Is it necessary to practice long notes on the saxophone?
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Oh I gotta contemplate whether I want to listen to Tony Bennett vs Bob Dylan? Cause that one’s easy— not sure you’re making the point you want to be making here.
Also, speaking as a voice instructor— Billie Eilish is a plenty skilled singer (she ain’t in the Bob D category). You can’t actually do what she does without proper breath support. There are more approaches to singing than Bel Canto. And the technique of singing in popular music has moved away from “filling the opera house” levels of volume ever since the advent of the microphone. You could fill a book with the numbers of singers who couldn’t sing opera but nevertheless have millions of fans delighting in their every recorded vocalization. Ella Marvin Lennon McCartney Bowie Curtis Olivia Newton-John Karen Carpenter etc etc
Edit: Also had to look up Patsy cause I never heard anything about her studying Bel Canto and all I could find about her musical education was that she sang in church and was self-taught on piano.
It's not that the examples of singers (and I didn't spend a lot of time thinking of specific examples, to be honest) were formally taught, but rather that they learned the techniques, whether on their own or by instruction. Good deep diaphragmatic breaths, open air ways, proper projection, etc. Dylan sings through his nose with what's really a rather unpleasant tone; it fits his performance persona, it works for him, but it's an extremely idiosyncratic way to sing. Eilish needs to take about four cups of coffee and breathe. That creaky half asleep thing has a temporary vogue, but it's not an impressive vocal tone. I find nothing compelling about the sound. It may well fit HER performance persona of the bored alienated teenager.
Moving back to the saxophone, it's pretty easy for someone who has a full command of the production of saxophone tone, to choose to play with a pinched tone narrow dynamic range inaccurate vibrato and avoid the extremes of range. It's not so easy for someone whose only tools are the pinched tone narrow dynamic range inaccurate vibrato and has to avoid the extremes of range, to do otherwise and play over the full range of the horn with a wide dynamic range, rich compelling tone, accurate and appropriate vibrato, and flexible timbre.
Getting back to the prescription of exercises, I continue to believe that for the majority of people, subject-specific exercises are the most efficient way to master and maintain mastery of a subject. Long tones specifically target tone timbre dynamic range and pitch over the full range of the horn. Can you develop these by other means? Absolutely! I'm just offering that in my opinion and the opinion of pretty much every professional instructor of saxophone, the long tones exercises are an effective efficient way to get there.
Moving back to the saxophone, it's pretty easy for someone who has a full command of the production of saxophone tone, to choose to play with a pinched tone narrow dynamic range inaccurate vibrato and avoid the extremes of range. It's not so easy for someone whose only tools are the pinched tone narrow dynamic range inaccurate vibrato and has to avoid the extremes of range, to do otherwise and play over the full range of the horn with a wide dynamic range, rich compelling tone, accurate and appropriate vibrato, and flexible timbre.
Getting back to the prescription of exercises, I continue to believe that for the majority of people, subject-specific exercises are the most efficient way to master and maintain mastery of a subject. Long tones specifically target tone timbre dynamic range and pitch over the full range of the horn. Can you develop these by other means? Absolutely! I'm just offering that in my opinion and the opinion of pretty much every professional instructor of saxophone, the long tones exercises are an effective efficient way to get there.
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Tony Bennett filling the hall…. I was lucky to have played in a back up orchestra for Tony several dozen times over the years. He invariably did a completely unamplified a capella solo on every show. He could absolutely fill the hall with his sound. Even suffering from dementia, in his final concert (go find it and watch it if you haven’t seen it), his voice was strong and powerful.
I was taught to do long tones as a student of clarinet. I did them every day, because my teacher said to. He even tested me on them in every lesson. When I started playing saxophone, I did long tones every day. Even now, 60+ years later, I do tone studies, though I usually do this with drone tones. 12 minutes. Brings focus. I try to make the notes musical, playing them as if I were performing, varying dynamics and playing with and without vibrato, etc.
So yeah, it’s important. I want to fill the hall with my sound.
I was taught to do long tones as a student of clarinet. I did them every day, because my teacher said to. He even tested me on them in every lesson. When I started playing saxophone, I did long tones every day. Even now, 60+ years later, I do tone studies, though I usually do this with drone tones. 12 minutes. Brings focus. I try to make the notes musical, playing them as if I were performing, varying dynamics and playing with and without vibrato, etc.
So yeah, it’s important. I want to fill the hall with my sound.
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Absolutely practice long tones with organ drones on every note. Value is incalculable. Endurance; Inner hearing; Intonation; Improv by playing chord tones and scale notes using drone a the root, etc. IF YOUR NOT BLOWING a good tone you’re not going to ever entertain. Very important.
I can’t imagine believing this work is ever truly done.
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Over the last few decades as a player, composer, and educator with an insatiable hunger for new material to work on, I’ve amassed an extensive library of books for saxophone. Despite owning many of the countless books on the market now, there are very few books that I’ve found myself coming back...
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I agree with @JL on this. In fact, for me at least, it’s one of the most important things one can do to improve tone, intonation, breath support, emboucher and altissimo. If I don’t do it, I lose everything else.
For me, anyway, it’s necessary! I think most pro’s practice long tones regularly.
Long tones, and over tones through the harmonic series is super helpful. Top tones is a book to get for sure! I have used it for 30 years.
(Of course results will very) 😉
If I don’t practice long tones, I suck. LOL
But maybe that is just me!! 🥺 I’m really not as bad as I sound! 😂🤣😄
I think this book is great: Top Tones
O2964 - Top-Tones for the Saxophone: Four-Octave Range: Sigurd M. Rascher: 9780825826429: Amazon.com: Books
And: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Saxophone-Playing-Larry-Teal/dp/0874870577
And:https://www.amazon.com/Saxophonists..._27:Larry+Teal&s=books&sr=1-4&text=Larry+Teal
Larry Teal’s work book is great to go with Top Tones. The Art of the saxophone is a deeper dive.
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Same here. It’s warm up. Also serves as meditation to clear out all the day’s crap from the brain.
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Quote worth re-quoting from @Seraphim ^^^ 😂
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+1. I have to add that practicing and playing the horn in any capacity works quite well to clear out the day's crap from the brain! For me, anyway.
This has been GOLD for me on soprano -- THANK YOU 🙏!!!
I play sop only about once or twice a week, not nearly enough of course. So when I do, most any other long tone exercise that goes over the whole range of the horn will cause me to bite before long.
I tried this a couple days ago exactly as described -- just from low G on down, nothing else -- and the results were truly instantaneous: fuller tone, and through the whole range to boot, and for the first time in years I could put in a 3-hour practice session (with 2 smoke breaks in between, granted....) without chewing my lower lip to shreds.
Since then, I've tried it out also on alto and tenor, but strangely enough, the benefits are nowhere near as immediate as on soprano, even when combined with the "hinge exercise" mentioned above, and done over the whole range. I can hear and feel that it does indeed help, too, but the effect on soprano, for me at least, was dramatic. And yeah, I'm aware Claire Daly plays bari...
Might be just me, but I thought it worth pointing out, given how I'd struggled for years to find a long tone exercise for soprano that wouldn't force me to quit practicing after little more than an hour.
-j.
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