Getting back into it.... I'm ready now, please help

[Jbroad572]

I use to play in high school (alto and tenor) I love sax and have a strong passion for it. I haven't played in close to 5 years now though. Im a freshman in college now and want to ppick it back up. I miss it, lol. I picked it up today and played and had no idea what to do anymore. Well where do I start? I found out my sax is a student antigua. I really want to get serious with it though. I would like to get my basics down and all the fundamentals and upgrade my sax next year o maybe during the summer. I want to play jazz of course, praise and worship in my church (later down the road, prob need an alto or soprano for that, eh?), I would like to be versatile and be able to play alto, tenor and soprano. Is this possible without too much difficulty? Well I don't have any books, tapes, cd's, scale charts, fingering charts, but I can buy. Please tell me of any onli ne resources or books recommended. Do you guys recommened like long tones, practicing learning scales, or what. Please be very specific if you could. I plan on spending a lot of time on the forums from the day I start.

[Gandalfe]

Long tones, scales, or just transcribing off a CD, it's all goodness. Two thangs I'd recommend to get you in the fast lane like pronto is get an instructor, even if you can only afford to her/him once a month and get into a community band so that you can develop your ear. If you decide to do the community thang, which is also a good way to meet a playin' buddy, try to get at least one solo a year. Talk about a gut check, but, it's all goodness...

[saxmangeoff]

I'll echo Gandalfe on the sentiment of playing as much as you can with other groups.

Early in my "rekindled" playing, I started coming to church music practice. The guitarists had no idea what to do with me, so I had to find my own niche. (I was, and still am, the only wind instrument playing on the church music team.) Play at church and you will learn to play in sharp keys! You will also (hopefully) learn to play in tune up and down the scale -- something that was never conveyed in my school years. I used to envy the guitarists who could "tune and forget it" while I had to adjust most notes to get the intonation right. But now, I pity them, slaves as they are to frets and one out of tune string messing everything up. I don't "tune up" any more. I know where to put the mouthpiece and let my ears and lips do the rest.

Oh, and I play tenor at church. I have also since taken up clarinet and flute for those tunes where the sax would be too much.

I went to music practice and fumbled around for many months. Also played with my kids in a youth jazz band. (Since I'm clearly no a youth, I guess I was an adult helper -- the leader and I sat in with the group on practices.)

I would also recommend "The Art nf Saxophone Playing" by Larry Teal. It's great at explaining all those things I never knew before, and probably wouldn't have cared about in high school.

[Jbroad572]

I'm very excited about going to church and doodling around, but I have no idea what to start off doing first. I will pick up that book. Is there any place online I can maybe download some scales and sax exercises? I don't have any books. I am truly starting from scratch. I will most definately pick up that book though.

[BobMac]

I'll recommend a couple:


http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~bucheger/SaxPages1.html
http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~bucheger/SaxPages2.html

http://www.saxshed.com/



http://www.bama.ua.edu/~jnoffsin/Courseofstudy.html
is an interesting overview, of repertoire particularly the "technical proficiency" link.
(It may take you a while to get to those standards!)

[saxmangeoff]

I'm very excited about going to church and doodling around, but I have no idea what to start off doing first. I will pick up that book. Is there any place online I can maybe download some scales and sax exercises? I don't have any books. I am truly starting from scratch. I will most definately pick up that book though.

As a first pass, even just holding one of the chord tones can add to the overall sound. (I'm assuming your church does some contemporary stuff, in which case it's probably dominated by guitar players playing from sheets with chords/lyrics, but no written music. If there's written music, there are other things you can do.)

Assuming you know the chord definitions (and transpose them to your appropriate key), every chord on the sheet automatically gives you at least three choices of notes to play. Play one. On the next chord, switch to the one that's closest to the note you're currently playing. If your experience is like mine, someone may say at this point, "Wow! That sounds really great!" And you'll be thinking "But I'm not doing anything!" Hey, the bass player is probably just playing I-V, I-V, etc. But it sounds good, so that's ok.

Now, whenever the vocal line stops, you can add a little fill. Just a few notes. Choose notes from the current chord and "aim for" the next chord (i.e. the line you're playing should end on a chord tone from the chord that starts the next line, which you hold while the vocals go).

That alone is enough to get you going, and probably enough to keep you busy thinking and practicing for a while. Good luck!

Geoff