I have been using Doctor Wally's fundamental books for over a year now and I am very pleased with the results. I start with exercise zero and do all the exercises the good doctor demonstrated. I throw in altissimo and drone exercises, suggested by Dr Wally in another video, for a good start to my daily routine. Take the Doctors advice and go practice!
Thanks Dr Wally for the Video. I have been doing this warm-up for easily 4 months now. Only been playing just under 5 months, my improvement is huge. Did not find this video back then, so is good I have used to purpose. Still going through scales and harmonics to Ab major just mastering. ❤
OMG, I've been putting this off for a long time now, and made myself do it today! The Gminor version of Scarborough was a disaster! What worked out best was the Roots exercises where I repeated what you played, and it felt quite relaxing after all those altissimo notes before! It's definitely a mind bender, but very good to do! Thankyou so much!
Am a daily practice person. Two weeks ago I started using a few of your scales (which go the full playable key range of the instrument) from your fundamentals book and my sound quality went from very good to dramatically excellent. Playing down into B and B-flat, smooth as butter. Thanks Doc.
Thanks for still more great content, Dr. Wally. Exercise 0 has made a big difference with my playing - it helps me remember that feeling of an open throat even when I'm playing at the top of the horn. Great stuff!
Instinctively, I've always loved warming up with improvised melodies. Using the changes provides a few guard rails for those who like rules ;) Happy Friday Bruce!
All of these are great! I like to alternate the slow tone studies with the fast fingers exercises to avoid overuse injuries, which I’ve had in the past. Following a batch of scales with some Exercise Zero or vibrato practice is really helpful. P.S. Full range scales are tone studies, too.
Very good as always. A question: if you have 10-15 minutes to warm up in a dressing room right before a gig, do you do the same warm up routine described here? In such a situation I personally like to add some little technique to loosen my fingers and tongue. What do you propose?
Beginner Dave here: what notes are you playing in the section “Long Tones on Roots” for example first stanza(?) E, F#, B, E? (Didn’t sound like that was it). Love the concept of the rethinking warm-up
Another great video Wally! How about making sure you are completely relaxed when doing exercise zero? I have a tendency to grip the keys harder than needed when coldly trying to belt out that low Bb...especially for the first time. What do you think about playing in front of a mirror? I don't have one in my practice room, but I'm thinking of putting one up. Also, what kind of ligature is that? See you again next week. 😃
Mirror, absolutely helps. I focus on the shoulders, dropping away from the ears- couple of big breaths to start (box breathing is great). As for the ligature - Hyperion (prototype), my new company with Sydney based Vert Design studio!
Thanks for demonstrating the overtones. I've been battling with the B flats overtones and I can hear that they don't sound as clear as the other tones.
Great, great, great…pure gold…my only concern is that not many hobbyists have 4 hours per day to play saxophone. If this was just warmup, it seems like your advice is just targeting those that want to become professional horn players.
Is there any way of knowing what order to learn things, please? I'd love to see a video or read a book or a website or anything where it says something along the lines of "by this time you should know this" &/or "once you've learned this now it's time to learn that" &/or "if you can do the following you can consider you're at such and such level" ...y'know, that kinda thing 🤞
Dr Wally, do you recommend doing same exercise on tenor? Getting to low B flat on tenor from high notes is quite a challenge … or shall we pick different low notes , maybe Low C and similar exercise.? Thank you in advance.
Great video Dr. Unrelated question, from the podcast earlier this year you said you and Susan are prepping some classical sax material, any idea if/when that will be bop be ready?
Dr. Wally - you definitely got me to thinking more about the attack of the note (and the concept you stated about chop off beginning and end of a note). I am searching for a video that you might have done goes into more depth on how to attack a note so it doesn't sound so "sudden" Trying not to tongue too much, but still an issue...my attacks are not smooth enough for my likng...and I've been at it a while. I'll take any suggestions or references. THanks!
It's all about the cooperative resistance! The body of the note (front end) is helped by a good reed/tip opening combo! Equipment helps for sure. Great question, but very hard to teach! Lemme ponder this for a bit. In the meantime, have a great weekend!
Fascinating studies, Dr. Wally, it's new material for me! Thanks!! Just one question I always have when low Bb is used as the lowest note on the sax: in a low A bari, the Exercise Zero must be transposed and studied in A or the low A must have its own special context of study?
I play the tenor saxophone and the low Bb is really tough to play. It sounds awful. But I keep trying… If you have tip how to cope with this low Bb. Thanks for great videos they really keep me exercising.
@@drwallysax I just want to say I have known a few bassoon players and they are.... um.... OK, they seemed nice enough. I didn't owe them any money so I really can't say.
