How to Play Diminished 7th Chords on the Saxophone

Summary: When the teacher leaves the band hall, the kids will play; putting reeds and mouthpieces on instruments that couldn't possibly be mistaken for their actual counterparts. In the early 1840's one such student named Adolphe Sax put a clarinet mouthpiece on a brass instrument and the saxophone was born. After adding keys, which would later be redesigned to fit diachronic scales, Adolphe found that his new instrument produced a rich and mellow sound like that of a woodwind. Saxophones are used in a variety of musical genres including big band, military, of course jazz, and classical music. Interestingly, since the Saxophone wasn't invented until the 1840's, Saxophone parts for many pieces of classical music hadn't been written, even though we are now accustomed to seeing saxophones in the symphony orchestra since its sound blends so well with the brass and woodwind instruments.

In this free video series, our expert Mariane Nielson will teach you how to play diminished 7th chords on the saxophone. She will teach you how to play half and fully diminished chords for F, F#, C#, Bb, Eb, G, D, A, C, E, and B.