Taming The Saxophone

Composing

The post Composing appeared first on Taming The Sa ...

Reviews

Reviews on CafeSaxophone The po ...

All About Copyright

Copyright in Music Compositions Copyright decision ...

Modes in Composition

Modes in Modern Pop & Commercial Composition Befor ...

Tension & Release in Composition

Unity and Variety, Tension & Release Two very impo ...

Developing Melody with Motifs

Very often a large part of composition involves ex ...

Composition: Hints & Tips

Useful Composition Tips Know when to use rules of ...

Recording

Most of our recording pages have moved to our oth ...

Orchestrating for Brass

The Wonderful World of Composing for Brass Brass i ...

Orchestrating for Woodwinds

What You Need to Know about Woodwinds Woodwinds ar ...

Writing for Strings

Ensemble Sizes The string section consists of viol ...

Orchestration: Score Layout

What’s The Score? First things first – the tit ...

Become a TV/Film Composer

How do You Actually get Work as Composer? I wish I ...

The Rhythm Section

Arranging for Rhythm Section Piano and guitar part ...

Jazz Arranging: Backings

Chordal accompaniment (aka pad) When writing susta ...

Block Voicing

What is Voicing? Voicing means harmonising a melod ...

Jazz Reharmonising

Reharmonising – Changing the Chords Often you ma ...

Ranges & Transposition

Jazz Arranging – Chart of Instrument Ranges You� ...

Arranging & Composing

Why learn arranging & composing? Jazz composition ...

Free Tunes & Backing Tracks

Loads of free stuff on the site: fingering charts, ...

Jazz Repertoire

Jazz Tunes & Standards Jazz and pop musicians lear ...

Jazz Resources

Recommended Jazz Reading This is not a comprehensi ...

Let The Good Timing Roll

Timing in music means different things to differen ...

Why You Shouldn’t transcribe

OK, that sounds a bit radical. Transcribing is of ...

Blues Riffs & Licks

Riffs or Licks – What’s the Difference? Licks� ...

Jazz Patterns for Tonic Chords

Tonic Patterns and Cadences These are often more r ...

Jazz Patterns & Licks

How many jazz improvisers construct a completely o ...

Dorian Mode in Jazz Improvisation

One Chord Jazz and Funk Grooves These are usually ...

Jazz Scalechart

I always hesitate before recommending the study of ...

Jazz Scales for Improvising

About Scales & Chords When you are starting learn ...

I Got Rhythm Chord Changes

Standards that are used for jazz often have a 32 b ...

12 Bar Blues Chords

Chords in the 12 bar blues sequence Blues breaks t ...

Jazz Passing Chords

Passing Chords and Turnarounds We have already see ...

Modal Interchange & Altered Chords

Using Modal Interchange to Alter Chords Modal inte ...

Modes in Improvisation

Thinking of modes as relative or parallel When mus ...

Minor Harmony in Jazz Theory

Major vs Minor The defining difference between a m ...

Tritone (Flat 5) Substitute Chords

How Tritone Substitutes Work A dominant 7th chord ...

Jazz Chords – Upper Extensions

Chords with five or more notes As we saw in Chord ...

Cycle of 5ths in Jazz

In the previous tutorial I mentioned that diatonic ...

Analysis with Roman Numerals

Analysis of Jazz Harmony Harmonic analysis of tune ...

Chord Progressions

Basic Chords Before we look at more complex jazz c ...

Jazz Chord Symbols

Chord Symbols Over the years there have been vario ...

Jazz Theory & Impro

The course is not a complete on-line tutor for b ...

Jumpin Blues

This is a blues in a “jump” style. As with Sli ...

Doreen a là Mode

This is as close as we get to jazz in this section ...

Slinky

This is a nice comfortable tempo simple jazz blues ...

The Saints

Oh When the Saints Go Marching In is a famous tune ...

Sand Dance

Every now and again a friend of mine brings their ...

Ooh Ah Ooh (2 Chords)

This tune is a typical two chord tune that uses ch ...

Gorilla

The chords here should be familiar, they are the s ...

Beginners Tunes + Impro

Full sheet music (PDF), Audio files and more in Vo ...

Beginners Tunes >>>

Full sheet music (PDF), Audio files and more in Vo ...

Voicing & Inversions

A quick recap about chords We learned in the book ...

Special Chords

Beyond Triads We will call these “special chords ...

Chords and Numerals

Why assign numbers to chords? If you have read par ...

Rock & Blues

SOTW Blues has moved here Rock & Roll (& Blues) fo ...

Chords For Beginners

Here is a very simple lesson in the beginnings of ...

Beginners Scales

The 12 Step Scale Chart Use this chart to visualis ...

