About the tutorials
I have designed and developed all the online saxophone exercises, tutorials and lessons in this section over many years both as a professional recording musician and as a teacher at Southampton University. I have used these exercises as part of a regular practice routine.
The exercises are aimed towards jazz and blues playing, but are still very useful for other styles, whether it’s free jazz, smooth jazz, classical, funk, pop, rock & roll and r ’n’ b. The tone and effects section is useful for all styles. I hope you find these lessons and tutorials useful.
The Tone Section
Tone and sound are crucial for being able to play expressively, so we take an in-depth look at the techniques involved. Tone production exercises have always been thought of as especially boring – even if you dedicate a lot of time to long notes, unless your mind is focussed on what you are doing then much of the practise time is wasted. We look at how to keep the tone practise efficient and interesting.
The Fingering Exercises Section
This section of the site includes many online extracts from the book Taming The Saxophone vol III. These are mostly the exercises that I have been practising every day since I became a professional player. Some come from books but most are things shown me by other players, i.e. they are the most useful things to practise to get your fingers around the horn and to get an understanding of how scales, chords and other aspects of music theory fit into your playing and help with general technique as well as improvising.
The Saxophone Effects section
The saxophone is capable of so many special effects, it’s vital to include them in your repertoire. This help to express music as well as keep it interesting and sometimes humourous. We cover most effects from note bending, the growl, fluttertongue and how to make the saxophone laugh.
SaxophoneTeachers
Our directory Saxophone Teachers Directory is moving to Teacher Connect , a new directory on CafeSaxophone to help students find teachers, and teachers find students. This is an international forum where you can find teachers locally, or who teach via Skype or Facetime.
Starter Pack deal: Beginners’ Downloads Free!
PLUS!!! Automatic discounts on more than 1
The TTS Series of Studies
Volume 1 Tone without tears, no more boring long notes
Beginners to Advanced
Exercises to improve your saxophone sound, interesting long notes, vibrato, dynamics, overtones, mouthpiece exercises and more. 120 pages of tone fun!
This book is useful for everyone from beginners to advanced and will provide years of useful tone study. Absolute beginners please note: this is not a tutor on how to get a sound from the instrument, it assumes you can already play at least a few notes, and want to learn how to get the best.
Vol 2: Beginners’ Impro – Pop, Rock & Blues
The eagerly awaited sequel to Volume 3 and Volume 1 is now available. It is a theory book with simple but interesting playalong tunes.Not your typical complicated yet somehow boring jazz theory.
Starter Pack deal: Beginners’ Downloads Free!
Just buy any book and get the Beginners PDF Downloads (150 pages) automatically included FREE!
Vol 3: Intermediate – Advanced Patterns & Licks
110 pages of exercises, patterns, scales, licks etc. Check out the free excerpts.
Vol 3: Intermediate & Advanced Exercises and Patterns features extended full versions of the saxophone fingering exercises.
Intermediate to Advanced
However many of the exercises can also be used by dedicated beginners as part of an ongoing saxophone study programme.
Thanks for your Taming the Saxophone book. Lots of great stuff for both myself and my students – I sure wish I’d had the book fifteen years ago! -Dan Forshaw
Taming The Saxophone – a great book, I use it every day to keep the chops in order – Bobby Wellins
Message: Just to say thanks for your speedy delivery of Taming The Saxophone book which I ordered only a few days ago and arrived today, and to say what a great book it is. I love the way it’s laid out, progressing from scales through chord progressions…. I’m sure this book is going to help me be a better player. Thanks again. From: Peter Boyd