This month’s warmup exercise was inspired by a YouTube clip of a clinic given by the great jazz saxophonist, Ernie Watts, at the 2012 JEN Conference. Ernie demonstrated a simple major triad exercise that he uses to help coordinate his finger technique at the beginning of his practice sessions. While it looks rather straight-forward and simple, trying to play it cleanly throughout the entire range of the instrument as shown below is not that easy. And doing it at as fast a tempo as possible adds a level of complexity that will challenge even the most technically able player. One will find certain areas of the horn where this exercise is more difficult than other areas–specifically, the low register pinky-key notes and the upper register palm-key notes. I recommend taking just a few measures in those parts of the horn and working them slowly up and down until you find yourself comfortable with the finger coordination.
Practicing these major triads up and down the horn for 5-10 minutes early in one’s practicing will prove very beneficial and by altering the triads (measures 28-30) to include minor, diminished, and augmented triads as patterns to practice, you can add another dimension of technique building to your practicing.