How To Play The Saxophone

How to play the saxophone. Welcome to the second step of your adventure in learn to play saxophone.

By now you will have learned B and will happily be playing B's all over the place.

So it's time to move onto the second note in how to play the saxophone.

Learn to play saxophone - Step Two

Now I'm pretty sure if you are here I don't have to harp on about embouchre or breathing. You are of course totally up to speed on these aspects of learn to play saxophone.

The next note we will learn is A

How To Play The Saxophone - Second Note

A shows on musical notation as the image below. A blob in the space below the middle of five lines.

So how do we play A? Ok, continuing from B, left hand at the top, right at the bottom.

Take the index finger of your left hand and place it on the second key down of the top row of keys as in B.

Now take your middle finger and place it on the key directly below your index finger, as the image shows below

Heres it is when shown on a fingering chart.

Now, doing exactly the same as you did with B blow through the mouthpiece

If all went well you just played A.

If nothing happened then try it again but this time with a little more air pressure and you should get a result.

Learn To Play Saxophone. Alternate The Notes

Now you have two notes under your belt how about mixing it up a bit. If you are to learn how to play the saxophone you have to be prepared to experiment.

Start by playing a B and then straight onto A

Or perhaps you would like to try it the other way round

Start on A and move up to a B

Now you've got two notes in the bag it's probably a good time to tell you about Tonguing and Slurring

These are a need to know when you learn how to play the saxophone.

Saxophone Lessons - Tonguing

Tonguing as it suggests involves use of the tongue when blowing. Before you blow you place the tip of the tongue onto the tip of the reed gently.

Put your finger on the B key, prepare yourself to blow and when you are ready apply some pressure into your mouth and take your tongue off the reed for a second or so and then place it back on.

The sound should have started the moment you took your tongue off the reed and stopped when you placed it back on the reed.

You also need to bear in mind pressure on the reed and air flow and pressure through the reed. You may find yourself blowing too hard at first or putting too much pressure on the reed with your tongue.

The latter may cause you to un-intentionally increase the pressure of your bottom lip on the reed. This is a simple technique you will need to practice. You should after a bit of perserverence be able to stop the reed with the gentlest of touches of your tongue.

Given more time you will be able to seperate notes without any little squeaks or stalling the reed completely. Tonguing is used to seperate the notes on a musical score. Something we will discuss later

How To Play The Sax - Slurring

You just played B, A. In the process you've also learned how to slur. It's as easy as that. Put simply you keep blowing whilst playing different notes.

It does get a little more complicated but you now have the basics and can happily practice tonguing and slurring on your saxophone. All well written music sheets will indicate when to tongue and when to slur. I'll go into detail on that when I get the learn music page set up.

Learn To Play Saxophone - Progression

We've got two notes nailed now it's time to learn a third one.

You can, if you want stay here and continue to mess about with B and A or if you feel ready you can move onto the next note in our journey to learn how to play the saxophone

Search This Site And The Web

Custom Search

---