6 Things Older Saxophone Players Get Wrong (and regret)

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Every day I get messages from people who regret having given up the saxophone and want to get back into it. After hearing countless stories and working with thousands of students, I have identified the main traps that cause people to quit. In this article, I will walk you through each one and show you how to overcome them so you can bring back the joy, challenge, and community that makes playing the saxophone so rewarding.

Reason 1

The first trap that could lead to giving up is what you are doing right now, watching saxophone YouTube videos. Now, do not get me wrong. I have learned so many things from watching YouTube videos over the years, and I want every video I make on our YouTube channel to deliver real value to you. But whatever we learn on YouTube usually ends up being surface level. If we do not switch it off and go practice, we are not taking very much away.

When I get serious about learning something, I go beyond YouTube videos and read books, take courses, or get one on one coaching. If you want to make playing the saxophone part of your daily life, find a good private teacher, join a quality online course or membership, and if you can, find local playing opportunities with other musicians. The commitment and structure will make an enormous difference in what you can accomplish and make it much less likely that you ever give up.

But what if you are already doing some or all of those things and still feel frustrated?

Reason 2

Believe it or not, having so much information readily available can actually make the process more difficult and frustrating. Long before YouTube, I remember feeling overwhelmed by the vast amount of things I was supposed to be practicing. Every new tip or exercise just added to the pile, making it feel impossible to keep up.

Honestly, I do not blame you if you have ever thought, “Why bother? I will never get through it all.” Here is the thing. You cannot learn everything at once. You need a clear path, a set of steps that make sense for you. There is also a ton of stuff out there that you do not even need to learn.

Without guidance, it is impossible to know where to begin, what comes next, and what is safe to ignore. So let me make it simple. Focus on just three things, no matter your level or style of music. Sound, rhythm, and songs. If you are working on those every day, you are probably on the right track and you will actually enjoy playing enough to stick with it.

But what if that is exactly what you are doing and you still feel like you are not getting anywhere?

Reason 3

That was me for a long time. I practiced daily, but the mountain of things to learn made me feel like I was desperately trying to catch up to players far ahead of me in a race. That was a huge mistake and it almost made me quit.

Stop holding yourself to an impossibly high standard. Stop comparing yourself to anybody else. The only comparison with any validity is where you are today compared to yesterday. Every incremental improvement is a win and can be all the motivation you need for a lifetime of enjoyment playing the saxophone.

Everyone, even the greats, had to travel on the same path. Embrace whatever stage of the saxophone journey you are in right now. If you can do that, you will actually learn faster and enjoy the process much more.

But there is another mindset shift you have to make if you want to avoid the biggest reason saxophone players give up.

Reason 4

Have you ever told yourself, “I suck at this. I will never be able to play the way I want to.” I did. Every time I played the saxophone, actually. Everyone does to some degree.

The truth is, beating yourself up does not help you get better. It just makes you more likely to quit. Here is what you must do instead. Stop the self criticism. We only make mistakes when we try to do too much or go too far outside of our comfort zone.

The solution is to practice in the Goldilocks Zone, where things are slightly challenging so you are improving, but not so difficult that you are set up for constant failure. Once you figure that out, your practice wins go way up and your frustration disappears.

This is exactly what I work on with every student inside the BetterSax Membership. Helping players practice in a way that keeps things challenging but achievable is the single biggest change you can make for real progress and long term enjoyment. Nobody who is having fun while steadily getting better is going to quit. If you want my help improving your saxophone playing over the long term, click here to learn more about joining the BetterSax Membership.

At this point, many people think, “That sounds great, but I don’t have enough time to learn the saxophone the way I want to. Who has 10,000 spare hours?”

Reason 5

The 10,000 hour thing is a lie. It sounds good, but it’s still not true. The amount of time you spend doing something is certainly important, but what matters much more is consistency.

Who do you think will get better results? The person who practices the saxophone 10 minutes a day every day, or the person who practices once a week for an hour? It adds up to the same amount of time over the year, but consistency compounds for massive wins.

Make saxophone playing something you commit to for at least 5 to 10 minutes every day. That is easy and sustainable even for very busy people. Most of those sessions will end up being longer. Once the habit is formed, which usually takes about a month, you become unstoppable.

And that leads us to the next reason people give up playing the saxophone.

Reason 6

You are always alone.

Music is a communal activity. Yes, we need to spend time practicing on our own, but the biggest rewards come when we play the saxophone with other musicians in front of other humans. You have to actively seek out opportunities to be part of a community.

If you are afraid, refer back to reason four. Stop hating on yourself. You sound great. Go make music with other people, for other people, and have some fun. Without that, many players lose motivation and eventually quit.

Now you should go practice. But if you do want to keep reading, make it this article where I explain why learning to sound great on the saxophone does not take as long as most people think: How Long Does It Take to Learn Saxophone?