These saxophone resources are here for students and enthusiasts. I have been playing the saxophone since 1973 when I took it up in Junior High School. I really wanted to play the Bari sax and requested the horn with the curve in the neck. My band director either misunderstood me or, more likely the case, needed a tenor player because he already had a strong bari player, and gave me a tenor saxophone. I have been playing the tenor ever since and now also play soprano extensively as well as alto and bari. Many of these resources were not even available when I started playing.
Beginners
There are multiple fingering charts for saxophone in the menu to the right. The printable chart by David Carroll is pretty cool because the graphics relate the notes on the saxophone to notes on a keyboard. The only misleading thing about that is the fact that the saxophone is a transposing instrument. A note on the saxophone corresponds to a different note on the keyboard. The other fingering chart link is very cool too. It lists the fingerings by range and continues into the altissimo range with multiple fingerings for each altissimo note.
I spend a lot of time teaching saxophone and searching the web for good information. The “Tips for Saxophone by Dr. Brian Utley” link has a TON of wonderful information for the beginner. The Embouchure Basics are a thorough and thoughtful description of what a saxophone embouchure should, and shouldn’t be. After teaching this to many students, I was doing some research on the subject and came upon Dr. Utley’s work. Some of the other information on this site is a little dated but still good to get one thinking.
Intermediate & Advanced Saxophonists
There are a lot of saxophone resources here for those of you that have been playing your saxophone for a while now. If you are looking to challenge yourself with some new material, here’s a brief rundown. The Practice Schedule is a great way to stay focused and organized when setting up a practice routine. This is essential for advancing at your craft. Everyone wants to get up into the Altissimo range. Dave Camwell’s article “Altissimo Demystified” is a great read with some wonderful exercises to get you playing in the dog whistle range of the the saxophone. Far more than just exercises, the saxophone resources in this article describe in detail the aspects of embouchure and oral cavity flexibility and positioning that are necessary to gain any sort of flexibility with the overtone series of the saxophone.
When you have gained the flexibility necessary to produce overtones off the fundamentals on the saxophone, a good (life-long!?) exercise is the “Harmonic (or overtone) Major Scales for Saxophone” as assembled by Ramon Ricker. I got this from Dr. Tim O’Dell well after I had figured it out on my own. My particular favorite is Gb major. It’s written as F# major on this sheet but that gives me a headache. Gb can be played with the left hand spatula keys for most of the range. I like to show this one to students struggling with the regular fingerings of the Gb.