Quarter Tone Technique for Saxophone
Available on Amazon
During the early 20th century, Western composers such as Alois Hába, Ivan Wyshnegradsky, and Charles Ives began composing quarter tone works for piano, clarinet, and voice. Composers such as Dean Drummond and Easley Blackwood composed microtonal pieces for a variety of unique instruments, including pitched percussion, guitar, and electronic instruments.
Since then, many composers have experimented with the new melodic and harmonic possibilities quarter tonality has to offer. There are hundreds of quarter tone pieces which have been composed for piano, voice, strings, brass, and woodwind instruments, including the saxophone.
Quarter tone compositions are beginning to appear in the saxophone repertoire. The saxophone is highly capable of playing quarter tone notes, with almost the same fluidity and consistency as the normal notes, throughout nearly the entire 2 ½ octave range.
The purpose of this book is to introduce saxophonists to this challenging but rewarding technique with a multitude of fingerings followed by studies in scales and chords and, once fluent, ten etudes that fully exploit the quarter tone technique and the unique melodies and harmonies this technique makes possible. Quarter tonality presents new melodic and harmonic possibilities that can bring about previously unexplored textures, colors, and atmospheres to music.
Editorial Reviews
“The altissimo register has received relatively extensive pedagogical attention. However, other than a brief seven pages devoted to the subject…. the topic of quarter tones has seen a dearth of serious pedagogical attention. Brandon Quinn, in his excellent new Quarter Tone Technique for Saxophone, remedies this long-standing oversight in a very credible way… Quinn presents the material in a logically-ordered and clearly-stated manner…. The methodical introduction of the fingerings is effectively presented, including at least four different fingerings for each note, providing options to accommodate different horns, players, and technical contexts. Importantly, each new note is accompanied by six different one-line exercises…
After these, Quinn has included ten extensive etudes that may be likened to Guy Lacour’s application of Messian’s modes in his popular 28 Etudes. They are full-blown compositions that stand alone as performance pieces… Quinn has provided, through quartertonemusician.com, a dynamic companion resource that greatly increases the utility of the printed book. All of the etudes can be found there for ready reference as players work through the many challenges posed….
Brandon Quinn has presented an important work that will be of great interest to performers and pedagogues worldwide, and will move us toward the goal of including techniques that we once considered “extended” into the realm of standard saxophone technique.”
– James Romaine, Professor of Saxophone and Associate Director of Jazz Studies at Drake University in Des Moines, IA
“One thing that came as a complete surprise was the idea that practicing quarter tones makes for a great tone exercise… As I practiced quarter tones, it quickly became apparent that they required some hefty voicing (subtle tongue position, vocal chord positioning, and other muscle movements that focus the oral cavity), and after a practice session my voicing was more fully engaged, my tone was more alive, and the horn felt easier to play…
In terms of layout, the book is easy to use. It introduces one quarter tone at a time, giving a number of fingering possibilities and a short set of exercises to cement its sound in your ears and fingering in your muscle memory. The first exercise is typically a linear quarter tone passage. The five exercises that follow use the new quarter tone in various ways, and I find them musical and interesting…..
Following the section of quarter tones fingerings and exercises comes a small section with exercises to help you improve your ear and tone production including octave jumps and small intervals within the whole step (quarter tone, half step, 3/4 step). I’m looking forward to tackling these, as I’ve already sensed an improvement in my ears just working on the quarter tones by themselves.
If you’re looking to learn to play quarter tones, this book a great resource for that. It’s also a less explored method for honing your ears, and it has unintentionally proven to be an interesting way to develop tone and voicing technique, which for anyone who has worked overtones ad nauseum, may come as a welcome surprise.”
– Ben Britton, saxophonist and author of saxophone technique books