Articles & Tutorials

All the profit from sales at Taming The Saxophone and Cafe Saxophone is donated to charity. We are now making more than £10,000 a year from our fundraising, a big thanks to everyone The post All Products appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

All the profit from direct sales at TamingTheSaxophone (Books, mouthpieces etc.) and subscriptions on CafeSaxophone forum is donated to various charities or special needs educational establishments. Also, all profits received by us from affiliate sa ...

In this section of the site we expand on some of the material in the book, Taming The Saxophone vol2.  Some of the pages in this section of the site include the basic sheet music of the tunes, ie “leadsheets” The post Beginners’ Impro TTS Vol ...

Here is a very simple lesson in the beginnings of harmony. As you probably know, there are 7 notes in a major scale. In C these are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. We number these 1 to 7, often with roman numerals instead of note names, which makes it easier ...

Full sheet music (PDF), Audio files and more in Vol 2 Taming The Saxophone – Beginners Impro The post Impro, Tunes & Songs for Beginners appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

Rock & Roll (& Blues) for Beginners I Although you might think that theory and rock or blues playing don’t have much in common, it’s surprising how useful a bit of basic music training can be when learning any style The post Rock & Blues appeared ...

Why assign numbers to chords? If you have read part 1 of TTS vol 2 you should know how we use different types of numbers to help us understand about chords and chord sequences. This page gives you a visual explanation/reminder The post Chords and Nu ...

Beyond Triads We will call these “special chords” as they don’t quite fit into the method of chord construction we have learned so far, but really they aren’t that special so don’t be scared of them. Up until now we The post Special Chords ...

A quick recap about chords We learned in the book that chords are two or more notes played together. We know how chords are constructed, that they are derived from scales by counting up alternate notes: 1 – 3 – The post Voicing & Inversions appea ...

Play the saxophone, don’t let the saxophone play you! Pete Thomas: Taming not one, but two saxophones Photo: Simon Warren | Concept: Marcelle Ben Haque Learn about the saxophone: How to start out if you are a beginner or how to The post Who’s in ...

The Saxophone! In the miscellaneous information section In the players section In the mouthpieces section In the accessories section In the technical section This is a brand new section where we will be adding more articles about the technical aspect ...

In the miscellaneous saxophone info section   The post Saxophone Info appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

Saxophone Myths The internet is a wonderful thing but can bear double-edged sword. Along with all the wonderful information at our fingertips, we also find a lot of misinformation. How can you tell which is which? Very often you can’t. The post Sax ...

How to get the Best Buying Advice Don’t just listen to me, there are many different and valid opinions so for a start log in to the Cafe Saxophone discussions, you will also get a lot of useful saxophone information on choosing your The post Sax ...

Disclaimer: Unlike with many saxophone reviews I do not get paid or receive free instruments in return for reviews on this page. Very Inexpensive Saxophones Note that I’m not using the description “Cheap” saxophones. Although the models I inten ...

What’s a Good Saxophone? I am often asked to give saxophone recommendations, endorse mouthpieces and big up the retailers. I am not an official endorser of any product apart from Legere Reeds, and so I feel I can give independent The post Saxophone ...

Insuring a valuable instrument While there are no dedicated saxophone insurance policies, there are several insurance brokers than specialise in musical instrument insurance. If you are not taking the instrument out of your house, you should be able ...

Cleaning Inside the Body of the Saxophone 1. The Pull-Through (or “Swab”) Probably the most important part of general saxophone maintenance, this is a cloth attached to a piece of string with a small weight on the end. You can The post Saxophone ...

Leaks A leak happens when something on the saxophone such as pad closing is not an airtight seal. The symptoms are squeaking  or notes not sounding properly and generally a feeling of resistance. A good indication of a leaking saxophone The post Sax ...

How to easily fix a very common problem. The G# on modern saxophones has quite a complex mechanism, and when it gets out of adjustment a leak can affect many of your low notes. The solution is often a very simple adjustment that all saxophone players ...

The Shootout I have chosen to compare five saxophones, three vintage and two modern. The vintage saxophones are my own two tenors, a 1930s Conn 10M (Naked Lady) and a 1950s “The” Martin, along with a 1954 Selmer MKVI which The post Saxophone Comp ...

In the players section The post Saxophone Players appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

Biographies of some of the best and most significant tenor saxophone players in the history of the saxophone. Coleman Hawkins, Lucky Thompson, Lester Young... The post Jazz Tenor appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

These biographies, photos and soundclips include all the influential rhythm and blues saxophone players of the 40s and 50s. Some of these are jazz players who contributed significantly to the development of blues saxophone, others are hardcore bar wa ...

by Nick Pentelow First published by Saxophone Journal. Unedited original interview and later additions published here with the kind permission of the author, Nick Pentelow. How do you get to speak to your hero and assail him for three hours The post ...

