How to Play the Saxophone

Transcript As with the guitar, there’s multiple ways to play a few notes on this instrument. The most common ones, when we get to B-flat in the middle and the second octave of the horn, we’ve got A, and we’ve got a side B-flat key here to make the A a B-flat. I’ve got the …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about how to play the D major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. This key signature …

Transcript When purchasing your first instrument, your first saxophone, you’re probably going to be confronted with a lot of brands and a lot of conflicted information. Now, you don’t have to spend a lot of money for a good instrument. There are a lot of good horns out there that are in great condition that …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about how to play the A flat major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now, …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about how to play the G major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now, this …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about how to play the F sharp major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. This scale …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about how to play the F major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. So, this …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about how to play the E major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. This scale …

Transcript Hey, this is Troy Roberts here. We’re going to talk about how to play the E-flat major scale on the alto saxophone today, and its relative minor. The intervocalic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now this …

Transcript Hey, this is Troy Roberts today we’re going to talk about how to play the D Flat major scale on the alto saxophone and it’s relative minor. The construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Now this scale …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about how to play the C major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. There are …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about how to play the B major scale on the alto saxophone and its relative minor. The intervallic construction of any major scale is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. The B …

Transcript Hey this is Troy Roberts, today I’m going to talk about how to play the B-flat major scale on the alto saxophone, and it’s relative minor. The intervocalic construction of any major is made up of whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step. The B-flat major scale consists of two flats in its key …

Transcript Hey it’s Troy Roberts here. We’re going to talk about how to play the A major scale and its relative minor on the alto saxophone. The major scale’s intervallic construction is made up of whole step, whole step, half step. Whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. So, the sharps involved in playing …

Transcript Hey. It’s Troy Roberts here and we’re going to talk about practicing for beginners. Well, firstly it’s always a good idea to have a metronome and a tuner handy at all times. And it’s also important to remember small goals to achieve each practice session. Because it’s so easy to get overwhelmed with all …

Transcript Hi, this is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about metronome use for the alto saxophone. The metronome can be seen like training wheels for time playing in essentials in music. It’s very necessary actually in order to gain a level of accuracy, time-wise, and rhythmically. Here’s a little exercise if you’re new …

Transcript The best warm-up exercise that I even still use today and have done for a long, long time is to, well after getting the reed wet, moist, usually with a cup of water is to practice long tones. It gets the reed working right because the reed’s wood, it changes with moisture. Gets the …

Transcript The saxophone is really unique in that, as with any instrument, it’s got a legacy. It comes with a legacy. The saxophone’s legacy is pretty big. There’re many gods before us who have done amazing things on this instrument. There are a lot of things to reference and there are a lot of lessons …

Transcript The concept of circular breathing is kind of a tricky one to explain. It’s kind of like riding a bike in that when you know how to do it, you’re going to know how to do it forever. It’s quite tricky to actually get there. The concept basically in a nutshell is to form …

Transcript Hi. This is Troy Roberts. And today we’re going to talk about breathing exercises for the saxophone. So when playing this instrument it’s really important to not, kind of, contort your body in any way so that you can have best use of your lungs. And it’s important to breathe deeply and down almost …

Transcript Hi. This is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about rhythm exercises for the alto saxophone. The world of rhythm is as big as, if not bigger, than the world of melody and harmony. How do we first tackle these rhythmic issues? I think a good way is to take something you already …

Transcript Okay. There’s two growling techniques that are commonly used. First one is almost like gargling or gargling with your tonsils whilst play a note. And that is kind of like. Doing that into the saxophone. Like that. The other commonly used way of growling is to sing a note also into the horn. I’m …

Transcript Hey. It’s Troy Roberts here. And today we’re going to talk about dynamics on the alto saxophone. As you can imagine dynamics are the volume of a musical passage. And they really can shape a piece. In some case make or break it. It’s important to remember when you’re playing really quietly to not …

Transcript The reason why this is called an E-flat alto saxophone is because you need to play a concert pitch E-flat in order to get a C on the instrument. A concert pitch E-flat will sound like this. So that’s concert pitch E-flat, and that equals C on the alto saxophone. An intervallic way of …

Transcript Much like the way major and minor pentatonic scales relate to each other, the blues scale is the same with an extra note added in. It’s a six note scale instead of a five. Let’s take a G major pentatonic scale. Its relative minor pentatonic scale is E. It’s the same notes a G …

