Am I ahead of the game?? (where to start)

[troymcclure]

I just picked up my first saxophone about a week ago. I have no previous music experience other than 6 months of guitar. I have heard that I should be practicing long tones for months before learning songs. I learned how to read music in beginning guitar and have already learned to play My favorite Things and Girl from Ipanema on the sax. From my understanding I shouldn't even be attempting this yet.

I am also learning to play scales. I have no formal instruction at this time, but my friend is very good at jazz guitar and has been helping me along at guitar and now sax. I practice long tones everyday, but I really want to get more music and learn more songs. I am a big guy and have good breath control. My embrochure although not perfect was surprisingly natural. Should I keep doing what I'm doing or should I take a few steps back??? Is doing longtones absolutely essential or is it something that helps build up embrochure and breath control so that beginners wont' get frustrated when trying to play songs? Any help is much appreciated

[gary]

Hi Troy! Long tones are essential and you may be playing them the rest of your sax-playing life in one form or another. But the suggestion that you shouldn't be playing other things, including songs, which I assume is your incentive to play in the first place is, well, misplaced advice. Perhaps the intention is to impress you that fundamentals are very important, but to say don't start playing songs right away is overkill. Forget it.

I think it's great that you're learning the sax. I would really advise you to get a teacher, though. There's just a whole world of techniques and knowledge abou tsax playing for you to leave your learning up to trial and error. Some people do, indeed, learn to swim by being thrown into the middle of a swimming pool, but I've never seen one of these "swimmers" learn good technique out of that method.

There are bad habits you can get into and then, when you keep playing, you are not really improving but, well, refining your bad habits. Having said that, I was self-taught in the beginning, but I was already a professional musician, knew what books to read and had some good colleagues I could ask whenever I needed some answers.

In lieu of a teacher, at least fins some working sax players and bend their ears regularly, perhaps even play for them from time to time. Anyway, welcome to the fellowship.

[cleger]

The longtones are crucial in developing your tone. As my sax teacher likes to say, if you don't have a good tone you don't have s**t. What you should be doing on long tones is listening to yourself and trying to get a sound that is pleasing to you. The advice I have heard is to play against a wall so the sound reflacts back to you so you can hear yourself clearly. When my wife isn't home I like to play in our hallway where we have 20 ft to the ceiling (2 floors) and the acoustics are amazing. The other thing that I do with long tones is that I try to vary the volume. I try to get a good consistent tone from a whisper quiet volume up to as loud as I can play. Long tones should be a part of your practice routine for good from what I have been told, you always have to maintain your tone.

I personally don't see the problem with playing songs as soon as you are able. I was given a song to learn at my first lesson (When the Saints go Marching in) and I had never learned to read a note of music up to that point. My teacher's opinion is that you have to be having some fun in this along with the exercises. He had me starting on improvising techniques at the third session. I am three months into learning this instrument and am having a ball with it.

The scales are great for when it comes time to improvise. You can't go wrong practicing scales imho. My big project right now is to be able to play the cycles of 5ths and 4ths from memory, it's coming slowly since I don't always have enough time to practice.

The best thing I did was to get a great an instructor. If you have options find an instructor who is skilled at the kind of music you want to play. If you don't have a lot of options in your area I would still get lessons. You will be amazed at how much there is to learn with this instrument.

Good luck

[fballatore]

Ditto Gary.

Ditto Cleger.

Do it all. I've been playing a little over 2 months, and my teacher (and a good friend) have helped me tremendously. I break my practice down roughly evenly into 3 sections - long tones, scales, and tunes. I practice at least 1/2 hour a day, and try to get 45 min to an hour when I can. I don't limit myself to simple songs; I try to work on challenging songs as well. I feel that that will make me a better player more quickly. (As a late bloomer, I've got a lot of catching up to do!!)

Good luck,

Frank