How to Become a Better Sax Player in 2025

Check out the audio podcast version of this post on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

I’m about to share with you dozens of things you can do to become a better saxophone player and musician this year. These things are going to apply to every level of player from beginners to seasoned pros. I made this list as much for myself as i did for you since these are the things I strive to do on a daily basis.

I have organized the list into categories, and the first one has to do with our health.

Health

Sleep – Make sure you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Playing music at a high level requires us to be well rested, don’t underestimate the value of sleep.

Exercise – You gotta keep yourself in shape. Playing the saxophone requires a healthy set of lungs and strong back muscles so we don’t get hurt just holding and blowing the thing. So some form of light exercise on a regular basis, a few times a week and you’ll be a better musician for it.

Eat better – Staying physically fit is going to help you play best, the easiest way to do this is to maintain a healthy diet. You know what’s good for you and what’s not. Make healthier choices more often and you’ll be glad you did.

Don’t smoke – if you’re one of the dinosaurs still smoking, maybe this is the year you finally quit. It’s gross and makes you and your saxophone smell yucky.

Drink less alcohol – It’s not good for you and too much can really have a negative affect your playing not to mention, it makes you fat.

Don’t do drugs – drugs are bad. that’s all I have to say about that.

Get some ear plugs – Playing the saxophone at full volume will mess up your hearing over time. Get some earplugs and use them when you practice, during rehearsals and at loud concerts. I use a pair of molded ear plugs that I got about 20 years ago. Amazing investment.

Less social media/phone -While there is a lot of high quality content out there, you do have to sift through mountains of garbage. Take a targeted approach to the media you consume, don’t let the algorithms choose what you watch for you. Stay in control of what you do with your time put this thing down and keep it away from you as much as possible.

Media

Read biographies of great musicians/more books – I still don’t read as much as I like to, but time spent reading books is so much more valuable than time spent on your phone or watching Netflix. Reading about your favorite musicians helps us achieve a much more complete understanding of the music.

Watch/listen to interviews/podcasts with great musicians – The next best thing is to watch interviews, videos and podcasts from great musicians. The value you can get for free is immeasurable. If you haven’t been watching the amazing interviews with great saxophonists on this channel, you are really missing out.

Listen to some new music – When you read books and watch documentaries, you will get constant ideas for things to listen to. Make a list and start discovering new music you haven’t yet heard. There is literally an endless supply of amazing music out there.

Listen to some old music that inspired you – go back and listen to stuff that inspired you in the past. Music affects us differently as we get older and it’s a fun exercise to revisit old favorites andee how our perspective may have changed.

Consume less entertainment and more educational content – YouTube lessons, interviews – For every tv series, movie or entertaining video you watch, be sure to consume something educational as well. Doesn’t have to be music related. It’s just a good habit to use leisure time to learn stuff.

Saxophone Specific

Get a good mouthpiece – If you don’t have a good mouthpiece, you are just making the process of playing the saxophone miserable. The difference is night and day, and a good mouthpiece is probably the best investment you can make in your saxophone life. You don’t have to spend a ton, if you are starting out and developing your sound, I recommend you get a BetterSax Classic mouthpiece which is under $40.

Once you’ve built up your sound a bit, choose a tonal direction you want to go in, and explore the many great options available at all different price points. The BetterSax Burnin’ mouthpieces are killer and you should definitely check those out.

Get good reeds – Make sure you are playing on good quality reeds that are the proper strength for you and your setup. So many people are playing on reeds that are too hard which causes them to put too much pressure on the reed and choke off the sound. For most people, a 2.5 or 3 strength reed is going to be ideal depending on your mouthpiece tip opening.

There are lots of great cane and synthetic reeds available. If you play cane reeds I would stick with the ones made in France like our BetterSax Jazz Cut reeds which are made from organically sourced French cane and play incredibly well.

Start adjusting your reeds – Doing quick adjustments on reeds has been a total game changer for me since i started doing it years ago. This is one of the easiest ways to improve your saxophone life. the BetterSax Geeklet keeps the table of your reeds flat allowing a perfect seal with the mouthpiece which results in way better response, projection, sound and your reeds last longer.

Take your instrument in for a check up – All saxophones are slowly going out of adjustment over time and as we play them. You are probably due for a visit to your local repair technician. Go call them and make an appointment today. It’s so much easier and more fun to play on a well adjusted instrument.

