Nothing new going on just yet, just working on my long tones while I wait for my tuning fork and metronome to arrive.  They have shipped, so I should be getting them in the mail by the end of this week.  I’ll find out then how good my ear really is.

In the mean time I do have a nice story about my 1 year old son and the saxophone.  He really seems to like the saxophone and my playing (he may be the only one at this time).  When I pick up the saxophone he starts bouncing up and down, clapping his hands, and gets a great big smile on his face.  He will then crawl over to me and use the music stand to help him stand up so he is right next to me while I practice.  When I play my long tones he will make a fairly close noise as well with his voice and hold it as long as he can.  He smiles when I play “Marry had a little lamb” and claps along to other songs I play.

The other thing he really enjoys doing is messing me up (however I think he just likes making the tone of the saxophone change).  He will get closer to me while I’m playing a long tone and press in one of the keys of the horn, which of course will change the tone I am playing.  He laughs and smiles real big when he does this, as he feels he has accomplished something himself.  He really seems to enjoy music, and I’ll have to get him into playing the piano as soon as he is old enough.  This will give him a nice musical foundation for when his lungs are strong enough to play a saxophone.

It’s nice having him enjoy being with me while I practice, at least I know I’ll always have one fan.  Hopefully more to come in the future.

Today I checked out my twitter page and noticed I had a tweet from The Sax Doctor who has been following my blog and giving me very helpful suggestions when needed.  His latest suggestion is to be careful when it comes to tuners and the saxophone, as you can come to rely to much upon the electronic device and what you are seeing and not on your ear to embouchure relationship as it should be.  He directed me to an interesting article on his site about the proper use of tuners for the saxophone, and I would suggest any one else in this particular situation read it as well.  It is very interesting.

I have already ordered my tuner, so I will be getting it soon.  The good thing is it is also a metronome, and it has two different types of tuning methods in it.  One will play a tone for you to tune your instrument to, and the other will tell you what note you are playing and if you are sharp or flat.  I’ll use his suggestion on letting someone else use the device when I play and letting me know if I am sharp or flat or not.  My mother does have a Yamaha Concert Grand piano, so I may very well take my saxophone over to her house and have her play some notes that I can then play along in tune with as well.

The other item I ran across is ear training programs.  When I was younger I took ear training in Theory classes, so I know pretty much how it works.  I’m going to start this up again to help develop my ear better, as I’m sure it will only help.  I’m going to look over a few programs that offer this and will post which program I like best later on.

I went to Dowling Music today, which is located in Houston, Texas at 2615 Southwest Fwy @ Kirby and had a chat with Gus who works there about my saxophone.  I asked him to take a look at it and see what he thought of  the keys and if they needed any adjustment.  He said the saxophone was in good order, and the LH palm keys were light to the touch.  In fact he said that he’s experienced others that were much harder to push in than mine.  I was given some suggestions on why I might be having a hard time with those LH palm keys.  He said to make sure not to use your fingers with those keys, but rather your palm (as the key names suggest).  I wasn’t sure if I was moving my fingers to press the keys or not, but figured that I might, so when I practiced today I made a conscience effort to make sure I press those keys with just the palm of my hand.  I am getting better with it now, just need some more practice and I’m sure I can iron out the issues.  As I can easily play from low C to high C on the Saxophone I am going to focus on going from high C to high F and back down to get that area worked out.  Once that is done I can start working on my scale studies better.

While I was there I purchased some Vandoren #2 reeds, as after trying one from my teacher I liked them better than the Rico reeds I had previously.  I also placed an order for a Sabine tuner/metronome, which should arrive within a week.  Up to this point I have not had one, and I know I really need to get one to one, make sure my saxophone is in tune, and two, to ensure I am playing in time.  I’m fairly good at doing it without a metronome, but not good enough, so it’s time to do it right, as it will only help in the long run.

He showed me what sheet music they had for the saxophone (plenty to keep me occupied for years to come).  I didn’t buy anything today, as I still have other issues I really need to focus on before I get too involved in that.  I’ll stick with my simple melodies, scales, and long tones for now until I can last at least 30 minutes to an hour before I get too tired.  Then I’ll look into getting some music to play.

