Grades

A number of UK schools and music colleges offer courses that work towards classical or jazz saxophone grades. 

The grades are a good way of progressing your playing and understanding of music in a structured way. 

To give you an idea of the level of each grade, here are some saxophone and jazz saxophone exercises for grades 1 - 5.


Classical Saxophone

The classical saxophone grades are from Grade 1 (beginner) to Grade 8 (advanced). As the names suggests, these are more suited to students interested in classical music. For each grade you will learn some scales and arpeggios, choose some written pieces to perform, prepare for some sight-reading and some aural (listening) tests. This link gives you the details of the 

LCM syllabus - click the link for more details.


Jazz Saxophone

For students who are more interested in jazz, the ABRSM offer Grades 1 - 5 in Jazz Saxophone. These are geared towards players who want to learn jazz scales & chords, improvisation and different styles of jazz (blues, bebop, swing, etc.).

ABRSM jazz syllabus - click the link for more details.


The accompanying Book/CD's for the ABRSM Jazz grades are available for:

Alto Sax at Musicroom.com and Amazon (see below)

Tenor Sax at Musicroom.com and Amazon (see below)

There is a different book for each grade (1 - 5). Make sure you choose either the Alto or the Tenor book according to your saxophone. 

As well as the written pieces, there are books covering scales and aural tests and a Real Book for Eb saxophones (alto/baritone) or Bb saxophones (tenor/soprano). 




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