• Home
  • CONTACT US
  • Registration Form
  • Regional Center Registration Form
  • Music Lessons
  • In Home Music Lessons
    • In-Home Piano Lessons
    • In-Home Guitar Lessons
    • In-Home Voice Lessons
    • In-Home Violin Lessons
    • In-Home Viola Lessons
    • In-Home Saxophone Lessons
    • In-Home-Clarinet Lessons
    • In-Home Drum Lessons
    • In-Home Electric Guitar Lessons
  • Piano Lessons
  • Guitar Lessons
  • Voice Lessons
  • Violin Lessons
  • Viola Lessons
  • Saxophone Lessons
  • Jazz Improvisation Lessons
  • Flute Lessons
  • Clarinet Lessons
  • Drum Lessons
  • Trumpet Lessons
  • Hours/Directions
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
    • Blog 2
    • In Home Music Lessons Blog
  • FAQ
  • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Music Therapy/Special Needs Lessons
  • Update Payment Information
  • Lesson Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Needs Registration Form
  • Ricks Saxophone Registration Form
  • Regional Center CC Registration Form
Los Angeles Music Teachers
  • Home
  • CONTACT US
  • Registration Form
  • Regional Center Registration Form
  • Music Lessons
  • In Home Music Lessons
    • In-Home Piano Lessons
    • In-Home Guitar Lessons
    • In-Home Voice Lessons
    • In-Home Violin Lessons
    • In-Home Viola Lessons
    • In-Home Saxophone Lessons
    • In-Home-Clarinet Lessons
    • In-Home Drum Lessons
    • In-Home Electric Guitar Lessons
  • Piano Lessons
  • Guitar Lessons
  • Voice Lessons
  • Violin Lessons
  • Viola Lessons
  • Saxophone Lessons
  • Jazz Improvisation Lessons
  • Flute Lessons
  • Clarinet Lessons
  • Drum Lessons
  • Trumpet Lessons
  • Hours/Directions
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
    • Blog 2
    • In Home Music Lessons Blog
  • FAQ
  • Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Music Therapy/Special Needs Lessons
  • Update Payment Information
  • Lesson Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Needs Registration Form
  • Ricks Saxophone Registration Form
  • Regional Center CC Registration Form
Los Angeles Music Teachers

Music Lessons in Burbank CA | Los Angeles Music Teachers

22 Must Know Steps to a Good Saxophone Warm-up Routine

3/13/2017
The Importance of a Good Saxophone Warm-up Routine
How you practice is more important than what you practice or how hard you're working during your practice sessions. You can literally spend hours practicing only to find that you were practicing incorrectly, drilling in something that will end up taking you hours to unlearn. How you practice is more important than anything else and there's a science in how to get the most out of your time practicing your instrument.

Of all the most important things to progress as a saxophone player learning jazz improvisation in Los Angeles, I have found that the greatest thing that impedes my students' progress is the lack of a good practice routine. It's also important to realize that the warm-ups must change sometimes week to week in order to reflect the changes that are happening in your ability after each saxophone lesson.
Below is a compilation of many of the most important warm-up techniques that I've put together from all my various Burbank saxophone students. This came as a request by my students so that they would have a routine to follow.

DETAILED WARMUP PRACTICE ROUTINE It’s important to do this in a sequential process
  1. Check Airstream only (NO sound) Listen for the free flow of the air (no resistance in the sound of the airstream is the goal) Taking a good FULL breath with your mouth opening and releasing any tension you feel with each breath. Try to feel that you’re “pulling” it down to your stomach.
  2. Letting the Air do the Work - Now do #1 again but with adding more volume of air (speed up the air) and LET the note pop in on it’s own. If you’re hearing any resistance in the airstream before the note pops in then you’re haven’t mastered #1 so go back and get that right. Once you get it, repeat this this exercise over and over (taking a full breath with the mouth open) and restarting the exercise with just the air and speeding it up to produce the sound. All the while you need to make sure you're not helping to produce the sound by squeezing with the lips.
  3. Long Tones - Now, let’s concentrate on holding out one note steady as long as possible. For this, think of blowing a flame on a candle so that you are able to control the air to the point of bending (not blowing out) the flame. Your goal is to have such good airflow and control of the air that you don’t blow the flame out but rather just bend the flame down and pin it there (you will feel the muscles in your stomach tighten to be able to control the amount of air). The tightening this stomach muscles is necessary for good breath control and ultimately control of your sound.
  4. Tongue Position - Once you have mastered #1#2#3, then you are ready to start focusing on the back your tongue position. Begin by singing the highest note that you can sing. Now sing the note again and notice where your tongue is in your mouth. You’ll notice that your tongue is back and up about as far as it can be. Notice also that the sides of your tongue are touching your upper back molars. This is the proper position of the tongue when playing. Repeat this exercise over and over until you can easily feel the the proper tongue placement. Watch in a mirror the first few times to see it and get the feel.
  5. Now, let's focus on the TIP of the tongue. Notice that when he you have your tongue back in your mouth it's now in a good position to touch the reed just a little back from the tip of the tongue. You also only touch the bottom tip or bottom corner) of the reed. Test your tongue placement by blowing the note in, holding the note for two seconds and then bringing your tongue slowly forward until you touch the bottom tip of the reed.
  6. Find the reed - Repeat this several times until you can feel your tongue hit the same position every time. Remember, it's not the tip of the tongue that hits the tip of the reed,. It’s about a half an inch back from the tip of the tongue and the tongue only touches the tip of the reed and approximately and 1/8 inch from the tip.
  7. Tonguing exercise- in this next exercise, we are going to train the tongue into staying close to the reed. Why close to the reed? Because, if the tongue is close to the reed it can you go on and off without interrupting the air flow or causing you to open your jaw and distorting the sound. This is another exercise that you need to do in front of a mirror. Remember, your tongue only hits the bottom tip of the reed. So you should only feel about an eighth of an inch of the reed being touched by your tongue. Start with the airstream and then bring your tongue forward and tongue just about as fast as you can. Fast tonguing works really well to train your tongue to stay close to the reed. Keep your tongue really light imagining that you are just resting your tongue on the tip of the reed and you are blowing it off with the force of the air. You can use syllables like Thee and Lee to help you to lighten the contact of the tongue on the reed.
  8. Long tone harmonics: Bb, B, C, first harmonic only for a couple months. Remember everything you learned in #1 - #4 and hold these notes out for the full breath
  9. 2 Note Exercises - Now you are ready to coordinate the tongue with the fingers. Start with the 2 note exercises I gave you and practice them VERY SLOWLY at first with the articulation on the UP BEAT (and remembering to tap your foot for everything you play from this point on in your warmup. As you get comfortable you gradually speed them up. Don’t try to force the speed. Feel the movement of your fingers and gradually you can begin to relax your fingers and the tempo will start to speed up almost on it’s own. Concentrate on the precision and the relaxation of the fingers. It doesn’t happen all at once but your fingers will begin to work just like they do when you type on a keyboard. Go through all of your 2 note exercises up to high D.
  10. 3 Note Exercises - If you good with the 2 note exercises then begin to practice the 3 note exercises the same way.
  11. 5 Note Exercises -When you’re feeling good with the 3 note, try the 5 note exercises. These cover almost a full octave range so be very aware of your air (as you should be doing in ALL exercises)
  12. Full Scale -After the 5 note exercises are mastered, practice the full scale starting on G and go up 2 octaves to high D, then back down to low D and finally back up and land on the G (the home key note). At this point, I shouldn’t have to tell you to start this very slowly with a good airstream and make sure your sound as well as your tonguing is a good as it was with the 5 note scales. Everything builds on one another so you need to not allow the difficulty of playing the full scale to hamper your sound in any way. If it does, then you are not practicing correctly and although you may think that you can PUSH your way through, it will actually impede your progress. So remember PRACTICE EVERYTHING SLOW TO FAST, and stop and check your airstream if the sound is anything but as good as it is when you’re playing just the long tones.
  13. Dynamics from super soft to LOUD, and vice versa
  14. Dynamics Do this exercise in time with track from 1 to 10 (on the target note only) then backwards starting on 10 and going to 1.
  15.  Vibrato with just the air first. Make sure you’re not squeezing because you will not be able to produce a smooth vibrato without
  16. Vibrato starting very slowly and focusing on “perfect” sine waves. Follow my vibrato exercises on that.
  17. After you can produce a smooth sine wave slow tempo then begin to notch up the metronome a couple of clicks at a time but never going faster thanyou can do it smoothly.
  18. After you can begin to get it to a normal vibrato speed then you can begin to practice placing the vibrato in time with the blues track playing the vibrato only on the target notes, using transcribe to slow down the speed to a very slow at the beginning and gradually speed up as you get control.
  19. Next, with the vibrato, you need to practice bell tones, imagine that you are ringing a bell, the first pulsation of the vibrato will be the loudest and then each pulse following will be 1° softer (using the 10 to 1 scaling)
  20. Once you've mastered the bell tone on the target note you should begin to add in the approach notes. Start each approach note very softly ramping up quickly to a 10 on the target note and then producing the belltone effect.
  21. Blues in F, target notes with different rhythms
  22. Song 2 bars at a time, first eight.
  23. 3 Note Exercises - If you good with the 2 note exercises then begin to practice the 3 note exercises the same way.
  24. 5 Note Exercises -When you’re feeling good with the 3 note, try the 5 note exercises. These cover almost a full octave range so be very aware of your air (as you should be doing in ALL exercises)
  25. Full Scale -After the 5 note exercises are mastered, practice the full scale starting on G and go up 2 octaves to high D, then back down to low D and finally back up and land on the G (the home key note). At this point, I shouldn’t have to tell you to start this very slowly with a good airstream and make sure your sound as well as your tonguing is a good as it was with the 5 note scales. Everything builds on one another so you need to not allow the difficulty of playing the full scale to hamper your sound in any way. If it does, then you are not practicing correctly and although you may think that you can PUSH your way through, it will actually impede your progress. So remember PRACTICE EVERYTHING SLOW TO FAST, and stop and check your airstream if the sound is anything but as good as it is when you’re playing just the long tones.

