"A complete guide to playing and maintaining a saxophone. This handbook provides essential information on tone, technique, articulation, breathing, and more. Exercise are included that will help you develop mastery of all facets pertaining to saxophone performance. Extensive directions on repairs, from simple to complex, will help you maintain your instrument and customize it to your own performance style and preferences"--Back cover.
Jazz Theory Handbook is a complete guide to all the essential topics of jazz theory, suitable for all treble instruments. Its approach is clear and concise,realistic and practical. This book will help you to understand how contemporaryjazz players think, and to apply theory concepts in your own playing. Subjects are introduced progressively, with each new one based on those introduced before. Topics include chord building, harmonic movement, modes, II-V-I licks, polychords, blues, rhythm changes, how to learn tunes, practice techniques,playing outside, and more. All of the book's musical examples are performed on the accompanying audio, along with sample solos and 3 play-along tracks with a great rhythm section. Jazz Theory Handbook is designed for both self- study andclassroom use. Audio download available online
According to Larry Teal, the best method of learning to play the saxophone is to study with a competent teacher. Teal's studies were mostly of instruments other than the saxophone, but as a student at a Chautauqua summer session, he came under the influence of Georges Barrère, the eminent French flutist. He played bass clarinet with the Detroit Symphony, but he continued to be absorbed by the saxophone. As a result of his acquired expertise and growing reputation, he was appointed to a full-time faculty position as a saxophone teacher by the University of Michigan -- the first ever to receive such an appointment from a major university. During his 21-year tenure, he attracted students from all over, thus exerting an ever widening influence on saxophone teaching and performing.
The saxophone is arguably the most iconic of all instruments, but with its graceful form and soulful tone it's easy to forget that it's still a machine. It's a complicated machine, too, and even a slight fault in the mechanism can affect the way it feels and plays. This innovative manual explains clearly and simply how the mechanism functions and what can be done to maintain it, as well as to improve its performance with professional set-up techniques, with few or no specialist tools. This manual is essential reading for everyone who plays the saxophone.
The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone, first published in 1999, tells the story of the saxophone, its history and technical development from Adolphe Sax (who invented it c. 1840) to the end of the twentieth century. It includes extensive accounts of the instrument's history in jazz, rock and classical music as well as providing practical performance guides. Discussion of the repertoire and soloists from 1850 to the present day includes accessible descriptions of contemporary techniques and trends, and moves into the electronic age with midi wind instruments. There is a discussion of the function of the saxophone in the orchestra, in 'light music' and in rock and pop studios, as well as of the saxophone quartet as an important chamber music medium. The contributors to this volume are some of the finest performers and experts on the saxophone.
The fast and easy way to play this popular woodwind instrument Saxophone For Dummies offers the ideal introduction to this popular and versatile instrument, whether you lack any musical experience or are picking up the sax again after a hiatus. Covering both the alto and tenor sax, this friendly guide explains how to get a good sound, how to read music, and how to play songs in a variety of styles, including classical, pop, and jazz, all accompanied by the audio samples on the enclosed CD. With tips on how to buy or rent the best saxophone, and information on how to care for the instrument, Saxophone For Dummies is a comprehensive guide to playing this popular woodwind alone or in a group setting. Includes tips on buying or renting a new or used saxophone Audio samples of classical, pop, and jazz music are available on the bonus CD Advice on cleaning and maintaining a saxophone If you're picking up a saxophone for the first time or are looking to brush up on your skills, Saxophone For Dummies gives you everything you need to appreciate, understand, and excel at playing this popular instrument.
Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in her Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Tracy Heavner's Saxophone Secrets provides advanced saxophonists with 60 performance secrets that will assist in their musical development. This work is the result of 30 years of personal teaching and performance experience. Heavner offers both intermediate players and advanced professionals a wide variety of techniques, which will greatly improve any saxophonist's performance ability. Designed to be the go-to hands-on guide for practitioners, Heavner's strategies consider a vast array of issues for the saxophonist who needs to take that next big step up. Beginning chapters consider various brands of saxophones, mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds, and maintenance techniques that reflect the standard practices and expectations of the advanced performer. The secrets that follow develop and improve embouchure, tone, articulation, and finger technique, allowing saxophonists to analyze their own playing and adjust accordingly. Heavner pulls back the curtain further to introduce those secrets for developing the altissimo register and extended saxophone techniques, from circular breathing and multiphonics to slap and flutter tonguing--all absolute necessities for saxophonists seeking to play contemporary classical, jazz, or commercial music. Finally, Heavner concludes by letting musicians in on those little-revealed secrets for taking their saxophones on the road. Saxophone Secrets is the ideal work for saxophonists, saxophone instructors, band teachers, and anyone looking to improve their saxophone performance skills or those of their students.
Dr. Ray Smith is the saxophonists' saxophonist, the teachers' teacher. His 50+ years of saxophone playing and teaching have prepared him well to bring together perhaps the greatest breadth of practical saxophone information ever assembled under one book cover in The Science and Art of Saxophone Teaching. This book is valuable to saxophone teachers and serious saxophone students alike covering such topics as basic tone production (embouchure, oral cavity, breath support) and solving problems with tone, playing low notes, slurring down over intervals, solving reed issues, saxophone repair and adjustments, coordinating classical and jazz study and practice, warmup exercises and practice routines, articulation basics and articulation styles, development of technique and speed, choosing fingerings, solving vibrato issues, working on intonation problems, playing dynamics, rhythmic development, learning altissimo (may be worth the price of the book alone), phrasing musically, choosing good breathing places, working with ornamentation and cadenzas, dealing with differences between styles, becoming a multilingual musician, doubling other woodwind instruments and helpful information on clarinet, flute and double reeds, dealing with stage fright, and much more. This volume belongs in the library of every earnest saxophonist. There are also a series of video tutorials on a coordinated YouTube channel that bring all the concepts to life. Ray has been blessed to be a master pedagogue and is sharing in this book the concepts, insights, and approaches he has used to help countless young players become great saxophonists and musicians. His track record as a professor at Brigham Young University is enviable. His students teach at many of the nations' universities, perform in the Broadway pits, play in the service bands of the Army, Navy, and Marines, and write for Hollywood movies. One is playing with the Dukes of Dixieland, and one is currently holding down the first tenor chair in the famed University of North Texas 1 O'Clock Lab Band. Ray, himself, a disciple of Eugene Rousseau, is a fine performer and well-recorded artist. He is equally at home in classical and jazz-related styles and adept at all five woodwind instruments. He has been heard frequently on the airwaves of this country (ESPN, ABC, NBC, CNN, etc.), on movies such as The Sandlot and The Swan Princess, and on Television series such as He-Man: Masters of the Universe, Xena, and Hercules.
A trusted training method for aspiring and serious players, "The Saxophone Bible" covers tuning, tone production, fingering, breath control, playing low and high ranges, scales, intervals, and much more.