Transcript Hi. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about diminished scales on the alto saxophone. Unlike the major scale, seven note scale, the diminished scale is an eight note scale and it’s symmetric in that it reverts and overlaps itself. So, its intervallic DNA or structural makeup is whole step, half …

Transcript Hey. This is Troy Roberts and we’re going to talk about the chromatic scale on the alto saxophone today. Chromatic scale, whether it’s a scale or chromaticism, is just a series of half steps. Consecutive half steps. To initially approach this you could take D to D. One octave and play chromatic. So, on …

Transcript Hey, I’m Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about pentatonic scales. The way a pentatonic scale is built or where it derives from is from the major scale. If we were to give the major scale degrees, it would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. If I were to …

Transcript To slur a note or a passage is essentially not to articulate it. So, if I’m given two notes, G to B on the alto saxophone, slurred, not articulated, would sound like this. In the scale, it would sound like this. Not articulated, as opposed to articulated. This becomes tricky when you’ve got larger …

Transcript Hey, this is Troy Roberts and I’m going to talk about basic tonguing techniques for the alto saxophone. Tonguing a note is essentially starting a note with the tongue on the reed, giving it a beginning really. Your obvious way is to block the air flow and then start the airflow with your tongue. …

Transcript Hi this is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about the octave key on the alto saxophone. So on the saxophone the octave key is on the thumb right here. That’s the only key that’s on the thumb on a alto, tenor, and soprano saxophone. The octave key comes into use when …

Transcript So this is an alto saxophone, and it’s range is an octave and a half, technically. Low ‘B’ flat is the lowest note that you can play on the horn, and the highest note that you can technically play is an ‘F’. So it sounds like this … Now, in constant pitch that is …

Transcript In a nutshell, articulation is basically tonguing a note on the saxophone. There is stopping the airflow and continuing the airflow. This is tonguing a note on the saxophone with the airflow interrupted. You hear the air stop. This is articulating or tonguing the note with the airflow continued, where you’re actually stopping the …

Transcript Hey, this is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about saxophone intonation and how to play in tune. This is an alto I’m using. The best thing to do in the initial stages of intonation training is to get yourself a tuner. In this case, I’ve got a little app on my iPhone. …

Transcript So the best way to explain embouchure is as a way to place your mouth around the mouthpiece and the reed to enable the most free vibration of the reed. It’s essentially the reed vibrating is what makes the sound on the saxophone. The best starting point for a single embouchure is teeth on …

Transcript Hi, this is Troy Roberts. Today we are going to talk about the correct finger place for the alto saxophone. Your first finger is going to go on the B key, which is right here. Your second finger is going to go on the A key, which is right here. In between that we …

Transcript Hi. This is Troy Roberts and today we’re going to talk about correct mouth placement for the alto saxophone. So, the most correct place to put your mouth or to form your embouchure is right where the mouth, where the reed leaves the mouthpiece. From the flat table part of the mouthpiece to where …

Transcript It’s important that after every performance or practice session that you remove the reed from the mouth piece, and it’s going to be moist from condensation and saliva. You just give it a little dry, possibly a rinse under tap. Just wipe it dry unless you’re storing the reed wet in sugar-free mouthwash or …

Transcript Hi, this is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about reed for the saxophone. So, when you’re playing, it’s important to take care of the reed, because without the reed, I mean, that’s what produces the sound. You’ve really got nothing if your reed is damaged or not taken care of. When playing …

Transcript Hi, this is Troy Roberts. Today we are going to talk about saxophone reed placement. On the saxophone, we have a mouthpiece, which is made up of the actual mouthpiece, the ligature, and the reed. When placing the reed on the mouthpiece, best to show by example. You put the reed in between the …

Transcript Hi, this is Troy Roberts. We are going to talk about picking a saxophone reed. This is a reed on a saxophone. They vary in sizes and brand, and there is no one brand or size that is better than another. It is really important that you spend a lot of time figuring out …

Transcript Hi, this is Troy Roberts. Today we’re going to talk about how to assemble the alto saxophone. First and foremost you want to get this neck strap in place. Next, you want to put the reed on the mouthpiece. The reed is held to the mouthpiece via the ligature. We place the reed on …

Transcript Hi. My name’s Troy Roberts. And this is the alto saxophone. It’s constructed of three parts. First of all the body, the mouthpiece and the neck. And each of these parts have little sub-parts or mechanisms that are essential to the correct functionality of the instrument. First of all the mouthpiece has a reed, …