Get My FREE Play Sax By Ear Crash Course, Beginner/Refresher Course and tons of other free lessons and downloads here: Bettersax.com Just click the button at the top of the page.
I'm 78 years old., singer songwriter, guitar player with no training of any type. Played in bands most of my life. I always loved the sax solo on the Paul Simon song "Still Crazy, so I bought a $600 beginner sax to try and play it. Never held a sax, didn't know if I could even get a sound out. Learned about how to set it up with the reed etc., by watching youtube, including a lot of your vids. You were a tremendous help. Played it till my face hurt, 3-4 hours a day. No scales, just tried to play songs, and high notes.. After about 2-3 months, went from a 2 reed to a 2 1/2 on a size 4 tip opening, and bought a $1500 sax. A few months later I bought a Yanagisawa AW01. It came with a #6 mouthpiece,.. so got so I can play it with a 3 Vandoren Traditional reed, and hit the notes I need up to high F#. I would play notes of a song until I hit the right note, write it down ,and find the next one, then eventually play the whole song. I started this about a year and a half ago, now I just hear things, and play it. I don't don't know what I'm doing, I just play the songs. I can figure out the notes if I want to, but I don't unless I want to put them in a song I wrote or something like that. I listen to Earth wind, and fire solos, and songs like "Never Tear Us Apart," by INXS, and stuff like that , that has a lot of feeling. That to me is fun. I'm not saying anybody should skip the basics, and go for the hard stuff, I'm just saying what I did. Not everybody is as obsessive as I am, when it comes to doing something.
Tips: 1-Fix tour tone (with your throat) 2-Work Articulation(legado, short, stacatto) 3-Dinamics (FF, pp) 4-Fingering (read the notes, think them, put the fingers, and later play it) 5-All this trying a good sound with the correct air (i play classic normally so i need Round sound and fast cold air)
Just started alto sax after 20 years of playing solely clarinet. Your channel and many others have inspired me to finally take up sax. I still got a teacher so I could work on breaking bad habits and hopefully that helps going back to clarinet.
I purchased one of Jay’s pentatonic courses. I have been playing for decades but the incorporation of pentatonics into my playing supercharged my performances. I play at church and family gatherings.
My recommendation for new saxophonists is if you want to get that really nice sound found in songs like careless whisper, start by learning alto and after about a year of learning and practicing regularly, switch to tenor. Tenor is easier if you know alto and it sounds great,
As someone who’s been playing classical sax for 19 years and hasn’t been able to figure out how to get this jazz thing to work… I’m embarrassed. This is so blatantly simple and has been staring me in the face for all that time. Thanks for the tip!! I’ll get on practicing those pentatonic scales!
The blues and pentatonic is your friend everywhere all the time. It works in about 95 % of western contemporary music. When in doubt at a rehearsal or inca new musical setting i just go to my ears and the blues. Its amazing how many different places i can make it work. Rnb and rock are no brainers.
All well and good and I do agree, you should take at least 6 months of lessons but sight reading is a must. Makemusic cloud has a great sight reading program. Sight reading will give you time to understand the instrument and help you quickly figure out how to play songs without guessing all the time. I have been playing a year and a half with approximately 800 hours of playing time. I now am playing sixteenth notes, slurring and tonguing. All these things are very important and simply put, takes time. The more time you put and understand your instrument the faster you will get there and yes I have a ways to go but I'm getting there. Thanks for your advice about the pentatonic scales. I will work on them. By the way, you sound great.
Hey Jay, I laugh at “no special license require” bit, I do feel like this ALL THE TIME when I practice. I’m going 6 months in at 35yo and the journey so far sounds A LOT like the beginning of the video. The pros of this is that I finally understand sheet music which was an old goal of mine but the cons is that I feel I’m stuck in the process learning weird exercises and read music I don’t cara about. Your resources have been a valuable escape route to learning more practical stuff and give me an energy boost to keep learning. Thanks for that and I’ll try your new free courses. Thank you so much
Somewhere between an hour and a half and millions of years is the answer. I taught a very good clarinet player to play the saxophone fine enough in about two hours, but every musician always has more they can learn about the instrument.