For more information, please visit us at http://www.losangelesmusicteachers.com or call us at (818) 902-1233. Check out my videos on YouTube. I have a channel called "Ultimate Saxophone Lessons." Here is a video showing how to bend notes on the saxophone when you're improvising jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBhv42hEtpo

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    April 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    Before Taking Drum Lessons
    Best Drum Lessons
    Best Guitar Lessons In Burbank
    Best Guitar Lessons Near Me
    Best Guitar Lessons Near You
    Best Private Guitar Lessons In Burbank And Los Angeles
    Best Private Voice Lessons
    Best School For Guitar Lessons
    Best School For Guitar Lessons Near Me
    Best Singing Lessons
    Best Singing Lessons At A School
    Best Voice Lessons
    Best Voice Lessons Near Me
    Best Voice Lessons Near You
    Burbank Music School
    Cello Lessons Los Angeles
    Cello Teacher Burbank
    Cello Teacher Los Angeles
    Clarinet Lessons Burbank
    Clarinet Lessons Los Angeles
    Clarinet Teacher Burbank
    Clarinet Teacher Los Angeles
    Drum Classes
    Drum Lessons
    Drum Lessons Near Me
    Drum School
    Drum Teacher Near Me
    Flute Lessons Burbank
    Flute Lessons Los Angles
    Flute Teacher Burbank
    Flute Teacher Los Angeles
    Guitar Lessons
    Guitar Lessons In Burbank
    Guitar Lessons In Los Angeles
    Guitar Teacher Burbank
    Guitar Teacher Los Angeles
    Instrumental Band
    Jazz Saxophone Lessons Burbank
    Jazz Saxophone Lessons Los Angeles
    Jazz Saxophone Teacher Burbank
    Jazz Saxophone Teacher Los Angeles
    Los Angeles Music Teachers
    Manoela Wunder
    Music Lessons Burbank
    Music Lessons Los Angeles
    Music Lessons Near Me
    Music School In Burbank
    Music School In Los Angeles
    Music Teacher Burbank
    Music Teacher Los Angeles
    Music Teachers
    Private Drum Lessons
    Private Guitar Lessons In Los Angeles
    Private Lessons
    Rick Rossi
    Rossi Music
    Singing
    Violin Lessons Burbank
    Violin Lessons Los Angeles
    Violin Teacher Burbank
    Violin Teacher Los Angeles
    Voice

    RSS Feed

​Music Lessons Av​ailable on All Instruments:
​Piano Lessons
Guitar Lessons
Voice Lessons
Drum Lessons
Violin Lessons
Cello Lessons
Saxophone Lessons
Jazz Improvisation Lessons
​Flute Lessons
Clarinet Lessons
Singing Lessons
Acoustic & Elec Bass
Songwriting & Production
Contact Us Now
Phone: 818-902-1233

242 1/2 W Cedar Ave
Burbank, CA 91502

​Email: [email protected]
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Website by Never Alone Business Services