Practising your Saxophone
Practising is something that musicians must do in order to progress. People who just play in bands and orchestras or only in their lessons will get better eventually but at a very, very slow pace. Structure is important when practising as it will help you to develop all your skills at a steady pace.
Scales
Scales are important for musicians as all music is made up of scales. This might seem like a silly thing to say, because not all music goes up and down in a linear fashion right? This is true but every scale has a different key and this is how pieces are built up. Scales are of even more importance to jazz saxophonists who use them in improvisation. Modal scales are also useful to use for saxophonists as again, a lot of jazz improvisation is made up on this.
Studies
Studies are important because they help you improve your technique. Studies are there to put into practise the techniques that you will work on with your teacher. It is all very well to learn a technique but to make the most of it you really need to learn how to put it into practise by playing it in context.
Pieces
The last thing you should practise are your pieces. When you practise them, it should be very concentrated practise, practising only a small amount at a time. Concentrate on a small part of the piece, maybe 5 or 6 bars at a time and get that perfect and then move on to the rest of the piece.
Fun stuff!
When you have done all the serious practise move on to the funs stuff! This is music that you just want to play for fun and not for serious practise.
Practicing Time
Practise time really does vary with your grade and standard. Most people can’t concentrate for longer than 30 minutes and short breaks are always beneficial to good practise. You will hear stories of people who practise for hours and hours a day but I can garuntee that they will have breaks and not do 10 hours in one solid block!
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