Here’s another quick saxophone lesson for you. I lifted this phrase from one of my favorite saxophonists Sonny Stitt. He would play stuff like this all the time in minor keys. It’s a bit cliché but that’s a good thing. Having a bunch of cliché and recognizable melodic phrases in your vocabulary is a very […]
Use Clichés Like This One in your Solos to Connect with Listeners Read More »
Here’s a mini sax lesson for you. Take this diatonic triad pattern through the keys for some nice arpeggio practice. These are arranged in such a way that it lends itself very well to bebop. If you add a bebop articulation to this it will sound pretty hip. Take a look at the video to
Learn This Easy Bebop Pattern Read More »
Curved Soprano Saxophones I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved curved soprano saxophones, and I’ve always wanted one. Problem was, there were not that easy to come by. Most saxophone makers stick to the straight variety with the exception of Yanagisawa. They’ve been making an excellent curved soprano sax for decades. Another problem,
Cheap vs Expensive Curved Soprano Saxophones Read More »
Easy ii-V-I Lick In this lesson, I’m going to teach you an easy ii-V-I lick. As always there’s a pdf download for you that goes along with this lesson in the BetterSax Shed. The idea is not to learn a bunch of phrases by rote and then plug them in to create a paint by
How to Turn LICKS Into SOLOS – Easy ii-V-I Lick Read More »
“If you work through this book and do everything in this book you’re going to become a very good altissimo player.” – Ben Wendel In this video I sit down with Ben Wendel as he shares some of his secrets on how he shreds like an absolute monster in the upper altissimo range. You can
The LAST Altissimo Lesson You’ll Ever Need with Ben Wendel Read More »
Here is the first installment (on a trial basis) of the brand new Better Sax “podcast” with live interviews with fantastic saxophonists. Today I spoke to Michael Wilbur from New Bedford, Massachusetts. He is an absolute BEAST of a player and has tons of great advice for you all to take in (especially if you
Return of the BASS SAX – Live with Michael Wilbur from Moon Hooch Read More »
Learn about the design process of the BetterSax BURNIN’ mouthpiece in this live hang and Q+A session with Jody Espina, founder of Jody Jazz mouthpieces. Want more giveaways and interviews? Be sure to follow BetterSax on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube to stay up to date with us for news, giveaways, and other saxophone tips and tricks.
Designing the BetterSax BURNIN’ Mouthpiece with Jody Espina Read More »
Which saxophone mouthpiece tip opening should I choose? This is a question I have gotten a lot over the years, but now that people are ordering my BURNIN’ alto sax mouthpiece its coming up even more. So in this video, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about saxophone mouthpiece tip openings
Everything I Know About Sax Mouthpiece Tip Openings Read More »
Synthetic v. Cane Saxophone Reeds? A little over 2 years ago I made a video comparing Legere Signature synthetic reeds to cane reeds. Back then, YouTube had this feature where you could vote on screen. Although they have erased the results of all the voting It was pretty clear that most people could not really
New Legere American Cut Reeds… are they better? Read More »
Everything I Know About Practicing Today I want to show a bit of my daily practice routine. That way you can see the sort of things that I’m working on to improve my own saxophone playing. My hope is that this helps you with some ideas for new things to practice, or just some better
How I Practice (with my new favorite app) Read More »
Ever wonder how a ligature or different kinds of ligatures can affect your saxophone sound? In this video I go through a bunch of different ligatures and give you my honest unfiltered reaction to each one. The other day I was trying out a bunch of different ligatures and while there is not a huge
In Search of the ULTIMATE Saxophone Ligature Read More »
Jody Espinosa of Jody Jazz and Jay Metcalf of BetterSax join forces to share and demonstrate the whole line of Jody Jazz HR* Custom Dark Mouthpieces. The show is hosted by Daniel Chia of Singapore. Check out the 1 hour and 30 minute discussion and Q+A by clicking on the photo above! Enjoy! Want more
BetterSax + Jody Jazz Live Stream | HR* Custom Dark Mouthpieces Read More »
What kind of saxophone sound are you going for? Dark? Bright? A mixture of the two? Or does it depend on the style of music you’re playing? In this video, I’m going to lay out some of the ways to get a darker sound on the saxophone. You may have heard that some saxophones play
How to Get a DARK Saxophone Sound | Jody Jazz HR* Custom Dark Read More »
He’s an absolute legend, and normally you’d have to spend $45,000/year at the Berklee College of Music to gain his wisdom, OR you can check out this masterclass with the incredible George Garzone right here, on BetterSax. Check out the video above for the full interview with George Garzone Interested in more great interviews and
A Saxophone Masterclass with George Garzone Read More »
Hey Everyone! Welcome back, today I’m gonna show you a few simple techniques for improvising over the classic soul standard “Ain’t no Sunshine” by Bill Withers. Plus, I’ll show you a neat little trick to make the pentatonic scale sound even cooler. In this lesson I’m gonna be using the “Ain’t no Sunshine” backing track
5 Ways of Improvising Over Basic Chords + Pentatonic Scale Trick Read More »
One thing I get asked A LOT is what do the different traits of a saxophone mouthpiece mean? What’s the difference between a smaller and larger tip opening? What does more baffle mean for resistance? How does the chamber size affect my sound? Well read on – because answers are ahead. The Baffle On a
3 Key Traits of YOUR Saxophone Mouthpiece Read More »
The Smooth Jazz Lick I don’t listen to a lot of smooth jazz, but when I do, I always hear this recurring thing that I am calling the smooth jazz lick. In this video I’m going to teach it to you. Now, please don’t make any judgements based on the words smooth jazz. If you’re
The Smooth Jazz Lick Read More »
Is the Better Sax Alto better? Now that I have the new Better Sax Alto, I think I spent too much on my Yanagisawa saxophone.. Last year I bought the Elite Yanagisawa WO33 alto sax. It has a solid silver neck and bell, and is about as good as it gets when it comes to
Did I Spend Too Much on My Sax? Better Sax Alto v. Yanagisawa Read More »
You all heard the BetterSax intro plenty of times, and while I think it’s perfect as is – saxophonist Dave Pollack has other ideas. Check out his rendition of the BetterSax intro – smooth jazz style. To quote him “it’s being played on the wrong instrument and there are wrong notes in it. In this
Dave Pollack Tackles the BetterSax intro – Smooth Jazz Style Read More »
Hey everyone, today I’m going to show you a really great scale pattern that will sure to spice things up in your practice sessions and help you understand different kinds of major and minor keys. First before you get started download the lesson pdf from the BetterSax Shed here. This will help you follow along
Applying a Pattern to Any Scale in all 12 Keys Read More »
Hey BetterSax players, we’re back with another episode of great sax solos, and today I’m going to break down the solo from James Taylor’s “How Sweet it is to be Loved by You” played by David Sanborn. First of all before we get started, download the Lesson PDF from the BetterSax shed here. This way
Blues Scale trick as played by David Sanborn | Great Sax Solos Ep. 3 Read More »
