Casa Valdez Studios

Keep fingers on the pearls the entire time. Start as slow as you need to in order to have fingers in contact with the keys, then slowly speed up. Stop as soon as any finger comes off a key and slow down to a tempo at which you can keep your fingers down. In order to break long standing bad habits it is usually best to do these exercises without blowing air through the horn. Start with the horn resting on your knee and watch your fingers closely to make sure they do not lift off the keys and remain perfectly relaxed. Then try the exercises while playing. These exercises are designed for one thing only, TO CORRECT FINGER HEIGHTS, so pay attention to this at all times. It is not necessary to keep your fingers touching the pearls at all times when playing normally, but it is the only way to break the habit of lifting your fingers too high. In extreme cases it can also helpful to put double sided sticky tape on each pearl, so that there is a noticeable feeling as soon as your fingers come off the keys. The single worst and most common technical problem of saxophonist is lifting the fingers too high. The only way to keep your hands totally relaxed is to reduce the motion of the fingers, otherwise the entire hand will tense up.

Saxophone technique exercises

D.valdez

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Do you feel every finger on every key at ALL times?

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Stay relaxed, stay low.

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