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Course: Music | All-Star Orchestra > Unit 2
Lesson 1: WoodwindsSaxophone lesson
Learn about the alto saxophone from an expert musician with the U.S. Marine Band. Includes daily exercises for intonation, long tones, intervals and more.
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- It was not clear how the change in pitch was accomplished. Was it by altering the airflow or by manipulating the valves or by some other method?(6 votes)
- Dropping the jaw produces a lower pitch, while tightening the embouchure makes the note go sharp. So, it is all through the airflow.(4 votes)
- Good day.
As a sax player, i love smooth jazz and i have tried severally to sound like a smooth player with more SOULFUL FEELINGS from my sax but have not been able to. please what is it that am lacking or could it be a sax or mouthpiece setup thing?(5 votes)- It could be a mouthpiece thing. There are jazz saxophone mouthpieces and classical (wind band) saxophone mouthpieces. If you're playing jazz on a classical mouthpiece, that will affect your tone.(3 votes)
- I play the saxophone and it's a really cool experience.(4 votes)
- why do some notes that are low become high(4 votes)
- why did they style the saxophone to look like a brass instrument if its a woodwind.(3 votes)
- How come they don't have anything on Jazz!(2 votes)
- Because this course collaborates with the All-Star Orchestra, which specializes in classical music, jazz isn't really their skill set. Maybe Khan Academy will collaborate with a jazz group next! I would love to hear about that too.(2 votes)
Video transcript
("Lincolnshire Posy 3.
Rufford Park Poachers" by Percy Grainger) Playing saxophone in a wind band can be kind of a strange experience because you are often
not playing as a section. Normally there are four of us and we tend to play with other sections; the alto or soprano
players will be playing with upper woodwinds or trumpets, the baritone saxophone might
play with the low brass, tenor might play with
mid brass or low brass and we find ourselves listening
all over the ensemble, not necessarily listening
in towards the section. ("New England Triptych
Chester" by William Schuman) So you're not only
listening into your section, perhaps, but you're having
to listen to the flutes or you're having to
listen to the euphoniums and you're having to adjust very quickly. That requires that you
know how to play in tune. So this is what I do to
practice playing in tune and to learn how to make those
kinds of adjustments in pitch which I think can be very confusing and difficult for a lot of people, particularly for young players. Basically what I do is, I use a tuner. I have a tuner here,
it's an old Korg tuner but I don't look at the needle. There's a needle on there to tell me whether or not I'm in tune but when I'm in an ensemble
I can never use my eyes to tell me if I'm in tune,
I have to use my ears. So when I practice playing in tune, I always practice with a sound and I'll show you what that sounds like.
(sustained note plays briefly) What I do is I pick a note on my horn; the lowest note on a saxophone, or an alto saxophone anyways, is a B-flat. So I will play a B-flat major triad. So that's the first, third, and
fifth notes of a major scale and I'll demonstrate this for you. I play those with the tuner and I listen, lower the pitch so it's out of tune, bring it back into tune,
and then raise the pitch so it's sharp and out of
tune and I bring it back and I try to focus on it being in tune. (sustained note playing) So I'm gonna play my
middle B-flat with this... (saxophone playing) And then I'm gonna lower the pitch... (saxophone playing) So you hear the waves that
happen when it's out of tune and I purposely make it like that and then I bring it back in tune. And then I try to raise the pitch enough so that it makes waves for that. (saxophone playing) And then I'll move down to an F. (saxophone playing) I'll move down to a D. (saxophone playing) And then I'll move down
to the lowest note, it's a low B-flat on the saxophone. (saxophone playing) So, you hear what I'm
doing is I'm playing a note and I'm purposely making it out of tune and then I'm bringing it back in tune. And essentially I do that
when I said the B-flat, F, D, and then the low B-flat, that's the major triad
I was talking about. The first, third, and fifth
notes of a B-flat major scale. Once thing that's important for me to note is that this instrument
is in the key of E-flat, so if I play a C on this
instrument it sounds an E-flat. So when I play a B-flat on
my instrument I actually have to set the tuner to
play a concert D-flat. ("Symphony in B-Flat for
Concert Band" by Paul Hindemith) I'm going to demonstrate the exercise that I do all the way
up and down the horn. The complete range of the instrument. (sustained note playing) (saxophone playing) Nope, that doesn't sounds very good but it's something that's
very useful to practice. It can be really frustrating at first, especially when you get
up into the upper register of the horn to hear that
pitch and know where it is. Especially for a lot of us
who've gotten into the habit of looking at the needle
to tell if you're in tune. It's definitely very frustrating
to try to just listen and use your ears but
if you can get better at doing that it will
really serve you well when you're playing with other people. ("First Suite in E-Flat for
Military Band" by Gustav Holst)