Junior Saxophone: Audition Solo 1D, Allegro

• As in all performance, the quality of your tone will be paramount to how your playing is perceived in general. Spend time every day warming up with slow long notes and developing a good vibrato to enhance your tone.
• If your tone is too bright, pull more lower lip inside the lower teeth. You should have the entire lip inside the teeth, but not more than that.  Thinking “ooh” will help you bunch it even more thickly, for added warmth and control.
• In the opening measure, keep the staccato notes short, but not brittle. End them with an “H” sound, not the tongue.  The syllable should be “tah.”
• In measure 3, make sure to hold the half-note to the downbeat of measure 4 and crescendo into the rest.
• The crescendo in measure 9 should continue until the downbeat of measure 13 at the “m” Keep the dotted eighth-sixteenth note rhythm accurate and don’t allow it to relax into a triplet feel.
• Throughout the entire exercise, be sure to hold the quarter notes out for a full beat. Hold all quarter notes until the beginning of the following beat, where the rest begins.
• Measure 22 should be the loudest part of the etude, as it is the first time the “F” dynamic appears.
• Be careful to keep the tempo steady when playing the triplets. Use a metronome to be certain of this.
• Ending “A” – lift off the ending notes of measures 26 and 27, and be sure to hold through the quarter note that ends m. 28.
• Ending “B” – Crescendo through the half note in m. 31 into the rest that begins the following measure. The same advice applies to the quarters that end measures 32, 33 and the final measure.

Clinic Saxophone: Audition Solo 2E, Andante

• As in all performance, the quality of your tone will be paramount to how your playing is perceived in general. Spend time every day warming up with slow long notes and developing a good vibrato to enhance your tone.
• If your tone is too bright, pull more lower lip inside the lower teeth. You should have the entire lip inside the teeth, but not more than that.  Thinking “ooh” will help you bunch it even more thickly, for added warmth and control.
• Be sure to use vibrato on long notes. Certainly, every note longer than a quarter note should have vibrato, and some of the quarter notes as well.
• At the beginning of measure 3, use the side “C” key for the grace notes.
• Be sure to keep the tempo steady when switching between triplets and duplet eighth notes. Use your metronome to help with this.
• The crescendo in measure 5 should continue through measure 6.
• In the Andante section, make sure to hold all notes into the rests that follow. Ending notes too early will make the piece sound choppy and disconnected.
• In the Allegro section, keep the eighth notes light and detached, but not too short, or they will sound brittle. Use a “tah” syllable, NOT a “tat” syllable.  Do not end these notes with your tongue.
• Measure 12 – use the Side “A#/Bb” key here.
• Measure 14 – use the alternate F# key for both F#’s. If you use the normal fingering, you will have trouble with the legato.
• Measure 18 and 19 – be sure to crescendo to help the line as it ascends.
• 22 is the loudest part of the etude to this point. Make it clear that “f” is louder than “mf”
• Ending “A” – keep the eighth notes detached, but not too short, as in the opening section
• Ending “B” – Do not drop your jaw for the low notes. They will be loud and tend to “splat” if you do.  IF you keep the jaw pressure steady, they will speak much more easily.
• 45 – use the 1+5 fingering or Side A# here.
• Don’t be too short on the last note. It is “sfz,” but needs to be long enough to sum up the entire piece.

Senior Saxophone: Audition Solo 3B, Allegro agitato

• As in all performance, the quality of your tone will be paramount to how your playing is perceived in general. Spend time every day warming up with slow long notes and developing a good vibrato to enhance your tone.
• If your tone is too bright, pull more lower lip inside the lower teeth. You should have the entire lip inside the teeth, but not more than that.  Thinking “ooh” will help you bunch it even more thickly, for added warmth and control.
• 2 – use the alternate F# key for both F#s here.
• 3 – Use the low C# key to play the G# on beat 2. You can simply hold it down through the four eighth notes.  The same can be done in m. 7.
• 6 – Use the alternate F# for the first F# but NOT the second one. The hand position will keep you from getting to the “D” in time if you do.
• 9 – keep the tempo steady as you play the triplets. Use a metronome to help with this.
• 9, 10, 13 + 14 – alternate F# will help these measures as well.
• The tempo of the Moderato in m. 15 is nearly the same as keeping the eighth notes the same through both meters, but a bit faster. Use the metronome to set this tempo accurately.
• 21 – do not accent the duplet eighth notes at the end of the measure. They should be smooth and legato.
• Don’t forget to ritard at the end of this section. It will help bring back the original tempo in m. 27.
• 28 – use the alternate F# fingering after the grace note. The same applies to the last note of ending “A.”
• Ending “A” – m. 31 – hold the quarter note at the end of the measure. Don’t allow it to be short.
• Ending “B” – Crescendo in m. 34 to get to the “F” dynamic in m. 35

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Download the performance notes [pdf].