There are several good saxophone methods in existence, but none as comprehensive as books for the other woodwinds. Also, none of these works address the need for a saxophonist to perform convincingly in a wide range of musical styles. As saxophonists, we find ourselves performing as soloists, with symphonies and concert bands, pit orchestras, in saxophone quartets, jazz ensembles, jazz combos, jazz pop, or fusion groups, and rock bands. Most successful professional players I know have done, or still do all these things.
So, how do we prepare for all this – or the portions of all this we want to be a part of? How do we develop a beautiful, but powerful sound? Establish a training program? Develop consistent technique and good intonation, while we learn all the tunes we need to know for our jazz gigs? How much do we need to work on our blues or pop inflections, without sounding like cookie-cutter smooth jazz clone? How much of an altissimo range do we need? How good do we have to be on flute or clarinet? Then, with our saxophone skills finely honed, how do we find gigs? What work is there? Is there even a career out there for any of us?
My hope is that this series of essays will help you answer some of these questions. I also hope that it will help develop a process where you ask yourself effective questions about your goals, what you hope to do with music, what you hope to achieve as an artist, and where music fits into your life.
My goal is to keep the information brief, but to reference more lengthy discussions, or books on a given issue. This book will also incorporate some multimedia files that should prove useful. Many of the exercises will be provided not only as music you can read, but also as audio and MIDI files. You can use these as intonation exercises, or to check the accuracy of your technique. In addition to the pictures within the text, the accompanying disk will have video files with demonstrations of the techniques outlined.