I have a tenor saxophone. I’m currently on my guitar and piano journey and it’s going well, could be better if I made more time, but I have a tenor saxophone 🎷 and i really want to start learning. I will aim to add it to my schedule around fall even if for 3hrs a week. It’s something. Thanks for the great videos.
WISH i HAD PAID ATTENTION TO A COUPLE OF GOOD TEACHERS I HAD BACK IN BKLYN NYC.. i ALSO LEARNED A LOT FROM JAMEY ABERSOLD WHO MANY YEARS AGO OPENED UP THE WAY TO PLAY & STUDY JAZZ. But there is no substitute for listening to the great players and picking up a few of their licks .. just sayin' Bobby G.
If that was true, why has nobody who's actually good at saxophone learned how to play sax well within only a year? And if you mean "kinda good" as terrible tone, often technical mistakes, and little to no improv ability then you are absolutely correct Edit: this is coming from someone who is considered "musically gifted" since with 3-4 years less experience on average less than my peers I am playing at a level slightly above most of them (I do consider "musically gifted" to be completely fake btw)
@@voltagestorm1787 1 year play yes. Play good not really. Play good starts at year 3. If you have musical background year 2. But it depends a lot of how you train, your ability to learn, and how much you want to learn. And the question is not really a question to ask. If you want to learn to play any instrument, you will learn one day to play good. 1 year, 5 years, 10 years it dosent matter. One day you will
Hey man! I would love to see a review of the Ted Klum alto mouthpieces on your chanel as their are none anywhere even those mouthpieces are very special I think! (I'd love to have your opinion on them especially the dark NY model)
Hey man! I'm currently in Jazz band and new to the alto sax, my band director is taking a notice of how our jazz articulation seem to be coming from our breath and not our tongues, but I'm even repeating the syllables to myself. Do you think I'm not saying them right, or is there something more I'm not understanding.
I started teaching myself 2 years ago, helps I’ve been playing church organ and keyboards since I was a toddler. I record my own backings on my keyboard and then play along by ear on my sax. Recently did careless whisper which was my goal 😂😂😂 not perfect but hey ho 😂😂
While playing in any key by ear on the sax, it's good to be able to put the notes (that you should definitely know the names of, sounding and written) into perpective relative to the tonic, or the chord of the moment, iow, 1,b2,2,b3,3,4 etc. but starting with the basic major, minor, and pentatonic scales. That said, it's good to have reading skill, but it's something that shouldn't trump learning to play without sheet music. Eventually, with ear training, you get a great sense of intervals and how they sound in contrast, or from a diatonic chord, or having left the key entirely, or playing blue notes, chromatic passing notes, etc. When I started saxophone, I did the reading thing for too long and one day realized that I could read my ass off, but not play a simple jazz melody by ear.. these days it's 1) learn the melody by ear 2) learn the structure and the chord changes, along with any key changes for the tune. 3) Learn the solo and/or how to solo over the section changes. Lastly, I want to point out that it pays to place special attention to hearing what the player is conveying through articulation, fingering, intonation, etc. A lot of "simple" jazz melodies contain a lot of nuance that can very easliy be overlooked. It will also be advantageous to learn some altissimo, as command of the first octave worth of notes above high F is eventually a very valuable resource to have on alto and tenor. And make sure you can drop to the lowest notes with those right hand digits as well. I think it's just as embarrassing to miss on a low B or Bb as it is to miss an altissimo note.
As a middle school band director, I wouldn’t use the “traditional” band method books if I was teaching a private student. They work well to get an overfilled room of 10 to 12 year olds on a variety of instruments with no musical experience to play music. But, they are all lacking in terms of delivering the best instruction for each individual instrument.
I wish I could afford a decent sax to start again…and a practice room away from everyone. I miss playing sax but I want something above a starter that’s not expensive. I can buy PRS SE guitars under $1000 that are high quality but when I look at sax it’s like $2500 for a quality mid level one. Then I have to deal with building up my lungs again. Somehow I’ve weakened over the years.
