Woodwind Clinic

Although there is a substantialamount of material availablefor brass warmups, ranging

from lip slurs to pedal tones, there arefewer options for saxophone. Whilewarming up, saxophonists should focusprimarily on tone. This can be quicklyforgotten in beginning band whenbrass players are struggling to play thecorrect partial, but playing with a puresound requires training that can begenerated from the warm up.

Warmups are also an excellent wayto get students familiar with the fin-gerings of the extreme high and lowregister. The best way to work on thisis with a slurred descending triad pat-tern, played slowly. Starting in the keyof Bt major, have the student play anF5 for three beats. Then on descendingquarter notes move to D, middle Bb,F4, then low D, C, and ending on alow Bt held for four beats. The exerciseshould be played in every key, ascend-ing a half step each time, until thestaring note is high FK6. The exercisecan be played with either a straighttone or vibrato, depending on the abil-ity level of the student.

SaxophoneWarmups

By Sean Murphy

This same exercise can be expandedto incorporate intonation into thewarm up. Once the exercise has beenlearned in all keys and registers, adrone can be added. Drone referencescan either be purchased commerciallyor recorded with a synthesizer. Sometuners also produce drones. For exam-ple, the first descending exercise beginson a written F; when played on an El>saxophone it should be paired with adrone on concert Dk Each note of theexercise, which includes the fifth,

30 THE INSTRUMENTALIST/JANUARY 2011

third, and root of a D^ chord, should beheld until it is in tune with the drone.

Another component of a sound saxo-phone warmup is work on manipulatingpitch. A good way to practice this is tohave students play only the mouth-piece. An alto saxophone mouthpieceshould produce a concert A. Any pitcheither drastically higher or lower thanthis shows that the embouchure iseither too loose or too tight. After stu-dents can play the correct pitch, theyshould begin to explore bending thepitch up or down by half and wholesteps, slowly increasing the interval ineither direction, with the goal of a oneoctave range on the mouthpiece.

When students can do this, mouth-piece playing can be regularly includedin the warmup. Have students play thefirst three scale degrees of any key onthe mouthpiece. Eventually this canbe expanded to the first five scaledegrees, and an entire scale if possible,always using a pitch reference such as apiano. More advanced students canwork on major, minor, augmented, anddiminished scales and triads by playingonly the mouthpiece. Also, familiartunes and folk songs can be used asexercises to expand the student's abili-ties on the mouthpiece.

Overtones are a third aspect of a ,good saxophone warm up. Much like jbrass instruments, saxophones can also I

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produce multiple partials in the over-tone series. This is possible throughvoicing, a concept that allows saxo-phonists to play various pitches withone fingering. Saxophone overtonesare effective when produced using lowBl> through E. Low Bl> is the best noteto start on; without changing the fin-gering or adding the octave key, stu-dents should be able to produce thenote an octave higher. Beyond this afifth higher and then an additionaloctave can also be produced. When astudent has mastered the ability to pro-duce these notes in the overtonesseries, without any physical change tothe appearance of the embouchure,the range of the exercise can beexpanded to high D, high F, and thenthe altissimo register.

The benefits of incorporating over-tones into the warmup process arenumerous. By playing the fundamentalof the series, low Bt through D, thesaxophonist is practicing long tones inthe low register. Furthermore, they arepracticing the articulation of these lownotes numerous times. Student shouldnot move to the next overtone untilthey are able to attack the fundamen-tal cleanly.

Overtones can also be used as a tonematching exercise. An overtone pro-duced on the saxophone will soundpurer than that same note played withthe traditional fingering because the

Sean Murphy is majoring in musiceducation and saxophone at SlipperyRock University of Pennsylvania. Herecently performed at the US NavalInternationa! Saxophone Symposium anda NASA Conference. Murphy won theSlippery Rock University ConcertoCompetition and also received the univer-sity's most prestigious scholarship inmusic education.

32 THE INSTRUMENTALIST/JANUARY 2011

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overtone is played with an entirelyclosed tube. Saxophonists can practicemaking the pitch of the traditionallyfingered note as pure as the overtone.For example, the first overtone abovethe fundamental of a low Bl> is a writtenBH. Students should play the first over-tone of Bl>, and then reattack the samepitch using the traditional fingering forBK. This exercise should be repeateduntil the discrepancies in tone of thetwo types of fingerings are minimized.

This can be expanded to playingmajor scales with overtones. A fitmajor scale could be produced by play-ing the first overtone of low Bl>through El> and then producing Fthrough A with the second overtonesof low BK C, and D, ending with thethird overtone of low Bk

Using overtones in warmups willalso expand students' range. Slowly, ifplayed daily, students will begin todevelop an altissimo range, which iscalled for quite frequently in solo sax-ophone works.

The final component of a sound sax-ophone warm up is exercises to facili-tate finger coordination. The first wayto improve this aspect of playing iswith the manipulation of a five notescale. This exercise, a variant ofMarcel Moyse's flute scale patterns, isalso known to some as Twiddles. Thisexercise is extremely effective inimproving finger coordination in threedifficult areas of the instrument: thelow register spatula, the break betweenC5 and D5, and the palm keys. Theexercise is played at a moderate tempoand begins by playing four beats of six-teenth notes between the first and sec-ond scale degrees of a key, whichwould be low Bl> and C in the case ofthe first exercise in the pattern. Onthe fifth beat the student shouldchange to an ascending and descend-ing five note scale in the same key.After four beats of this, the studentthen modulates one half step, in time,to B major by playing sixteenth notesalternating from low At (Bl>) to B, andcontinuing the pattern as before, onlythe five note scale now ascending to

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the fourth scale degree, E, as the start-ing pitch of the five note scale is nowthe seventh scale degree, At. The exer-cise can be ended with a descending,melodic pattern of scale degrees four,two, one, seven, one.

When this is played starting on thelow spatula keys, it increases the stu-dent's left hand pinky coordination.When started on a C5, it allows stu-dents to focus on keeping the tonequality consistent while movingbetween C and D. Furthermore, theexercise can he played starting on anyof the high palm key notes and willincrease coordination between rightand left hands in that register as well.

Structured daily warmups for saxo-phonists, consisting of work on tonequality, intonation, and technique, arejust as essential as those brass playersdo. Be sure to keep the focus on soundquality even when working on tech-nique; in the words of saxophone ped-agogue Larry Teal, every study is atone study. D

Vandoren MouthpiecesVandoren has released several

mouthpiece models and a ligature forclarinets and saxophones. A V16mouthpiece for baritone saxophonehas been added to the line for soprano,alto, and tenor. The three models, B5,B7, and B9 offer flexibility and powerwhile remaining easy to play. The M30Lyre clarinet mouthpiece features a tipopening and facing length positiondirectly between the 5RV Lyre and theM30. (www.vandoren.com)

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introduced King System Blue BrassMouthpieces, the first mouthpiece linedesigned specifically for marchingbrass. Available for trumpet, mel-lophone, baritone, euphonium, andtuba, the mouthpieces have a heavyfeel and medium cup depth for a dark-er tone and air stability at loud vol-umes with a medium sharp bite forclear articulations. The Blue Devilsused these mouthpieces beginning inthe 2010 drum corps season. Pricesrange from $107 for trumpet to $146for tuba, (www.conn-selmer.com)

34 THE INSTRUMENTALIST / JANUARY 2011