Hi! I’m your sax teacher Jamie Anderson.

Welcome to the Saxophone

Success Masterclass Resources PDF!
This PDF contains a summary of some of the main points being made in the video, links to
relevant YouTube content and some musical examples.

INTRODUCTION
• Masterclass is suitable for saxophonists of any standard, choose the sections appropriate to
your level
• Topics can’t be covered in exhaustive detail. This is a dip into lots of di erent areas
• I’ve been a professional woodwind player and teacher for 25+ years
• I’ve worked with Chaka Khan, Wet Wet Wet, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Frankie Valli And
The Four Seasons, Incognito and I’ve played on many top Musical Theatre productions such as
Jersey Boys, Dreamgirls, Tina The Musical and Book Of Mormon
• I LOVE playing sax!
• Try to eliminate distractions, make a nice co ee and give yourself an hour or so for the lesson

1. GEAR
• Choose the sax that you feel most comfortable with
• Tenor might be a bit big for kids to start on
• It’s important that your sax doesn’t leak and that it’s in good working order
• It’s NOT so important what sax you have as long as it works well. It makes a bit of a di erence,
but probably not as much as you think!
• Choose a mouthpiece that works well for you and one that is well made and even etc
• Remember that 99% of the sound comes from YOU, so don’t spend your whole time stressing
about gear. Find a good set up and stick with it for a while

2. BREATHING
• Breathing is the most important factor in tone production!
• Fill up your ABDOMEN with air, NOT your shoulders
• Breathing is passive - the air should ood naturally into the vacuum left by the previous out
breath
• Shoulders should be relaxed and loose

3. SETTING UP
• Get your reed out of your reed case
• Optional - atten the reed back with a reed geek tool
• soak the reed in your mouth, including the back
• Fit the mouthpiece to the neck rst (without ligature or reed)
• Moisten the table of your mouthpiece
• The ligature screw is almost always on the right, but it might be on the top or the bottom of the
mouthpiece
• Reed should be central and ush with the tip of the mouthpiece
• Test the seal of your reed with the vacuum test
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4. EMBOUCHURE AND THROAT
• Great embouchure will give much bigger gains than tinkering with your set up!
• Play with an “open throat” and an open, large mouth cavity space
• Top teeth rest on the top of the mouthpiece
• Use a “fat” bottom lip, using the word “vee” as a guide to where your bottom lip sits on the reed
• Support the sound from the sides of your mouth with rm pressure and the sides of your lips slightly
forward like when you say the word “hoe”
• Practice blowing the neck and mouthpiece only to begin with
• Your larynx should be exible enough to cover at least an octave on your mouthpiece

YouTube Lesson Embouchure Live Masterclass

5. BODY POSITION
• Pick up your sax by the bell to avoid damaging sensitive key mechanisms
• Use a mouthpiece cap so that the reed doesn’t snag on anything and get cracked
• Your weight should be evenly distributed across both feet. Don’t slump.
• Take the sax to you - don’t adjust your body to nd the sax
• Head position should be neutral, not cranked forward or back
• Sax can be between your legs or to the right side of your body
• Fingers should be relaxed, curved and articulate from the rst joint only
• The two hands both make a mirrored “c” shape
• Elbows should be by your side and relaxed
• Wrists are dropped and relaxed

YouTube Clip Sonny Stitt’s hand technique

6. TONE
• Long notes - why? Embouchure control, endurance, tuning and tone
• Close your eyes and be meditative
• Long note drill 1: simple long tones
• Long note drill 2: quiet to loud to quiet
• Long note drill 3: octaves
• Long note drill 4: (more advanced) pivot note with widening intervals

• Long note drill 5: overtones/harmonics

YouTube Lesson Overtones Live Masterclass

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7. SCALES
• Why? For technique, evenness of tone and time keeping
• Using a metronome, play each scale to the highest note you can play (within that scale), down to the
lowest note you can play (within that scale) and back to the start note
• As you learn new notes add them to your scales practice
• Add variations once you’ve mastered the basics e.g. thirds, triads etc
YouTube Lesson #26 Scales Part 1

YouTube Lesson #39 Scales Part 2

8. Practice - How & What

How
• Little and often is best. Consistency is key!
• Isolate problem areas rst. Don’t waste time playing stu you already know
• Use a metronome. Your band mates will thank you later! lol
• Keep your sax handy to pick up anytime
What
• Long tones/sound/overtones
• Scales
• Technical exercises
• Transcription
• Pieces/projects/songs
• Fun time!
• Clean your sax
• The rest of the time, LISTEN!
YouTube Lesson #57 Practice

YouTube Lesson #21 How To Get Faster Fingers

YouTube Series How To Transcribe

YouTube Lesson #33 How To Clean Your Sax

YouTube Series Sax Legends

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9. Improvising
What sounds good when you improvise?
• Having a fabulous sound
• Timing and groove
• Some space for the music to breathe
• Short motifs or themes - repeat them and change them
YouTube Lesson #25 3 Tips For Soloing

[Scale used for the demonstration]

10. Tricks & Tips

• Growl by humming at the same time as you blow
• Another growl technique can be employed by uttering your tongue
• Use your throat to bend and shape notes
• Add low B or Bb key to an octave E to keep it in tune (on some saxes)
• Middle Eb can be played with the front F key
• Shape the tone on an “A” by adding your RH ngers
• Add side palm D key to a normal octave D to fatten it
• Use the “bis” key for your Bbs unless there’s a good reason not to
• “Stunt trill” A to C by moving your RH over the top
• “Flutter trill” from G-C by feathering the side E with your RH thumb
• Multiphonics are several notes at once. Use split ngerings

YouTube Lesson #35 How To Growl On Sax

YouTube Lesson #44 Throat Flexibility And Vibrato

YouTube Lesson #22 Stunt Trill

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Resources Page

Get Your Sax Together Main Channel Link

Get Your Sax Together YouTube Playlists…

Technique

Hall Of Fame

Sax Legends

Beginners

Harmony & Theory

Vlogs

How To Transcribe

Improvising

Gear

Christmas

My Performances

Greatest Pop Sax Solos Ever

Got any questions? (within reason lol)

info@getyoursaxtogether.com

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