Copy This Sax Warm-Up for a Beautiful Tone

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The Sax Warm-Up That Helps Intermediate Players Transition Into Pros

Do you ever wonder what students at top music schools get taught?

Most of us don’t have access to those classes, but one of the top saxophone clinicians in the country, Adam Larson, has just shared with us his complete practice method which covers sound, technique, learning tunes, and improvising over basic chord changes.

It’s the stuff that he learned while studying at Manhattan School of Music and the exact material he teaches in master classes at top universities. So, in this video, you’re going to get a taste of the teaching that actually helps intermediate players transition into pros.

Adam’s new course, Practice Makes Perfect, as well as his other three improvisation courses are all available as part of the BetterSax membership.

Adam Larson Practiced this Every Day for the Last 20 Years

I’m going to walk you through a bunch of exercises that I’ve used in my pedagogy and my own practice for the last 20 years. If you do these things in this section every single day, you’re going to hear a large improvement in your overall sound.

I promise you, if you do this for even a week, you’re going to see some benefits immediately. And whether it’s a week, a month, a year, you’re going to notice is that you’re going to be less tired when you play. You’re going to be able to have good relative pitch. I don’t have perfect pitch, but being able to know where D natural is on the saxophone, believe me, if you do this exercise every single day for a month, you’ll never forget it.

And you’ll be able to hear other notes around it a lot quicker. And if you do this exercise every single day, for a week, for a month, for a year, your sound is going to sound so much better.

Remember that the first thing anybody hears when they hear you is quite literally your sound, right? So, if you have a great sound, everything else that you practice is going to be affected in a positive way.

Nobody wants to practice long tones because they’re tedious and boring and we can’t instantly feel any gratification with it. But I promise you, if you sit with this and you’re patient, you’re going to see the dividends of it for many, many years to come.

Adam Larson’s “The Hinge” Saxophone Tone Exercise

So, just as a door opens and closes on a hinge, this exercise begins and ends in the same place, which is middle D on the saxophone. We will refer to this note as the home tone for the rest of this exercise.

We will play the home tone, then play the next chromatic note below it, which we will call the target tone. Then we will again play the home tone and then breathe for four beats before repeating the exercise and continuing to descend to the next half step. The range for this exercise is from middle D to low D, then middle D to high D.

This exercise has three primary benefits: embouchure strengthening, ear training, and breath support. For maximum results, do this no faster than 60 BPM and ideally work your way towards 42 beats per minute.

The big catch with this exercise is to do it without ever taking your mouth off of the mouthpiece, breathing through your nose every time you rest. We often take the mouthpiece out of our mouths or reset in the moments of rest. And by not doing this, we strengthen those facial muscles that we otherwise take for granted.

If you do the whole thing, it takes around eight or nine minutes. Now, as you do this, bear in mind if you’ve never done it before, you might feel a little bit of fatigue here in your facial muscles. That’s good. And it’ll only get better the more you do it. Remember, consistent practice is really important.

World-Class Sax Teaching for Players at all Levels

Adam’s new course makes it possible for anybody to access the same world-class teaching available at top universities like Manhattan School of Music, but without passing any audition or paying a high tuition bill. Of course, you have to put in the work, but knowing exactly how pro players like Adam achieved their results gives you a massive head start and clear path to follow.

Right now, we’re offering a free trial of the BetterSax membership where you can access all of Adam’s courses, plus dozens of others from world-class teachers like Eric Alexander and Vincent Herring that will help take your saxophone playing to the next level.