FOR ALL SAXOPHONES BEGINNER SERIES FOR SAXOPHONE By JEREMY TREZONA A carefully developed method for use with the video and playalong series. SAXTUITION.COM Copyright © 2018 by SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the author. Cover Design: Jeremy Trezona Author: Jeremy Trezona Edited by Cara Zydor Fesjian Music composed by Jeremy Trezona, except where noted. Illustrations displayed throughout this book were sourced from www.openclipart.org Published and distributed by SaxTuition. www.saxtuition.com Special thanks to Kevin and Bonny, for their never-ending love and support. Contents INTRODUCTION 3 THEORY BASICS 4 LESSON 1 6 LESSON 2 8 LESSON 3 11 LESSON 4 15 LESSON 5 18 LESSON 6 22 LESSON 7 27 LESSON 8 32 LESSON 9 36 LESSON 10 41 LESSON 11 46 LESSON 12 51 WHERE TO NEXT? 57 MAJOR SCALES 58 FINGERING CHART 60 LISTENING TREES 61 CLASSICAL 62 SWING 63 BEBOP / HARD BOP 64 POST-BOP / MODERN 65 POP / R&B / COMMERCIAL 66 RISING STARS 67 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Copyright © 2018 SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved. 68 2 Introduction Welcome to SaxTuition! The goal of this course is to give you a solid foundation on the saxophone that will serve you for years to come. This includes how to produce a rich tone on the instrument, fingerings for the entire normal range of the saxophone, how to read music, how to self-evaluate your performance, how to care and maintain your saxophone, and an introduction to jazz styles and other stylistic techniques. In this initial part of your musical journey, you will face two main challenges. The first is a challenge that every student faces when learning a new instrument: having the patience and dedication to learn a new set of skills. The simple ingredient to ensuring success in this area is a drive to want to learn. But you are here, reading this book, about to undertake the course, so it is unlikely that this ingredient is not already fulfilled! The second challenge is unique to this style of self-driven learning: you must be mindful of how you are playing the instrument and constantly search for areas of improvement. Without a teacher physically in the room, identifying specific areas that need attention in your playing can be more difficult. That is why it is important to listen carefully to the lessons, take notes if necessary, and self-evaluate wherever possible. This course is designed specifically to teach you the skills to self-evaluate and constantly search for areas of improvement. On a practical note, I encourage you to seek out extra pieces, recordings, and books that might aid you on your journey in learning the saxophone. For example, if you are fond of Disney songs, purchasing a book of Disney themes for beginner saxophone may provide you with extra encouragement and diversity while working with this course. Before you start with SaxTuition, I recommend having your saxophone looked at by a woodwind repairer, and make any repairs or adjustments necessary in order to have your instrument brought to top playing condition. I wish you the best of luck on your musical journey, and may you have many fulfilling musical experiences to come! Jeremy Trezona Creator of SaxTuition Copyright © 2018 SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved. 3 THEORY BASICS Note: For those with little or no background in musical theory, I recommend you read the guide below. If you are still confused by certain elements of the theory after reading this section, I encourage you to start the first couple of video lessons anyway and listen to the explanations given. Many challenging aspects of music theory become clearer once you see them demonstrated in a practical setting. Whether it’s jazz, pop, classical, R&B, dance, electronic, or a combination thereof, almost every type of music in the world follows a beat of some kind, a constant pulse that melodies and rhythms can align to. The speed of this beat is known as the ‘tempo’ and can be expressed in BPM (beats per minute); for example, a tempo of 60BPM would have exactly one beat per second. In Western music, beats are typically further organized into groupings of 4, known as a ‘bar’ or ‘measure’. Within these bars are notes, musical sounds that have both a pitch (e.g., how high or low) and a length (e.g., how long or short). When reading music, the length of these notes is indicated by the color of the notehead (white or black) and the use of a stem. Let’s examine this by looking at 3 basic note types: Whole note (Semibreve) Half note (Minim) Quarter note (Crotchet) Note: Many countries use the traditional names in parentheses to refer to note length, whilst standard terminology in the US is to refer to them in numerical value. We will use US terminology in this course, as it refers directly to the length of the note and is more common in jazz and popular styles of music. A whole note is written as a hollow notehead with no stem. These are worth 4 beats each. The term ‘whole note’ indicates that in a standard bar of 4 beats, it is held for the whole length of the bar. A half note is written as a hollow notehead with a stem. These are worth 2 beats each. The term ‘half note’ indicates that in a standard bar of 4 beats, it is held for