Saxophone beginners Where do I start?

[geg1700]

I have just received the O'Niel book (revised edition) in the post today and will be sitting down to read it for most of the evening. Dave Koz is on the ipad and I'm downloading the MP3's mentioned in the book, then I'm not stirring from the chair.

I'm a teacher of adults and the author of some books and other teaching materials and It looks like it's going a very enjoyable and instructive read. I have others but this strikes me as being potentially the one that moves me forward.

Even though I can read music fairly well and I've been playing for a few months I'm going to work through every page to make sure I don't miss something important - or overlook something useful becuase I think I already know about it.

Great, good luck! 🙂

 

[Herbie_29]

Hi Herbie, John Oneil is actually my teacher and he has helped me tremendously over the last couple of years. Depending on where you live, I could give you his details? He is an excellent teacher 🙂

That sounds very very interesting. It would be my pleasure to meet John Oneille but I think I won't be able to do that as I am migrating to United States early to mid next year. I have been here in England for four years and I think I need to move on to be able to practice my profession which is a registered nurse. Healthcare and music is totally different but that's where the excitement begins when you decided to shift your life to something new that you really like innit? 🙂

Anyways, thanks for that information. It's much appreciated.

Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

 

[Sinne]

Hey Herbie,

Welcome to the Café! I started at 24 years old 3 months ago and although I am by no means experienced enough to give you better advice than all the above, here's my little contrib:

1: Hang around on the café! Ask anything you want, the guys here are fantastic, helpful and honest, a lot of wisdom can be found in the threads here.

2: It's been said a zillion times but getting a teacher ASAP is great advice... After two weeks of completely failing I started private lessons with a very good teacher and it's such a great experience!

3: There's just no way of getting to know jazz better than talking to a jazzdoc, getting a prescription and play that stuff. I like sitting down on the couch with an LP on and LISTENING, listening to every musician, their interplay, all the details, even if it doesn't make sense at first. At some point I got so hungry I had to listen like that every day for 3 years before I even started playing the sax... Be prepared to go a little crazy if you feel the hunger ;-)

 

[Herbie_29]

Hey Herbie,

Welcome to the Café! I started at 24 years old 3 months ago and although I am by no means experienced enough to give you better advice than all the above, here's my little contrib:

1: Hang around on the café! Ask anything you want, the guys here are fantastic, helpful and honest, a lot of wisdom can be found in the threads here.

2: It's been said a zillion times but getting a teacher ASAP is great advice... After two weeks of completely failing I started private lessons with a very good teacher and it's such a great experience!

3: There's just no way of getting to know jazz better than talking to a jazzdoc, getting a prescription and play that stuff. I like sitting down on the couch with an LP on and LISTENING, listening to every musician, their interplay, all the details, even if it doesn't make sense at first. At some point I got so hungry I had to listen like that every day for 3 years before I even started playing the sax... Be prepared to go a little crazy if you feel the hunger ;-)

Thanks a lot Sinne!

 

[ProfJames]

Get a tutor!!!! It is not only the best thing for learning but also a lot of fun!!!!!

 

[aldevis]

Welcome to the Cafe Herbie.
One of the advantages of living in London is that you can have the opportunity of listening to some great live music.
Keep an eye on jazzinlondon.net

Sometimes I advertise here gigs I am involved in.

 

[flukeyluke]

getting a few lessons with a teacher may be a good idea but imo you can learn ALOT on your own,im a noob still but i would say one of the most important things of all is learning your scales,start with the major and play it up and down over and over,focus on getting every single note perfect 🙂 then learn your intervals in that scale eg perfect 5th,a third etc etc.

like i said im a noob (have played alto for 3 months and been away from the sax for a while but im back 🙂 ) but scales are VERY important part of learning,at the end of a session maybe try to improvise using the scale you are learning so you dont get bored,also i would say (as a noob) use your EAR,when i had a few lessons to start with (had about 6) my teacher was learning me from a book and we came to happy birthday,she told me to play it (never had before) and i closed the book and played it by ear,it was quite easy as it was in the major scale and where i had played that scale so much the sound of the notes and where they were was sort of built into my subconcious,my sax teacher was impressed 🙂

like i said im a complete noob(and have nowhere near as much knowladge as others replying in this thread but this is what ive gathered so far,reading music is important to but playing by ear is a very good thing to have under your belt imo 🙂

im not that good at any lol but one day hope to be good at playing by ear and reading music,

 

[saxnik]

