I took up the saxophone in 5th grade and played through my junior year of high school. I stopped playing my senior year because I was tired of marching band and I didn't care for the person I was going to have to sit next to most of the year. I felt that this player was not as good as me and I knew she would be sitting first chair as she was tight with the band director. I walked away and took French (which could come in handy someday).
One of the downsides of the school I attended was that students were never encouraged to get outside instruction. In fifth and sixth grade we had a band director who played the sax and for those two years we had practice time for the full band and by section. After that we only had one hour of band per day.
Through the years I have read a lot of great material such as "The Art of Saxophone" by Larry Teal and "Practice With The Pros" by Sue Terry for hints on how to become a better player. I've also been fortunate to have done a number of interviews (some of which still need to be fully transcribed) with some great educators and players. Finally, I've taken the opportunity to pick the brains of guys like sideC when they've come through town. And of course, I play with a couple of groups regularly and listen to as much good music as I can.
A couple of months ago I decided that it was finally time to study with someone to kick my playing to a different level. After a lot of research and talking to various people I know I decided to study with the top baritone player in my area. He's a reasonable drive and was willing to hook up a couple of times a month on a Sunday morning. Since I have been playing more and more bari I wanted to study with someone who made that their primary horn so that I could leverage their knowledge.
I had my first lesson on Sunday morning.
I'm very impressed with the guy I choose to study with. Top notch player and has a very positive attitude.
The good - Told me that I had a good core to my sound and that I had a great command of the horn. Was surprised that I really hadn't been playing Bari that long. Really liked my tone.
Things to work on - Loosening up my embouchure. Playing louder since I have a tendency to play softly since I do a lot of classical playing. Scales and intervals. I've become a slacker in recent years and haven't kept up with playing scales like I really should.
Specific Tip - To work on loosening up my embouchure he told me to try and match the overtone of the bell keys to the note fingered on the horn in terms of pitch. Example - blow the overtone of low B and then play that note on the horn while looking at the tuner.
I picked up a host of other cool tips and I came away really enthused about my playing. I'm playing bari in a big band this summer so I appreciated the added confidence. Playing bari in a big band takes a very different attitude than just blowing in a section.
One of the downsides of the school I attended was that students were never encouraged to get outside instruction. In fifth and sixth grade we had a band director who played the sax and for those two years we had practice time for the full band and by section. After that we only had one hour of band per day.
Through the years I have read a lot of great material such as "The Art of Saxophone" by Larry Teal and "Practice With The Pros" by Sue Terry for hints on how to become a better player. I've also been fortunate to have done a number of interviews (some of which still need to be fully transcribed) with some great educators and players. Finally, I've taken the opportunity to pick the brains of guys like sideC when they've come through town. And of course, I play with a couple of groups regularly and listen to as much good music as I can.
A couple of months ago I decided that it was finally time to study with someone to kick my playing to a different level. After a lot of research and talking to various people I know I decided to study with the top baritone player in my area. He's a reasonable drive and was willing to hook up a couple of times a month on a Sunday morning. Since I have been playing more and more bari I wanted to study with someone who made that their primary horn so that I could leverage their knowledge.
I had my first lesson on Sunday morning.
I'm very impressed with the guy I choose to study with. Top notch player and has a very positive attitude.
The good - Told me that I had a good core to my sound and that I had a great command of the horn. Was surprised that I really hadn't been playing Bari that long. Really liked my tone.
Things to work on - Loosening up my embouchure. Playing louder since I have a tendency to play softly since I do a lot of classical playing. Scales and intervals. I've become a slacker in recent years and haven't kept up with playing scales like I really should.
Specific Tip - To work on loosening up my embouchure he told me to try and match the overtone of the bell keys to the note fingered on the horn in terms of pitch. Example - blow the overtone of low B and then play that note on the horn while looking at the tuner.
I picked up a host of other cool tips and I came away really enthused about my playing. I'm playing bari in a big band this summer so I appreciated the added confidence. Playing bari in a big band takes a very different attitude than just blowing in a section.