Customer Reviews

The Complete Saxophone Player - Book 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've read 4 different series of "teach yourself saxophone" books and the "Complete" series by Mr. Ravenscroft is by far the best and most interesting I've found. The songs are fun and get you playing quickly. The instruction is great. The 2nd and 3rd are the most important to own and take you from beginer to player.

After reading this first book one discovers that Mr. Ravenscroft is not only a superb sax player -just listen to Pink Floyd's The Final Cut to take a sample- but a remarkable teacher also. The book itself starts with the obvious very basics you need to knowing the instrument. Then step by step introduces posture, breathing, embouchure and fingering techniques. And for those unpacients, the first sound comes just befor mid-book. From there on simple tunes are presented in an easy way, so anyone can play his first ¨solo gigs¨ in a matter of days.

The explanations in the beginning added some value. This book gave a bit more detail on embouchure and breathing, which I know is important. Though after getting started inthe book, what is sorely missing... is how the music is supposed to sound. If this is a beginners book, and which I am... how do i know the pace of Imagine by John Lennon... What is the beat really FEEL like. Without an accompanying CD... I feel that this book isn't giving me the same ability to critique myself as "Absolute Beginners / Alto Saxophone" with CD of all music in the book. For me, the tunes in this book are good BUT I have NOOO idea if i'm close to the pace, sound or FEEL.I am finding the actual songs on iTunes and looping the section so i can match (which is fun), but someone should be doing this for me, is my thinking.
Legato and Slurs... and tonguing, is explained well in both books but what doe it sound like? I play a Legato and a Slur and it's really close right now for me with a CD. How would I be able to create that difference by just reading about it???

The explanations are more detailed than Absolut Beginner's guide so I can use it as a reference but NO CD in 2007 is big oversight for me. Happy saxing!

I can't really rate this book badly, but it is only useful if you have never picked up a sax before. We're talking BASIC. The redeeming feature is that you play snatches of popular tunes in the learning process rather than having to slog through "Oh, Susanna!" or "Red River Valley." It does lack an accompanying CD, which in my mind knocks it down a notch also. I would highly recommend trying to physically view the whole 4-book collection at the library or a music store to find the appropriate jumping in point on this series.

I found a lot of good material in this book. I found some things that I had somehow missed, that I have incorporated in my playing. I recommend giving this book a try.

This book is great for showing the fingering of playing a sax or breathing. But take note that the list of songs, is a full list of the songs, it's just that on each song only the intro is given.