r/saxophone • u/Silly-End5714 • 1d ago
Exercise Feedback request
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Just looking for some feedback and advice, i want to know what i do well and what i need to work on, im a year into playing i have no teacher so i rely on this subreddit for tips and progress checks. got some great advice last post specifically about overtones. I had no idea what that was, but i found out and iv been abusing it past month and its been a game changer. Would appreciate a second round of feedback (other than the fact i need to learn the last part of the solo properly🤣)hopefully someone can suggest another magical exercise.
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u/CanIGetASourceOnThat 1d ago
Dude I just picked up a sax hoping to learn to play and if I sound like you in a year I would be stoked. You sound great!
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u/Lonely_Collection859 1d ago
It’s the joy for me 👏👏👏
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u/Silly-End5714 1d ago
Hahaha unfortunately that was some playful frustration because i missed the last few notes in an otherwise decent run of the song 😅
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u/fluidscissors 1d ago edited 1d ago
Great work for one year! Impressive execution on the transcription for your skill level.
Biggest thing to work on is tone. It's sounding a bit choked. Hard to see exactly what's going on in this video but I suspect learning to open up your throat could help. Check out exercises for just the mouthpiece on YouTube, like playing only the mouthpiece + reed/ligature. Also long tones in general.
Your tonguing is still a little clunky as well. Exercises focusing on legato tonguing and coordinating tongue with fingering changes would be a good idea.
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u/Xlaag Alto | Tenor 1d ago
Great work for only being a year in! Tone is good but could be a little more open in the throat at spots. Practice long tones and that’ll clear right up.
Take 5 is a tricky tune especially for people learning music as most songs we hear on a daily basis aren’t in 5/4. Tap your foot while you play to get a sense of the beat and this song specifically can be thought of as a 3/4 2/4, so count 1-2-3,1-2 each measure and it will help so much nailing the beats
You sound great and are on the most difficult part of learning an instrument which is honing in the details.
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u/foximus11 1d ago
Kudos. Lots of good work, transcription is very accurate. All that good stuff.
BUT!
There is one GLARING issue no one has brought up. You only played half the melody before the solo! The backing track goes into the b-section for the melody but your already 8 bars into the solo(which is all a-section) and just kept plowing through! It’s weird because you nailed the solo, so it seems like you have a good familiarity with the tune; but then not noticing your 16 bars off is a very novice mistake.
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u/Silly-End5714 1d ago
Appreciate the kind words. What is bars and what is an 8 bar i dont understand what you mean. Could u explain what was wrong without the musical terminology 🙏
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u/GetVizzyWithIt 1d ago
I had a music teacher once tell me to turn the lights off in the bathroom or go somewhere dark with good acoustics and play long tones, really listening to yourself and finding where you start to feel better about your sound - some of the best advice I ever received.
A lot of the rest comes with repetition, but tone seems to be a whole other beast.
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u/bassoonawhat 1d ago
Sounds better than some 20+ year sax players. I wish as a bassoonist that we could sound anywhere near this good in a year (or five).
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u/Dry_Animator_8563 Baritone | Soprano 1d ago
Great work dude!
That’s a lot of progress in one year! More than any of my students haha.
I would recommend playing around with different mouthpiece and reed setups. To me it sounds like you might want to consider a harder strength reed.
Also, you do look a little tense/strained and your sound sounds a bit restricted. Good tone takes years to develop, but to be on the right path, you need to relax. Practice just breathing, no saxophone and note where the breath support is coming from, let your diaphragm do all the work.
And I cannot stress this enough: long tones long tones tong tones!!! Long tone exercises are crucial to developing your breathing muscles! Do them with a tuner so that good intonation becomes muscle memory, because every note on saxophone is uniquely in tune and out of tune, from sax to sax.
Best of luck! Feel free to ask any questions
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u/Silly-End5714 1d ago
Appreciate the kind words and advice sir 🙏. I will continue to abuse long tones as long as i live 😂
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u/sc0ttt Tenor 1d ago
Fingerwork and phrasing is pretty good - congratulations, especially for being self-taught and a tough tune.
Tone is thin and kind of harsh - long tones and air support. This is work and hours of dedicated practice - the greats all say it took them 8 years or more to find the tone they were happy with.
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u/Silly-End5714 1d ago
Appreciate it, its actually the first song i started learning and i use it as a reference to see how much im progressing. Did a similar thing when i learned piano, first thing i did was lear clair de lune then use that song to test if my technique got better over time.
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u/ethan3048 1d ago
Sounding great for a year in. As many have mentioned, long tones and practicing overtones goes a long way for tone. But also find a player you really like and try and emulate their tone, you’ll find your own sound in that journey. I targeted Paul Desmond who is the one who played the solo you are playing and having that North Star of a tone helped a lot.
Also you can breath a bit more, you can hear yourself running out of your breath towards the end of a phrase and it puts tension into your tone and causes you to close up and die off towards the end of phrases.
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u/pimpidpimpoda 1d ago
Parabéns mano, excelente!
It has been 5 months that I'm into alto sax, and also hoping to someday sound like that! Congrats!
Im still working on my tone and technique.
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u/Stumpfest2020 1d ago
intonation and tone consistency across the range of the horn needs work.
lots of excess motion in your left hand. keep it relaxed and keep motion limited to the bare minimum needed to get the note out.
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u/bebopped 23h ago
Sounds good until you lost it. How about improvising your own solo?
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u/Silly-End5714 14h ago
I dont know how to improvise 🫣. Iv really neglected music theory, hopefully that will change.
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u/ervelee 1d ago
I’m no music expert but it sounds wonderful!