5 Long Tone Exercises for Saxophone

Working on a better saxophone sound doesn’t have to be hard, boring work.

To be honest, nobody wants to spend loads of time playing dull exercises that aren’t fun. And if you aren’t motivated to practice, then you just aren’t going to get better.

So in this lesson I’m going to show you 5 of my favourite tone building exercises.

The best part is these are fun to play and easy to do each day.

In fact, these are the exact exercises I have used for years to build a great tone on my sax and maintain it for my professional career.

Why should sax players develop their embouchure?

The key to a great sound on custom saxophone is a strong, fit embouchure. Also, having strong mouth muscles will let you get a wider range of tone, colours and expression from your saxophone.

It will even help you to play really loud (and very soft!)

So, it is essential for all sax players to spend time in every practice session on developing their embouchure.

Otherwise you will always be held back by the limits of your mouth muscles.

My 5 favourite tone building exercises for saxophone

Over the last 30 years of practicing I have found that the exercises that yield the best, fastest results for me are ones where I move in intervals.

So, my favourite tone building exercises use lots of intervals! This can be octaves, fifths or combinations of the two. Be creative!

Also, forcing myself to play at the extremes of my range at low and high volume really stretch my embouchure.

JiNan XuQiu Musical Instrument Co.,Ltd is the professional musical instrument manufacturer with the experiences of producing guitars and wind instruments for about twenty years. Our main products are guitar,saxophone, flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, french horn, baritone, euphonium, tuba and saphone.