Flute teacher Susan is an accomplished musician, but it was one of her students who inspired her to pick up her saxophone and start having fun!
Susan is our October Sax School Legend. Find out how Sax School inspires Susan to create amazing “multisax” saxophone videos.
A little saxophone
Susanne has been a flute teacher for many years. She studied music at the famous Trinity College in London, then trained for a year to be a peripatetic woodwind teacher. (This is a specialist music teacher who moves around different schools teaching woodwind instruments).
“As part of teacher training we had a “crash course” on clarinet and saxophone. We learned on really terrible instruments – the kind you find in the school music cupboard!” says Susan. “It culminated in a concert with us all playing something that wasn’t our “proper” instrument. So I had dabbled with playing saxophone.”
Finding Sax School
Susan was teaching classical saxophone to one of her students, but he told her he wanted to learn to play pop. “He pulled out his phone and a bluetooth speaker and started playing along to a Whitney Houston song. And I thought – that sounds like much more fun!” explains Susan. “I started looking for more music for him, and I got hooked on playing it myself too.” Searching online, Susan discovered Sax School.
Making saxophone videos
Susan has really wowed us with her amazing saxophone videos which she has shared in our Sax School Community. From classical Slavonic Dances to pop tracks such as Billy Jean and Mr Blue Sky, Susan’s videos don’t just feature her sax playing, but also drums, keyboards, and flute.
Susan also creates “multisax” videos, playing alto, tenor baritone and soprano saxophones – with an original backing track too! “I take a choir arrangement and transcribe it for saxophone,” explains Susan. “Then I record each part on my aerophone. This creates a guide track. I record myself playing along to this guide track on the saxophone, for each part.”
Susan also shared a super-cool Groove track which she created by looping a drum track, then chords, then building up the sound layer by layer. Inspiring stuff!
Embouchure Challenge
Moving between flute and sax can be a challenge for the embouchure, but Susan never found this a problem. “If I play saxophone then flute straight after I just need a few a long notes to get back into it,” she explains.
How saxophone videos improve your sound
As well as being fun and inspiring others, Susan finds recording and creating videos really improves her saxophone sound. “It’s a great idea to listen to yourself on a recording,” she says. “Even if it’s just recorded on a smartphone, it really helps to improve your tuning.”
Susan’s Tips for new saxophone learners
- Work through the lessons in Sax School
- You can get really good results by just playing for a few minutes each day
- Don’t be too hard on yourself – relax and enjoy it!
We love seeing Susan’s amazing videos and we know they really inspire other Sax School members. We can’t wait to see what she creates next. Congratulations to Susan on being our October Legend!
Want to have fun learning saxophone like Susan? Find out more here.