For about 25 years now I have been using an exercise as a warmup that was provided to me by my friend, and fellow sax player & teacher, the late Hans Martini, from Fredericton, NB. Pivot Around Middle C is the perfect exercise to:
- Develop your tone.
- Learn how to control your horn’s tuning on each note.
- Learn each note’s pitch relative to another.
- Control your tuning during crescendos and decrescendos.
If you play multiple horns and/or setups like I do, Pivot Around Middle C is the perfect exercise to help you:
- Learn the nuances of each sax and/or their various setups (different MP for example).
- Develop the diaphragm control necessary for each horn. (Especially important for the larger saxes like tenor, bari and bass.)
After 20+ years of using a handwritten version of this exercise for both myself and my students, I finally used Musescore to make it more legible. 😉
Long tones don’t need to be painful
We all hate long tones—I do as well—but Pivot Around Middle C makes them painless. If you’re a beginning or intermediate player, when done properly, in <5 minutes a day you can do an exercise that will radically improve your sound and your intonation in about a month. (Based on what I have observed in my students.)
If you’re a multi-sax player, you will notice there is likely no faster way to keep your embouchure trained for all the various horns in your stable.
If you’re a sax teacher, give it to your students to try. I actually do the exercise with mine at the beginning of each of their lessons. (I generally give hour-long lessons.) It provides them with a tone and pitch to aim for—assuming yours is right. 😉
PDF of Pivot Around Middle C
The new version of Pivot Around Middle C is available to view and download on my website. Enjoy!
And as is usual, if you have any comments, please don’t hesitate to leave them below. I am curious what your experience is once you’ve used the exercise a few times. Are you hooked? Hate it? Have something even better? Please let me know.
