LESSONS
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Breathing Introduction- Lesson 1
In this opening lesson, Andy explains the importance of the way you breathe when playing your saxophone, focusing on being at one with the instrument and using your whole body to breathe. If you have never thought about how you breathe, you will after this lesson! This is the natural place to begin your journey towards becoming an excellent sax player, and you will leave this lesson with great advice that will serve you well for years to come and help you to build the sounds that you are able to produce with your instrument.
Breathing Exercises In Action- Lesson 2
Now that you have your breathing techniques where you want them to be, it is time to start learning how that translates into inspirational sounds coming from your sax. Andy introduces you to a number of breathing exercises that will help you get to a point where the way you draw breath is natural, and you can move onto focusing on playing the instrument, and your breathing will take care of itself. This can be difficult, but is definitely worth persisting with. Once you master your breathing, you will be ready to move onto getting the best out of the instrument itself.
Mastering Harmonics- Lesson 3
Your breathing is key to harmonics, making this exercise a great way to measure how effective and powerful your breathing is. In this lesson, Andy recommends practicing these notes every day, and takes you through a basic understanding of each one and the sound you should be looking for. Andy also shares his tips for how you should structure your practice so that you quickly build an affinity with the sax and are able to identify yourself whether you are getting the correct sound and impact from your playing.
Fun & Music With Harmonics-Lesson 4
In this lesson, Andy builds on the notes you started to play in lesson three, giving you some ideas for beginning to put different notes together and coming up with some basic musical arrangements. This one is all about fun and experimentation, so try out Andy's improvisation and then have a go yourself, it will begin to help honing your breathing to cope with playing successive notes, and also introduces basic sax chords to your repertoire.
Circular Breathing Techniques-Lesson 5
The common theme throughout Path To A Great Sound has been breathing. Circular breathing, breathing in and out at the same time, is one of the key techniques that will help you to develop your sax playing. In this lesson, Andy goes through the importance of circular breathing, shows you how he does it, and introduces exercises that will help you to master this advanced breathing technique.
Circular Breathing Demonstration-Lesson 6
Following on from lesson five, Andy now introduces you to circular breathing with your instrument in hand. Again, this is something that once you have mastered it, you can forget about it and do it naturally without knowing. Learn how to play longer notes on your sax utilizing circular breathing, and then move on to longer arrangements. Andy will also share some tips around how to control the rhythm of your circular breathing, and using your tongue, to create subtle changes in the sound you create around each base note.
Path To A Great Sound-Tone & Gear
In 'Tone & Gear,' Andy talks you through his saxophone and why he is uses it, his harness for holding his instrument and why you should avoid a neck strap, the mouthpiece he finds best suited to his style, as well as how to choose a great reed for your sax in order to make your playing easier. Andy also lets you in on a unique secret related to how he keeps his reeds preserved for many months at a time!
