A Very Nice Daily Practice Regime (free)

[AndyB]

http://stores.lulu.com/ericdano

What do you experienced people think of this?

 

[half diminished]

http://stores.lulu.com/ericdano

What do you experienced people think of this?

Looks great value to me and something I will use parts of myself. Good find.

 

[AndyB]

Looks great value to me and something I will use parts of myself. Good find.

I was thinking of doing these every day and adding a couple of Pete's exercises daily and rotating through those a couple per day. They are really fantastic if you don't have them. But I am not skilled enough to make it through them all in one sitting.

 

[Moz]

http://stores.lulu.com/ericdano

What do you experienced people think of this?

As with all practice pieces it looks as dull as ditchwater but I'll give it a go. I use the books: 80 Graded Studies for Saxophone Books 1 and 2. They are still pretty dull but there are some tunes in them, if a little repetitive.

Martin

 

[half diminished]

As with all practice pieces it looks as dull as ditchwater but I'll give it a go. I use the books: 80 Graded Studies for Saxophone Books 1 and 2. They are still pretty dull but there are some tunes in them, if a little repetitive.

Martin

Focus on 'the outcome'. I'm just working on 2 scales at the moment with a view to improving my technique. It's what you make of it. I'm loving it!

 

[FastFred]

If I had to do that lot every day I would probably pack up sax tomorrow. My daily play is major scales, dorian minors and Abersold books. As someone who generally analyses everything to death my approach is now more playing by ear. Having spent a few months on major and minor by Aebersold, maiden voyage and the blues books I can now hear the keys/changes and improvise over them. As much as I would love to be able to learn in this 'perfect way' I am not convinced that at 46yrs of age this offers the best way forward. I guess the question is perhaps 'when is someone classed as a good sax player, when they know all the theory, scales and intervals or when it sounds good'?

 

[dooce]

If you think that looks scary, you should try Pete Thomas's "Taming the Saxophone Volume 3".

 

[AndyB]

If you think that looks scary, you should try Pete Thomas's "Taming the Saxophone Volume 3".

Do those differ from the 40+ PDF version of Pete's exercises? I have those.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Do those differ from the 40+ PDF version of Pete's exercises? I have those.

They are included, but there is a lot more stuff. If you bought the PDFs, there was a discount for Taming the Saxophone which you should have received details of..

 

[half diminished]

They are included, but there is a lot more stuff. If you bought the PDFs, there was a discount for Taming the Saxophone which you should have received details of..

Have to say the book is great though some of it is pretty advanced. Especially helpful to me are the 'Warm up Exercises' and other 'Scale Exercises'.

Unreservedly recommended.

 

[tengu01]

As someone who went through as much material as I could find online, printed it, holepunched it and stuck it in A4 ringbinders, then marvelled at how much stuff I'd accumulated, I recognise the Zinn Practice Regime from the jazz-sax.com website which I think is where Eric Dannowitz holds court.

I think it's perfectly good, legitimate practice material. If anyone actually sat and patiently mastered all the exercises, there is no way they could fail to improve. To maintain one's sanity however, this would have to be interspersed with stuff like cutting loose, having fun and jamming.

 

[SLoB]

Daily Practice Regime

During the tutorials of Jazz Academy our tutor Carlos took us through a suggested daily regime (based in part on David Liebman who he studied under). Depending on how long or how often you practice he suggested the following:

a few minutes on stretching exercises including head and neck (remember that playing the sax uses muscles and if not warmed or stretched they do not function as well)

a few minutes on breathing exercises - using diaphragm properly.

Up to 5 minutes on the mouthpiece (no sax) - this is practicing getting a reasonable sound and range from the mouthpiece. It is important that the embouchure is not changed and the pitch change is achieved by throat changes. He got over an octave and was able to play a tune on the mouthpiece.

up to 5 minutes on overtone exercises - helps with intonation and altissimo.

up to 30 minutes (min 5 minutes) on finger exercises. This is practising scales, arpeggios, intervals and patterns over the range of the sax. It is best to focus on only a couple of scales and chords at a time, probably focused on a particular piece you are wroking on.

