Play Sax By Ear - Crash Course
Eb Instruments
PSBE Lesson 3
Pentatonic Exercise 1
Congratulations
on making it to PSBE Lesson 3.
The fact that you’ve come this far shows me that you are committed to learning and will take the necessary steps to reach your goals.
Make sure that you have completed the assignment from Lesson 2 before we begin. If you need to refresh, you can do so here.
Warm up by playing through the pentatonic scale along with the metronome at a comfortable tempo a few times.
When you’re warmed up, watch the video below…
Lesson 3 Recap
- From now on, we are going to practice scales over the full range of our saxophone
- Continue using the metronome (forever!)
- Start slowly!
- Increase your practice tempo gradually (2 - 5 bpm [beats per minute] at a time)
- Don't practice with mistakes!
- Fast technique is developed by practicing slow and accurate
Resources
I’ve created a click track at 70 bpm for those of you that don’t have a metronome yet. This is only a temporary tool. A metronome is absolutely essential for all musicians.
Metronome App
I highly recommend this app. It’s a metronome and tuner and is amazing for only $4!
Much better value and functionality than any physical metronome or tuner that you can buy.
Get this app and you’re sorted!
The Next Lesson
I’m going to skip over a few steps in my method starting tomorrow. If you take the full Pentatonic Foundation Course you won’t want to do this. But for the purposes of this Crash Course, I want to show you the really cool and exciting things that can be done with what you’ve learned so far.
In Lesson 4 you are going to do something amazing on your saxophone, which you probably never did before, and I bet you thought you never would.
If you have done all your assignments from lessons 1-3 following my instructions, this should be relatively easy for you and you may even be a bit shocked at what you can now do.
See you tomorrow!
***Remember, the next lesson can only be accessed using the link in the email you will receive tomorrow, so look out for it in your inbox, and if you haven’t done so already, add jay@bettersax.com to your list of contacts or whitelist my email address.
Just because you received an email from me already does not mean that future emails won’t go into spam or junk mail.
PSBE Lesson 3 Assignment
- Practice and memorize the Pentatonic Exercise 1 (PE1) with the metronome in your key
- Use the full range of your saxophone (up to high E, down to low B)
- Play at a comfortable tempo for you and gradually increase the speed as you master this exercise
- Focus on staying in sync with the metronome
- Don't play at a tempo where you can't play perfectly. Slow it down!
- See how fast you can get PE1 while following the guidelines above
Extra Challenge:
If you have more time and want to work on some more stuff before you get the link to tomorrow’s lesson, here’s a bonus assignment for extra credit.
- Learn the major pentatonic scale in 3 keys: C, G, and D
- Work the tempo up to eighth notes at 100 bpm
Can't Wait?
If you really can’t wait, and want to dive in and get all of my training on how to learn to play melodies by ear and improvise great solos using only the 5 notes of the pentatonic scale you can always jump ahead of the line and order the full Pentatonic Foundation Course here.
Pentatonic Foundation
Learn to play melodies by ear and improvise solos using the 5 notes of the pentatonic scale.
Blues Foundation
Develop your ability to play improvised solos using the Blues style and language.
