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.