And theirin lies the problem which explains why i have no students particularly ADULTS. everyone wants the six month plan where i show them how to play careless whisper and kenny G ( who i have no issue with btw) . but what so i know. I have only been playing for 40 years. 👀🙄
The saxophone is an easy instrument to play poorly. To play it well takes a few years, if you have a really good teacher and PRACTICE DAILY, listen and absorb the recorded masters.
Get My FREE Play Sax By Ear Crash Course, Beginner/Refresher Course and tons of other free lessons and downloads here: Bettersax.com Just click the button at the top of the page.
I learned playing 5yrs ago mostly by watching you and a couple of others sax channels Thank you for helping me realize this dream.
Awesome! Great to hear!
I'm 78 years old., singer songwriter, guitar player with no training of any type. Played in bands most of my life. I always loved the sax solo on the Paul Simon song "Still Crazy, so I bought a $600 beginner sax to try and play it. Never held a sax, didn't know if I could even get a sound out. Learned about how to set it up with the reed etc., by watching youtube, including a lot of your vids. You were a tremendous help. Played it till my face hurt, 3-4 hours a day. No scales, just tried to play songs, and high notes.. After about 2-3 months, went from a 2 reed to a 2 1/2 on a size 4 tip opening, and bought a $1500 sax. A few months later I bought a Yanagisawa AW01. It came with a #6 mouthpiece,.. so got so I can play it with a 3 Vandoren Traditional reed, and hit the notes I need up to high F#. I would play notes of a song until I hit the right note, write it down ,and find the next one, then eventually play the whole song. I started this about a year and a half ago, now I just hear things, and play it. I don't don't know what I'm doing, I just play the songs. I can figure out the notes if I want to, but I don't unless I want to put them in a song I wrote or something like that. I listen to Earth wind, and fire solos, and songs like "Never Tear Us Apart," by INXS, and stuff like that , that has a lot of feeling. That to me is fun. I'm not saying anybody should skip the basics, and go for the hard stuff, I'm just saying what I did. Not everybody is as obsessive as I am, when it comes to doing something.
Great job, I'm happy for you
@@noexisting5145 Thanks. I just play what I feel.
Tips:
1-Fix tour tone (with your throat)
2-Work Articulation(legado, short, stacatto)
3-Dinamics (FF, pp)
4-Fingering (read the notes, think them, put the fingers, and later play it)
5-All this trying a good sound with the correct air (i play classic normally so i need Round sound and fast cold air)
Just started alto sax after 20 years of playing solely clarinet. Your channel and many others have inspired me to finally take up sax. I still got a teacher so I could work on breaking bad habits and hopefully that helps going back to clarinet.
Great to hear!
Thanks for your advice! NO WRONG NOTES in the pentatonic scale! Right on!
A whole lifetime just like any other musical instrument. You never stop learning in music.
I purchased one of Jay’s pentatonic courses. I have been playing for decades but the incorporation of pentatonics into my playing supercharged my performances. I play at church and family gatherings.
My recommendation for new saxophonists is if you want to get that really nice sound found in songs like careless whisper, start by learning alto and after about a year of learning and practicing regularly, switch to tenor. Tenor is easier if you know alto and it sounds great,
As someone who’s been playing classical sax for 19 years and hasn’t been able to figure out how to get this jazz thing to work… I’m embarrassed. This is so blatantly simple and has been staring me in the face for all that time. Thanks for the tip!! I’ll get on practicing those pentatonic scales!
The blues and pentatonic is your friend everywhere all the time. It works in about 95 % of western contemporary music. When in doubt at a rehearsal or inca new musical setting i just go to my ears and the blues. Its amazing how many different places i can make it work. Rnb and rock are no brainers.
I know this answer. Was playing and matching in 6 weeks. 45 years later still need work.
Going from trombone, I started playing saxophone in concerts after about 3 months!
