How long does it take to learn how to play saxophone?
The saxophone sounds from the first class but sound good takes more time. Realist phases from first sound to improvisation.
The saxophone is from the most fast-sounding winds: most of them get a first sound in the first class and play simple melodies in a few weeks. With a weekly class and 20 to 30 minutes of nearly daily practice, the bigger scales and complete registration usually dominate between 6 months and 1 year, play popular repertoire with good sound and tuning, between 1 and 2 years, and improvise with release in jazz, from two to four years or more.
The saxophone curve has a peculiarity: it's easy to start and it's been a good thing for years. How much progress depends on your constancy, age, instrument status and style.
To sum up
- The first sound usually goes out in the first class and the first melodies, about one to three months.
- Serious notes, passing to sharp with an octave key and stable tuning are challenges of the first year.
- The popular repertoire with good sound usually comes from year one to year second, with an improvisation flowing with jazz, between year two and year four.
- The daily long notes are the most advanced exercise of sound.
- A saxophone with slippers that don't close up well can make you believe that's your problem.
The phases of saxophone, of first sound to improvise
Unlike other winds, at saxophone sound appears quickly and digitations are quite logical. That's why the first few months feel very motivative. What takes time is quality: a round, tuned and matching sound from grave to acute.
| Etapa | What do you get? | Orientation time with regular practice |
|---|---|---|
| First sound | To put together the saxophone, put up the cane, form the embocture and get his notes out of his left hand: Yes, La and Sol. | First class to 2 weeks |
| First melodies | Add his right hand, get down to his grave register with softness and play simple songs by reading. | 1 to 3 months |
| Full registration | Using octave key without cocks, serious and soft and sharp and with no sharp sound. | 3 to 6 months |
| Stages and joints | Highest steps in several tones, staccato and legato, and reading of band scores. | 6 months to 1 year |
| People's Repertoire | Melodies of salsa, bolero, ballads or band music with good sound and stable tuning. | 1 to 2 years |
| Jazz and improvisation | Filling with swing, paddles and paddles on chords, 12-bar blues and their own alone. | 2 to 4 years or more |
The light and sound: The base that's never been left
The saxophone works with a cane that vibrates against the nozzle. How you hold it with your lips, how much pressure you do and how you carry the air define the sound. That's why even saxophone with years of experience they heat up every day with long notes.
- Don't bite his nozzle. That's the most common error: sound's tight and thin and tuning's about to rise. The lower lip's cover and holds without more pressing.
- Do long notes every day: hold a note with sound matching, at several heights, as long as possible. Five minutes at the start of practice change sound in weeks.
- Take care of the toughness of the cane. To start with, soft rods are usually used, about number 2 or 2 ½. A cane that's too hard and doesn't leave serious ones out and a very soft one gets out of the sharp ones.
- Rest his lip. At first the purge gets tired in about 15 or 20 minutes. Better two short minutes than a long with an exhausted lip.
Stages, digitations and reading
When the sound stabilizes, the work goes to his fingers. Some notes have several possible digitations and select the right as a passage is part of his Learning: The If bemol, for example, can be done in three different ways, and your teacher will teach you how to suit each.
There's another detail that scares beginners: saxophone is a transpository instrument. The high one's at my bemol and the tenor itself at bemol, so the note that you read isn't the same as that that that sounds at a piano. Playing only doesn't change anything, but it matters when you play with others or you get songs from a piano score.
- Learn every slow scale with [metronomer]](/herramientas/metronomo)first tied and then minced.
- Filling with a [tuner]](/herramientas/afinador) at first, by moving his nozzle onto his tuel rather than clenching his lip.
- He reads a little every day, even if they're eight jobs from something new.
Popular Repertoire or Jazz: Two Roads, Two Times
In Colombia, saxophone sounds in salsa orchestras, pits and orchestra cubeas, boleros, ballades and school gangs and also in jazz. The two great roads demand different things:
| Aspecto | People's Repertoire | Jazz |
|---|---|---|
| What's his first call? | Good sound, tuning, reading arrangements and precise articulation. | Frettle with swing, harmonic ear and get to know the chords of each topic. |
| How to study | Melodies and Section parts, playing with clues or with a band. | Listen a lot, copy sentences from recordings and practice scales about chords. |
| First results | Melodies known with good sound during the first or second year. | Shortcuts about a blues from first year and release, in several years. |
| Typical challenge | To sound alike and tuned with other winds. | That he's just telling something and that's not an up and down scale. |
The type of saxophone also influences the beginning: at high saxophone or tenor to start with We explain why most of them start with their high.
When do we start to improvise?
Before what you think. No need to master all the scales to come up with something, and many teachers propose to improvise from the first few months with very few notes:
- Put up a slow tipple and play just two or three notes, playing with the rhythm.
- Ask question and answer: a short sentence, a silence and another sentence that will answer.
- Learn a sentence from a video that you like and change it a little.
- It adds up to the scale of blues as first ideas come up with a natural light.
To have a flap about the changes of jazz chords is another story: it takes years of listening, theory and practice. But soon to start removes fear and trains his ear.
That accelerates or challenges your progress
That's what's accelerating.
- Long notes and scales at the beginning of each practice.
- Play with clues or with other musicians from earlier.
- To get you to listen to the sound from the outside, and to the person you hear while you play tricks.
- Rotate two or three rods in good condition.
What's stopping
- Biting his nozzle and tighten his throat to reach his sharp ones.
- To practice with a scattering or deformed cane.
- To spend weeks without touching: the purple loses resistance very quickly.
- A leaking instrument that nobody's been through.
Frequently asked questions
Is it hard to learn saxophone?
To start with is relatively easy: sound comes out soon and digitations are logical. The challenges come after them: to control tuning, to match sound throughout the record and, if you care about jazz, to improvise. That's why saxophone is said to be easy to play and difficult to play well.
Can you learn adult saxophone?
That's a very grateful instrument to start with as an adult: air monitoring and understanding of theory help. The decisive thing about constancy is Is it late to learn music at 30, 40 or 50? We'll tell you how to get you organized.
Do I have to know how to read scores to learn saxophone?
To start with, but you better learn. Almost all the repertoire of band, tropical orchestra and big band are played by reading. saxophone classes The reading will be worked little by little, with the ear.
What do I check if I'm gonna buy a used saxophone?
That the shoes are closed, that the tudel isn't hit and that the keys have no play. We explain that in how to choose your first saxophoneIf you can, ask your teacher to prove it before buying it.