Handcuffed to sheet music? Learn to play saxophone with your eyes closed!


Frustrated learning saxophone?
Free beginning sax lessons.

How to Play Mr. Saxobeat Tutorial (Alexandra Stan) – Alto Saxophone

by Neal

How to play the sax line from Alexandra Stan’s (from Romania) song. First note is G#. There are four sharps in the key.

If your G# is sticking, this will be a bit difficult to play. Clean it with a bill if you need to. There is a little vibrato that you want to use on some of the long notes.

{ 0 comments }

How to Play a Stanley Turrentine Line Over D-7 Chord on Saxophone

First part of Stanley Turrentine’s solo on ‘The Hustler’.  Played on tenor sax, but if you’re looking at the notes, you can play it on alto sax for a D-7 chord too.  Try playing it in a few keys.  Starts on the fifth and goes to the root for the first interval.  Notice how space [...]

Read the rest…

Saxophone and the ii V I Progression?

Erskine asked, Hi Neal , Would explain the II, V I concept in jazz music Thanks. Here is part of the explanation, leave a comment if you have some more ideas on it! The ii V I progression ‘pulls’ your ear towards the next piece. It moves towards ‘resolution’ as we hear it. You may [...]

Read the rest…

Saxophone & Scales – 12 or 15 scales?

Mark in the Caribbean asked, “One question, how many scales there are 12 or 15?” To your ear, there are 12 scales.  They can be written in different ways though. You could write a C# scale or a Db scale and it would sound the same, but it would be written differently.  Same with F# [...]

Read the rest…

Sonny Rollins Drawing

Drawing of Sonny Rollins by EvilHairDay.  Saw Sonny Rollins at the Monterey Jazz Festival this last year.  He still puts on a great performance!

Read the rest…

How to Attain the Most Legendary Monstrous Jaw-Dropping Saxophone Skills Ever

Technology man!  This tool is the latest in 8 bit technology! Combine this software with blue pants, red leather gloves, and some sunglasses……. and you’re pretty much set. Made possible by Pippen Barr with a tip of his hat to Sergei Stepanov and SunStroke Project. Five monumental phases.  Practicing, recording, jamming, the Eurovision contest and [...]

Read the rest…

How to Play Your First Notes on Saxophone – The Mid Range – on Alto Sax

How to play the first notes on saxophone. B through F chromatically. Seven notes. The mid range is easier to play on saxophone than the highest and lowest notes. These notes are taught chromatically. Adding a ‘#’ (sharp) to a note raises it by a half step. Adding a ‘b’ (flat) to a note lowers [...]

Read the rest…

How to Play a ‘Digital Lick’ on Saxophone 1 2 3 5 – Tenor Sax

A while back I mentioned a ‘digital lick’ that you could play on saxophone. You basically equate the notes with numbers. If the scale is C major, 1 would be C, 2 would be D, 3 would be E, 4 would be F, 5 would be G, etc. This lick uses 1, 2, 3, 5. [...]

Read the rest…

How to Play a Charlie Parker Line on Tenor Saxophone – Bird Line #1 Tenor Sax

Line comes from Charlie Parker’s solo on Celerity. You can play it over a G major chord.  If you transpose the lick, it will work over any major chord. Hadn’t done any tenor sax video lessons for a little while, so I figured I would do a few. First note is G.  Try it out, [...]

Read the rest…

Beginning Saxophone Question: “Supposed to tongue every note?” – Careless Whisper

          Receive a question related to tonguing the notes for the song Careless Whisper for the alto sax video lesson I made. I’ve started to follow your Careless Whisper instructions. it gets a little harder on the 3rd page where it goes into a high D, (which I’ve forgotten the fingering) [...]

Read the rest…

Duke Ellington’s ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ – Help Learning It By Ear on Sax

For my ear training lesson on ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing’ by Ellington, I decided to post it again here. The ‘solutions’ to the music (the notes for this lesson) are listed below the video. They’re not listed all at once though. They’re listed one at a time. You can scroll down to see one [...]

Read the rest…

What the SAT Math Prep Book Can Teach You About Ear Training on Saxophone

I was helping a student study for the SAT mathematical questions the other day.  He has a prep book with concepts and practice questions.  And the answers are available to check out if you flip back to a later page. That means you can check instantly whether you have the correct answer or not. If [...]

Read the rest…

Alto Sax Stand, Tenor Sax Stand, Baritone Sax Stand, Keg Stand?

Well, maybe that last one doesn’t belong in the list….. The other night at a gig I was looking at my sax stand and how it wobbled.  It had done that for years.  Was a little annoying, but didn’t seem to really matter.  It worked and it has a couple of spots to put in [...]

Read the rest…

Sonny Rollins Photos at Monterey Jazz Festival 2011- Arena Stage

Sonny Rollins put on a great show this last year at the Monterey Jazz Festival! Was very happy to be there to hear it.  Took a few photos.

Read the rest…

What a Trombone Player Can Teach You About the Charlie Parker Omnibook

At our last gig, I was talking to Faris, trombone player in our band, about Charlie Parker.  Since it’s at least slightly hard to play Bird on a trombone than an alto sax, from all evidence I have seen and heard, he was saying that the tunes that can be most approachable in the Omnibook [...]

Read the rest…

← Previous Entries