I’ve got a fun saxophone warm-up for you in the style of DJ Sax or House Sax.
House Sax, or DJ Sax is such a cool style of playing, and it’s something we’re digging into with our members this month inside Sax School. We’ve had an awesome master class with a great California DJ Sax artist called Jason Whitmore, and we’re joining in with a DJ Sax Challenge in our Sax School Community.
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I’ve a free PDF, and a practice track for you for this lesson. All of our free PDFs and practice tracks are available inside the Sax school LOCKER.
It’s completely free and you can find it on the Courses page of our website – or click the button below to get it now.
Free PDF & Practice Track inside Locker
Why learn this DJ House Sax Warm-up
This is a warm-up that you can use over and over. And even if you’re not into DJ Sax or House Sax, you’ll love this because it’ll just push you a little bit out of your comfort zone.
I’m going to demonstrate on alto saxophone, but you could also use tenor, or soprano, or bari sax. This warmup will get our fingers going, getting our mouth going and having a bit of fun, and building up our pentatonic familiarity.
For this warm-up we’re going to work through a pentatonic pattern. This is exactly the sort of thing that you might use when you’re playing through a DJ Sax or a House Sax track, or any sort of pop or commercial style.
We’re using a melody block, or lick in this warmup today that’s from our the Four DJ Sax Licks lesson from our YouTube Channel. You can find it on our blog here. Check it out because there’s some great information in there that you can use when playing in this style.
The Major Pentatonic Scale
Everything that we’re playing today is going to be based on this pentatonic.
For alto saxophone, it’s a D major pentatonic which is D, E, F sharp, A, B, and then D on the top.
Or if you’re on a tenor saxophone, it’s the G major pentatonic scale which is G, A, B, D, E, and G. Of course, you can play that over your whole range.
Free PDF & Practice Track inside Locker
Now I’ll play the track and you can hear what it sounds like. Then we can get started.
Warm-Up #1: Four Count Notes
Now, we’re going to work through a whole bunch of four-bar phrases. We’re going to start with this first one where we’re just doing the root note and the fifth note, four counts on each note. Thinking about getting your embouchure warmed-up, a nice, solid tone, and really good intonation.
Warm-Up #2: In Two Count Notes
For the next warm-up, we’re going to move into half count notes, that’s minims or two count notes, and we’re going to do the same rough pattern, so the root and the fifth, going all the way up to high D.
I love this sort exercise. You’ve got to try and keep your embouchure set though, and think about your intonation. Because when we jump back down to that low note and then up to the very high note, it’s a real stress for our embouchure. It’s a great workout. I’d suggest doing that over and over as many times as you can.
Warm-Up #3: Descending Pattern
Let’s go on to the next exercise. So in this time in this exercise, we’re going to move in a descending pattern through the pentatonic, just in a four note grouping. We’re going to do two of them. Try to keep your fingers close to the keys, and go for a nice full sound.
Warm-Up #4: In Eighth Notes
This time we’re going to do the same four note descending pattern, but we’re going to double the speed up. So now we’re in eighth notes or quavers. Keep your fingers close to those keys.
Warm-Up #5: In 16th Notes or Semiquavers
Are you ready for a challenge this time? We’re going to double it up, so we’re going to do 16th notes or semiquavers. We’ve got to keep those fingers close to those keys.
Warm-Up #6: Descending Pattern over a House Track
Excellent. Now we’re going to just take us to the final step here. Let’s see if we can use that descending four note pattern as a line that we might use if we were playing over a House track. So we’re going to join them together and make it a bit fun. If you want to, sit out the first time through and listen to the way I play it. We’re going to go through it four times.
Warm-Up #7: Ascending Pattern with Grace Notes
Let’s mix it up a little bit now. We’re going to look at a new line. This time, it’s a simple ascending line, but we’re going to use some grace notes. If you find the grace notes challenging, leave them out. Just concentrate on the main notes. Let’s start on the F sharp for the alto or the B for tenor.
Warm-Up#8: Ascending Pattern over a House Track
Let’s have some fun out with that pattern. We’re going to use it as if we might be playing over a House track. So, we’re going to mix it up, and go a little bit faster. We’ll play in through four times.
Warm-Up #9: House Sax Jam session
Just to finish off now, we’re going to combine all of those ideas that we’ve just used, and have a bit of a jam.
So, I’ll do two bars, then you can do two bars. Keep it simple, but use some of those ideas that we’ve already been using in these warm-ups and just see what you come up with. Now, remember, you don’t have to copy me exactly. I just want you to use what I’m playing as a bit of inspiration as you come up with your own ideas.
What’s next?
How did you get on with that? I hope you had fun. Well done if you made it through to the end was me, but it’s okay if you found some of those lines a bit tricky because that’s why we practice, right? So we can get better at the things that we find difficult.
So what I suggest you do is make sure you download the PDF and grab that backing track, and then work through each of these exercises as many times as you need to in your daily warm-up, until you can get your fingers really flying over those patterns, along with the groove.
Free PDF & Practice Track inside Locker
It’s really important that you listen to the backing track, and you keep as locked in with that drum and bass pattern as you can. And then also experiment with making up your ideas, using the ideas that have been written out in the page there as inspiration. Create your amazing lines using that pentatonic mode.
And you can do all sorts of stuff, going up and down the range, breaking up those four-note patterns. You know, I’m sure there are a million different things. You could practice that for years and still come up with something new.
So have some fun with that. Don’t forget – you can check it out on the tenor or the bari, or soprano. It’ll work on any saxophone.
Final thoughts
If you want to dig in further with this House Sax or DJ Sax, or any other style, Start today with Sax School!
You can try out some lessons, and get some help from the tutors. You can connect with our amazing Community of thousands of learners, and you can join one of our live masterclasses as well. There are tons to keep you busy. It’s a great way to explore what’s happening in Sax School.
But most importantly have loads of fun on your saxophone.