There’s a post on here about the greatest saxophone player of all time.
Check it out if you haven’t already.
There’s also the question of the greatest living saxophone player. This is subjective, but I’ll throw up a few names that could be up there.
Sonny Rollins should be on both lists.
Some other contenders:
Ernie Watts
Maceo Parker
Bob Sheppard
James Carter
Joshua Redman
Tom Scott
Jerry Bergonzi
Scott Hamilton
Bob Mintzer
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
Hi !
My name is Martin , im playing saxophone, and i love blues and jazz.
I love your jammin’, and i just wonder. What kinda mouthpiece are you using?
Your awesome at your sax, you got a great voice.
Sorry, my english aint the best.
Keep playing. Your the best!
Later – martin 🙂
Hello,
Glad you liked it. Right now I’m using a metal Dukoff on tenor, 8 tip opening. Other mouthpieces I have used on tenor include a Vandoren T9, a Meyer 8, and a Selmer American 7*.
On alto, I’m using a Vandoren V16 A8.
-Neal
Lero Lero by Edu Lobo- the clip is from “Fantástico” which came out in 1979.
Edu Lobo
[poll id=”2″]
Hi Neal,
Thank you for your email.
As I am relatively new to playing the sax my head is buzzing with all the info etc.I have heard the terminology of” Vibrato” & I was wondering where ,when & how you play it. Are You able to help Me.
Thanking you
Kind regards
Sue D from New Zealand
Hey Sue,
You’re welcome. Vibrato is mostly a stylistic element. So you can add as much or as little as you want. Something like classical clarinet has no vibrato. If you listen to Stan Getz play Brazillian jazz, it doesn’t have much vibrato either. Most sax players do use some vibrato, but in their own way.
Violins & string instruments move their strings to create vibrato, sax players do it with the jaw. Think of making a “wah-wah-wah” sort of sound. An exercise I did early on, told to me by a teacher, was to do the “wah” thing as quarter notes, eigth notes, triplets, and then sixteenths. It is somewhat mechanical, but will give you practice and once you have done it for a while you can start adding it into your playing more easily.
Listen to sax players that you like and see how they incorporate vibrato.
-Neal
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
Hi Neal,
This is my first time responding to one of your e-mails so its a little
odd for me. Thanks for the past e-mails, they were great and insightful. I
don’t know if you’ve ever seen this video on youtube, its a clip of
Richard Elliot’s rendition of “your secret love”. If you have not seen it,
I personally think that you’re missing out on probably one of the best
legendary performances of our time. Every time I become discouraged about
my saxophone playing or I feel like I’m not making any progress, I simply
play this video and I suddenly realize why I love playing the sax. Here’s
the link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ-T-knjcSE. Please tell me what
you think, how can I become as good as him and even better? Where does one
find this kind of passion?
Hey Dolu,
You’re welcome, glad I can help you. I watched that video a couple of times- sounds pretty good- seems to have have quite a heated discussion too, haha. Have you seen him live?
You’re probably on the right track. Listening is really important. And just putting in the time. How long have you been playing? Getting a teacher is important too, since they will hear things you don’t.
-Neal
Hey Neal,
It would be a dream come true to see Richard Elliot live, I’m still
working on that. I’m currently an undergraduate so you can probably
imagine I have all the time in the world, lol. I play at my church on
Fridays and Sundays so I use that as an opportunity to pick up the sax and
play around a little. I used to play in the school band back in high
school (Pep band, concert and jazz band), that’s actually how I started
playing. It has been a little under 5 years now but I’ve made considerable
progress despite the lack of formal teaching. About a year ago I bought my
first Tenor sax horn, (Julius Keilwerth EX 90 Series III)this was my
graduation present. I also use a Vandoren Jumbo JAVA Tenor Sax Mouthpiece
(T75) and Rico royal reed (3.5). This summer I really want to dedicate
time to improving on the sax. I have taken several steps in this direction
by printing several solo sheet music that I found online. I also purchased
the “Art of saxophone playing” by Larry Teal and I plan on ripping it
apart this summer. Please, let me know what you think and you’re welcome
to make any suggestions or express any concerns. I really appreciate you
taking the time to respond to my e-mail. Thanks Neal.
Dolu
Awesome Brazillian Jazz!
Song by Edu Lobo, came out in 1979.
Ahh, nice! I think you are right. It is important not to close down on just saxophone. You can get some refreshing inspiriation from outside, by listening to trumpet players for example.
Is the movie worth to watch? I found the film “Bird” on the local library, and watched it monday. It was quite good, but I was missing a few things.
And, while I am at it, how often do you clean your saxophone, and how? Today, I was practicing on my alto, and was getting more and more annoyed
at my more and more metallic sound. I tried to clean everything, mpc, neck, body, and the finger pads (I couldn’t remember the english word, so I dont know if this is the correct word, im sorry), and it finally worked out. I was getting a fine tone again. I asked myself if I should clean it more often and which way would be the best.
I use the big fluffy thing to stick down in the body of sax when I am not using it. The same for the neck, just with a smaller one. Then, I sometimes clean the pads with powder and cleaning paper, which helps a lot. I do this around every three weeks, sometimes a little more often. Is there anything else i should do, change, or do more often?
Best Regards
David
Hey David,
Good to hear from you. The movie is definitely cool, I would try and
find it if I were you. I’ve watched it a couple times.
I clean my saxophone after I play it every time. I use a swab for the
body and a clarinet silk swab for the neck and mouthpiece.
Wouldn’t recommend the fluffy stick. The reason is that the fibers
gradually come off of the stick and they can get in your pads and
cause damage…. I used one for a while, but then stopped. It takes a
little longer to use a swab, but you should have less problems with
your pads in the long run.
-Neal
My absolute favorite piece from Julian. I am working on this song on both saxes, and it goes quiet good.
I am considering, that i should transcribe his fantastic solo. I never transcribed a good piece before, so that should be some good training.
In the play-a-long book, there is only the theme, and then a improvisation piece. I like improvising, and i do it quiet a lot, but it could be funny to transcribe a solo from Cannonball. Further on, i’ve just been playing a pentatonic scale or a blues scale and so on when i solo in bands.
Therefore I am trying to get started with a bit of piano to know the chords and stuff, and that goes fairly good so far.
Do you know any good chord-excersizes to start off with?
Thank you for another great video!
Best Regards
David
Hey David,
Glad to hear you’re learning work song. I like playing it. My sax teacher in santa clara taught me a background that you can play with another person and switch off improvising over. I’ll show that to you if you would like, taught it to another sax player the other day.
Transcribing is definitely really good for you. I’ve only done it a little bit myself, but am going to be doing more in the near future. Not sure if Cannonball Adderley is the best person to start transcribing, he plays pretty fast sometimes…. if you slow it down with a computer program it might be a little easier. The first song I used for transcription was a blues by Stanley Turrentine. Since it’s the blues, it’s easier to know which notes will be played.
Playing some piano is great for knowing chords better since it’s all right in front of you and you can see the distances between notes in a chord, etc.
-Neal
Want to play saxophone, but feeling lost and not sure how to get started?
In this online/downloadable class you will see methodical lessons in a sequence and you can get feedback and ask questions at any point.
Learn more
Want to take your playing to the next level?
You’ll learn fundamental saxophone skills, building past the basics. Master rhythms. Learn about phrasing, tone, and more. Here you will get feedback which is crucial to developing good habits.
Learn more