Saxophone Practice

Series Summary

The saxophone, or sax, is a actually member of the woodwind family of instruments though many people think that it is a member of the brass family. Playing the saxophone can be very rewarding and learning how to play the saxophone is probably not as hard as you think. A good way to learn how to play the saxophone is by repeating saxophone exercises to strengthen your fingers and build muscle memory. Developing muscle memory allows you to not have to think or try quite as hard to play the saxophone. If you would like to learn how to play the saxophone, you can learn here from a professional saxophone player.

In this free video series of saxophone lessons learn how to play and practice various saxophone scales from professional saxophone player Brian Medeiros. Brian will demonstrate how to play the C Major scale, the D Major scale, the E Major scale, the G Major scale, the A Major scale, and the B Major scale on the saxophone. Additionally Brian will show you how to practice transitioning from the major scale to the minor scale, how to control your breathing when playing the saxophone, and how to play the chromatic scale with 1 octave and 2 octaves.

Video Transcript

"Alright, I would like to share with you the importance of practicing. It's very important. If you don't practice, if you can't get it right in practice, you're not going to be able to get it right in real life, I promise you. If you try to play in front of somebody after you haven't properly rehearsed something, you're just killing yourself. You need to also be practicing properly. A good way to practice is through repetition. You want to do stuff over and over again until you get it right, like ten times in a row. One little trick that I have used is a ten pennies trick, or rule, whatever you want to call it. You take ten pennies; you put them on the table next to you. If you're practicing a scale, or a lick, or something, play it one time, slide a penny back. Take another time, slide another penny back. Take another time, mess it up, you put all the pennies on the table and you start over again. It's just a way to keep counting through there so you don't have to actually, physically, count in your head. When you're out of pennies, you're done. That's a real good way to practice it. It just enforces repetition and, of course, you're using your metronome the whole time when you're practicing and hopefully you will be out of pennies real fast and you can move on to the next thing."