{"id":228,"date":"2020-01-31T21:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T21:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/?p=228"},"modified":"2020-02-05T21:57:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T21:57:03","slug":"how-can-i-get-better-at-the-saxophone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/2020\/01\/how-can-i-get-better-at-the-saxophone\/","title":{"rendered":"How can I get better at the saxophone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do I actually get better at playing this instrument?<\/p>\n

Earlier in January, I had a look at various videos on Youtube. The common consensus is really simple to say, but actually hard to put into practice (literally!) – you just have to learn all your scales!<\/p>\n

Learn the Chromatic scale (in plain English: “going up and down in semitones”). This, according to HelloSaxophone<\/a>, is the only way to get better. It helps you to be more comfortable with every note – especially the sharps and flats you’re trying to avoid.<\/p>\n

\"Saxophone<\/a>

Saxophone on stage (by Peter Jozwiak)<\/p><\/div>\n

I also found that learning the Chromatic scale is helpful for getting my fingers around the lowest notes (on the left pinky) and the highest notes (on the palm keys). After a few weeks, I have a much better idea where they are! If you’re not sure, use a fingering chart. That’s what it’s there for.<\/p>\n

Start slowly and concentrate on precision rather than speed, to let the muscles learn where each note is, and the transitions between them. Jay Metcalf<\/a> says this is the fastest way to learn.<\/p>\n

Getting familiar with the Major and Minor scales is also important. Just knowing the major scales isn’t enough. And I’ve found that songs I want to play along to are often in awkward keys, like C# or F#. I just have to get over the fact that I need to know them all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Creative Commons photo credit Peter Jozwiak:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/piotrjozwiak\/3529871163)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do I actually get better at playing this instrument? Earlier in January, I had a look at various videos on Youtube. The common consensus is really simple to say, but actually hard to put into practice (literally!) – you … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/sax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}