Then he was very hot on doing transcriptions and suggested that around 50% of practice time be spent on this. Not only getting the notes right, but getting the correct tone, phrasing, etc, etc.

For those of us learning written pieces as well presumably this would be slotted in between finger exercises and transcribing.

Hope this is of some help.

Stephen

 

[AndyB]

Up to 5 minutes on the mouthpiece (no sax) - this is practicing getting a reasonable sound and range from the mouthpiece.

Thanks, Stephen. I had heard about the above and tried it, but I found the noise it makes unbearable. It hurts my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard. It must be the frequency that hurts. Don't know what to do about that.

 

[SLoB]

Thanks, Stephen. I had heard about the above and tried it, but I found the noise it makes unbearable. It hurts my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard. It must be the frequency that hurts. Don't know what to do about that.

Yes, it can be painful. If you do not get a discernable note his view was that your embouchure wasnot correct. Try minor adjustments until you get a note sounding. For example try loosening your embouchure if you get a squeek. Try not to blow too hard or too soft. Once you get a note then you can concentrate on dealing with the throat.

Sing an octave and feel how your throat changes. Play C2 on the sax and then C1 and feel how your throat changes. Play C2 and finger C1 whilst keeping your throat in the position for C2 and you should get C2 although fingering C1. This demonstrates how important the throat is to getting a good tone and intonation, etc.

Without a sax get anote on the mounthpiece and then change your throat position (not embouchure) and hear the pitch change. The more you do this the wider the range you can get and the theory is the better your control over tone and intonation and ability to get altissimo, etc, etc.

I have not got far with this myself, but will continue trying because I suspect this is good for me and will help.

 

[half diminished]

During the tutorials of Jazz Academy our tutor Carlos took us through a suggested daily regime (based in part on David Liebman who he studied under). Depending on how long or how often you practice he suggested the following:

up to 30 minutes (min 5 minutes) on finger exercises. This is practising scales, arpeggios, intervals and patterns over the range of the sax. It is best to focus on only a couple of scales and chords at a time, probably focused on a particular piece you are wroking on.

Then he was very hot on doing transcriptions and suggested that around 50% of practice time be spent on this. Not only getting the notes right, but getting the correct tone, phrasing, etc, etc.

For those of us learning written pieces as well presumably this would be slotted in between finger exercises and transcribing.

Hope this is of some help.

Stephen

Pretty much what Karen has me working on.

G & F major, just moving to D & Bb for finger exercises. Also a Lennie Niehaus piece for articulation/reading.

Transcribing 'Three O Clock In the Morning' by Dexter Gordon

 

[AndyB]

Yes, it can be painful. If you do not get a discernable note his view was that your embouchure wasnot correct. Try minor adjustments until you get a note sounding. For example try loosening your embouchure if you get a squeek. Try not to blow too hard or too soft. Once you get a note then you can concentrate on dealing with the throat.

Sing an octave and feel how your throat changes. Play C2 on the sax and then C1 and feel how your throat changes. Play C2 and finger C1 whilst keeping your throat in the position for C2 and you should get C2 although fingering C1. This demonstrates how important the throat is to getting a good tone and intonation, etc.
.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGBL5QDtCQM

Oh, I've been through the exercise and I can play a steady G or A or whatever. I just really hate the sound of the mouthpiece w/o the horn. Can't make myself bear it. I hate that sound. Seven screaming two-year olds couldn't be more obnoxious. lol

 

[AndyB]

Mouthpiece Exercises: David Liebman to the rescue

Here's what David Liebman says about the silencer:

"The world is full of surprises - people come up with something for everything. I have always told my students that when they practice on the mouthpiece alone (the first thing every day), be sure that no one they like is close by because the sound is beyond description. But Jazzlab has come up with a solution making this very important exercise doable in almost any situation. Great invention!!"

Sounds like a good investment.