©1999 Kelly Bucheger. All Rights Reserved.	Scale Studies Scales are the building blocks of technique on nearly every instrument, and you want to be entirely fluent with them on the saxophone. That means that when you want to play any scale, in any key, you can instantly do so without thinking of the spellings of the individual notes — instead, the pattern of every scale should be “built into” your fingers, ingrained, ready to be called upon when desired.
“Divide & Conquer” Scales!	This level of proficiency is actually not all that difficult to accomplish — you just need to work on it! To develop this fluency, “divide and conquer” scales by breaking them into five-note groups. For example, here’s the C scale, over most of the range of the sax, broken into 4 five-note groups: Notice that the last note of each group serves as the first note of the following group. I describe what you should do with each five-note group below, but before you begin playing, here are some things to consider:
Keep in mind the “feel” of playing long tones.	This is very important: whether playing the five-note groups or entire scales, you should play the horn with the same feel as when you played long tones, with the only difference being that now you’re moving your fingers! In other words, you need to keep in mind the same things you kept track of when doing long tones, as discussed in the first part of The Daily Grind: Inhalation, Attack, Tone Quality, Focus & Intonation, Stance & Posture, and Release of the Note. So, while playing, call to mind the feeling of the long tones. Don’t let the fact that now you’re playing scales and moving your fingers distract you from focusing on all of the important stuff: a full sound with good intonation, a relaxed posture, etc. You’ll play the first five-note group slurred, without tonguing at all, as sixteenth notes, at a tempo of quarter note = 80:
DON’T PRACTICE TOO FAST!	Important Note: if you feel tense or confused while playing these patterns (or any patterns, for that matter...), then you’re playing too fast! Slow it down! If the above recommended tempo feels harried, slow it down! (I can’t say it enough...) The idea is to build a foundation for faster playing, but to do so you need to begin at a tempo where you can execute the five-note groups perfectly, with no stumbling! You can’t build on top of a poor foundation, so you want to get it right the first time! While playing scales, you need to focus on some new items: Finger Position & Feel:
Gently curl your fingers to the keys	You want to gently curl your fingers to the keys, almost as if holding a ball. Use no more force than necessary the hold the horn and press down the keys!
Keep your fingers from flailing about!	Also, try to keep your fingers from flailing about above the keys! I remember the first time I saw a video of Charlie Parker soloing: he was playing his typically fast, complex passages, and you couldn’t see his fingers moving at all! I couldn’t believe it! He kept his fingers right on the keys at all times, which minimized the amount of unnecessary finger motion he needed to execute his ideas. This kind of very efficient fingering is something you should strive for.
Practice in front of a mirror occasionally	Many players find it useful to practice in front of a mirror occasionally, watching their fingers to see how much they move over the keys. The first time you try this you might be quite surprised — “what are those appendages flying high into the air above my horn?” By watching yourself, you can become conscious of just what your hand position and finger movement is.
Finger the horn without blowing	Here’s another way to practice bringing your fingers “down to earth”: just pick up your saxophone from time to time and finger the horn without blowing. This permits you to concentrate entirely on how you’re moving your fingers. Try as much as possible to keep your fingers on the keys. You can even set the horn on your lap, if you’re sitting down, and watch your fingers in action while fingering scales, licks, tunes, or whatever. This is a kind of practicing you can do any time, day or night, without bothering anyone around you... (well, unless they’re one of those “Princess & the Pea” types who’s bothered by the sounds of the keys clicking — in which case, they really need to get out of the house more!). Time Feel
You need a metronome	In addition to the tuner mentioned in the first part of the Daily Grind, there is another practice tool that is absolutely indispensable: a metronome. A metronome will help you track your progress as you play scales and passages with increasing speed, as well as providing you with a reality check to ensure that you’re not unconsciously slowing down on the more technically challenging parts of whatever you’re working on. You want to be able to hear your metronome (rather than relying on the flashing light) while still playing with a full sound that fills the room — so you need a metronome with a good loud click. If you can’t hear the metronome while playing, don’t bring your sound down in order to hear it — instead, reposition the metronome (with a music stand or whatever) nearer to one of your ears.
	Unsolicited Testimonial Despite my advice above, I never use a metronome anymore, except as a paperweight. Instead, I use a software accompaniment program called Band In A Box, which works with my Mac and my MIDI keyboard to generate an excellent piano-bass-drums backing I can practice with. While I would never gig with BIAB, in a practice session it gives me all the benefits of a metronome, while providing a setting that more closely mimics a real performance situation (unless you regularly gig with your metronome!). BIAB permits me to type in any chord progression and work through it in any key and at any tempo, allowing me to hear and understand the progression and check my intonation as well. I regularly call the program The Metronome of the Gods, and it’s the best practice tool I’ve ever had — other than the horn itself! If you’re reading this document on the World Wide Web, then you’ve presumably already got the computer. The further investment in BIAB, along with a sound card (often standard equipment on a computer these days) is minimal, but the benefits are great. Buy Band In A Box. Really! Do it now! I’ll wait here.... Now, back to our original program....