half the length of the bar. A quarter note is written as a solid notehead with a stem. These are worth 1 beat each. The term ‘quarter note’ indicates that in a standard bar of 4 beats, it is held for a quarter of the length of the bar. As you might imagine, there are several other note lengths, which we will learn about later in this course. In the meantime, we only need to be concerned with the 3 shown above. Now that we have a basic understanding of note length, let’s consider note pitch. As mentioned earlier, the pitch of a given note refers to how high or low the note is harmonically. Notes are assigned a letter from A – G, a cycle that repeats itself continually (e.g., A comes after G, and the cycle starts again). Where a note is placed on a musical ‘staff’, represented as 5 horizontal lines known as ‘ledger lines’, indicates what pitch the note will be. Let’s look at the example below: Copyright © 2018 SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved. 4 As you can see, the notes that appear between the lines are F, A, C, and E. All you need to do to remember these notes is remember FACE! The notes that are written on the lines are E, G, B, D, and F. A common way of remembering these notes is by memorizing the motto Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit. (Depending on the boy though, Fries or Ferraris might be more appropriate!) Let’s take a look at the following example: This is called a time signature. The number on the bottom indicates ‘quarter notes’, and the number on top indicates ‘notes per bar’. In this case, 4/4 means ‘4 quarter notes per bar’ and is the most common time signature. Another example: a time signature of 6/8 would mean ‘6 8th notes per bar’. This elaborate-looking symbol is called a ‘treble clef’. It appears at the start of every line of saxophone music and signals where a G is located. Other clefs exist, but saxophones almost always read in treble clef. This is called a ‘bar line’ and separates notes according to the time signature. If you take note of the example above, you will find a bar line after every 4 beats. Copyright © 2018 SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved. This is called a ‘final bar line’ and indicates the end of a piece of music. It is represented by two bar lines, the second of which is bold. Note: You might notice in the example above that some stems are facing upwards whilst some are facing down. It is a musical notation convention for stems to face down on notes above a B, and notes to face up below a B. Stems on a B may face either way. 5 LESSON ONE A ‘fermata’ above a note indicates a pause. New note: B New note: A Copyright © 2018 SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved. New note: G 6 If there is a single bar line at the end of a line of music (as in the piece below), go on to the next line without stopping. You will also find tempo markings written in the top left corner of many of the pieces in this book and elsewhere, such as in Mary Had A Little Lamb. For this piece, set your metronome to 75bpm (beats per minute) and try performing with the click. Practicing with a metronome is a great way to develop your rhythmic ability! Congratulations on completing your first lesson! Remember to listen to and perform with the demo tracks for guidance when practicing. Once you begin to feel comfortable with these pieces, go on to Lesson 2! Copyright © 2018 SaxTuition. All Rights Reserved. 7 CONGRATULATIONS You’ve just completed Lesson 1 of the SaxTuition Beginner Series. How easy was that? It might not seem like it, but you’ve already learnt so much on the saxophone. If you were worried that learning saxophone might not be for you, I hope this experience has taught you that conquering the sax is 100% achievable no matter where you are in life. The SaxTuition Beginner Series works so well because of its simplicity. Each lesson is taught just like a ‘real lesson’, and each lesson picks up right where the last one left off. There are no fancy gimmicks or ‘weird tricks’ here. The Beginner Series is a course that simply works. In Lesson 2 of the SaxTuition Beginner Series, we add another new note, incorporate a couple of new techniques and learn a whole bunch of great new songs. We’ll also troubleshoot some of the most common problems students face after Lesson 1 to ensure you’re getting a consistent tone every time you play. By Lesson 12, you’ll have learnt every note on the saxophone, be playing with a great tone and be playing a huge variety of fun songs from the jazz, contemporary and classical genres. If you’re skeptical about the incredible results you can achieve with this course, I encourage you check out the SaxTuition Beginner Series product page (link below) and read reviews from other adult students just like yourself. Right now you’re in the best possible position to set yourself up for success on the saxophone - in fact, you’ve already taken the most important step! So, don’t waste hours / days / years of your time sifting through free content alone. Learn the saxophone with SaxTuition and conquer the saxophone once and for all! - Jeremy To purchase the Beginner Series, click this link: www.saxtuition.com/continue Or type the link directly into your browser.
