Tips playing the Alto Saxophone

[vbguitargirl]

Does anyone have any tips on playing the alto sax? I'm auditioning for a good concert band, and it's really stiff competition.

[vbguitargirl]

Hello???

[calebb]

I have lots of tips for playing alto sax! :)

A great one is in your daily warm-ups. The magic of long-tones. Nobody knows why, but playing long-tones definitely improves your tone.

A long-tone is easy. Start with a Bb. Play it for as long as you can (At least ~15 seconds) but no squeeks are allowed! USe as much air and play as loud as necessary, but do not let the sound waver, or change to a harmonic, or anything- it must stay on a solid low Bb for awhile. Play till you're completely out of breath.

Then repeat for B, C, C#

This takes a couple minutes each day, but really helps.

The next thing to help your tone and make all your notes sound more full, is playing harmonics.

Finger a low Bb, and play it. Now tongue again and play a middle Bb with the same low Bb fingering. It takes a little work, but you'll get good at it after awhile. If you have trouble getting it to pop out, finger a middle Bb with the 'bis' fingering and then slap down all the keys to do a low Bb, but try to keep the middle Bb tone.

Then change your ombochure a little more and try for the next F up, then the high Bb (all with the low Bb fingering) Practice going up and down Bb(low) - Bb(med) - F(m) - Bb(high) - F(m) - Bb(m) - Bb(low)

Another good tip to get the med Bb, F and high Bb to pop out is to SLIGHTLY lift the middle finger on your left hand (convering the 'A' key). Just a little bit- that helps harmonics pop out.

Anyway, get good at that, it often sounds like a elephant being abused or something, but it really helps. Then repeat for low B. B - B(mid) - F# (m) - B(high) and back down.

Some people do the same on C, C#....not me.

Another great thing for tone is: WHENEVER you play, tighten up your abs. TIGHT! Pretend like you're trying to tighten them up to take a punch. That will keep high-pressure air behind the reed. It really helps for getting low notes to pop out without a squak.

Then, practice scales with a tuner. D is generally sharp, C# is generally flat, and everything in between is in between. So you must always adjust your omboschure between notes depending on what you're playing for it to be in tune...

Always practice scales with a metronome too! It really helps...

Anyone else got some tips?

-Caleb

[timio]

I'd say one of the keys to getting a good sound is choosing the right fingering for your tone.

Take for example, mid Bb. THere's about 3 different fingerings that I know of for that one. For each one you use, it creates a slightly different pitch - listen for it.

And choosing the right fingering can also help you with your speed of play. Some are easier to reach in faster and tighter melodies... trust me!

Tim

[calebb]

Originally posted by timio
I'd say one of the keys to getting a good sound is choosing the right fingering for your tone.

Take for example, mid Bb. THere's about 3 different fingerings that I know of for that one. For each one you use, it creates a slightly different pitch - listen for it.

And choosing the right fingering can also help you with your speed of play. Some are easier to reach in faster and tighter melodies... trust me!

Tim

bis Bb rules all ;)

-Caleb

[Nathanael]

I only started playing sax a few months ago, but i can say:

1) Long tones are definatly a key way to improving your tone

2) Once the fingering is memorized, you need to A) Become very comfortable playing in all scales, and B) work on the tone, or sound of your sax. If you have a good ear for music, you can hear the differance, not only in the way they play, but in the sound of diffrent saxists. For instance, Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane have very uniqe tones(at least to my ear). In part this is due to diffrent equipment, but mainly its the differance between embrocure.

3) Um, have fun


Hey if anyone knows how(musicaly) to play the sax aside from playing a simple melody of a song, please tell me.

[calebb]

How to play aside from the melody...

Well, I think you're wondering how to play harmonies :)

The best way to learn, is to look up some 'bass' tabs for songs. They are in 'concert' keys, so transpose them to your key. (lower by 4 half-steps if you're in Eb. ie, Eb -> C or Bb -> G)

Then to generate what notes will sound good based on your chord depends!

A major chord is just notes 1 3 5 (7) of the scale. So for G you could play either G B D (F). Start with whole notes, and the root (1st in the scale) usually sounds good.

A minor chord has the 5th note lowerd a half-step. so 1 3 5(b) (7)

Then there are 100 other types of chords you can make, but you can generally use major chords, and just play whole notes, or whatever sounds good. That just gives you an idea of what notes sound good!

Which sax do ya play, NathanB?

-Caleb

[Nathanael]

hey sorry... hard to keep tabs on all these boards.
I play a old Conn Alto with a S80 Selmer Mouthpiece(my christmas present!). It has the high F# key and all that.

No, not harmonies... I mean like, when you listen to a sax against a normal song, they never just play the melody... they always add in some notes there. What do they do? Just throw in the surounding notes on that key/scale?
-on second thought, what you said sounds good too... but you can give a stab at this question if you want to anyway!

[Darrin]

I have bewen playing alto sax for 4 years and baritone sax for 3 years and I would say that one of the most important things is SCALES SCALES SCALES! If you know those you can learn about anyhting (not quite but you know what I'm sayin :))