Bending Notes
Bending notes on the saxophone usually involves starting the note at the correct pitch and bending it downwards, or starting at a lower pitch and bending it upwards. (This is the opposite of the guitar which bends a note upwards from pitch or downwards into pitch). The
vibrato exercise starts off with note bending, so you can use this exercise to get started. This is a technique that takes quite a while to master. It involves slackening the jaw which increases the gap between the reed and tip of the mouthpiece. In order to maintain consistent airflow you need a strong diaphragm muscles to do this. The following examples are upward bends, the second one starts with a chromatic run which is quite a useful effect.