Gus also let me know I’ll probably play my Vito saxophone for about 2 to 3 years before I outgrow it.  He said I’ll know when the sound I push through the horn becomes too much for that particular horn and it starts to hold me back.  At that point I’ll start looking into more advanced models.  That’s good to hear, as I’m sure once I get another  saxophone I’ll spend at least $3,000.00 on one, and it will take me a while to save up for that type of purchase.

Today I was looking over my book “Learn to Play Alto Saxophone Today” and found a suggestion to use the alternate fingering for C to help when moving from B to C on the saxophone.  I have to admit it is much easier, as using the standard fingering for C and then jumping back or up from B can cause a audible wobble if not done quickly enough.  The alternate fingering is also fairly easy as well.

On Saturday I am planing on stopping by a local music store to have my horn looked at.  Just checking that everything is running well, and also seeing what type of music is available in my skill range.

I finished learning all the notes on the Saxophone, and am able to produce the correct tone for each note.  The easy ones for me are the low C to the high C, which gives me a nice two octave range on the saxophone, however there are a few notes above and below I needed to get right.  The fingering is the largest issue with those notes for me, and it will just take me a little bit to get comfortable with it.  The notes above I needed to figure out are from the high D to the high F.  Nothing too difficult, just using a different set of keys than I’m used to, so it slows me down a tad.  The two notes below the low C are B and B flat.  I find B easier than B flat however.  Once I can get these tones to stabalize and can hit the keys quickly and correctly I’ll work on scales that encompas the entire range of the saxophone.

I did find out more information about long tones today on the forum Sax on the Web that I read.  I just wanted to be sure, and the responses I got indicate that there is no issue with starting long tones now.  So I am going to continue with them in my practice session.

During this week I’ll be searching for another melody to record as well, I just have not decided yet what to play.

I decided for my third practice session for today I would record a song and some scales once I was finished.  I think the song came out fairly well.  I can hear some tonal issues in it, but not bad I would think overall.  The song I recorded today is “On Top of Smokey“, and I have also included to scales, at one octave each.  The C Major and G Major scales.  I seem to have an issue at the top of the C Major scale switching notes, which give a “wobble” sound.  I think the issue is I’m not moving my fingers in the right way, or not fast enough.  I’ll have to work this out, I’m sure within a week I can get rid of this “annoyance”.  If anyone has a suggestion on how to resolve my issue, please feel free let me know.  You can listen to both these songs from the links on this post, or via the Music page.  Enjoy!

So I’m reading the book “The Art of Saxophone playing” and come across a section that says how you should first play simple melodies with limited range, then move up to melodies with greater range.  Doing this will help with your embouchure and getting everything squared away.  According to the book, only after you have mastered this should you attempt to go into Long Tones, especially ranging the tone from soft to loud back down to soft.

I’m not sure what to make of this.  I’ve had and heard a number of people talking about playing long tones.  Maybe the book is talking about a different aspect of Long Tones, as it did mention Long Tone studies, and how they were an advanced form.  I’ll have to do more research on this topic before going forward with them.  I don’t want to make things harder on myself, as I already had to fix an issue with puffing my cheeks earlier.

I am noticing marked improvement, as is others with my playing.  I played a number of melodies I have done in the past and they sounded quite good.  The other thing I notice is when I practice, my first session of the day is horrible.  I don’t last long, usually only able to play the melody a few times before I can’t do it any longer.  However a few hours later, I am doing much better on my second practice session and can play multiple melodies with little issue.

In all, I’m quite happy with my progress so far.  I’ll record a number of other melodies to add to the blog this weekend, so stay tuned.  I have also figured out some scales, the key of C, F and G.  I’ll record them as well.

Anyone that has any comments about the use of melodies before long tones, and when long tones should begin for a student, feel free to comment.