Beginners’ Impro TTS Vol 2

About Beginners’ Impro In this section of the si ...

Flick-tonguing

Flick tonguing involves flicking your tongue very ...

Saxophone Laugh

First try to laugh This means laughing for real ...

Saxophone Dooden Tonguing

AKA “Ghost Tonguing”, “La-la Tonguing” or ...

Slaptongue & Smacktongue

Smacktongue (non-pitched) Example: Smacktongue The ...

Multiphonics

Multiphonics (Playing more than one note at once) ...

False Fingerings

AKA. Fake Fingerings or Double Densities Example 1 ...

The Adderley Trill

The Adderley Trill The Adderley Trill I’m not su ...

Flutter Tongue

What is it Flutter Tongue? Flutter tongue has be ...

Saxophone Wobble

AKA Bb Wobble or Texas Shake This is a stunning e ...

Bending notes

How do you bend a note on the saxophone? There are ...

Saxophone Growl

How to Growl on the saxophone and get that really ...

Saxophone Effects

Special Effects on the Saxophone The saxophone is ...

Tips 3: Low Bb to B Trill

Easy! Go ahead and finger bottom Bb, then with you ...

Tips 2: F to G altissimo trill

Altissimo Trill – F to G This is part of a new s ...

Tips 1 : Auxiliary F without the aux key

Auxiliary F key (aka aux F or front F) The top F a ...

Alternate Saxophone Fingerings

Alternate or Alternative? The fingerings we are l ...

Whole Tone Scale Exercises

Like diminished scales, whole tone scales fit very ...

Diminished Patterns and Licks

The diminished scale can be very useful. When appl ...

Studies in 4ths

Using the interval of a 4th The interval of a four ...

Chromatic Scale Exercises

Exercises involving the Chromatic Scale These exer ...

2 5 1 Progressions

IIm7-V7-I progressions (“2 5 1”) “Why is the ...

Cycle of Fifths

Before practising these, make sure you are familia ...

Dexterity & Technique

Saxophone Fingering Exercises for a Fast Playing T ...

Saxophone Warmup

Why is it important to warm up first? This first o ...

Fingering Exercises Vol 3

Warming up, playing faster and playing more creati ...

Bright Sound or Dark Sound

Definitions There seems to be a lot of confusion a ...

Saxophone Circular Breathing

What is circular breathing? It means breathing in ...

Visualising the Sound

Bored practice is wasted practice There’s no dou ...

Subtone

We show you how to play subtone on saxophone. get ...

Altissimo on saxophone

The altissimo range of the saxophone consists of m ...

Harmonics (Overtones)

Why is practising overtones so useful? In order to ...

Combining Tone & Fingering

Why combine tone & fingering exercises? I have fou ...

Intonation & Tuning

Which of these is more “in tune”? First of all ...

Mouthpiece Exercises

Improve your saxophone tone and expression with mo ...

Saxophone Vibrato

The aim of this exercise is for you to be able to ...

Articulation & Tonguing

How to tongue quickly or slowly and evenly. High r ...

Diaphragm Breathing

Breathing Exercises Diaphragm Breathing What is Di ...

Breathing Exercises & Breath Control

Breathing Exercises Diaphragm Breathing Good breat ...

Tone Control Exercises

How to get the best sound out of your saxophone, w ...

Saxophone Embouchure

How to improve and strengthen your saxophone embou ...

Saxophone Tone & Sound

Tone & Sound are not the same thing Obviously we o ...

Vol 1 Improve Your Tone

Tone Without Tears : improve your saxophone tone G ...

Memorising Music

Memorisation, whether it’s totally committing so ...

Saxophone Video Lessons

Pete’s video lessons To leave comments on the Yo ...

Stage Fright & Performance Nerves

Scared To Go On Stage? There’s Nothing Wrong wit ...

How to Organise Your Practice Schedule

Best Practice! As a teacher I used to devise a dif ...

Rock & Roll Saxophone

How to Play a Great Rockin’ Solo Many jazz saxop ...

Rhythm & Blues Saxophone

Defining Rhythm & Blues As with so many genres, R ...

Find a Saxophone Teacher

The best one for you Is the teacher a great player ...

Fingering Charts

Basic Fingering charts (no sharps or flats) First ...

Saxophone Transposition

Why am I in a different key to the rest of the ban ...

First Notes on the Saxophone

For Absolute Beginners In this section on beginner ...

Learn to Play Saxophone

How to assemble your saxophone – making a sound ...

Saxophone Studies

The Taming The Saxophone Series of Studies Taming ...

Beginners Instruction DVD

In this program, Pete introduces beginners to the ...

