Professional sounding sax solos!
How to make your saxophone solos sound more professional – 7 tips
In this video, I break down the elements that make a saxophone solo sound polished and professional – and show you how to train yourself to use them. You’ll learn:
✅ How to structure your solos with space and repetition
✅ Why keeping it simple is often the most powerful choice
✅ How to carefully introduce new ideas and develop them
✅ How to drop in a known lick (like the Banana Lick, see video link below)
✅ How to use scale patterns (like playing in thirds) for momentum
✅ Why playing with feeling and using vibrato makes everything sing (see video link below)
✅ How chromaticism adds slick, professional flow
Free resources included with this lesson:
📄 PDF download – ‘How to make your sax solos sound more professional‘
🎵 Free backing track (D minor for alto sax, G minor for tenor sax)
Special thanks to SessionBand Jazz Volume 1 for the brilliant backing track.
By following these steps and exercises, you’ll be able to make your saxophone solos sound more professional — without it feeling complicated or out of reach.
Links to related video tutorials:
In this video, we dive into a classic piece of jazz vocabulary—a wonderful lick known as ‘The Banana Lick’. We study it for both alto and tenor sax, listening to it played on its own and in the context of a wider solo.
Vibrato is what makes your saxophone notes sing instead of sounding flat and plain. In this video, I’ll show you exactly what vibrato is, how to do it, and how to practise it so it feels natural.