The saxophone is a great instrument to start on and can be very rewarding for a beginner. If the proper first note steps are followed one can attain a beautiful tone from the start with little fuss and have quick success!

Please have someone at the store where you get the instrument (or your band teacher) play it to check for problems before you start: Nothing can ruin this great journey like a broken horn. Most problems are not visually identifiable!

Here are some outstanding exercises to practice the basic fingerings and also to experiment with alternate fingerings for your child. These can be given to supplement the method book most likely used in school.

This website is first and foremost a graduate project. When you get to the section on First Sound and Fingerings you might ask yourself why I didn't get a professional to model the perfect sound. I asked myself this too! What it comes down to is that this project is a journey to expand my own horizens and as a byproduct to help parents and students. By playing these sections myself I learned a great deal more about the instruments and model a sound more typical of what your child will demonstrate than what you would hear from a professional. Please enjoy the tutorial, from here on out just click through each "Next" and you will cycle through all of the content for the sax.

Next: Lets start with how to select a sax