Swab Your Horn – If you don’t swab your saxophone out after playing, it’s just gross. Don’t be lazy, take the 60 seconds to swab out the body, neck and mouthpiece. Keep those parts dry and your horn will stay in adjustment longer, smell better, and retain its value longer. Get a BetterSax Ultimate Swab Kit if you don’t already have one.

Practice

Set up a practice space – Practicing is not just a way to get better at playing music. it is super healthy activity for our minds and bodies. The act of focusing on a complex task without distractions or interruptions is extremely valuable. It’s basically training for being effective in all areas of life.

In order to do this, you need a dedicated practice space where there’s nothing else to do other than practice. Where you can remove all distractions and focus.

Get in your practice space on a regular basis – Once you have that awesome dedicated practice space, get yourself in there. You don’t have to practice, just go to the space with your instrument. Since there’s nothing else to do in there, you’re going to end up practicing.

Practice something new – Make it a habit to constantly be introducing new material into your practice sessions. It is very common to get caught in the trap of practicing the same stuff for weeks, months, years. This is a sure way to stifle your progress. Switch things up and diversify what you work on. This will totally accelerate your progress, I promise.

Practice something out of your comfort zone – In addition to switching up what you practice, make sure you are hitting the goldilocks zone in terms of difficulty. Material that is too easy will bore you and you won’t get better. Material that is too hard will discourage you and you won’t get better. Find the sweet spot just outside of your comfort zone and you can make steady progress.

Be kind to yourself (stop the self-loathing) – Nobody is judging you more harshly than you judge yourself. Stop beating yourself up for your mistakes, be kind to yourself and you’ll get far better musical results.

Get into a flow state – This is the topic of Kenny Werner’s 2 great books Effortless Mastery and Becoming the Instrument. We have to learn how to clear our mind, think positive thoughts, relax and get into a flow state. This will help us be better at any task in life. Music is the perfect playground to develop this ability.

Transcribe – If you’ve never done it, start. Anybody can do this. If you haven’t done it in a while, start. Transcription is probably the number one activity when it comes to improving your musicianship.

Practice without any accompaniment – No backing track, no metronome, just you. There’s nothing wrong with using those tools, but we tend to end up relying on them rather than ourselves for the underlying musical pulse and harmony. And that is a weakness.

Allow yourself to play freely – With so many books and materials to practice from, we can forget to be spontaneous and allow ourselves total freedom. Take time every day to just pick up your instrument and play whatever comes to mind. It is liberating and revealing at the same time. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Record yourself and identify your weaknesses – The first step to getting better is identifying what we need to improve. Record yourself playing, listen back, and identify your weaknesses honestly.

Address Weaknesses – Write those down and start focusing on those things rather than stuff you’re already good at. If you want to improve, you need to address your weaknesses. Don’t hide from them. It is easy to just keep practicing the stuff that you already sound good on. It is much more challenging (and rewarding) to focus on that which needs the most attention.

Community

Set up a jam session – If you don’t have the playing opportunities you know you need to get better, you can organize them yourself. Invite other musicians to jam, and play music together. It’s fun and social. When you have guests over, play music for them or even better, with them.

Surround yourself with better musicians – If you can, spend as much time as possible with musicians that are better than you are. Playing with them is going to raise your level, and you’ll learn more about music from this experience than anything else.

Ask peers what they practice – I love asking people what they practice and it’s an endless source of new creative ideas.

Go to concerts – How many concerts did you go to last year? It is way better to get out into the world among other people and hear a great concert than it is to stay home another night watching streaming tv on the couch. Be social, interact with other humans, support culture in your community, get inspired and get out of the house. Go to more live shows.

Get a private in person saxophone lesson – When was the last time you had an in person saxophone lesson? You don’t have to sign up for a weekly lesson commitment. If there is a player you like locally or who offers online lessons, sign up for a one off lesson here and there. A good teacher can give you months of stuff to work on in a single hour lesson.

Join the BetterSax Studio – If you want to join an amazing community of saxophone players who are all helping each other get better please check out the BetterSax Studio where you can study music, saxophone and improvisation with me. Every month I put together new video lessons, PDF workbooks and audio tracks for you to learn from. There are hundreds of videos in our library and you can access all of it for a very low monthly price. Visit this link to learn more about it.

Now if you want some concrete ideas on exactly what to do in order to get better at improvising go watch this video next where I explain why you should stop practicing your scales once you know them, and what should be practicing instead.