Day 05 - Saxophone Focus

Focusing your time when you practice saxophone will help you get more done in less time.

Practicing is going to be most effective if you concentrate on one thing for an extended period of time.

For example, if you practice a song by simply playing from beginning to end five times in a row it might take you 15 minutes.

However, most of the song might be simple, it could be that just two 8 bar sections are difficult.

If you played through  the song once (taking about 3 minutes) and identified those difficult parts then you could spend 8 minutes going over the difficult sections.  Using a metronome and starting slowly and really mastering it.  Then you would be able to play the song much better than you would if you just ran through it.

Focus doesn’t just apply to sections that are difficult, you can focus more narrowly as well.  You could focus just on the articulation of a section or crescendoing just the right way or getting the tone to set the right mood.

Tip - Practice less material, but focus more on it.

Mindset Lesson- Focusing on difficult elements won’t always sound good for the listener, but it will improve your playing overall.

Keep Track:

Keep track of what you practice each day!  Shoot me an email at the end of the week and let me know how it’s going for you!  There will be a prize for people who keep track of what they practice every day and send it to me each week.

Day 04 - Eliminate Distractions!

What is your saxophone environment like?

Do you practice on a bridge?

That’s what Sonny Rollins did, seemed to work for him.

But… if you don’t have a convenient bridge for saxophone practice, then you might just want to optimize what you do have.

Practicing in a room with good acoustics or even just near the corner or wall will help you hear yourself better.

And having everything you need handy will be useful- sax, reeds, metronome, stand, music, etc.

Being near a computer probably isn’t going to help you.  An exception might be if you use the music on there to play along with.  If you have email alerts on your computer, I would turn them off since it’s going to make you less effective with whatever you do, and DEFINITELY turn them off while you practice.

Let people know that you would like to practice without interruption.

Being able to concentrate on your saxophone will make practice much more effective.

Tip - Think about your practice environment and if it is conducive to your saxophone practice.

Mindset Lesson-  Making it easier to practice will probably make you practice your saxophone more consistently!

Keep Track:

Keep track of what you practice each day!  Shoot me an email at the end of the week and let me know how it’s going for you!  There will be a prize for people who keep track of what they practice every day and send it to me each week.

Day 03 -Saxophone Practice Routine

This challenge is all about creating the habit of practicing at least 10 minutes a day on saxophone.

So you should figure out a time & place to play.  And also having an idea of what you’re going to practice will help.

Your practice routine can include long tones (for your tone), scales (better with a metronome), technical exercises for your fingers, exercises in articulation, practicing patterns, working on tunes, transcribing, ear training, listening to great players, sight reading, working on phrasing, focusing on dynamics, and much more.

You should practice a few things each time you play, for me I always do long tones and usually do some scale exercises with a metronome.  From there you can add other pieces.

But you don’t need to practice everything ever day!  If you could that would be great.  However, if you practice dynamics for a minute and phrasing for another minute and then move onto transcribing a solo, you will not have focused enough.

Tip - Create a ‘core’ set of things you practice and then vary the other parts so you can focus on different things.

Mindset Lesson- Making a practice routine that you practice every day will become habit, a habit that you want to have!

Keep Track:

Keep track of what you practice each day.  Shoot me an email at the end of the week and let me know how it’s going for you!  There will be a prize for people who keep track of what they practice every day and send it to me each week.

Day 02 - Finding Three Saxophone Players - Day 2 is all about finding and listening to great saxophone players.  Exploring sounds on saxophone will help you develop your own sound.   By the end of Day 1, you should have three saxophone players you would like to listen to more.  Here is a list to help you, and a few examples of places and resources you can explore.

Cannonball Adderley
Stanley Turrentine
John Coltrane
Stan Getz
Sonny Stitt
Joe Henderson
Coleman Hawkins
Grover Washington Jr.
Sonny Rollins
Dexter Gordon
Gato Barbieri
Michael Brecker
Benny Golson

Resources: Pandora, Youtube

Tip - Pick two sax players you’re familiar with and one you have just heard a few times.

Mindset Lesson- Listening is the most important element in music.  Creating your own sound involves taking pieces from other musicians and your life.

Keep Track:

Keep track of what you practice each day.  Shoot me an email at the end of the week and let me know how it’s going for you!  There will be a prize for people who keep track of what they practice every day and send it to me.

Day 01 -Over the next thirty days, commit to practicing your saxophone at least ten minutes per day.

The combination of musical elements that you should use and practice are:

Feel/Emotion, Dynamics, Rhythm, Tempo, Tone, Phrasing, Space/Rest, Notes, Articulation/Duration,Technique, and Listening (from Victor Wooten).

Understanding how the elements of music work together is crucial to understand, so take the time to make sure you ‘get’ the idea.

Tip - Set a time each day to practice and build the habit of practicing saxophone.

Mindset Lesson- Procrastination can keep you from playing your saxophone.  Some of it has to do with thinking that getting better is a huge task that you can’t handle.  It also has to do with fear of how you will sound.

You just need to break it down.  Ten minutes isn’t a long time!  If you focus on what is important, those ten minutes can help a lot.

Use some time that you usually spend doing something unimportant like watching TV.

And pick up your saxophone!

Keep Track:

Keep track of what you practice each day.  Shoot me an email at the end of the week and let me know how it’s going for you!  There will be a prize for people who keep track of what they practice every day and send it to me each week.

When you play stuff you don’t know, it doesn’t sound as good at first…..

So it might be tempting just to play stuff you know.

However, if you never grow as a player, you won’t be that interesting to listen to and you yourself might start feeling bored with what you play.

The learning curve on saxophone means that when you play something different, something challenging, the level that you play it at will be lower than something familiar.  It will ‘dip’ (phrase from Seth Godin) and then rise again.

When you have mastered the new stuff, your level of saxophone playing overall will rise.

But it can be tough to get through the dip.

A long time ago, instruments from Japan did not play very well, but they have greatly improved.  So much that both Yamaha and Yanigasawa are two of the four major players in the saxophone manufacturing realm.

Like Cannonball and P. Mauriat, Jupiters are made in Taiwan as well and have gotten a lot better.  I have a Jupiter alto that sounds decent.

The brand names Cannonball and P. Mauriat are purely for marketing purposes.

Cannonball Adderley did not play any role in the Cannonball company.

And P. Mauriat was a French musician who did not play saxophone.

Several people have told me that they liked Cannonballs and P. Mauriats.  So try one out and see if you like it.

Some neck straps have a metal hook covered by rubber and others are just metal.

The rubber can wear down though and then there is just bare metal that goes onto the ring that holds your sax.

Over time the metal rubs and the friction causes wear.  Eventually this can accumulate and dig a groove through the ring.

The weight of your saxophone could cause it to break and allow your saxophone to fall.

So check to see if you have this problem!

If your neckstrap hook has worn past the rubber, see about getting rubber put back on it.

I used rubber tubing myself.

A quick fix could be electrical tape, but that’s only temporary.

You can pick more than one option!

Thanks

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