I have become a huge fan of Michel Meriot’s etudes and books over the last few years. In my teaching studio, I assign both jazz and classical etudes, even though most of my saxophone students are focused on jazz. I find that it helps address phrasing, air management, evenness of tone through all registers, and reading.
This book, 18 études variées, is a book that works well for an intermediate saxophonist who needs to work on the elements that I listed above. I also really enjoy this set of etudes, because there is lots of rhythmic variety – there are lots of rhythms that we don’t see often in jazz charts. I think that it’s good practice to have students reed music above their current sight reading level, even if they won’t see those rhythms often, because it teaches them how to break up beats with rhythms that they are unfamiliar with.
This book offers lots of studies in articulation – there are several etudes that switch between articulated eighth and sixteenth note passages. It also has some slow 6/8 etudes with dotted rhythms, combined with flowing sixteenth notes which make my students manage their air so they can make the phrases. This book features odd-meter etudes in 5/8, and a 3+2+2, 7/8. Most of the etudes make use of the full, or nearly full range of the saxophone, which also pushes my students’ technique – it makes them take care of the extremes of the instrument.
Check out this book for a good challenge for intermediate saxophonists!
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