Many saxophonists struggle with notes from low ‘D’ downwards. For most people the reason for this is down to an incorrect embouchure.

This is one of the easiest, but most effective Long Tone exercises that you can work on.

As a follow up to last weeks lesson on improving your tone with Branford Marsalis, this week we have a look at Ravel’s Pavane pour un infante défunte (a dance for a dead princess.)

I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’m not the best and practicing long tones on my saxophone. In fact for many years I didn’t really work that hard on them, because, to be honest I found the exercises my teacher gave me boring.

Using slow melodies is a great way to work on your tone.

I often teach this to beginners in their first lesson as it is such a useful way of working on your embouchure formation. And this is not just for those of us starting out, EVERYONE needs to keep working on their embouchure so that the tone you want is within your reach!

Even the best saxophones are difficult to keep in tune. In this lesson I show you the best way to improve your tuning, by HEARING when notes are in tune!

Forming the correct embouchure on the saxophone is critical. You can not hope to gain full control of the instrument, nor make the most of your mouthpiece and reed setup without the correct interaction between the instrument and you.

Gaining control over overtones is critical in establishing a good tone on the saxophone. Your tonal palette is the like the brushes and paint which a painter uses – the greater the subtleties you can bring out in your playing.

Overtones are a very important method of improving your embouchure. This is a short video to show you how to work on long tones focusing on the harmonic series.