Ready to boost your finger technique on saxophone?
I always focus on my finger speed in my saxophone practice, especially when I’m getting my playing back in shape after a break.
Those fingers can soon get stiff and sluggish, but I’ve got a warm up exercise for you that will soon get them flying! It’s called Chromatic Circles. Watch my demo.
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Tips for this finger speed exercise
There’s a few things going on here with this exercise.
Touching the keys
Try to keep your fingers as close to the keys as possible. If you can, try to have your fingers touching the keys.
Alternate Fingerings
Try to use alternate fingerings when you’re playing this exercise. When I’m playing around B flat, sometimes I’m using my bis key, Sometimes I’m playing the long B flat. You can try other alternate fingerings such as the side C.
If you’ve not explore alternate fingerings before, or you need a refresher, take a look at this blog post.
Iron our those glitches
Make sure you listen for any mistakes or stumbles when you’re playing and don’t ignore them. Iron those suckers out before moving on.
Start slow
It’s really important to start super-slow with this exercise. Only speed up when you can play the exercise perfectly. Be ruthless!
Whole range
Repeat this exercise, playing over your whole range on your saxophone, until you’re completely comfortable.
Then you’re ready for phase 5!
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Next steps
- Check out these 7 Chromatic Scale workouts to really test your finger speed and your breathing
- Have fun with this Fast Fingers Be-Bop Workout
- Learn more about scales for saxophone (and why you should learn them).
Explore the other exercises in my “getting back in shape” series here:
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