What are good books/resources for learning saxophone?

Question

Are there any videos/books that will help me learn saxophone?

Answer 1

There are many books that explain the pedagogy of saxophone playing. But I highly recommend Top Tones for Saxophone by Sigurd M. Raschér, All Rubank books for Saxophone, 25 daily Exercises for Saxophone by H. Klose, and the Universal Method for Saxophone by Paul De Ville.

Answer 2

All of the books mentioned so far by other tutors are wonderful! For jazz, I love the Jamey Aerbersold series. I've been using those for a long time and they help players with every interest work on jazz technique and have fun. These books are a great "music minus one" series so you can not only play some great jazz standards but work on jazz technique with chords and scales. If you are interested in jazz, these are a great collection to talk to your teacher about. I still use them in my own practice routine.

Answer 3

The Art of Saxophone - by Larry Teal. It is an older book, but has so much relevance to the technique and acoustics of the saxophone. It even has a fingering chart for the altisimo register.

Answer 4

I highly recommend Rubank's Elementary Method for saxophone, as well as the following: Modern Course for the Saxophone (Hegvik), Do It! Play Alto Saxophone (Froseth), and My First Universal Sax (Deville). All are great resources for saxophone fundamentals!

Answer 5

the progressive method by Andrew Scott/koala publications is the best book and Cd set on the platform i know of. it starts from the absolute beginning of how to put the saxophone together, how to recognize a whole note from a quarter note, what a staff is etc. the Cd plays an example of what the exercise should sound like. The printed music in the book is "big note" so you don't have to squint while learning new notes. it also has an intermediate and advanced book if you want to go further in your studies. i have taught many private students from this series with great success.

Answer 6

One of the best resources online about learning all about the saxophone is the Army Field Band's "The Saxophone Standard" (https://youtu.be/EE8c_Z4g0-s). It has a lot of the history and fundamental concepts of the saxophone. It is also free and of high quality, with demonstrations by some of the best saxophone players in the country. As for books, I recommend as a beginning student "Universal Method of Saxophone". It has all of the fingerings and basics of the saxophone with a lot of music to get you really dedicated to practicing.