Test your Saxophone Flexibility

Why do I have to study classical saxophone, or classical music at all? I get this question all the time. Why do I have to study this disgusting, French, nauseating, billy goat vibrato, dead guy music? The answer is you don’t. Go ahead and be jazz pig, playing really sharp in the upper register, with no sense of phrasing or how to interpret a musical line. No idea of what consistent tone sounds like, unable to articulate in the lower register, or play quieter than forte. Please feel free to develop your tone that is quite reminiscent of a weed eater, unable to blend with any sound other than similar power tools.

Saxophonists should study classical literature for a variety of reasons, but first let’s look at your development without classical study. Perhaps you hear a player you like and emulate parts of their sound, style, and perhaps the harmonic content of their improvisation. You work diligently on the topics that interest and excite you, always looking for new challenges, and new sounds on your horn. This sounds pretty good, but let’s look at what doesn’t happen. You are rarely placed in situations where the music is completely new to you, where you are required to develop sounds and techniques that are far beyond your current abilities.

Proceed to these exercises in the back of the book to assess your current saxophone flexibility:

Falling Exercise

The “Falling Exercise” is taken from the book by Marcel Moyse, “De La Sonorite.” It is adapted here to provide more work on vibrato. The first vibrato speed indication is to provide a starting point for you jazzers, but we then progress up to speeds that would make the French proud. Work for a consistent tone as you move from note to note. Use a tuner.

Octaves with Vibrato and a Tuner

Practice ascending and descending octaves throughout the range of the instrument, using a tuner at all times. First, play at a mezzo forte dynamic, then with crescendos and decrescendos, again throughout the full range of the instrument, paying careful attention to intonation.

Low Register Articulation

Play the “Taffanel Gaubert for Saxophone” exercise with a clean, clear articulation in the low register. This is the exercise that will get that Dukoff D8 mouthpiece of yours up on eBay where it belongs.

Dynamics and Pitch

Using a tuner with a metronome set on 60, start on A2 pianissimo, crescendo over 4 beats to fortissimo, decrescendo 4 beats back to pp, hold the note 2 additional beats at the softest dynamic possible, then go up one half step. Do this all in one breath, watching the tuner to maintain pitch.  Follow the exercise chromatically up and down, throughout the range of the instrument, paying particular attention to the palm keys.

Interpretation

Play the melodies at the back of the book, patterned after the Marcel Moyse work, Tone Development Though Interpretation. How do you interpret these melodies, using dynamics, tone color, articulation, and vibrato? I once had a student who was an avowed jazzer, with nothing but contempt for what he referred to as “dead guy music.” As he worked through these melodies, and other classical literature, he found to his amazement that all he had to do was play what was printed on the page, accurately with a consistent, beautiful sound.