All well and good and I do agree, you should take at least 6 months of lessons but sight reading is a must. Makemusic cloud has a great sight reading program. Sight reading will give you time to understand the instrument and help you quickly figure out how to play songs without guessing all the time. I have been playing a year and a half with approximately 800 hours of playing time. I now am playing sixteenth notes, slurring and tonguing. All these things are very important and simply put, takes time. The more time you put and understand your instrument the faster you will get there and yes I have a ways to go but I'm getting there. Thanks for your advice about the pentatonic scales. I will work on them. By the way, you sound great.
I love when you upload, you got me into playing the sax. Keep up the amazing videos.
Thanks, will do!
This man always spitting facts
Hey Jay, I laugh at “no special license require” bit, I do feel like this ALL THE TIME when I practice. I’m going 6 months in at 35yo and the journey so far sounds A LOT like the beginning of the video. The pros of this is that I finally understand sheet music which was an old goal of mine but the cons is that I feel I’m stuck in the process learning weird exercises and read music I don’t cara about.
Your resources have been a valuable escape route to learning more practical stuff and give me an energy boost to keep learning. Thanks for that and I’ll try your new free courses. Thank you so much
Somewhere between an hour and a half and millions of years is the answer. I taught a very good clarinet player to play the saxophone fine enough in about two hours, but every musician always has more they can learn about the instrument.
always inspiring if I .get stuck on what to play .I check out your lessons .
Excellent lesson
🎷Always a great motivator, Jay !!😉👍
Tu es le meilleur, j'écris en français parce que tu sais. A bientôt.
I want to play the sax I don’t have knowledge of music but 🤤🥰 new subscriber you make it look essy🎉🥳
I have a tenor saxophone. I’m currently on my guitar and piano journey and it’s going well, could be better if I made more time, but I have a tenor saxophone 🎷 and i really want to start learning. I will aim to add it to my schedule around fall even if for 3hrs a week. It’s something. Thanks for the great videos.
find someone to jam with. try searching youtube for "backing tracks" and find something fun
This is the most advanced specificized micro-managed plumbing I've ever seen! :P
WISH i HAD PAID ATTENTION TO A COUPLE OF GOOD TEACHERS I HAD BACK IN BKLYN NYC.. i ALSO LEARNED A LOT FROM JAMEY ABERSOLD WHO MANY YEARS AGO OPENED UP THE WAY TO PLAY & STUDY JAZZ.
But there is no substitute for listening to the great players and picking up a few of their licks .. just sayin' Bobby G.
If your serious ..we never stop learning...its a life long vocation
But what reed should I start with….🤔🎶🎵🎶🎷
1 year of practice 30/45 minute per day you can be already kinda good
definitely
If that was true, why has nobody who's actually good at saxophone learned how to play sax well within only a year? And if you mean "kinda good" as terrible tone, often technical mistakes, and little to no improv ability then you are absolutely correct
Edit: this is coming from someone who is considered "musically gifted" since with 3-4 years less experience on average less than my peers I am playing at a level slightly above most of them (I do consider "musically gifted" to be completely fake btw)
@@voltagestorm1787 1 year play yes. Play good not really. Play good starts at year 3. If you have musical background year 2. But it depends a lot of how you train, your ability to learn, and how much you want to learn. And the question is not really a question to ask. If you want to learn to play any instrument, you will learn one day to play good. 1 year, 5 years, 10 years it dosent matter. One day you will
@@kvazium I don't understand your point
@@voltagestorm1787 i go sleep sorry. Bye music man
Thank you for the subtitles in Turkish! 🙏
Hey man! I would love to see a review of the Ted Klum alto mouthpieces on your chanel as their are none anywhere even those mouthpieces are very special I think! (I'd love to have your opinion on them especially the dark NY model)
Hey man! I'm currently in Jazz band and new to the alto sax, my band director is taking a notice of how our jazz articulation seem to be coming from our breath and not our tongues, but I'm even repeating the syllables to myself. Do you think I'm not saying them right, or is there something more I'm not understanding.
