Saxophone Secrets

60 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Saxophonist

Tracy Lee Heavner

Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in her Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Tracy Heavner’s Saxophone Secrets provides advanced saxophonists with 60 performance secrets that will assist in their musical development. This work is the result of 30 years of personal teaching and performance experience. Heavner offers both intermediate players and advanced professionals a wide variety of techniques, which will greatly improve any saxophonist’s performance ability.

Designed to be the go-to hands-on guide for practitioners, Heavner’s strategies consider a vast array of issues for the saxophonist who needs to take that next big step up. Beginning chapters consider various brands of saxophones, mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds, and maintenance techniques that reflect the standard practices and expectations of the advanced performer. The secrets that follow develop and improve embouchure, tone, articulation, and finger technique, allowing saxophonists to analyze their own playing and adjust accordingly. Heavner pulls back the curtain further to introduce those secrets for developing the altissimo register and extended saxophone techniques, from circular breathing and multiphonics to slap and flutter tonguing—all absolute necessities for saxophonists seeking to play contemporary classical, jazz, or commercial music. Finally, Heavner concludes by letting musicians in on those little-revealed secrets for taking their saxophones on the road.

Saxophone Secrets is the ideal work for saxophonists, saxophone instructors, band teachers, and anyone looking to improve their saxophone performance skills or those of their students.

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 148 • Trim: 7 x 10

978-0-8108-8465-6 • Paperback • January 2013 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-0-8108-8466-3 • eBook • January 2013 • $62.50 • (£48.00)

Series: Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician

Subjects: Music / Musical Instruments / Woodwinds, Music / Reference

Saxophone Secrets

60 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Saxophonist

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Modeled on the brilliant approach first formulated by distinguished professor music and master clarinetist Michele Gingras in her Clarinet Secrets and More Clarinet Secrets (both available from Scarecrow Press), Tracy Heavner’s Saxophone Secrets provides advanced saxophonists with 60 performance secrets that will assist in their musical development. This work is the result of 30 years of personal teaching and performance experience. Heavner offers both intermediate players and advanced professionals a wide variety of techniques, which will greatly improve any saxophonist’s performance ability.

Designed to be the go-to hands-on guide for practitioners, Heavner’s strategies consider a vast array of issues for the saxophonist who needs to take that next big step up. Beginning chapters consider various brands of saxophones, mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds, and maintenance techniques that reflect the standard practices and expectations of the advanced performer. The secrets that follow develop and improve embouchure, tone, articulation, and finger technique, allowing saxophonists to analyze their own playing and adjust accordingly. Heavner pulls back the curtain further to introduce those secrets for developing the altissimo register and extended saxophone techniques, from circular breathing and multiphonics to slap and flutter tonguing—all absolute necessities for saxophonists seeking to play contemporary classical, jazz, or commercial music. Finally, Heavner concludes by letting musicians in on those little-revealed secrets for taking their saxophones on the road.

Saxophone Secrets is the ideal work for saxophonists, saxophone instructors, band teachers, and anyone looking to improve their saxophone performance skills or those of their students.

Details

Scarecrow Press

Pages: 148 • Trim: 7 x 10

978-0-8108-8465-6 • Paperback • January 2013 • $66.00 • (£51.00)

978-0-8108-8466-3 • eBook • January 2013 • $62.50 • (£48.00)

Series: Music Secrets for the Advanced Musician

Subjects: Music / Musical Instruments / Woodwinds, Music / Reference

Author

Dr. Tracy Lee Heavner is professor of Saxophone and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of South Alabama. He is a performing artist for Yamaha, Cannonball and Beechler Music Corporations, a recording artist for LiveHorns.com, and also an accomplished author and music education researcher.

Table of Contents

Preface

1 Saxophones, Mouthpieces, and Equipment Strategies
Secret 1: Selecting a Saxophone
Secret 2: Selecting a Classical Saxophone Mouthpiece
Secret 3: Selecting a Jazz Saxophone Mouthpiece
Secret 4: Customizing a Saxophone Mouthpiece
Secret 5: Mouthpiece Cushions
Secret 6: Selecting a Saxophone Ligature
Secret 7: Palm Key Risers
Secret 8: Selecting a Saxophone Neck Strap

2 Reed Strategies
Secret 9: Selecting Reeds
Secret 10: Breaking in Reeds
Secret 11: Adjusting Reeds
Secret 12: The Reed Sealing Test
Secret 13: Reed Storage
Secret 14: Rotating Reeds
Secret 15: Reviving Dead Reeds

3 Embouchure Strategies
Secret 16: Forming a Correct Embouchure
Secret 17: Determining Proper Embouchure Pressure
Secret 18: Determining Proper Mouthpiece Placement
Secret 19: Causes of a Sore Lip
Secret 20: Making a Temporary Cover for the Lower Teeth
Secret 21: Making a Permanent Cover for the Lower Teeth

4 Tone Strategies
Secret 22: Breathing Exercises
Secret 23: Finding the Optimum Tongue Position
Secret 24: Playing with an Open Throat
Secret 25: Developing Throat Flexibility
Secret 26: Overtone Exercise for Improving Tone
Secret 27: Developing Vibrato

5 Articulation Strategies
Secret 28: Chromatic Tonguing Exercise
Secret 29: Double and Triple Tonguing
Secret 30: The Bouncing Tongue Exercise

6 Finger Technique Strategies
Secret 31: Chromatic Alternate Fingerings
Secret 32: Alternate B_ Fingerings
Secret 33: Holding Down the Pinky Fingers
Secret 34: Forked E and F
Secret 35: Developing Finger Speed
Secret 36: Using the Metronome

7 Altissimo Strategies
Secret 37: Overtone Exercise for Developing the Altissimo Register
Secret 38: Altissimo Technique Fingerings
Secret 39: Altissimo Finger Exercises

8 Extended Technique Strategies
Secret 40: Circular Breathing
Secret 41: Slap Tonguing
Secret 42: Flutter Tonguing
Secret 43: Multiphonics

9 Jazz Techniques
Secret 44: The Straight Lip Embouchure
Secret 45: Sub-Toning
Secret 46: Swinging
Secret 47: Back-Accent Tonguing
Secret 48: Half Tonguing
Secret 49: Ghosted Notes
Secret 50: Growling
Secret 51: Split Tones
Secret 52: The Texas Wobble
Secret 53: The Cannonball Trill
Secret 55: Overtone Fingerings for Timbre Changes
Secret 56: Using the Metronome in a Jazz Swing Style

10 Traveling Strategies
Secret 57: Saxophone Gig Bags and Cases
Secret 58: Items to Keep in the Saxophone Case
Secret 59: Boarding Flights with a Saxophone
Secret 60: Practice and Performance Tips

Index
About the Author

Reviews

This book would be ideal for adult students returning to saxophone or beginning from scratch, as it covers absolutely everything from purchasing an instrument to embouchure to extended techniques. I would also recommend it for any instrumental teachers picking up saxophone as a second, third or fourth instrument or woodwind doublers, as it could be a great trouble-shooting guide for saxophone specific techniques.

— Fiona McKellar, CLASAX Vice President

Saxophone Secrets

60 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Saxophonist

Tracy Lee Heavner

Saxophone Secrets

60 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Saxophonist

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