The saxophone is a rhythm instrument	Let’s see, where were we? Oh yeah, Time Feel! Here’s the deal: think of your saxophone as a rhythm instrument. The better your time sense, the more effective your playing will be. So be relaxed, and make sure that you are right in the pocket with the metronome. As mentioned above, you should occasionally finger the horn without blowing through it. Finger these scale exercises along with a metronome, and listen to how your keys sound. It should sound like a small, exotic percussion ensemble, playing in perfect time.... Don’t let your fingering be mushy — instead, be very precise while fingering. Also, be especially careful not to rush as you come to the end of an inhalation (a popular mistake that also suggests the player is tensing up as they run out of air — a no-no). After you’ve played the five-note group several times, and as you come to the end of your inhalation, stop on the first note of the group and hold it as you would a long tone. Check the intonation of the note on your tuner. Your sound should be strong and full. Articulation After you’ve played the first five-note group slurred several times, aiming each time to improve your sound, focus, and time-feel, you’re ready to start playing the group using the jazz articulation:
Coordinate your fingers & tongue	You want your tonguing to be light, clean, and precise. You also want your tongue to be in coordination with your fingers, so that you’re not inadvertently making sloppy “grace notes” while playing; this happens when you finger a note a millisecond before or after tonguing the note. You also want to maintain a good, full sound — don’t let your sound get muffled while you’re tonguing. After you’ve played the first group with the jazz articulation several times, you’re ready to move on to the next five-note group, which you’ll play again at quarter note = 80, first slurred, then with the jazz articulation — and keeping all of the above in mind: Do the same for the third and fourth groups: Once you’ve played all the groups that make up the scale, you’re ready to put the parts together and play the entire scale, first slurred, then with the jazz articulation, over the entire range of the horn: But Wait, There’s More! The last thing you should do is play the scales in triads throughout the range of the horn. Here, for example, is how you’d play the C major scale in triads. First, play ascending triads in triplets, slurred: When you reach the top of your range, bring the triads down as shown below: Next, play the ascending triads up and down with the following articulations: Then, descending triads up and down, again with the 3 articulations as described above: Then alternate ascending-descending up and down, with articulations as above: Finally, alternate descending-ascending up and down, with articulations as above: Don’t forget: the whole while you’re playing these, you should be assessing your sound, your intonation, your stance, your time feel, your articulation, etc. Whew! Now What? After you’ve done all of the above, the long tones from Part 1 and the scale studies here at, say, quarter note = 80, you’re done with the Daily Grind portion of your practice session. You’ll do it all over again tomorrow, with the metronome moved up a couple of notches (and no more than that!). Over the course of a few days you’ll keep on increasing the tempo on the scale studies, strengthening your sound and solidifying your technique, until you’ve mastered the scale studies at quarter note = 120.
Movin’ on up!	Once you’ve gotten to that point, you’re done with C major for now. The next day, everything goes up a half step, and the metronome goes back to 80. Now you do the long tones starting on Db, moving up by fourths, and you’ll play the Db major scale and go through the whole thing again! After you’ve done all 12 major scales, you’re ready to do the Grind on the Dominant 7th scale, starting on C. You should work on all of these scales, in all 12 keys, using the same scale studies routine presented above: Major Dominant 7th (Mixolydian) Dorian Lydian Dominant Lydian Whole Tone Diminished Harmonic Minor Diminished Whole Tone Believe it or not, as you become proficient with your scales, The Daily Grind routine, long tones and scale studies, will only take about 20 minutes or less to do. And when you’ve done all of those scales in all keys using the Daily Grind, you’ll OWN them! The Transcriptions Page features the first couple of pages from transcriptions I’ve done of solos by Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Dexter Gordon. I’ve worked to make these, well, the best damned transcriptions I’ve seen! There are also some articles of interest to saxophonists and saxophiles on my Writings About Jazz page, including an article about James Carter as a youngster, an interview with Jamey Aebersold, and reviews of books about Coleman Hawkins and Ornette Coleman. Send your comments and suggestions about these Saxophone Pages to me at kelly@jazztenor.com. I’d enjoy hearing from you. Kelly Bucheger, Buffalo, New York