Getting a good saxophone isn’t too hard if you know how to go about it.
Unfortunately, while the sax is an easy instrument to play right away, it takes a little bit of work to get it sounding good.
I noticed there weren’t a lot of comprehensive tips out there by actual music teachers, so I asked my sax friends for the best tips, and here’s what they said.
Table of Contents
Mouthpiece Practice Time
Practicing with just your mouthpiece may be a little brutal sounding, but it makes a big difference in your sound.
The tone you get from your mouthpiece is the base of what the rest of your sound is going to be.
Brass instruments will practice buzzing a lot, and while you don’t need to do this a ton, playing on your mouthpiece will get you a similar improvement.
Please remember, though, the saxophone is a woodwind instrument. Click the link to learn why.
Take your mouthpiece (with the reed and ligature on) and blow into it and focus on making a clean, strong sound right from the moment you exhale.
This exercise will strengthen your embouchure or mouth muscles and make your playing better even if you do this for a couple of minutes every day.
It removes the distraction of the keys and the stress of holding the sax and lets you focus on making a consistent sound.
For advanced practice, see if you can bend the pitch up or down.
Keep the movement all in your lips and not the jaw, though.
Change the inside of your mouth’s shape to alter the tone too.
We usually want an open mouth for a strong sound.
Overtones Mastery
Overtones are an advanced idea, but one that’ll take an intermediate player and make them sound better almost instantly.
For new players, I’d leave this one alone, but it’s still good to be aware of this.
Basically, overtones are when you use alternate fingerings to get a bigger and more resonant (though sometimes harsher) sound for specific notes.
As you start playing higher and higher, the overtones will become harder to play, but if you master the lower and middle ranges early on, everyone will be impressed with how unique of a sound you’ll get.
The fingerings have to be paired with a changing mouth, throat, and air shape to work well.
Listen, Listen, Listen
This point may seem obvious, but I can’t overemphasize this enough.
Music is an aural art, and if you don’t know what a good sound is on your instrument, you’ll never be able to play at a high level.
Listen to as many sax players as possible.
Make a mental note of the ones you really enjoy and seek out their recordings.
If some of the songs they play are attainable at your level, get a good set of speakers and play along with them.
I recommend this for any musician of any kind. It’s not about copying the specific sound someone has; it’s about building a sound concept in your head for what sounds good to you.
It informs your practice, and you’ll begin to alter how you play in little ways to reach those higher levels.
Here are the steps I recommend broken down:
- Take 20 minutes per day and put on “saxophone radio” on Spotify or Pandora.
- As you listen, jot down the names of performers you hear. If you come across them multiple times and still like them, give the name a checkmark or star.
- Do this for 2-4 weeks.
- Go back to your list and look at the ones with the most stars or checkmarks.
- Visit those players’ YouTube channels or purchase their albums.
- Listen to them for 20 minutes per day. Write down words to describe their sound.
- As you practice and play, think about what you like. Experiment to see if you can get any closer to their sound.
- Repeat all of the above over and over.
Roll The Lower Lip Out A Bit
For a quick tip, practice whatever it is you’re doing and roll the lower lip out a bit.
Too often, players will cover their lower teeth with their lip when it should only rest on top of their teeth.
A rolled-in lower lip may help get sound at first, but it’ll limit your potential. Try rolling it out some and see what happens to your sound.
Take care not to move your jaw, though. This should all be only done with the embouchure.
Long Tones (With A Tuner Too!)
Long tones are critical for any wind instrument.
Take a scale or exercise and play each note for 4-8 beats at a time.
Make it a goal to have a strong sound from beginning to end.
Listen as you play and support your note steady.
Often, you’ll hear it get softer or bend pitch toward the end.
Support with the air from your diaphragm.
Pull out your tuner and have it on while you play.
Keep it perfectly in tune as best as you can.
Over time, it’ll get easier and easier.
Then, shake it up by changing how you play your dynamics.
Crescendo or decrescendo through each long tone and focus on making the pitch stay in tune and tone stay round.
Relax And Avoid Tension
Many musicians at all levels neglect their posture.
Since wind instruments like the sax need air to play, you’re limited by the amount of air control you have.
Your air is limited by the amount of space in your lungs.
Having poor posture collapses the lungs and cuts down on what you have to work with.
From an enjoyment perspective, poor posture will introduce tension into your body and then into your playing.
At best, this will make your playing sound strained when you want it to sound powerful.
In the worst case, you’ll develop pains and alignment issues over time.
Tenor and bari sax players tend to have misalignment pain from leaning to adjust for the position of their sax.
