I remember my first solo. I played in my High School's Junior Jazz Big Band. I was 15, and I played 2nd alto in the band. We had a concert at school. We played a funky rock tune, and…

Today, I was informed by a friend, that a mutual friend posted on their Facebook page that saxophonist Steve Grossman, had died. 

If you are or were a private student of mine, a follower of my posts, my YouTube…

This time I'm reviewing the A.L.E. "Reed Balancer". Soon I'll be doing another video on reed preparation in general:
What it is, How to do it, What to look for, What to avoid, What tools are on the market.

See…

This video demonstrates how to start playing exercises on the mouthpiece and the reasons why you should do it.

Download the exercises here.

This video is an extension of a previously uploaded video "5 Things You're Practicing Incorrectly and How To Correct Them". - This video will discuss how to practice jazz patterns.

Check out the entire video here!

Enjoy!

This is in part a follow-up on a previous video of mine; "5 Things You're Practicing Incorrectly and How To Correct Them". This video displays a way to approach practicing technique and technical issues within a piece or music, or…

Here's my take on five things you may be practicing wrong and my tips on how to make it right.

Check out the video here.

This is Part 2 of my previous video on Embouchure: The "One Note" Theory.

Here I speak in detail about how to form an embouchure easily without difficulty.

Check out the video here!

The "One Note Theory" is a concept for forming an optimal saxophone embouchure (also for clarinet!). 

It is based on principles I'd learned from Hon. Dr. Joseph Allard, master teacher of many world famous saxophonists and clarinetists. Among them were; 

…

I recently stumbled across a video in YouTube with the title "The Only Long Tones Exercise You'll Ever Need". So naturally, I was curious to find out what that was. 

Although, it was a good exercise I did find flaws…

playing "Cherokee" with guest soloist Jürgen Seefelder.

The topic of this audio is a subject I’ve spoken about with my peers as well as my students over the years. And that is the subject of composing. 

You see, throughout musical history, the musician / performer was…

With this article/sound file / pdfs, I'd like to discuss and demonstrate some of the thinking and techniques I use when I'm faced with having to solo over a dominant 7th chord for an extended solo. 

In college, we often…

All improvisers are looking for new licks and/or techniques to improve our soloing. As saxophonists, too often are we seduced to licks with many notes with sometimes some quite complicated harmonic structures. I got a little weary of that I…

A while back someone asked me about enclosures and how to practice them for improvisation. I had to first identify what was meant by "enclosures".  I realized that I've always referred to this technique as "encircling". 

What I would do…

Here's another Improv Etude over a classic jazz standard. "There Will Never Be Another You" by Harry Warren. 
I've added just one technique in using alternate changes in the second part of the form. See if you can find it…

This is a challenging Bebop standard from Ray Noble. Any improviser that wants to prove their worth must be able to play this standard, often at break-neck tempos. 

This improv etude will force you to use the whole range of…

Everyone who works hard on improvising jazz comes to a point that they hit wall. They feel that their practicing is not helping their soloing anymore. They don't know what to practice anymore. They looking for inspiration but don't know…