Beginners FAQs

You Ask the Questions If you have any questions, p ...

Adding Mass to improve Sound

The Effect of mass on saxophone sound This experim ...

Mixing Saxophone in Audacity

Who is this for and what do you need? This is for ...

Recording a Saxophone

This article is based on my experience playing the ...

Saxophone Material

Science vs Common Sense Saxophones are mostly made ...

Leaking G#

How to easily fix a very common problem. The G# on ...

Saxophone Repairs

Leaks A leak happens when something on the saxopho ...

Saxophone Maintenance

Cleaning Inside the Body of the Saxophone 1. The P ...

Technical

In the technical section The post Technical appear ...

Saxophone Stands

Keep Your Horn in One Piece! Saxophone stands are ...

The Sound Snake

Over the last few years we have seen a multitude o ...

leFreque Sound Bridge

Make your saxophone sound better? We know that apa ...

Deflector (Review)

The Deflector This is an amazingly simple concept ...

DIY Saxophone Clipon Microphone

Not just cheap, but a great sounding mic too! We ...

Review: Saxophone Straps

Keep Your Saxophone Round Your Neck! Disclaimer: a ...

Saxophone Ligatures

The Best Way to Hold a Reed On What do saxophone l ...

Reed maintenance & care

Care & Storage I find that reeds play best when we ...

When to Change a Reed

When should you change a reed? Cane Reeds are extr ...

Synthetic reeds vs cane

Synthetic mouthpieces, so why not synthetic reeds? ...

Cane Reeds for Saxophone

The 5 Best Cane Reed Tips: Don’t be afraid of us ...

Accessories

In the accessories section The post Accessories ...

Reviews & Testimonials

Soprano Alto Tenor Baritone Testimonials It’s al ...

PPT Baritone

As with the tenor mouthpiece, I was looking for so ...

PPT Tenor

My concept behind the sound is a mouthpiece that c ...

PPT Alto

Due to overwhelming demand we have now introduced ...

PPT Soprano

As with the tenor and baritone mouthpieces, my rea ...

PPT Mouthpieces

The Concept Behind PPT Mouthpieces Soprano Alto Te ...

Saxophone Mouthpiece Cleaning

How to Look After Your Mouthpiece Mouthpiece clean ...

Mouthpiece for a big loud sound

Mouthpiece and reed for a big fat loud sound In th ...

Mouthpiece Material

Mouthpiece Material: Does it make a Difference to ...

Alto Mouthpiece Comparisons

Comparing Mouthpieces I have gathered together som ...

Mouthpiece Charts

Saxophone Facing Comparisons There are quite a few ...

How to Choose a Mouthpiece

Choosing your Mouthpiece It sometimes takes me abo ...

Mouthpieces

In the mouthpieces section The post Mouthpieces ...

Sax On The Web Blues

This was a project started a few years ago on the ...

Saxophone Blues Transcriptions

How do you learn to play good blues solos? Some pe ...

King Curtis

This is a transcription of the King Curtis track H ...

Lee Allen

by Pete Thomas Lee gave me my biggest break when h ...

R & B Saxophone Players

These biographies, photos and soundclips include a ...

Jazz Tenor

Biographies of some of the best and most significa ...

Saxophone Players

In the players section The post Saxophone Players ...

Saxophone Humour

Saxophone Humour Most saxophone players seem to ha ...

Saxophones For Sale

Saxes for Sale – 5 things to watch out for: 1 ...

Instrument Petting Zoo

Here are a few of the strange and unusual instrume ...

Vintage Saxophones

Are vintage saxophones better than modern ones? Ye ...

Serial Numbers

What Can Serial Numbers Tell Me? The main thing yo ...

Saxophone History

The Early Years of Saxophone History Here we will ...

Saxophone Comparisons

The Tenor Saxophone Comparisons aka “The Shootou ...

Saxophone Insurance

Insuring a valuable instrument While there are no ...

Saxophone Recommendations

What’s a Good Saxophone? I am often asked to giv ...

Saxophone Reviews

Disclaimer: Unlike with many saxophone reviews I d ...

Saxophone Buying Advice

How to get the Best Buying Advice Don’t just lis ...

Saxophone Myths & Fake News

The internet is a wonderful thing but can bear dou ...

Saxophone Info

In the miscellaneous saxophone info section The ...

Lessons/Consultancy

I will soon be able to offer single consultancies ...

Promo Videos

All of these videos are produced by Pete Thomas. A ...

Equipment

Pete's saxophones & studio equipment The post Equi ...

CDs & Audio

To date Pete has recorded four of his own CDs, inc ...

Biography, Press, Credits

Quite a remarkable statement on its own, but the f ...

Using the forum

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