I read through half of this book already, and am finding it quite interesting.  The section of the book that I have found most interesting thus far involves the breathing techniques and embouchure exercises.  I apparently only was doing half of the full potential on both.  When I first started playing the saxophone in November and I wanted to take a deep breath, I did what many people do.  I would inhale and fill my upper chest cavity.  This of course doesn’t help much.  I then learned that I should be taking in a deep breath and filling my lower area where my stomach is (which is natural, and we all do it when sleeping and normal breathing).  However, once again, that is all I did.  After reading the chapter on breathing exercises however I found to get a full breath you first fill the area where your stomach is, then you fill your mid cavity, then your upper chest area, thus taking in a full breath.  In this chapter it covers a number of exercises that help you become more aware of your breathing, which will in turn improve your playing.

For the  embouchure the chapter goes into great detail on correct placement, what to do with you teeth, lips, jaw, tongue, how to use your thought, and combine all this together to be effective at playing the saxophone.  My exercise I already knew of was to form you mouth as if you are going to whistle, hold it for a few seconds, then make the biggest smile you can and hold it.  Then repeat over and over, doing this a number of times a day.  After a few months you’ll have little to no problem with you embouchure.  The book goes into another exercise I didn’t know of though, this one works on your chin muscles, which are also very important.  I’ll be combining both of these exercises with the breathing ones over the next few months.  I hope that in March or April I will see a remarkable improvement in how long I’m able to play, and in my performance as a whole.

I plan to continue to record simple tunes as I go on, I’m thinking of “On top of old Smokey” next.  This will continue to help judge my progress.  I also tried adjusting my volume on my long tones, starting with a loud tone, and gradually dropping the volume, and then bringing it back up.  I was able to do two rounds of this before needing to take a breath.  I’ll create a recording of this tomorrow as well.  The weekend should offer me lots of more opportunities to study on theory, practice more, and finish reading this excellent book.

I continued on my Music Theory training from the Vaughn Cube book.  Today I was taught the Relative Minors and Majors of each key, as well as how to write the scale for each key, and their relative minor and Major as well as how many sharps and flats are in each one.  It was quite exciting, and I’m retaining all the information complete so far.  Tomorrow I will get in the terms such as Tonic, Super Tonic, Mediant, Sub Dominant, Dominant, Sub Mediant and Leading Ton Sub Tonic.

I tried doing the scales, however I couldn’t get anything over a high D, and even that wasn’t all that great.  I’ll have to work.  With GREAT effort I was finally able to get the high F out of the saxophone.  I still can’t do it from the start, I have to just start blowing into the saxophone and working around until I can get the note to come out correctly.  I’m sure it will just  take some practice to get it right.  The key combination isn’t the easier either, so that will take a little getting use to.

I setup a mic stand and a Shure microphone and connected it to my audio recorder to get a better recording than I have in the past.  I then played six different Long Tones, some in the mid range, and a few in the lower registers.  I am putting them online for everyone to hear.  This is how long I can hold the note, and the quality of my tone at this particular stage of my development.  I’m not sure if it’s good or not, however the notes sound fairly steady, and the volume on my mixer shows it at a steady -18 db.  Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

I started with the Dean Vaughn book on Theory yesterday, and it appears to be working out quite well.  I spent about 30 minutes on it and in that time learned the Circle of 5ths and Circle of 4ths.  So I know all the keys, how many sharps are in each key, and the order and names of each sharp in each key.  I also know all the flats, how many, and their respective names.

I remember going over this when I was much younger in piano classes, however I do recall not remembering any of it very well, and I didn’t recall any of it when I started this process.  Now I find it quite easy  to recall this information.  I’m looking forward to going further into the book and seeing how these techniques apply to more complicated aspects of music theory.

I looked over the Art of Saxophone playing as well.  I was looking first at the fingering position for all the notes.  So I now can play from middle C on the staff to a high F.  I mainly wanted to know how to do that so I could start working on my scales, as the Scale studies book has me going over the entire range up and down.

I didn’t have time to record my long tones yesterday with all the other things I did, however I will attempt to put them online tonight, and see about adding a scale in the key of G (which as I learned last night has 1 sharp, and that sharp is F#).