All State East 11-12 Alto

Technical Excerpt Practice Guide 2016-2017

Dr. Allison Adams

Taken from “Eighteen Exercises or Studies for all saxophones after Berbiguier” edited by famous

saxophonist Marcel Mule.

The excerpt you are preparing is from Exercise #10

This book was originally for flute: “Eighteen Exercises or Etudes for Flute” by Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier

Before going any farther, please go through this excerpt and write in

measure numbers. **ImportantNote:Thereisabarlinemissingonline3.**

Line3beginswithmeasure8.Inthenextmeasure(m.9),addabarlineaAerthe

6thsixteenthnote.ItisanAabovethestaff.

Measure10shouldbeginwithsixteenthnoteGonthesecondlineofthestaff.

What tempo should I play? Since there is no tempo marked, you have some freedom to

determine your own tempo.

Look for the hardest section and figure out how fast you can play it cleanly. This is a good way to pick your tempo – you should a steady

tempo throughout the piece.

I suggest using measures 11-12, 15-16, and 19-22 to pick tempo.

Measure 4 Note the decrescendo marked on

beat 3. It happens very quickly: forte to piano in one beat and measure 5

begins softly!

Octave leaps are difficult! Yes! This is true!

Trythe“ATrick”:PlayanAwithouttheoctavekeyandhaveafriendyoutrustflickyouroctavekeyquicklyandinarandomrhythm.IftheupperAcomesoutsoundingintunewhentheoctavekeyisdepressedandthenotereturnstolowerAwhentheoctavekeyisnotbeingpushed,thatisagoodsignthatyourembouchureandairisworkingcorrectly.Nextstep:Dothesameexercisebutflicktheoctavekeyusingyourrighthand(eventhoughthatseemsstrange!)DoeseverythingsUllworkcorrectly?Ifso,goontothenextstep!

Final test: Use your left thumb to do the A trick. Do the octave As still sound good?

If not, notice what else might be moving to try to get the octaves to

come out? Are you moving your jaw? Head? Throat?

If the air and embouchure are working correctly, you don’t need to move anything besides your fingers to change octaves!

What if I can’t get the octaves to sound good?

The best thing you can do is work with a teacher who can help you identify what is happening.

Ask your band director for suggestions, or contact the saxophone professor

at your local College or University.

If you are in the Knoxville area, contact me and I’d be glad to connect you with a college music major who can help you out.

CometoUT’sSeniorClinicWorkshop

onDecember10!Seethelastslidefordetails!

Measure 12

I suggest using the Side Bb fingering for the Bb octave leaps.

Measure 13 and 17

There is a fermata penciled in to the score and I chose to take it in my performance

because it allowed me to take a good breath!

Measure 15 Watch out for subito (suddenly) piano on

beat two!

If you stay strong on the downbeat of measure 15, it will help make your soft dynamic more surprising on beat two.

Measures 17-23 Try to stay soft in measures 17-19. The crescendo is not marked until

measure 20.

Then pace your dynamics to arrive at forte on the downbeat of measure 23.

UT All-East Senior Clinic Workshop

Saturday, December 10 8:30-noon Register at: music.utk.edu/scw-instrumental

Hope to see you there!!