Your Guide To Achieving Success in Saxophone Lessons

Self-help and personal development guru, Robert Collier states:  “Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out”.  This nugget of wisdom is definitely applicable for a student who is studying a musical instrument.  To paraphrase a cliché, ‘success in saxophone lessons is not achieved overnight’.  

Here are sound advices that could help you have a more meaningful and rewarding journey as you go through each step in learning how to play the saxophone:

1. Breathe deeply. Play masterfully.  Live fully.  The art of consciously breathing deeply is the unseen force that powers-up  your saxophone.  Learning proper breathing techniques are essential in saxophone playing.  Studies also prove that deep breathing is beneficial to health and wellness.  It promotes mental clarity, psychological steadfastness, and physical strength and balance.  And when stress attacks, the most basic line of defense you have against it is breathing and relaxation.  

1. Learn to trust. Trust to learn. Signing-up for saxophone lessons signifies your commitment to learn.  Your teacher is there to share with you his knowledge and skills.  Learning only takes place when you put your trust in your teacher. Be receptive to his pointers, guidelines, motivation, and discipline.  Doing so will reinforce your passion and commitment.

1. Take care and interact with your instrument.  Truly, it is only a piece of metal.  But in good hands, it could work wonders.  Your saxophone is your partner.  Give it some T-L-C (tender loving care).  Learn the skills on how to handle it; and be amazed.

1. Learning to play is just half of the game.  The ability to hear and to listen, and to know how a particular note should actually sound will give you the home run.  When your listening ability is entwined with your playing techniques, your overall sound  will drastically improve.

1. Identify your goals. Assess.  Why did you choose to learn to play the saxophone?  What do you want to achieve?  What will you do to fulfill them?  How far have you gone?  It’s a fact that you will experience upswings and downswings.  Take a step back  and evaluate yourself.

1. Yes, this is a loaded and demanding activity.  This is the ‘small’ chunks of activities that Robert Collier was referring to, as quoted above.  Master saxophone players truly invested so much time, energy, sweat, tears, breath, heart, and soul in practice.

1. Let your creative instincts flow, rather than your competitive instincts.  There’s a big world of saxophonists out there. Hence, everyone wants to get better, faster.  Comparing one’s progress to others causes frustration, impatience, and insecurity.  It is alright to challenge yourself, but not to the point of self-destruction.  Follow your creative instincts.  Find your own rhythm.

Achieving success is most effective when you imbibe the right techniques and habits from your saxophone lessons right from the very start.   They may require some adjustments on your part. Yet it will give you a sense of discipline that will develop into good habits.  Hence, saxophone playing sessions become more fruitful and progressive.