A complete method for learning to play jazz on your saxophone

Traces the history of the saxophone from its invention by the eccentric Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in the 1840s to its role in the jazz genre in the twenty-first century.

A trusted training method for aspiring and serious players, "The Saxophone Bible" covers tuning, tone production, fingering, breath control, playing low and high ranges, scales, intervals, and much more.

In the first fully comprehensive study of one of the world's most iconic musical instruments, Stephen Cottrell examines the saxophone's various social, historical, and cultural trajectories, and illustrates how and why this instrument, with its idiosyncratic shape and sound, became important for so many different music-makers around the world.After considering what led inventor Adolphe Sax to develop this new musical wind instrument, Cottrell explores changes in saxophone design since the 1840s before examining the instrument's role in a variety of contexts: in the military bands that contributed so much to the saxophone's global dissemination during the nineteenth century; as part of the rapid expansion of American popular music around the turn of the twentieth century; in classical and contemporary art music; in world and popular music; and, of course, in jazz, a musical style with which the saxophone has become closely identified.

Written with students, educators, and pros in mind, the information in THE SAXOPHONE BOOK has already benefitted thousands of saxophone players around the world. TSB is a comprehensive study of the fundamentals of music and, in particular, the saxophone. These concepts have been fine tuned by Jeff Coffin over the course of the 300+ clinics (and countless lessons) that he has presented worldwide over the last 20+ years as a solo, Yamaha and D'Addario performing artist.

This book is designed for the person who may know nothing about music and have had no previous saxophone training. the book, complete with audio, covers the basics of technique on the alto saxophone, as well as provides an introduction to the most fundamental elements of music. Skills are presented, reinforced through exercises, and implemented via real repertoire.

THE SAXOPHONE BOOK comes from the innovative and creative mind of 3x Grammy winning saxophonist Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band/Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, the Mu'tet). This 3-volume set is an extraordinarily thoughtful dissection and presentation of the musical fundamentals that Jeff calls "The Big 5 ."