Jason Justice, saxophonist and educator

04th Nov2011

Overtones (octave) Warm-ups for Saxophone

by admin

This exercise will help get your saxophone chops together in a hurry! Great for your embouchure, great for overall control. This is also the entryway to overtone and altissimo (above natural range of the horn) production.

Here is what the Google says an overtone is-

o·ver·tone (Noun)

Noun:

A musical tone that is a part of the harmonic series above a fundamental note and may be heard with it.
A component of any oscillation whose frequency is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency.

So with a slight modification of the pressure on the mouthpiece we can create more than just the normal note that is produced. begin to get into the overtone series, the series of notes above the first note played. Click here if you want more information on this subject.

Altissimo notes are those super high notes you hear all great saxophone players use (and make the crowd go crazy with). Saxophone altissimo is generally considered to be any note that is higher than written high F#(or F if your horn is a bit older!) which are considered to be the highest note in the saxophones natural range. Altissimo is produced by using different voicing techniques such as air stream, tongue, throat, fingering, and slight variations to the platform(embouchure) which change the fundamental note which makes the higher note or overtone dominate.

Click on the link to download my Octave Warmup Below is the video to go with the exercise. Enjoy and e-mail me any questions.

Category : Saxophone Technique

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04th Nov2011

Blues Scales for Saxophone

by admin

Lets talk about the blues scale. For the saxophone player, a very important tool. And when used in the right places, a very hip sounding tool.

I like to identify blues scales in two forms, a Major blues scale and the more traditional Minor blues scale. Here is the breakdown. A Minor blues scale is the tried and true scale that you find in Aebersold books like Maiden Voyage. It is literally a Minor pentatonic scale with an added sharp 5. In the key of C it would look like this;

C (1) Eb(b3) F(5) F#(#5) G(6) Bb(b7) C

The Major blues scale is a little different. It is a Major pentatonic with a flat 3.

In C it looks like this;

C(1) D(2) Eb(b3) E(3) G(5) A(6) C(1)

Below I have a couple of sets of Major and Minor blues scales. Download them and groove on them! There are also a couple of videos that will help to understand their usage. Check them out and enjoy!

Changes for Freddie;

Here are a series of videos on the blues scales.