Want to get your saxophone intonation and tuning to be pitch perfect? There are a couple things you can do rather than use a visual tuner. (I cringe anytime I see a musician “tuning up” by playing into—looking at—a tuner. Why would you train your EYES to tell you what your EARS should?)
Instead, try these things:
1. Play long tones with a drone.
This is great because it provides a solid, extended pitch for you to match. With a little practice, you’ll quickly feel the vibrations of the pitch you are playing with/against the drone tone, and be able to gauge how far off you are from that sweet center where all the waveforms align.
Try Cello Drones on a computer or the Samvada app on a phone.
Bonus: it’s fantastic for ear-training. Experiment with sustaining every chromatic interval against any drone pitch. Notice the difference you feel playing unison vs. a perfect fifth vs. a minor second or a tritone.
2. Transcribe solos and play along
I frequently recommend to my advanced students who are aiming to improve their soprano saxophone intonation to work with this Chris Potter solo. If there were a bet between Potter’s intonation and a tuner, my money’s on Chris. Matching pitch to soloists you’re copying is a great contextual practice tool. (Provided it’s a great soloist!) Aim for solos that are on slower songs and/or where the soloist is playing in a longer, legato fashion. Working with a Sonny Stitt solo north of 300 bpm isn’t likely to help you here. At first, anyway.
In the end, it’s about developing a strong sense of where the center of a tone is. You need that to come from inside you, not some visual meter on a tuner.
Also it’s worth noting that most professional jazz saxophonists (myself included) put their mouthpiece a hair past “in tune” meaning it’s almost sharp. The reason is that you then open your throat and drop your jaw to achieve an “in tune” sound that’s more robust. Whereas if you were on the flat side the only way to bring the pitch up would be to squeeze, which creates a pinched tone.
See this vlog where Ben mentions this:
