Playing Looking for ideas for saxophone camp

[btillman]

[ADMIN EDIT: copied from Doorbell intro]

Looking for ideas for an upcoming Saxophone Camp I'm teaching in a few weeks. Very impressed with the site and with some of the threads I've read.

 

[Woodpad]

As a warm up exercise:

play a recording of some chord progressions. Then play that chord progression as a group. Make a recording and discuss if and how they can improve. It is a great exercise for balance and knowing your function in a section.

 

[btillman]

The Saxophone Camp is made up of about 15 students, from 6th grade "second year" players up through a couple of recent grads on their way to Angelo State to be in the band program there. My two topics for my "sax talk" are "Improvisation for Dummies" (which is what led me to this forum - I've already gotten some great ideas for my talk) and "Making the Most of Your Equipment" (without breaking the bank. Extending reed life. Plastic vs wood reeds. The value of a good mouthpiece even on a "beginner" horn. That sort of thing)
Looking forward to learning a lot here!

 

[Pete Thomas]

As a warm up exercise:

play a recording of some chord progressions. Then play that chord progression as a group. Make a recording and discuss if and how they can improve. It is a great exercise for balance and knowing your function in a section.

As a warm up to the warm up exercise:

Saxophone Warmup Exercise

E

tamingthesaxophone.com

The 6th graders may need a bit of prep and/or just stick to easy keys.

 

[skeller047]

For your reed prep lecture, the two most important things for reed life are rotation and using a decent reed case (NOT the plastic thingies they come in). The cheap and colorful D’Addario reed cases are great.

After that you can get on to flattening the back and adjusting for strength and balance. Stress using play tests for reed adjustment - holding them up to the light or flexing them with your fingertip aren’t very good ways to judge a reed.

 

[Pete Thomas]

the two most important things for reed life are rotation

I agree with that. Partly because many many years ago I mentioned on SOTW that I thought it wasn't necessary and I received a death threat via PM for saying that.

I know @skeller047 looks affable enough but I am keeping on the safe side 🙂

 

[thomsax]

Ask the participants? You already have some ideas.

Is the camp running over several days?

Cover any particular genres/themes?

Don't talk too much - the students want to play.

Think more workshop, less lecture.

 

[Pete Thomas]

As a warm up to the warm up exercise:

Saxophone Warmup Exercise

E

tamingthesaxophone.com

I should add that I was introduced to this as a thing to do without reading it, ie the instructor explained how it worked in a simple key and we followed. Doing this via reading it is almost less than useless. So it's better to keep it really simple but doable by ear or brain e.g. just the key of C. Thinking about it maybe too advanced for your grade 6 but you decide.

 

[skeller047]

I agree with that. Partly because many many years ago I mentioned on SOTW that I thought it wasn't necessary and I received a death threat via PM for saying that.

I know @skeller047 looks affable enough but I am keeping on the safe side 🙂

Rotation being important I learned the hard way. Like after playing a reed for 6 weeks (it was a GREAT reed) then having to acclimate to a new one, which seemed so hard now!

Regarding death threats, they won’t come from me. But I know some guys…

 

[ESJohn]

Saxophone anatomy and nomenclature 101. When I played in high school, I had no idea what all of those extra keys were all about. It's not exciting, but it helps one to speak the language.

 

[Wade Cornell]

The Suzuki technique of teaching is about learning to play as one would learn language as a child, and mainly applied to very young (3 to 5 year olds), however can have benefits for any age learner. It's initially 100% playing by ear so that the instrument becomes a "voice" for that person. Hearing music, then being able to repeat it without visual references has enormous value. If everything is referenced to visual (reading) or playing rote chord tones and arpeggios as improvisation, then there is nothing of the player in what they play. Is it hard to do? Well the 3 to 5 year olds don't know better, so seem to be able to do this readily!

Exercises like singing a line you intend to play then executing it on your instrument is another good exercise. It's about making the connection between you and the instrument to where it becomes your voice.

Other exercises: sing a simple tune (nursery rhyme) then play it. Play it as variations, play a harmony (could use two players). For more advanced players put on a backing track (not too difficult) that they are NOT familiar with for them to play a lead line/melody to... without giving the chord chart (played by ear).

I know these may all seem difficult, yet it's a different path towards becoming a very proficient player that is NOT dependent on just memorizing licks and arpeggios to string together. It's a way to become a player who listens, understands, and immerses themselves in music rather than standing outside the music using visual clues to try and fit into the music. It's immersion and can allow talented players to advance very quickly. By comparison visually intellectualizing one's playing can take years before a talented player becomes a real musician.

A music camp is the perfect place for an "immersion" experience as the players will tend to work off each other and gain an understanding much faster. This is also a bedrock of the "Suzuki" method which uses groups of students. The surprising thing you may find is that the younger students catch on faster, so the age differences are less of an issue.

 

[dexdex]

I’d expect a camp to emphasize interplay more than individual stuff. Introduction to band work, improvisation, sight reading, listen, transcribe, etc…
I’ve attended a local summer camp only once, but remember preparing and performing a concert.

 

[Pete Effamy]

Hearing music, then being able to repeat it

Yes this is so important for a musician, as opposed to someone who just reads the music and switches their brain off. It’s bad enough for classical based music (where the music provides so much information) but for other types of music, so much of the language isn’t able to be notated.

Hearing notes and having a good idea of where they are on your instrument is a great skill to master - too many don’t even realise that they should be trying to develop this.

 

[Woodpad]

Regarding death threats, they won’t come from me. But I know some guys…

Still no dead threats for the acid reed experiment. I played one yesterday and it was the best sounding reed in the rotation of my 4 piece metal la Voz reed guard.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

Duets are wunderbar.
That's what many of us did, at just about every lesson, once we could play, even a wee bit.
A Duet book, like the one shown, is a great start.
You can have two senior students play first, then have one sit out, then a younger one sits in. Each student plays twice, one time on each part, as you rotate students.
Great for sight reading, or study first, and learn to develop dynamics etc etc.
Buy each student a book or copy the ones you think are important, and hand them out.

I always went over the chromatic scale, how we get the major scales and how we get the chords from the major scale.
We did C major, then F and G, then the students would write out all the major scales and chords on looseleaf paper.
That was accomplished on the first or second lesson. When I taught adult ed guitar, kept them busy while I tuned 40 plus guitars, and evaluated their playability.
Sent many to Ash in Brooklyn or Silver & Horland, over the bridge.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

Deleted.
Thought for educational purposes, some music was allowed.