Practicing for hours in the woodshed won’t help you get over stage fright.  It won’t help you interact with musicians.  Some things can be learned on your own, other things can’t.

Practicing at home, in the “wood shed” as musicians refer to it- going and just practicing, can help you with many aspects of your playing.  You can build your technique, endurance, familiarize yourself with chord changes, transcribe, and work on other elements.

However, even if your technique has flawless precision, it will sound dead if you don’t have emotion.  Reading about music theory without applying it won’t get it under your fingers.

And when you’re practicing with Jamey Aebersold, the bass player will always play the same background on that CD.  It’s not dynamic like real music.

Playing with real musicians is more fun and it’s what you do when you perform.  The interplay between the saxophone player and everyone else on stage makes the music more interesting.  When you get to a piano solo and everyone brings the dynamics down it sounds like you know what you’re doing.

So master the saxophone through practice AND playing with other musicians.

Check out jam sessions and play with people whenever you can.  Preparing beforehand shows respect, but don’t be afraid to ever get out there.