I started teaching myself 2 years ago, helps I’ve been playing church organ and keyboards since I was a toddler. I record my own backings on my keyboard and then play along by ear on my sax. Recently did careless whisper which was my goal 😂😂😂 not perfect but hey ho 😂😂
Im a begineer, just got a new alto sax , can you tag me to your begineer leaening video if there is any at all, thank you
0:38 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
0:33 hmm maybe It’s not that bad for a new student
0:38 OH GOD
While playing in any key by ear on the sax, it's good to be able to put the notes (that you should definitely know the names of, sounding and written) into perpective relative to the tonic, or the chord of the moment, iow, 1,b2,2,b3,3,4 etc. but starting with the basic major, minor, and pentatonic scales. That said, it's good to have reading skill, but it's something that shouldn't trump learning to play without sheet music. Eventually, with ear training, you get a great sense of intervals and how they sound in contrast, or from a diatonic chord, or having left the key entirely, or playing blue notes, chromatic passing notes, etc. When I started saxophone, I did the reading thing for too long and one day realized that I could read my ass off, but not play a simple jazz melody by ear..
these days it's
1) learn the melody by ear
2) learn the structure and the chord changes, along with any key changes for the tune. 3) Learn the solo and/or how to solo over the section changes.
Lastly, I want to point out that it pays to place special attention to hearing what the player is conveying through articulation, fingering, intonation, etc.
A lot of "simple" jazz melodies contain a lot of nuance that can very easliy be overlooked.
It will also be advantageous to learn some altissimo, as command of the first octave worth of notes above high F is eventually a very valuable resource to have on alto and tenor. And make sure you can drop to the lowest notes with those right hand digits as well.
I think it's just as embarrassing to miss on a low B or Bb as it is to miss an altissimo note.
Just listen to Michael brecker every day...he might get into your playing
I wanted to have a job that entails music
What is the worst part of your job or music
As a middle school band director, I wouldn’t use the “traditional” band method books if I was teaching a private student. They work well to get an overfilled room of 10 to 12 year olds on a variety of instruments with no musical experience to play music. But, they are all lacking in terms of delivering the best instruction for each individual instrument.
I went through 6 years of school and two years of private study and nobody ever showed me the pentatonic scale. In hindsight, I feel ripped off.
I learned soprano sax listening carefully to Captain Beefheart.
I wish I could afford a decent sax to start again…and a practice room away from everyone. I miss playing sax but I want something above a starter that’s not expensive. I can buy PRS SE guitars under $1000 that are high quality but when I look at sax it’s like $2500 for a quality mid level one. Then I have to deal with building up my lungs again. Somehow I’ve weakened over the years.
Get the BetterSax alto which is currently on sale for $699 at Sweetwater. It is an amazing saxophone. Link in description.
@@bettersaxthanks for the suggestion. I’ll definitely look at it.
Beautiful Jay!
Thank you Bob!
And theirin lies the problem which explains why i have no students particularly ADULTS. everyone wants the six month plan where i show them how to play careless whisper and kenny G ( who i have no issue with btw) . but what so i know. I have only been playing for 40 years. 👀🙄
Thank you!.....at this time in my life i want my new sax to belp me WAIL!!!!!.... (hope that made sense).....❤🤪
About 10,000 hours should do?
How good do you want to get?
☮️🎶🎵🎶🎷
Your bettersax altos are WAY TOO EXPENSIVE for beginners and im not hating but way overpriced
Dont mention the pentatonic scale to Pat Metheney .He will lock you up in the broom cupboard ...
Nah he uses them all the time too.
day 4 of asking for a bari sax
6 years to starting to sound good
agree, i play for 2,5 years and my sound is terrible. I play 1 hour a day.
@@espressojunkie6210 actually with 4 or 5 u can, but i mean "reach the level of David saborn" and others saxophonist
Just imitate them
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
All your life...just saying
The saxophone is an easy instrument to play poorly. To play it well takes a few years, if you have a really good teacher and PRACTICE DAILY, listen and absorb the recorded masters.
Ha😅😅That band was so out of tune.Good old dsys😅😅