- Topic: The voice of the saxophone
- Objectives:
- How is a saxophone made.
- Who was Adolphe Sax.
- The differences in terms of sounds, interplay and techniques between classical saxophone and jazz saxophone.
- How versatile is saxophone’s sound: Branford Marsalis and Sting.
- Video and web resources:
- Who was Adolphe Sax?
- Classical saxophone two examples:
Alto: A.Glazunov Saxophone Concerto by Jean Marie LONDEIX
Soprano: H. Villa-Lobos - Fantasia for sax soprano
Jazz saxophone 4 examples:
Tenor: Wayne Shorter “Night Dreamer”
Alto: Kenny Garret “Sing a Song of Song”
Alto: Cannonball Adderley - One For Daddy-O
Baritone: Moanin' - Baritone Saxophone Solo by Ronnie Cuber with Charles Mingus
- How versatile is saxophone’s sound: Branford Marsalis and Sting.
Lesson Activities
- The students will discover how a the saxophone is made watching the video “Instrument-Making Workshop at Selmer Paris” having in this way the opportunity to know more about saxophone materials and physics components.
- Students will be introduced to who was Adolphe Sax expanding their historical knowledge.
- Students will watch five different performance’s videos of different musicians: two classical and three jazz that will show them the differences in terms of timbre and interplay between these two main musical genres.
- Students will watch a video of a different musical genre and they will compare all the performances trying to identify the peculiarity of each genre..
NAFME Standard
- Listening to, analyzing, and describing music;
- Evaluating musical genres and music performances;
- Understanding music in relation to history and culture and audience.
Massachusetts Arts Framework:
- Listen to and describe the differences between musical examples of Saxophone players, and genres;
- Identify the peculiarity in term of timbre and the techniques of classical, jazz and pop saxophone;
- Recognize the “voice” of each saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone).