To get good on the saxophone, you don’t just need to take saxophone lessons – you need to do your practice. But this saxophone practice must be efficient. Here’s how you make every hour spent practising the saxophone more worthwhile…
Many beginner saxophone players ask me about how I practise. The thing most saxophone players do wrong, in my view, is that they try to practise too much at once. The brain is a delicate instrument – don’t overwork it!
Decide exactly what it is you want to practise and focus exclusively on that and nothing else. So if you’re attempting to improve your saxophone sound, don’t try and read music or attempt to improve your harmonic/improvisational understanding at the same time. FOCUS on the sound. Undertake practise exercises specially designed to improve your sound (which we discuss in our saxophone lessons at Ed Sax School). If instead on day two you want to improve your understanding about how to use the melodic minor scale in jazz, focus exclusively on that – perhaps without even having a saxophone in your hands!
Focused saxophone practice is the most important saxophone lesson I can ever give you. I used to split up sound practice from the other two elements: versatility on the saxophone (speed and accuracy of fingers) and harmonic understanding (which I did either in my head in silence or at the piano, or even by singing!).
I hope this helps. Take some free beginner saxophone lessons by clicking the link or perhaps try some jazz harmony lessons instead.