This is a transcription of the King Curtis track Hungover. F# is often thought of as a difficult key to play on saxophone, but a very important one if you play in blues, rock or R & B bands as The post King Curtis appeared first on Taming The Saxopho ...

How do you learn to play a good blues solo? Also see Why You Shouldn’t Transcribe Some people think blues playing and improvising is easy: just learn a couple of minor blues scales and play them over the chords. Well, The post Saxophone Blues Trans ...

In the mouthpieces section   The post Mouthpieces appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

Choosing your Mouthpiece It sometimes takes me about 2 weeks to really know if a mouthpiece is right or not and so it is not always a good idea to make that decision in a shop. However most decent retailers The post How to Choose a Mouthpiece appeare ...

Saxophone Facing Comparisons There are quite a few mouthpiece comparison charts out there, but most are not very user-friendly so I created this one based on some of the most popular tenor mouthpieces used by saxophone players today. One important Th ...

Scroll for more tracks Comparing Mouthpieces I have gathered together some frequently recommended (and some not so frequently) alto saxophone mouthpieces. Most mouthpiece comparisons you hear are not always the exact same piece of music, so here I ha ...

Mouthpiece Material: Does it make a Difference to the Sound? Yes and No (but mostly no) Yes | No | Listening Test As we know from reading about whether the material of the saxophone itself can make a difference to The post Mouthpiece Material appeare ...

Mouthpiece and reed for a big fat loud sound In this article we are mainly going to focus on how a mouthpiece design can influence the sound. It is easy to confuse a loud sound with a big sound, they The post Mouthpiece for a big loud sound appeared ...

How to Look After Your Mouthpiece Mouthpiece cleaning is important of course, but first let’s look at how to maintain it on a regular basis in order to help prevent it from getting into such a sad state that makes The post Saxophone Mouthpiece Clea ...

The Concept Behind PPT Mouthpieces Soprano Alto Tenor Baritone Testimonials For more images & info see the individual pages: Like many saxophone players I have been on a constant search for the ideal saxophone sound. The main factor involved is The p ...

As with the tenor and baritone mouthpieces, my reason for developing the PPT soprano saxophone mouthpiece is not commercial, I just wanted to get the best soprano mouthpiece for my own needs. I had been using a vintage Selmer Soloist which I really e ...

Due to overwhelming demand we have now introduced the PPT alto mouthpiece. This is not just a scaled down version of the tenor, the concept is slightly different. My inspiration for these includes the Brilhart Tonalin and Meyer Bros. New York The po ...

My concept behind the sound is a mouthpiece that can deliver not only that very fat warm almost vintage sound, but also a more modern sound with nice sparkly edge, sometimes both at once. I was after a really versatile mouthpiece that could deliver l ...

As with the tenor mouthpiece, I was looking for something that doesn't yet exist - a versatile mouthpiece for baritone sax that is capable of extreme dynamics from a gentle whisper to a gutsy roar. Up until now I used several baritone mouthpieces for ...

Soprano Alto Tenor Baritone Testimonials It’s always good to get feedback, and here are some of the PPT reviews, testimonials and other communications we have received over the years from happy customers. Soprano PPT Reviews Greetings Pete, It has ...

In the accessories section   The post Accessories appeared first on Taming The Saxophone.

The 5 Best Cane Reed Tips: Don’t be afraid of using soft saxophone reeds:  It is a myth that you need to play a hard reed to be a good player. While a hard reed can make it seem easier to The post Cane Reeds for Saxophone appeared first on Taming ...

Synthetic mouthpieces, so why not synthetic reeds? Traditionally woodwind instruments such as the clarinet used mouthpieces made from wood in combination with cane reeds. A big problem was always that natural products such as wood and cane were not o ...

When should you change a reed? Cane Reeds are extremely annoying. They are sent here to try our patience in more ways than one: You buy a box of reeds and it’s often the luck of the draw whether all, The post When to Change a Reed appeared first on ...

Care & Storage I find that reeds play best when wet, you can moisten them in your mouth for a while or soak them in a glass of water (some people recommend alcohol such as vodka). If you have the The post Reed maintenance & care appeared first on Tam ...

The Best Way to Hold a Reed On What do saxpophone ligatures do? A ligature clamps the reed to the mouthpiece. Think of this a bit like when you hold a ruler on the edge of a table and flick The post Saxophone Ligatures appeared first on Taming The Sa ...

Keep Your Saxophone Round Your Neck! Disclaimer: all products on this page have been supplied to me  as free review  samples. What makes a good saxophone strap/sling/holder? The most important thing on any saxophone strap is the hook. On older The ...

