Beginner please advise me on major scale practice

[georgesax]

Dear Experienced saxophonists:

could you advise me on the practice of major scales? I have been learning saxophone for near two years. my daily practice routine is 30 minutes longtime and overtone, 1 hour major scale exercise and 30 minute for my chosen song. So far, I practice only 12 major scales on the whole range of the saxophone and Pete's warmup exercise 1-01 at page 3-5 of Taming the saxophone volume iii intermediate and advanced exercise and patterns. I found this practice routine is extremely effective.

At the moment, I can play any of the major scales or Pete's warmup at 120bpm and also learn to play a new song much quicker.

My goal is to improve my saxophone play skills, and is not to learn jazz theories or improvisation. So, I decide to work through Daily exercises for saxophone by Nilo W. Hovey. there are 16 same exercises for each major scale. I have two questions:

1. should I work on 16 exercises on one scale and then move on to the next scale or should I work on one exercise for all the major scales and then move on to the next exercise?

2. what is the reasonable bmp I should aim for? at the moment, I can play some major scales and Pete's warmup at 240bpm without mistakes, but cannot manage this pace for B, Db, Gb, E and Ab.

thanks for your help!

 

[Colin the Bear]

Just play the thing. Pick a tune. It's music not martial arts.
Compare it to painting with sound. Should I use red ? Should I use green? Should I paint circles? Should I paint squares?

Yes.

 

[jbtsax]

I would immerse myself in one key working on scales and exercises and then go to the next key that has only one flat or sharp difference---the one ahead of or following in the circle of 5ths. It really should be what you are the most comfortable with. I applaud your discipline and determination to learn to play the saxophone. Don't lose sight of the most important goal which is to learn to play music which is much more than just technical scales and exercises.

 

[mizmar]

Regarding 2... BPM. Although I also practice simple stuff at or above my personal maximum BPM in quarter or eighth notes (talking in 4/4), I reckon this is brain/ear training. It's also important to practice slowly, to practice - let's say - 2 beats / bar on 1,3 or 2,4 or 1 beat / bar and remain even, at slow speeds; equally to be thinking quarter, eighths, 16ths, triplets.

 

[turf3]

One suggestion and one advice.

Suggestion: there are 12 major scales. I do my practice by the day, so Sunday = A and A# (Bb), Monday = B and B# (C), Tuesday = C and C# (Db), etc. This way I don't have to remember what I was doing last time.,

Advice: 16 exercises per key seems like a lot. You probably won't get through them all if you are practicing effectively. That means starting out at a slow enough tempo that you can play the exercise without a mistake, then practicing at gradually increasing tempos until you can play at the fast tempo without a mistake.

"Mistake" doesn't just mean playing the wrong note. You want to scour out of your playing all finger bobbles, all unevenness of tone, all hiccups in keeping a good consistent strong tone. All note beginnings and endings should be done according to the style required, and consistently. Everything in time. Be able to play the exercise at all dynamic levels from ppp to fff; if there are dynamics (crescendo, dimenuendo) indicated, make sure they are executed consistently and firmly.

Exercises are designed to work a specific aspect of playing. It's important to get each exercise as perfect as possible before declaring it "done". It'll depend on how long each one is and how challenging to you at your present state of development to determine how many to work on at any given time. If you're practicing every day it's not unreasonable (in my opinion) to take two weeks to get a single exercise totally clean and up to speed, for the typical exercises I see in instructional books (I'm not familiar with the specific one you referenced).

 

[georgesax]

Thanks

 

[Halfers]

I have to take my hat off to your diligent approach to learning the sax. I hope it works well for you.

But don't forget to put all of that practice into use

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[Saxlicker]

George,
If you haven't already....
The cycle of 5th's and some improvisation (opps! I see thats not your aim but....) to backing tracks using it will join so many dots between your masses of hard work to date and freedom around the horn.
It make relationships between major and minor keys very easy to understand, and the way sharps and flats build, intervals and so much more.
Just test it and see how many minor scales you already know
2 very easy to understand vids then start looking at the relationship of 'Relative keys' You'll find you know a lot more than you think. Also can you see a standard triad in there for each key? (fill in the blank between the root and the 5th). And so on...Freedom is skill.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWAaJF9Wk0w

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1aJ6HixSe0&list=PLbasz8D9znuvUaFRviDRQmdu0355mCds4&index=1

 

[Pete Thomas]

My prefence is to concentrate on 3 or 4 scales at a time, e.g a week or two on just those three.

But make it one easy one, one or teo intermediate and one difficult.

I find that you can easily identify these using the root notes of a diminished chord (doesn't matter if you don't know what they are but worth finding out!)

So here they are:

• C Eb Gb A
• Db E G Bb
• D F Ab B

This gives the nice combo of easy intermediate tricky/

 

[Colin the Bear]

When working up unfamiliar keys, as well as mastering scales and arpeggios, I like to pick a tune in that key and play it by ear.

 

[georgesax]

George,
If you haven't already....
The cycle of 5th's and some improvisation (opps! I see thats not your aim but....) to backing tracks using it will join so many dots between your masses of hard work to date and freedom around the horn.
It make relationships between major and minor keys very easy to understand, and the way sharps and flats build, intervals and so much more.
Just test it and see how many minor scales you already know
2 very easy to understand vids then start looking at the relationship of 'Relative keys' You'll find you know a lot more than you think. Also can you see a standard triad in there for each key? (fill in the blank between the root and the 5th). And so on...Freedom is skill.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWAaJF9Wk0w

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1aJ6HixSe0&list=PLbasz8D9znuvUaFRviDRQmdu0355mCds4&index=1

thanks for your advice and sharing the videos

 

[georgesax]

My prefence is to concentrate on 3 or 4 scales at a time, e.g a week or two on just those three.

But make it one easy one, one or teo intermediate and one difficult.

I find that you can easily identify these using the root notes of a diminished chord (doesn't matter if you don't know what they are but worth finding out!)

So here they are:

• C Eb Gb A
• Db E G Bb
• D F Ab B

This gives the nice combo of easy intermediate tricky/

thanks Pete

 

[Pete Effamy]

Music is so vast that in some respects deciding what music you'd like to play most would be the best guide for your practice regime. For example, an instrumentalist that wanted to play lots of Mozart would be completely sunk without extensive work on the basic scale and arpeggio patterns. Mozart is one end of the spectrum and is very linear with extensive use of major and chromatic scales; major, dominant and minor arpeggios. If you look at Blues, for example, it isn't constructed in this way and whilst you are always improving your dexterity and knowledge with all structured practice, not all practice is focussed toward what you are likely to encounter in certain types of music.

The only point I'm making is that what you practice is best linked as much as possible to what you'd like to play, otherwise the answer is to try and practice "everything". Frequent sight reading is good, because it will show you any weakness and you can tailor some practise around that.

 

[georgesax]

Thanks a lot for your advice

 

[Pete Effamy]

Thanks a lot for your advice

Hi George, I'm not sure that it's helpful unless retrospectively, but worth a few thoughts.