I get questioned all the time by my students about how to get a better sound. It’s a great question and an important one at that. However, the worst thing that can happen is if someone has never even asked themselves “how do I work on tone?” If someone new to an instrument is using [...]
I know, everyone’s wretched band director had them bring their instrument home everyday, not practice, then convince their parents to lie at the end of the week and sign this arbitrary sheet called a ‘practice log’ saying you had practiced an hour a day. This is truly unfortunate because this is the exact opposite of [...]
I got these great sheets from Ben Wendel (of Kneebody) who’s an old Eastman student of Raymon’s. The first sheet shows 1) the harmonic series for Saxophone 2) the harmonic tendencies for Saxophone, Clarinet, and Flute, (those are the weird liny-charty things) and 3) 9 exercises for practicing the harmonic series. The second sheet shows [...]
**There has been an update to the All-State Middle School Etude for Saxophone. I’ve made the appropriate changes below** Here are links to the GMEA website resources for All-State Band audition material for Middle and High schools. Rules & Regs Applications All-State Middle School Band - 6th through 8th Grades: Alto Saxophone (Etudes/Scales) Tenor Saxophone (Etudes/Scales) [...]
Throughout my educational experience there’s always been this looming question: How do I improve my tone? Now, this can mean a myriad of things for many different people. For the beginner, it can mean “How can I project more?”, “How do I get better intonation?”, “How can I stop squeaking?”, etc. For the seasoned veteran, [...]
One of the fundamental ways that someone develops a good sound on their instrument is by listening to a bunch of artists that have good sounds. I realized a while back that while I practice and teach Clarinet I did not have a simple 5 or 10 list of names that I could just shoot [...]
As you probably already know from reading my bio, I’ve been playing saxophone since I was six years old. That means I’ve been through a lot of reeds, mouthpieces, music, horns, and most importantly, teachers. I thought I could provide some tips on how to find a teacher based on what I’ve learned over the past few years. What Are [...]
