How to play saxophone seated and best playing positions for sitting sax players
How to play saxophone sitting down?
Music teachers and students often wonder what is the best position for playing saxophone when seated (center between legs VS outside of right leg). This step-by-step guide explains what seated positions are best for learning and playing saxophone (including soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones). For detailed discussion and videos about saxophone posture, see these free Saxophone Lesson Resources.
Alto, tenor, and baritone (bari) saxophones are “side seated” instruments
The alto, tenor, and baritone (bari) saxophones are “side seated” instruments that should be held to the outside of the right leg during seated play. Side seated saxophone playing encourages a more healthy posture for small body students and is the most common playing position for good reasons. Alto saxophone students shorter than 5’6” (168cm) tall often struggle to play in a center seated position because it causes tension in the right hand and wrist. A center seated saxophone position for a small student can also cause the sax to rest on the edge of the players seat, causing lazy posture, unhealthy neck position, and bad embouchure.
Should beginning saxophone students be required to hold the instrument between their legs?
No. Young saxophone students should be taught to play "side seated" saxophone with the instrument outside of the right leg while. Music teachers should teach children the side seated saxophone posture and how to pivot adjust the neck of alto, tenor, and bari saxophones to meet the player's mouth. This may also involve rotating the mouthpiece clockwise to meet the players top teeth evenly.
Should you ever play saxophone between the legs when seated?
When an alto saxophone player is tall enough, they may feel most comfortable playing the instrument center between their legs. The player must be careful to avoid resting the right wrist or arm on the right leg. That creates unhealthy posture and arm tension. See the image below of adult male alto saxophone players in center seated playing position.
Tenor and baritone saxophone are always played with side seated posture.
See the photo example below of Grammy winning Saxophonist, Lorenzo Ferrero, playing seated with his tenor saxophone.
Notice that Lorenazo's right arm has a comfortable bend at the elbow and a neutral wrist rotation. But when you hold a tenor saxophone in center front of the body, the right arm elbow is more straight forcing the wrist into a harder bend which adds tension to right hand fingers. Center playing of the tenor sax when standing can often feel uncomfortable for smaller players but often feels most comfortable for taller players with longer arms.
Soprano saxophone is positioned center of the body when played standing or seated.
Key Leaves Artist Emma McPhilemy performs with excellent soprano saxophone posture and playing angle (unlike a clarinet playing angle that tilts down from the mouth more than soprano sax).
Special note for band teachers
The lead photo of of this article shows a young woman saxophone student seated and reading music from a very low music stand. Some music teachers express anger with the photo because the sax player has "terrible posture" and a "horrible embouchure." If you feel triggered by this image, please consider the following:
1) The lead photo shows saxophone playing posture that is 100% acceptable in any professional jazz big band setting, specifically because the music stand is as low as possible which is customary for big band sax sections. Big bands often chop their music stands shorter or use folding box stands to reveal more of the seated musicians to the audience. If this young woman's posture is good enough for professional big band saxophone sections, maybe it's not worth getting upset over a photo of this young musician learning.
2) The young woman in the lead photo is a student and looks like most the young sax students you find seated in school band trying to read their sheet music. Posture is a practice and it takes time and experience to learn, just like reading music or playing in a large group. When you consider the "bad" posture you see from young sax students, is this young woman's posture truly worthy of sax pedagogy rage? We choose her as a common and relatable example of a young sax student playing alto in a side seated position.
3) Seated music reading is not the same as memorized seated chamber performance, and not the same as marching saxophone posture, and not the same as standing concert saxophone solo posture. Let's not confuse them all. Beginner alto sax students tend to have smaller bodies, and it is most useful to promote side seated position (even shown imperfectly) to help players and teachers understand that side seated is the most useful alto position to most alto players players most of the time.
If the photo triggers you, please spend some time with it and consider why. This may help you discover new teaching approaches and empathy for meeting students where they are as you guide them to where they are going.