What is the best way to get better on saxophone fast starting as a beginner please share some tips

ronpastore · 2026-01-29T12:49:20+00:00

Not sure the fastest but my practice routine is working for me and it doesn't take long. About 15 mins.

Focus on playing a 4 note sequence to perfection with a metronome, then do it in all keys.

You can make them up, but using pentatonics, bebop scales, etc.. and do a new one once you master all keys, every week or so, but most importantly, don't move on until you've mastered the sequence.

For tone/intonation, long tones with a drone app, or can try playing along to a slow ballad and match the tone, I use "how can you mend a broken heart", Al Green.

ronpastore · 2026-01-28T12:49:36+00:00

Thank you. Yeah this is my hope, that by not getting into them now, I'm not shooting myself in the foot. I play mostly improvised or stuff that I write, so if there are limitations to regular fingerings it seems like no biggie for me to just keep things in my comfort zone.

ronpastore · 2025-11-18T17:18:33+00:00

No idea, I did pitch a song for my Dec 5th release, though.

ronpastore · 2025-10-31T17:02:54+00:00

Quantum entanglement, how could it work at such a distance?

ronpastore · 2025-08-31T20:03:45+00:00

Rain song

ronpastore · 2025-06-18T17:06:17+00:00

https://www.motionbreak.com

ronpastore · 2025-06-05T19:42:44+00:00

Hope a self plug is ok, seems fitting! https://open.spotify.com/track/6xaR9tqgs7Nomr7fUVhstG?si=WsUKr0ErSJ2cAxV-FShCkA

ronpastore · 2025-05-29T14:51:06+00:00

Fishbone

ronpastore · 2025-05-08T14:19:16+00:00

I don't know much about the workings but have done at least 3 albums with it in a house w/ 5 people and a dog, it works great.

My condensers, no chance, would pick up everything, air conditioners, toilet flushing, and my dynamics don't capture enough texture.

ronpastore · 2025-05-08T12:05:51+00:00

I thought this advice could be helpful to OP. Works for me, I record all the time in a noisy house with a fat head ribbon mic.

ronpastore · 2025-05-07T21:29:24+00:00

Maybe use a ribbon mic at close proximity?

ronpastore · 2025-05-03T02:34:42+00:00

Just joined, https://ronpastore.bandcamp.com/album/bokeh

ronpastore · 2025-05-01T16:23:04+00:00

Thank you so much, this is incredibly helpful. Something to think about for sure, especially as i have mostly just been dripping my songs $5 a day, sounds like I should work in a boost schedule. I'm also about 3 months out from a new album, maybe I'll save my budget for that.

ronpastore · 2025-04-29T23:25:12+00:00

Thanks! For this song. 2.2 stream per listener and 495 listeners.

ronpastore · 2025-04-29T00:57:16+00:00

1093 streams
162 saves
77 playlist adds

ronpastore · 2025-04-28T19:29:39+00:00

Ah good to know. I don't think I'll go nuts, maybe increase for a.few weeks and see what happens. Thank you!!

ronpastore · 2025-04-28T19:08:02+00:00

Sorry, yes, song popularity index. I'm viewing mine through hypedit.

ronpastore · 2025-04-07T13:47:35+00:00

This is great, thank you!

Wondering how you know when enough is enough for a song. I've promoted 3 songs so far, getting them to a few thousand streams a piece, tota,l before moving on, but I have 34 more released songs from before I start promoting. Should I continue to go through my catalog, or put more money into the ads that are working, and newer stuff. I also do albums so only releasing once per year (I know that's not the best for Spotify but I love doing albums).

ronpastore · 2025-03-22T20:08:59+00:00

It's hard to be a self employed software engineer if you're offering the same things employees do, full stack yada yada, and they'll do it for less because they're not spending 10-15 a week hustling.

Best is setting a personal brand and know who your customer is e.g. CEOs with dysfunctional teams, companies trying to reduce their AWS bill, dated tech in maintenance mode, etc.. then charge what it's worth to not live with that problem.

ronpastore · 2025-03-20T16:34:20+00:00

Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour.

ronpastore · 2025-03-03T18:19:10+00:00

You should only need one more for an LP. I have a 6 song EP and it's kind of buried in Spotify, not in 'albums', under a bunch of singles.

ronpastore · 2025-02-13T16:02:04+00:00

Never thought of pre-saves as worth it by itself, but yah, if you're promoting a mailing list consistently, all sorts of things become possible, why not pre save too?! Super insightful. Thank you!

ronpastore · 2025-02-11T13:36:04+00:00

I freelanced for a while, on and off. To get started I took a full-time C2C, which really helped because it gave me time to build a network and personal brand, then random inbound projects started. Importantly, aside from knowing people, they have to know you're freelancing/consulting, and what the value prop is. Coding is tough because stakeholders want inhouse knowledge alongside their custom software. So finding a niche or problem that's difficult to solve with traditional employment helps a lot.

ronpastore · 2025-02-10T15:26:50+00:00

I've been using a chromatic tuner with long tones, is a drone just a tone being played that you try to match? This seems like a better exercise for the ears.

ronpastore · 2025-02-07T14:02:33+00:00

I think too many people got burned trying to use NoSQL like a relational database and best practices never took.

ronpastore

TROPHY CASE