Fundamentals of Style

Full sound

Supportive, not tight embouchure with good air-support

Vibrato

Many variations but jazz, pop and classical music use vibrato. The sax is a vibrato instrument.

Range of articulation

Look at my article on articulation, also on this webpage.

Full compass of instrument

Complete control of low Bb to high F#.

Scale knowledge

ALL majors, extended over the whole range of the instrument. Minors/dominants are easily derived from majors with only 0, 1 or 2 notes being different at the most.

Listening

Music is a language just like the English language. Think of different regions and their dialects: Most words are identical. The accent and pronunciation will be different though and some will sound very different. There will also be a few words that are only in use in a particular area.

Jazz, pop, rock ‘n’ roll, classical, rock, r & b.. the same goes. Tone, articulation, vibrato, harmonic language all vary. If you do not listen to recordings of the great players you will have no idea what it is you are trying to emulate… so how can you achieve it?!