Saxophone Foundations
Slowing Down and Building Foundations
by Neal Battaglia, SaxStation.com
Welcome
Thanks for checking out Saxophone Foundations! It's a great instrument and learning it will be both
challenging and rewarding.
Playing saxophone (and music in general) is good for the soul! Gary Stotz (Mr. Stotz at the time and my
first music teacher) always said that it’s a great antidepressant.
But, you probably know that!
This class will lay down the foundations for playing saxophone. You will learn the fundamentals and
develop solid habits for playing the horn. For the class, you’ll have this workbook, recordings (41 tracks),
and a few bonuses. Plus you can ask me questions.
Just picking up a horn and blowing will not sound fantastic at first..... that’s how it goes.
We want to sound ‘natural’ when we play, have the music flow. Guidance, deliberate practice, and feedback
allows you to make that happen.
Let’s get started!
!
Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.................................................. pg. 3
Overview.................................................................... pg. 4
Listening.................................................................... pg. 5
Saxophone Players.................................................... pg. 6
Rhythm...................................................................... pg. 7
Notes & Space.......................................................... pg. 12
Articulation............................................................... pg. 13
Parts of the Saxophone............................................ pg. 16
Assembling and Disassembling the Saxophone..... pg. 17
Technique.................................................................. pg. 18
Breathing, Embouchure, Sound.............................. pg. 20
Notes and Rest Notation......................................... pg. 24
First Note: B............................................................. pg. 29
Intonation and Dynamics....................................... pg. 30
Notes and Music...................................................... pg. 31
Chord Symbols......................................................... pg. 55
List of Supplementary Material.............................. pg. 56
! Thanks you............................................................... pg. 57
Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
Overview - Five Dimensions of Music
If you hold an object in your hand, you can feel the shape of it.
We’re accustomed to three dimensions. Height, width, length.
I think music really boils down to five dimensions.
• Listening
• Rhythm
• Sound
• Technique
• Color (notes)
I think that is the order of importance as well. But that could be up for debate!
Most saxophone players use some dimensions of music, but not all of them. When you first learn,
it seems like notes and rhythms are the two major components of music. Then you start learning
about articulation, dynamics, phrasing, etc. There are many elements……
Those five dimensions could include pretty much everything. Rhythm includes articulation,
phrasing, space, etc. Sound includes tone, vibrato, feel/emotion, etc.
Some players really are masters of certain dimensions and do not emphasize others. A Brazilian
percussion section might lay down a solid groove without using notes. Or a guitar soloist might
show a lot of emotion but poor technique. A band’s use of dynamics to lower the backgrounds
against a piano solo will make it stand out and make the group sound like they know what they’re
doing.
A master saxophone player will understand and use all the dimensions.
!
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Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
Listening
The first and most fundamental dimension of music is listening. We hear and feel music. It affects
our emotions, it makes us want to dance, it can change our lives.
Listening and hearing music makes us want to play music too, to add our voices through the horn.
Even people who don't play music can still listen and appreciate music. Listening is the most
important dimension.
As a saxophone player, you should listen to other saxophone players, other
musicians, and the world in general. You should listen while you hold your
horn and play with other musicians and you should listen without your horn.
Figuring out who your favorite saxophone players are will help you incorporate
elements of their playing into your own sound as you develop your own voice.
A few saxophone players you might want to check out are listed on the next page.
Remember,
"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing".
-Salvador Dalí
It will be impossible for you to perfectly copy another saxophone players. If you incorporate your
favorite pieces into your own sound, you will create your own voice.
!
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Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
B
Treble Clef:
Saxophones read music with what is called
a treble clef. That means the notes
are arranged like the
diagram on the
previous page. There
are other clefs as well.
4/4 Time:
Two numbers represent a time signature.
The top number is how many beats are in
a measure. The bottom number is the
type of note that gets one beat. The top 4
means four beats, the bottom 4 means a
quarter note gets one beat.
Track 3
Playing the first note: B
Listen to how I play the note first. To play it yourself, you press one key down to play the note B.
Your left pointing finger. Remember to curve your fingers and keep all your fingers on the keys even
if they are actually not pressing the keys. The pitch of the note you play may sound funny, that has
to do with something called ‘intonation’...... you should be at least close to the same note though.
We’ll get into that on the next page.
!
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Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
Intonation
‘In tune’ and ‘Out of tune’
“Intonation” has to do with the pitch and how close notes are together. Being ‘out of tune’ means
you are playing either ‘sharp’ (too high) or ‘flat’ (too low). It takes time and practice to play in tune,
you may be out of tune at first.
Adjusting the position of your mouthpiece on the cork of the neck will change the pitch.
Think about this, a longer tube will tend to make a lower pitched sound than a shorter tube. A tuba
is lower than a piccolo.
On saxophone, we can adjust the length of the tube a little bit by pushing the mouthpiece in or
pulling it out. This will get more of your notes to be closer to be being in tune. Sometimes you’ll
find that one of your notes is flat and another is sharp. So this adjustment will not instantly correct
your intonation, but it can help.
Pull mouthpiece out if you’re sharp, push it in if you’re flat.
Dynamics
Dynamics have to do with the volume level you play with.
We use Italian terms to describe dynamics: piano and forte. Piano means soft, forte means loud. They are
abbreviated by their first letters, p & f. Multiple p’s and multiple f ’s mean more so. So pp, pianissimo,
means very quiet. ff, fortissimo, means very loud. Dynamics will add to the music and give it more shape.
!
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Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
A few tunes using what you have learned!
Fermata:
Hold this note, until indicated if you have
a conductor, or for a duration that seems
right for the music if you are playing solo.
Track 18
Notes on playing this one
This melody starts with the last note you learned, A.
New Key Signature:
There is one sharp in this key
signature, that means whenever you
see a note F, you’ll play it as F#
unless otherwise noted. This is also
the key of ‘G major’ - more on that
later.
Dotted Notes & Rests:
If you see a note or rest with a dot
immediately after it, it lasts for 1.5x as long
as the same note or rest without a dot. So
a dotted half note gets three beats, a
dotted quarter note gets 1.5 beats, etc.
Slurs/Phrase Lines:
Do not tongue between notes. The same
marking can indicate a phrase, where a
phrase is played. A ‘tie’ uses the same
marking, but extends the duration of notes
with the same pitch.
Track 19
Notes on playing this one
This melody has a new key signature, slur markings, and dotted notes.
!
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Saxophone Foundations - SaxStation.com
St James
Track 37
C
Notes for St James Infirmary
This tune starts on the upbeat of beat three. The
symbols above the melody stand for ‘chords’ which are
groups of notes played together. More on that later if
you’re interested.
Notes on Playing C
Support!
Track 38
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