Forum of the Saxes

CMelodyMan · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 4:58 pm Post subject: What do you practice?

When your're practicing, what do you usually do? Do you warm-up with scales, then do you practice sight-reading, etc...?

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Alto: Yanagisawa (880), Morgan 6M w/ Rico
C Melody: c.1919 Martin Inspiration
York soprano

Bleeding_Gums_Murphy · Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Posts: 75

I Play some major scales in long tones, then in 16th notes at about 150 (different scales each day). Then I do some blues scales in long tones, practicing different jazz inflections like subtoning, scoops, falls, bends, growls, etc. Then, altissimo practice :x . Next I play through Take Five by Paul Desmond, then play some stuff in my aebersolds. Next, I practice my NYSSMA solo (only from Jan to May). Then some charlie parker stuff. Then I just play random ad lib blues stuff depending on my mood. I start between 8:30 and 9:30 and finish anywhere from 11 to past midnight (surprisingly, only one complaint from a neighbor, and that was in the middle of the day after school)

JazZz · Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Posts: 170

When I do get around to practicing which is not enough, I start off playing my circle of 5th's 2 or 3 times through going from Major to minor. Next I pick out 2 scales and do long tones until I am happy with my tone. Then I will play a little classical stuff to get down all my technical stuff (i'm bad with that). Once i get done with my classical stuff, I move on to jazz. I start with my aebersold play-a-long books and than go to just improv'ing. I try to pic out a different scale to improv to every time. And that's my practice routine. When I am seriously practicing though, this will take me 2-3 hours but if my family is home I try to spare the fun and just work on scales and other technical stuff to keep it short.

Thomas · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 223 Location: Alberta, Canada

I use a long tones sheet that my teacher designed for his students. It consists of 40 notes evenly spaced through the sax's range, and then several patterns that you use to play the notes. For example, the first 2 notes are Bb and Eb, and you might choose to play 4 quarter notes on each pitch, or eighth notes, etc. I spend about ten minutes with that, first off. Then I go on to major and minor scales. I do them all twice, the first time slow, the second time fast. I will either alternate between circle of 4ths, or just going up chromatically. Then I do them all in 3rds, if I have time. After all that, it's practice with pieces I'm working on.

My entire practice session usually takes me about an hour. If I have an upcoming audition or performance, I usually spend about an hour and 30 minutes practicing. I try to do this at least 5 times a week. Again, when I have an upcoming audition/performance, I do this every day.

That's my practice routine. Cool

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Thomas Hay
Sax player, music student, composer, Finale user, and part-time slacker/procrastinator.