Many players, myself included, split up their practice routine into several parts. A good basic three-part routine consists of:
- Tone exercises
- Facility/patterns (scales, arpeggios, chromatics, etc.)
- Music (etudes, jazz standards, any performance material)
TONE
Here’s my standard warmup, which is also a great tone exercise. Start by playing long tones on low Bb, B-natural, C, and C#. Do several of each, and keep the sound “wide open”.
Next, match up some overtones. Using the fingering for the low notes in parentheses below, “overblow” a little to produce the pitch of the upper note shown. Then play the upper note with the standard fingering, forming the sound the same as you did for the overtone. Strive to match the timbres of the two tones. Start with octave overtones.
Finger the low note (in parentheses), but sound the higher note:
Continue with the overtone a twelfth (octave + fifth) above the fingering:
Finally, the overtone two octaves above:
FACILITY
Scales (major, minor, other modes), chromatics, arpeggios, etc. are all good. My “Saxophone 101” book contains a fairly comprehensive set of exercises. Here are some major scales to get you started.
MATERIAL
Anything you have to perform, or need to work on. Do you want to play jazz? Get a Real Book (in your key) and start learning a few tunes. Again “Saxophone 101” has a short, thorough explanation of chords, and exercises to help you get fluent with them.