This Stops 95% of Saxophone Students Improving

there is so much stuff to practice and learn that it can feel pretty overwhelming at times right over the years i've taught thousands of students in my online courses youtube videos my virtual studio and of course in person lessons and with all that teaching experience i can tell you why 95 of saxophone students are struggling to make real progress the good news is that everyone has pretty much the same weaknesses that i'm going to break down for you into two things and show you how you can start improving them immediately now if you are someone who practices a lot but feel like you aren't getting any better it's probably because you are not focusing enough or at all on these two things when you listen to a great saxophone player what are the things that stand out to you as making that sound good maybe you never thought about it like this but the things that make a good saxophone player sound good are the exact same things you want to be working on every time you play your instrument this one is the most important i notice a ton of students playing the saxophone and not really thinking about their sound lots of people are spending time trying to learn complex tunes or how to play notes really fast altissimo notes and improvisation without working on the most important thing number one this is a mistake because even if you execute on all those notes and complex things very well the result is going to sound not so good you have to develop your tone now don't get the wrong idea here i'm not saying you have to practice long tones in a cave for years before you do anything else what i try to communicate to my students and remind myself of all the time is that your sound is the most important element that's coming out of your instrument and it should never be an afterthought the biggest problem i see with most saxophone students sound is that they aren't using enough air in order to have a big beautiful in control in tune sound you need to fill the saxophone up with a strong and steady airstream it is very common for saxophone players to hold back their air which results in a weak and faltering sound which also has a negative impact on thing number two which i'll get to in a minute now there's a couple common reasons why saxophone players have this tendency to hold back their air one is that many saxophone players might have been constantly told that they were too loud while playing in the school band maybe the strength of the saxophone section was drowning out the flutes and clarinets this can end up creating a habit of being afraid to put a strong airstream through the horn another common cause for this is practicing at home lots of people are concerned about annoying other people in their house or their neighbors while practicing the saxophone because it can be very loud and as a result they try to play quietly all the time again creating this bad habit of holding back the air the best thing you can do is to train yourself to fill up the saxophone with air you want that strong steady well-supported airstream yes long tones are a fantastic way to focus on this but you also need to carry that long-tone air over to everything else you play this is the habit you want to establish and the one that will result in a beautiful sound it's the equivalent to following through your golf tennis or baseball bat swing there are several other elements that contribute to developing a beautiful sound but for now i want you to make sure you are following through and filling up your saxophone with error thing two is rhythm rhythm is even more important than playing the right notes you've probably heard someone say to you before i'd rather hear you play a wrong note than a wrong rhythm well there's a reason for that unfortunately many saxophone students have bad rhythm and almost all of those are rushing and playing rhythms faster than they should be played horn players are just so rhythmically deficient on the saxophone we end up spending so much of our mental and physical energy just on operating the instrument that often rhythm can become an afterthought the main culprits here are not practicing with a metronome or some sort of rhythmic guide and also not experiencing what it's like to be responsible for the rhythm in the way that drummers bass players and other rhythm section players are the saxophone is not a percussive instrument like those others and so we don't get the same physical feedback you get from hitting a drum strumming a guitar plucking a bass string striking piano keys you get the idea so with saxophonists we have to put a bit more thought and mental energy into the rhythm we need to develop the habit of always playing rhythmically and feeling responsible for the steadiness of that rhythm here are a couple quick win solutions to help improve your rhythm starting today number one is play with a metronome most people do not practice with a metronome they say things like oh it's too hard i can never lock into it it's just annoying well guess what if you can't lock in with the metronome how would you ever lock in with other musicians for most people just using the metronome to practice anything at all on a regular basis will help make an enormous improvement please make friends with the metronome and start using it if you aren't already you can get a free app on your phone or just type metronome into google there is really no excuse not to do this if you already practice with the metronome and you want to improve your rhythm the next best thing you can do is to play along with recordings whatever song you are working on there is likely a recording of it available for free play along with recordings and sync yourself up with those musicians as best you can filling the saxophone up with air thing number one is crucial to your ability to play with strong rhythm since the air is the power source for your saxophone sound when you hold back the air you're also holding back your confidence to play with solid rhythm keep in mind that these two things sound and rhythm are things you're going to be working on for your entire saxophone playing life because they are so important and because there will always be room for improvement the earlier you can make these two things a priority the better now go watch this video next where i show you exactly how i practice sound rhythm and a lot more using one of my very favorite apps [Music]

Channel: Better Sax

Views: 136,335

Keywords: bettersax, better sax, jay metcalf, saxophone, sax, sax lessons, learn saxophone, how to play sax, alto sax, tenor sax, sax player, sax teacher, saxophone embouchure, beginner saxophone lesson, easy saxophone lesson, intermediate saxophone lesson, saxophone sound lesson, rhythm, how to play good rhythm, saxophone rhythm lesson

Id: q1qdkudQ5qw

Length: 6min 31sec (391 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2022