Our Courses

How we structure our courses to give you the learning experience you're looking For

Whatever it is that’s brought you to our web-site, we’re pleased to see you! If you’ve made it to this page, then we assume that like us you’re looking for a chance to give your playing a boost and take you to the next level.  Maybe you’ve played years ago and come back to it, got started but are not sure where to go next, or have been playing for a long-time and are stuck in a bit of a rut, we have something for you. Our courses aim to give you fresh inspiration, motivation, input and guidance plus a little excitement and challenge to lead you forward and keep you developing as a player. 

Sax weekends offers an  intensive, accelerated and motivating development experience that enables a step up in ability, and provides us with the material and motivation for taking our playing to the next level. The key elements are

  • One (or more!) residential, 3 day weekend(s) near London, in beautiful grounds, with accommodation and meals included
  • Working with a group of players at roughly the same level of competence – sharing the journey
  • A targeted set of development goals across 4 key skill types
  • Learning built around real world application of these skills – all structured around a series of songs 
  • The opportunity to try out your skills in gig-style performance sessions
  • A personal learning and development plan at the end of the course mapping out next steps based on what you’ve learned
  •  The opportunity for on-going interaction with other players as you progress

How the courses work

Each weekend is structured into 8 “blocks” of learning across 3 days. Each block has specific learning goals, and we realise these by applying them to a tune across a variety of genres. Our starting point is to mix it up , but if the group prefers we can focus on a particular genre. There’s a standard approach to each block which focuses on 5 key elements.

  1. Fundamentals : The core underlying skills required to perform the tune
  2. Technique : the specific skills required to make this song work – as exemplified by the artist 
  3. Theory : What we need to know about what’s happening to enable us to fully internalise the learning and make it work in this and other contexts
  4. Application : Bringing it all together as we perform the tune
  5. Development goals : What we need to do next to make these skills and capabilities a fixed part of our language and repertoire

Who are our courses aimed at?

To get the most from one of our courses you need to be playing with people of a similar level to yourself and to be focussing on skills that are appropriate for your stage of development.  So where do you fit, and which courses are best for you? We recognise that sax-playing is a journey, and so we’ve steered clear of the usual definitions.  Have a read of these and if you’re still not sure hit the Contact Us button below to get in touch, and we’ll point you in the right direction.

Developers

Perhaps you’re early in your journey. You’ve had some lessons, you can read music, and you’ve got a grasp of the basic major and minor scales.  What you need is to put your knowledge to the test and to see where there are gaps that you can fill to take your playing to the next level!

Or maybe you’ve played in the past and are coming back to it.  You may have played quite a bit in the past your skills are rusty and you’re looking to sharpen them up again.  Or perhaps you’ve been playing for a while and you’re struggling to make a breakthrough.

You understand some of the theory behind what you’re doing but you want to take it to the next level and get your playing sounding natural and melodic. You may have some experience playing with others and perhaps even a little improvising, but you want to build your skills and your confidence

Voyagers

You’ve been playing for a while, and you’ve got the basics covered.  You have a good grip of the theory, and a solid grasp of the building blocks. You’re comfortable playing and have some experience improvising and/or playing live with a band. You’re looking to take your skills to the next level and broaden your playing style, tackle new challenges and develop a broader language. 

You might be looking to broaden the styles of music that you’re playing, add to your repertoire, or bring greater sophistication and variety into your playing.  You might have some new performance challenges and you’re looking for the chance to build skills and capability to meet them