Tone. It's important.
Let's talk about some ways to get your tone ready to make angels cry.
The Simple Trick to Make Your Mouthpiece, Reed, and Ligature Work as a Team
Getting a good sound starts with positioning your reed in the sweet spot on your mouthpiece.
Strengthen Your Tone with These 3 Mouthpiece and Neck Exercises
Strengthen your embouchure, focus your tone, and improve your intonation…without touching the horn.
A One-Note Exercise to Significantly Improve Your Sound
Using middle D to address tone quality (and avoid “high school” tone).
Long Tones 101
What’s the secret to a great sound? Think it’s the mouthpiece? The horn, or reeds?
Simple way to get started with overtones
Doing this exercise for 10 mins each time you practice will have a radically positive impact on your sound, intonation and overall facility on the horn.
What to Do About Wimpy High Notes
How to make those palm keys speak as naturally as the middle range of your horn
Ways to Practice Intonation
In this video I address several ways of focusing on accurate pitch, including different practice techniques, the pros and cons of digital tuners (hint: develop and trust your ears, not your eyes), how professional jazz saxophonists setup differently from beginners, tuning overtones, voicing and air flow, and what part reed strength plays.
Chromatic Long Tones with a Drum Loop – A Great Workout in Under 10 Minutes
This under-10-minute long tone exercise will give you a great workout!
Finding that soft, airy Joe Henderson-esque tone in the upper register
What Joe Henderson can teach you about getting that warm, breathy tone up top.
Q&A – Altissimo control, copying articulation, pros/cons of using harder reeds, and developing intonation imagination
Your questions answered, with related lessons to check out.
How To Get a Bigger, Fatter, Warmer Tone
Here’s why—and how—to drop your lower lip.
Vibrato: Common Mistakes, Practice Methods, and Performance Suggestions
Vibrato is an expressive tool, but many saxophonists overuse it (without knowing). In this lesson I’ll show you when and how to most effectively use it, as well as a great exercise to practice it.