Alto sax players tend to either hunch over or overarch their backs. Both are bad!
Remember, your body came before the instrument. The sax needs to move to you.
Start with a good, centered posture and bring the saxophone to you and your head, not the other way around.
Get That Metronome Clicking
A good sense of tempo may not directly impact your saxophone sound, but it will make you a leaps and bounds better player.
When practicing, set a metronome at the tempo the music should be played at.
Pro-tip: Turn on the division or subdivision of the beat, so you get a better sense of how the tempo goes.
If you come across a difficult section of music, use these steps with a metronome to get better in minutes:
- Set your metronome at 30 bpm lower than what it’s supposed to be.
- Practice the music with a slower tempo.
- Do it over and over until you get it right five times in a row.
- Bump up the tempo by 10 bpm and repeat.
- Bump it up again by 10 bpm when you get it right five times in a row.
- Go past the goal tempo by 30 bpm and then bring it back to the goal.
- Bask in amazement at how awesome you are.
This works with any difficult section of music. If the first tempo is still too hard, slow it down. Remember the common music saying:
If you can’t play it slow, you can’t play it fast.
Experiment With Your Mouth Vowel Shape
Interior mouth shape matters more on the saxophone than perhaps any other instrument.
A lot of saxophone teachers, especially at the college level, spend a good amount of time helping their students find the right shape for them.
Imagine your mouth and throat making different vowel shapes while you’re playing, almost as if you’re saying them.
Experiment with the different shapes and find the one or ones you like best for your sound.
The shapes will change depending on the style and range of notes you play.
Here are some to mess around with:
- Ee, as in “flea”
- Aah, as in “Ha”
- O, as in “toe”
- Ah, as in “heart”
- Oo, as in “who”
- Ae, as in “tape”
Our saxophone professor where I went to school recommended an open vowel. He used the image of opening your throat like it was trying to swallow an apple.
Many jazz saxophonists prefer the brighter “ee” sound.
Don’t Forget The Tonguing
Saxes are often called on to provide a meaty sound with longer tones, but they’re equally called on to assist in quick flurries of notes for counter-melodies or ornamentation.
The tongue and clear articulations (start of the sound) are critical for both of these purposes.
Imagine your air is a constant stream of water. When you tongue your notes, the muscle flicks across the stream, causing a break in the water.
The air doesn’t stop; the tongue stops the air.
Placement of the tongue when it flicks is important, with many sax players preferring to touch the back of their top front teeth.
Take a major scale of your preference at a medium tempo (90-100 bpm).
Play each pitch four times to the beat up and down the scale.
Then, alter the style and tongue you use each time through the scale:
- Normal
- Legato (smoother)
- Staccato (spaced)
- Accent (hard front, full length)
- Marcato (hard front, more space)
Gradually increase the tempo and consider other scales and other patterns. 5-10 minutes of this practice every day will help your tongue get better and your sound clear.
Note: Also make sure your sax is working right! Check out our guide on cleaning sticky saxophone pads.
Get A New Mouthpiece
As a music teacher, it breaks my heart to see how many people use the saxophone mouthpiece they get with their instrument their entire lives.
Everyone’s mouth is different, and they need a mouthpiece better suited to their mouth shape and play style.
It should be a personal thing, and to be honest, the mouthpieces that come with most saxes are average at best.
Upgrade to a nicer mouthpiece and see how quickly your playing sound improves.
For a great overall option, most sax experts I’ve talked to brought up the Vandoren Optimum Series.
Practice Breathing
As a tuba player by trade, I live and die by my breathing, but I know it’s critical for any of the wind instruments, including the saxophone.
Air is the fuel for our sound, and you don’t want your sound to run low.
The muscles in your chest and upper abdomen control breathing, and they’re exactly that, muscles.
Muscles need to be trained and worked to get the most out of them, so don’t neglect your breathing ones either.
Add this quick exercise to your warmup and watch how much easier it is to breathe:
- Sitting with good posture and no instrument, breathe in through your mouth for 4 beats. Focus on filling up from the bottom of your lungs.
- As soon as your lungs reach max capacity*, release the air. Don’t hold it. We want it to be one smooth, circular motion of air.
- Exhale for 4 beats.
- Repeat inhale and exhale 4 more times. Stop if you feel dizzy.
- This time, breathe in for 2 beats and out for 4. Do this four times.
- Now, breathe in for 2 beats and out for 8 beats. Do this four times.
*You’ll know you reach max capacity for your lungs when you feel the slightest tightness in your chest.
Read more about the saxophone family of instruments in our mega-guide here.