Flukeyluke you're right of course, you have to learn *everything* on your own ultimately, but the teacher can show you a sensible order in which to learn. Makes the process quicker 😉
Playing by ear is essential for improv in particular but not everyone finds it easy to begin with. Sounds like you've got a bit of an aptitude for it so definitely push in that direction, and keep up with the scales too - again you've got it right to focus on them since they are the building blocks that make up pretty much all (western) music.
Keep up the good work!
Nick

 

[Saxdiva]

Hi Flukeyluke, you're obviously very focused and it's great that you realise the benefits of scales and arpeggios. Long tones are great too, as well as mouthpiece only exercises to help you with the tongue/throat changes needed for different sounds - as long as the neighbourhood cats can stand it when you hit the high notes.🙂

I must say, I got a bit bored with lessons at one point and took several months out to focus on scales and associated stuff. I got bored with that and went to a new teacher. Nick is spot on in that a good one will teach you an order to learn things in that will speed up your learning. I didn't link scales/modes/chords in my mind for ages. One session with the teacher and it all made sense. He helped me play overtones and altissimo much earlier than I would have done working alone (I may never have got there!)

Enjoy yourself!

 

[flukeyluke]

im not claiming to be good,im basically at the very beginning of my sax journey and sound acceptable 50% of the time lol i do agree a GOOD teacher is a very good thing to have but the one i had basically opened a book that you can buy in any music shop and took me through it step by step and page by page,something i could/can do for myself,she didnt answer many of my questions and i even taught her that to remember your perfect 5th just think starwars.

i was very disappointed with her and for £25 per hr didnt feel like i was getting what i signed up for 🙁 i WOULD consider getting a teacher again (and may very well do at some point) but i would like one that teaches me THERE methods and the best way of learning,not just from an off the shelf book.

i think i will defo need someone at least that knows what there doing to teach me the VERY high notes as cant hit them lol ive tried but cant for the life of me get a tone haha

i love learning the sax and think its the best instrument ive ever played 🙂 (or tried to 🙂 lol )

 

[Saxdiva]

I know what you mean about going through a book. Awful. I had a drum teacher years ago who made me read aloud from the page as though I was 10 years old.

My teacher doesn't teach from books. He introduces a concept to work on and teaches me really great stuff whilst just checking I'm practising the basics on my own. I have been able to play all the way up and down from when I started a year ago, but I only started overtones about 4 weeks ago and altissimo a couple of weeks.

I do lots of work on long tones and mouthpiece exercises, using a keyboard for the latter to check my tone playing scales, intervals and tunes. It was a real challenge but soon gets easier and really rewarding. It gives you so much more control over the sax - can't wait to get even better.

Yep, a good teacher when you find one will be fantastic.

 

[aldevis]

I had a drum teacher years ago who made me read aloud from the page

He always wanted to know what was written on it.... drummers.....

My teacher doesn't teach from books. He introduces a concept to work on and teaches me really great stuff whilst just checking I'm practising the basics on my own.

It only works with good students. There are students that prefer one step at a time, with you listening to all the scales.
I have been trying to write something more definitive for my students (pages and pages of drafts in my computer) but maybe there isn't a book that works for everyone.

 

[Jeanette]

It only works with good students. There are students that prefer one step at a time, with you listening to all the scales.
I have been trying to write something more definitive for my students (pages and pages of drafts in my computer) but maybe there isn't a book that works for everyone.

therein lies the problem, all students are different and have different expectations a good the teacher will recognise their strengths and weaknesses and adapt lessons accordingly.

That said I am sure there are a lot of common issues that can be resolved with each student the same way but sometimes you may have to be more inventive if something isn't getting through to them.

Jx

 

[kevgermany]

I'm now dictating the speed and direction of my lessons. tutor's OK with this and also makes comments about what we need to work on. It's going well. part of the problem was getting stuck on a particular tutorial, which I found too boring to be the main direction. Now we work on that a little, and do some fun stuff as well as other serious learning.

 

[aldevis]

and do some fun stuff as well as other serious learning.

Time to be on IOTM then....

 

[Saxdiva]

It only works with good students.

Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment. 😉

I see what you mean about learning preferences. I suspect my teacher manages to teach at the right pace and level to suit each individual, and I'm sure loads of others do too. The book progression is not for me.

Kev has told his teacher what he wants, and his teacher is flexible enough to do that. More students should do that and I guess it would help a lot. Sometimes it must be difficult for a teacher to find a student's preference, especially early on.