We all know that the only way to improve playing the saxophone, or any other instrument, or anything, is by putting in the work, and practice.
But when it comes to practicing saxophone, it’s not that simple. Everyone is busy. We all have so much going on. There’s work, family, running errands, and of course, keeping up your favourite TV show (mine is the Great British Bake Off. )
Time to practice
One of the topics that come up all of the time in Sax School is how to find the time to practice and how to make that time for practicing saxophone count.
So, if you’re interested in getting some tips to help you organize and elevate your practice routine, stick around.
I’m Fred Vigdor and I’ve spent decades touring with the Average White Band.
This session here is just a snippet from the full masterclass that I did on practice techniques for our members inside Sax School. If you’re curious to see the whole session, and also to see how we’re helping thousands of sax players just like you, click the link below to get the 14 day free trial.
Common sense tips
We’re going to talk about some of the strategies I’ve learned over the million years that I’ve been playing the saxophone. I spent many wasted hours in practice rooms, practicing the wrong stuff or practicing the right stuff in the wrong way. So I’d like to share with you some of the things I wish I’d known about practicing saxophone, when I started.
Some of these tips are things you already know because they’re just common sense, but sometimes you need to hear someone else say them before they’ll sink in. So, I’m here to say them. Here we go.
Set Goals
The most important things, if you want to be successful when it comes to practicing saxophone, are clear, achievable goals.
As the saying goes, if you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time. So having goals is number one.
Write down these goals either on a whiteboard in your practice space or a notebook. When goals are taken out of your head and put into physical reality where you can see them written down, it helps to hold you accountable. It helps you stay motivated toward achieving them.
SMART Goals
People who study this kind of stuff have come up with an acronym. And who doesn’t love a good acronym? The SMART goal.
SMART stands for:
- Specific,
- Measurable,
- Attainable,
- Relevant,
- Timely.
What do those steps mean and how do we apply them to practicing saxophone? Let’s go through the steps.
Specific
Specific goals have a desired outcome that is clearly understood.
Goals like, “I want to be a better sax player” or “I want to learn to play jazz” are admirable, but they’re not specific. Because of course we all want to be better sax players, but how do we assess that goal?
A more specific goal would be “I want to memorize the major scales in two octaves in all 12 keys.”
That is specific.
Measurable
You need to have a measurable objective so that you can track your progress. So let’s drill down on our previous goal.
How do we make that goal a measurable one? You could say, “I want to be able to play the major scales from memory in all 12 keys in eighth notes, quavers, at a minimum of 80 beats per minute.”
That is measurable.
Practice Principles
All of these practice principles apply no matter what style of music you want to play. Jazz, pop, classical, funk, whatever you’re into. And if you want to improve in that style, or even learn a new style, Come and check out Sax School Online. We have thousands of lessons in all styles. So come and join us. Just click the link below. There’s a 14-day free trial running right now.
Attainable
Goals need to be realistic to maintain the enthusiasm to try to achieve them.
So setting lofty goals is good, but you may want to break them down into smaller bite-sized chunks. So let’s drill down more and make that goal more realistic and achievable.
“I will practice major scales in four keys per day for 20 minutes.”
Now this is certainly attainable.
Relevant
Don’t set goals just as an exercise for something to do. Think about what’s important in your development as a musician at this time. Consider why this particular task is relevant to your improvement.
“I want to be comfortable with all the keys. So being able to play major scales in 12 keys is essential.”
Timely
All goals should have a deadline. A goal without a deadline doesn’t do very much. How can you identify success or failure? This is why SMART goals have a final date.
Let’s say “I want to memorize major scales in eighth notes at a minimum of 80 beats per minute in 12 keys within four months.”
Now that is a specific, measurable, attainable, relevant goal with a deadline.
Evaluate your progress
Now this doesn’t mean that after four months you’ve failed if you haven’t achieved this goal. It just means that you can evaluate how far you’ve come and then you can set new goals. And then the process continues.
Your practice routine should be made up of several different goals like this in different areas of your practice.
And this leads us to organize.
Get Organized
Having a structure for your practice session will save you the “what should I work on” the question, which has certainly had me spinning my wheels on more than one occasion.
Now you can use one of the practice plans we have in Sax School. Or you can just remember the three Ts and divide your practice into these three main elements.
Tone
The tone section of your practice would consist of long tones, overtones, or playing on just the mouthpiece. All these are important exercises which strengthen your embouchure and improve your intonation and sound. Plus they have the added benefit of annoying your neighbours.
Tone practice should be about 20 per cent of your practice time. So if you practice for an hour, 12 minutes would be tone exercises.
Using a tuner
Now a note about using a tuner. Playing in tune is something we all should strive for. But some people spend a little too much time obsessed with that green smiley face on the Tonal Energy Tuner, (a great app, by the way.)
But learning to play in tune is a lifelong pursuit. And intonation is not just an abstract thing. It’s about learning to play in tune with other musicians.
The best use of your practice time for intonation is using a drone or the tone generator feature of the TE Tuner to practice matching pitch.
If you’re interested in digging deeper with the TE Tuner, we have an extensive video tutorial inside Sax School, with some useful exercises to help you get the most out of the app. You can click on the link below to check out the 14-day free trial.
Technique
The next T is technique. Technical exercises can be scales, arpeggios or patterns of any kind. These are all types of exercises to improve your technique. We have a large collection of them inside Sax School, and they all have one thing in common.
