habet, I’m a very shy person only play in my garage if this any help. What I play on the Tenor I play on the alto.

-Waikite Apiata (New Zealand)

My response:

I put together a class about scales for saxophone players.

You could check that out.

You can also just try playing a few scales, and start to understand the sound of them. There are many types of scales. It can be good to start with the major scales.

“What are the twelve major scales on saxophone?”

What is the best option for selecting a saxophone teacher.? Would it be a university program student teacher or an established player teacher at the local music store? Or teacher at a college?

-Sam

My response:

That really depends on who the saxophone teachers are. Where someone teaches doesn’t necessarily have too much to do with how good they are.

Part of what you want to consider is if you want to sound like the teacher.

You also want to think about how much emphasis the teacher places on teaching vs performing.

Teaching and performing are different skills.

You could talk to their students and see how things are going. Also consider your own level of playing and much you will be able to figure out as you practice, etc.

Also, simply trying a lesson with someone will give you an idea of whether it will work well for you.

My first teacher was at my middle school, I took some private lessons with him as well.

My second teacher taught at a music store.

My third teacher was teaching at his home at first. Later on, he taught at a music store and at private studio space he got.

I took lessons with Kristen Strom at Santa Clara University.

And I have taken lessons with others, including currently with Gary Meek at a small music school here.

Where they taught was not really what was most important in my opinion.

If you have some thoughts to add, that would help!

See how that goes and if it works for you. You want to build a new habit to replace the old one. If you don’t like that embouchure, you might just want less pressure but something similar to how you play now.

I’m going to say something  that eventually you want to stop doing.

Push your mouthpiece farther onto the cork, significantly. By a lot.

It’s easier to bring a pitch down than to bring it up, so even if your low notes become a little (not a lot) sharp, that’s probably okay for now.

If you went too far and everything becomes sharp you can adjust it. You can check if you are in tune with a tuner/tuner app.

I would say it’s somewhat unlikely that many people play sharp when they first start to play. You should realize that probably not every note will be in tune for at least the first few months, but it would help to be somewhat close.

It’s very easy to be quite flat on all the notes you play when you start. And most sax players probably don’t assume you should push the mouthpiece on too far. But it’s probably better to be playing closer to in tune than getting used to playing really flat.

Your ear will pick up how you play.

You can also listen to more music played by good musicians to have a better sense of what playing in tune sounds like.

And as you become better at the saxophone, you’ll adjust where the mouthpiece is so you can play in tune.

I want to be on tone and I have downloaded two different tuners on my iPhone. They both show me off by a full note (when I play what I think is a b, they show me something close to a). When I play the mp3 files from the Foundations class, the b also shows as about an a on the tuners. What do you suggest for help knowing if I am hitting the notes correctly, or even close?

I have had my horn for about a month and am just trying to get serious about getting a good tone that is on pitch. I am playing around with everything from fingering, to horn set up to embouchure to how to hold the horn. I haven’t ever played a woodwind, so it is all a struggle.

(On Day 1) I can get notes to come out fairly clearly, but opening and closing the notes is a struggle. More importantly I am not ever sure if I am on tone or a bit off.
-Tom

What you see on the tuner is correct.
All the notes on tenor are thought of for the “Bb” instrument. So a concert Bb is a C on tenor, etc.
-Neal

I am trying to learn how to play the All Terrain Saxophone (similar to the bamboo sax but made from different material) and I can not find music charts including the fingering charts.

I know this may not be your thing but thought I would ask. It is tuned in B flat or Concert C and can play the Major notes.
-Bruce

Which model of it did you buy?
-Neal

Neal,

Thanks for the quick response

I purchased the Alto Sax All Terrain ….tuned to B flat (Concert C)*
-Bruce

The alto sax All terrain is in Bb, that’s not Concert C, it’s concert Bb. Seems you may have gotten mixed up.

It can also play in C minor and Eb.

I have something similar, a xaphoon.
-Neal