Not just cheap, it sounds good! Ingredients to make your own clipon microphone Realistic 33-1063 Electret Tie Pin Microphone (Radio Shack, Tandy) Deluxe Clothes peg Two small self tapping screws Strip of metal, e.g. brass, approx 8″ x 1/4″ Drill ...

Keep Your Horn in One Piece! Saxophone stands are more important than you might think. I learnt this as a guitarist, when my 3-year-old decide to walk into a cheap guitar stand. Problem was that the stand was holding an The post Saxophone Stands appe ...

The Deflector This is an amazingly simple concept which I’m very pleased to see available from the well established and highly reputable company from Switzerland, Jazzlabs. The reason I’m happy to see it made by Jazzlabs is that their products Th ...

Make your saxophone sound better? We know that apart from the actual saxophone, mouthpieces and reeds can make a difference to your sound. Many people think that ligatures, thumbrests, straphooks and other accessories also make a difference. When I f ...

Over the last few years we have seen a multitude of so-called sound enhancing accessories, from the Swing Chip to the leFreque, the Klangbogen to the Heavy Mass Neck Screw. Do they work or is it all in the mind? The post Sound Enhancement 2: The Soun ...

The Early Years of Saxophone History From the Story of the Saxophone The Middle Ages gave us a variety of new instruments and gradually the elements of the modern military band were gathered together. The development of these bands was encouraged Th ...

Science vs Common Sense Saxophones are mostly made from brass, which is an alloy mostly of copper and zinc. There are and have been slightly different combinations, and various other metals (e.g. lead) also included. Saxophones are also made from The ...

What Can Serial Numbers Tell Me? The main thing you learn from serial numbers is the age of the instrument of course. Although the dates in these charts are reasonably accurate, there may be some discrepancies for various reasons. Here The post Seria ...

Are vintage saxophones better than modern ones? Yes and no, “better” is very often subjective. It used to be the case that you could buy a professional quality vintage horn for much less than a professional quality new one, however The post Vinta ...

Here are a few of the strange and unusual instruments and accessories I have collected over the years. Some sound great, others not so. Maybe I’ll record some soundclips one day… Conn Clar-O-Sax – “A real musical instrument, not a The post In ...

This article is based on my experience playing the saxophone on recording sessions, and also recording saxophones while working as a producer/sound engineer sometimes alongside some of the best sound engineers in the world in some top studios. These ...

Who is this for and what do you need? This is for anyone who wants to make recordings of their playing (or singing) along with basic backing tracks. This isn’t meant to be an advanced or even complete tutorial on The post Mixing Saxophone appeared ...

Saxes for Sale – 5 things to watch out for:   1. Asking advice online People often ask on the forums or social media “what is the best saxophone?” hoping for an answer. Note I said “an answer” (singular). Unfortunately they tend to get ...

Lessons In the Beginners Saxophone Section: + More beginner stuff in the main Theory/Impro section: I have designed and developed all the online saxophone exercises, tutorials and lessons in this section over many years both as a professional recordi ...

The How, Why, What and Wheres of the Saxophone If you have any questions, please ask. The only stupid question is the one you are too scared to ask. The Cafe Saxophone forum is the ideal place. In the Beginners The post Beginners FAQs appeared first ...

The Taming The Saxophone Series of Studies Taming the Saxophone is a series of saxophone tutorials (there are more books, videos and DVDs planned). When you buy Taming The Saxophone Volume 2 you will also get special membership to private pages, The ...

This article tells you what you need to know to get started – fingering a few notes, making a sound and playing your first tune, along with a page of FAQs. Everything (almost) you need to know. The post Learn to Play Saxophone appeared first on Tam ...

For Absolute Beginners In this section on beginners saxophone we look specifically at useful stuff for beginners, but don’t be scared of delving into the other pages. Some may be a bit advanced but others can be very useful – The post First Steps ...

Why am I in a different key to the rest of the band? This is a very common question, especially from anyone who has just bought a saxophone, taught themselves a little bit and then decides to play along with some other musicians. It can be a big sho ...

Basic Fingering charts (no sharps or flats) First we have a couple of very basic fingering charts which show you the saxophone fingerings for the lower and upper register in the key of C. These are ideal for absolute beginners The post Fingering Char ...

In this program, Pete introduces beginners to the alto saxophone: the parts of the saxophone and how to assemble them, fitting the reed, posture and breathing, saxophone embouchure, holding and blowing into the saxophone, tuning, fingering, notes and ...

The best one for you Is the teacher a great player? A good teacher is not necessarily a great player, and conversely a great player could be a lousy teacher. The important thing is not just that the teacher can The post Find A Saxophone Teacher appea ...

What is R&B Saxophone? I really didn’t want to define rhythm & blues but I was sort of forced to do it when putting the vast page of R&B players together. Maybe it would have been easier to make it a list The post Rhythm & Blues Saxophone appeare ...