Technical exercises should be practiced slowly using a metronome. Aim for accuracy, not speed.
Tunes
The tunes part of your practice could be working on learning or memorizing songs for gigs. It could be memorizing standard tunes to increase your repertoire, or maybe working on chord progressions.
The tunes heading also encompasses another element that also coincidentally starts with T.
Transcription
Now this is an important one and it should almost have its heading, but check this out. A great way to learn a tune is with transcription.
Now by transcription, I mean learning from a recording. You could write it down. Or even better, you could learn it by ear and commit it to memory without writing it down. This is a great way to learn a tune or a horn part off of a record. And it helps improve your ear and your memory.
Getting started with transcribing
Now perhaps you’ve never done any transcription before and it’s a little intimidating. Well, have you ever heard the joke, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
You don’t need to start out transcribing a whole song or an entire solo.
You can start with one measure or a short phrase. It might take a while, but you work it out bite by bite. And you’ll get there.
Transcription is a skill that takes time to develop, but it is an invaluable skill.
Transcribing great solos
Another way transcription helps you learn tunes is by transcribing a recorded solo by one of the greats over a chord progression of a tune you’re learning.
So, you’re learning the blues progression. Well, there are thousands of recordings of great saxophonists, improvising over the blues. Some solos are complex, but a lot of them are just simple, grooving solos. And that is a great place to start.
And all kinds of apps can slow down audio without affecting the pitch. So find a solo you like and go to town.
Satisfaction
For me, one of the best parts of transcribing is that it’s instant gratification. It’s a great feeling to finish a practice session and have learned even four new measures of a tune or a solo, and that motivates you to do more the next day.
Oh, by the way, Elephant. Tastes a lot like chicken.
Time for fun
So you’ve got tone for 20%, technique for 40%, tunes and transcription for 40%. That brings us to 100%.
Now, after you’ve worked on these areas, have some fun. Spend some time playing whatever you feel like. Play something new, or something you’re already good at. Play anything you want. Remember what all of this is about – enjoying playing the saxophone. So take some time and just play.
Keep a Record
In addition to keeping track of your goals and where you want to go in the future, it’s also useful to keep a record of what you’re currently working on. This helps you track your progress.
Call it a practice journal, a log, a diary, or a notebook. You can use music paper, notebook paper, print out a spreadsheet, or we even have a practice planner that you can download inside Sax School.
There are even apps made specifically to document your progress which you’re practicing saxophone. I like to use one called Modacity.
But the point is to keep a record. It can be as simple as writing down:
- the exercise
- the date you began working on it
- the tempo
- how long you spent on it during that session
- what problems you’ve had in your practice
- what needs improvement on that exercise.
There’s no standard template for a practice notebook. Whatever works for you is fine. The idea is to keep a record.
Michael Brecker’s Practice Journal
Here’s a look at a couple of pages of the practice notebooks of one of the greatest saxophonists ever, Michael Brecker. The notebooks were recently re-engraved and published into this. And it’s a very insightful look into an incredible musician’s practice habits and development.
Check it out for some ideas on how you can keep track of your development, and maybe even some inspiration on what you should work on.
Being able to see your progress written down will help to keep you motivated. And years from now, when you become a famous saxophonist, music historians will have documentation of your development.
Record Yourself
While we’re on the subject of documenting, listening critically to your playing is essential to improving. The best way to do this is by recording yourself, either on audio or video.
Since most people have access to a smartphone, there’s not much excuse not to be recording your practice sessions all the time.
Recording yourself allows you to hear yourself as others hear you. When we’re practicing and in the heat of battle, focusing on the music and everything else that it takes to play the sax, you don’t hear or see what’s going on.
And just like when you hear your voice recorded, It can be a bit surprising. It might even be a little cringeworthy. But it’s invaluable in improving all aspects of your playing.
Under the microscope
You can look at your finger position and your posture. And you can listen to your tone, your articulation, and your technical accuracy.
It helps to put your playing under a microscope, which is going to help you improve.
You don’t have to record a whole practice session. Just record yourself practicing saxophone in a 5 or 10-minute block a couple of times a week.
Then set aside some time to listen to it. You can even take notes. What sounds good? What needs improvement?
Getting comfortable with recording
There are a couple of other benefits when it comes to recording yourself, especially with video recording. The more you record yourself, the more comfortable you’ll get.
Here in Sax School, we have something called a Spotlight Session. That’s where our members record themselves playing a piece and then our tutors view it and give feedback.
I hear from lots of members saying they wish they could submit something for some help. But they just aren’t comfortable videotaping themselves. They get nervous and they don’t feel like they’re playing as well as they do normally.
But if you get in the habit of recording yourself a couple of times a week, just for yourself, you’ll get comfortable with seeing and hearing yourself on video. And then it won’t be such a big deal. And maybe you’ll feel better about sending in a video to get some help.
Video goals
Also, videotaping can be part of one of your long-term goals. Set up the goal of recording yourself playing through an entire piece and then sharing it on YouTube, Facebook or in the Sax School community. You could record yourself playing a piece once a month, and post it on Facebook.
At the end of the year, you could look back and you’ll have excellent documentation of your improvement.
Remember, being able to track your progress is going to keep you motivated, and that will keep you practicing saxophone.
Final thoughts
Well, hopefully, these tips will help you get organized and stay motivated with your practice. If you want to dig a bit deeper and check out the full practice masterclass, as well as all of our other lessons, you can click on the link below to check out our 14-day free trial, which is running right now.