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, and 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.
We look at almost every conceivable area of learning the saxophone, if I’ve missed anything out please feel free to let me know – I’m always open to suggestions.
In the Beginners Saxophone Section:
- Beginners FAQs
- Saxophone Studies
- Learn to Play Saxophone
- First Steps on the Saxophone
- Saxophone Transposition
- Fingering Charts
- Beginners Instruction DVD
- Find A Saxophone Teacher
- Rhythm & Blues Saxophone
- Rock & Roll Saxophone
- How to Organise Your Practice Schedule
- Stage Fright & Performance Nerves
- Saxophone Video Lessons
+ More beginner stuff in the main Theory/Impro section:
- Beginners’ Impro TTS Vol 2
- Beginners Scales
- Chords For Beginners
- Rock & Blues
- Chords and Numerals
- Special Chords
- Voicing & Inversions
- Impro Exercises
- Gorilla
- Ooh Ah Ooh (2 Chords)
- Sand Dance
- The Saints
- Slinky
- Doreen a là Mode
- Jumpin Blues
In 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 full set of these is included in the book Taming The Saxophone Vol I – Tone without Tears
- Saxophone Tone & Sound
- Intonation & Tuning
- Tone Control Exercises
- Articulation & Tonguing
- Saxophone Vibrato
- Mouthpiece Exercises
- Harmonics (Overtones)
- Altissimo
- Subtone
- Visualising the Sound
- Saxophone Embouchure
- Breathing Exercises & Breath Control
- Diaphragm Breathing
- Saxophone Circular Breathing
In 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 full set of these exercises, in all keys where appropriate, is included in the book Taming The Saxophone Vol III
- Fingering Exercises Vol 3
- Saxophone Warmup
- Dexterity & Technique
- Cycle of Fifths
- 2 5 1 Progressions
- Chromatic Scale Exercises
- Studies in 4ths
- Diminished Patterns and Licks
- Whole Tone Scale Exercises
- Alternate Saxophone Fingerings
In 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.
- Saxophone Growl
- Saxophone Note Bending
- Saxophone Wobble
- Slaptongue & Smacktongue
- Saxophone Dooden Tonguing
- Saxophone Laugh
- Saxophone Fluttertongue
- The Adderley Trill
- False Fingerings
- Saxophone Multiphonics
