Tuning Exercises

   Armed with the knowledge of how to tune the instrument, how to alter the pitch with the oral cavity or altered fingerings, and what the saxophone's intonational tendencies are, the student can then begin to learn how to play in tune. The exercise I use next involves only the tonic and dominant pitches of a scale. Again, an electric tuner is needed.
   As always, the student begins by tuning the instrument. Observing the tuner's meter, the student then plays low F#, middle F#, middle C#, and low C#, using the oral cavity to keep all of these pitches in tune. The student should continue this pattern chromatically up to middle C, high C, middle G, and middle C. Have the student repeat this process using the pitch-generating function of the tuner, so that tuning is done by sound, not by eye.
   An even better method is for the teacher to play the tonic pitch, always eyeing the tuner's meter for accuracy, while the student plays these intervals against the teacher's constant tonic. This method usually works better, since the sound of another saxophone is much easier to tune to than that of a smaller tuner. As the student plays, the teacher should supply information as to how any out-of-tune notes should be adjusted, either by oral cavity adjustments or by altered fingerings. The student should bend the pitch around to learn how to correct errors without the teacher's help. This ear training is crucial to intonation awareness.
   The range, of course, should be eventually extended from low Bb to high F#, so the student checks all of the tuning problems encountered in playing the saxophone. As the student progresses and learns how to place the various tonics and dominants in tune, the exercises can be increased to include the subdominant, or fourth, as well. Ultimately, the teacher may want to add double octaves and fourths/fifths, where possible, to check the extreme intervals. Once this stage is mastered, the teacher can expand the exercise to include major and minor thirds and their inversions, minor and major sixths. The possibilities of intervals are only as limited as the student's ability to hear and adjust.
   Intonation training requires the student to recognize an intonation error, know how to fix a given pitch, and eventually anticipate problems before they occur. Try this or some other proven method to give the student guidance and teh results will be notable.