My name is Hannes Rössler and this is a lesson for "Jazz-O-Matic".com. 

For me warming up has 2 important factors:

The first is my sound which means the feeling for the right pitch, the right embouchure and the sound I like. 
The second factor of a warm-up is training my fingers and my tongue. 
So, in this lesson I will concentrate on 3 physical aspects of playing saxophone: mouth, fingers and tongue. 

The first exercise is important for the embochure and for pointing out the right position of it. Use it in addition to your long tones exercise. You have to start in the upper register - perhaps the upper D on your instrument. Then pitch the tone done a half step very slowly. If it seems that you're on C#, play the tone as usual and check whether you did all right. Pitch all the tones of the chromatic scale down this way using your jaw, your tongue-position and your voice box. 

The next 2 exercises are interesting for speeding up your fingers and your tongue. 
The first one is to use in addition to trill exercises. This exercise is important if you have problems playing D#, D or Ab, G successive very fast. There are 2 series of notes you can practice playing really fast. It is: 
1) E, Eb, D, F, E, Eb, F#, F, E, F, E, Eb 
2) A, Ab, G, Bb (here just using your left forefinger), A, Ab, B, Bb, A, Bb, A, Ab. 

Try to practice them as fast and as long as you can put always remain relaxed - this exercise can be quite difficult to do at the beginning. 

The third exercise for a good warm-up is important for a fast tongue. It is an exercise you can practise wherever you are and without your instrument. Try repeating the phrase: "Da ya da da" as fast as you can or try accelerating it slowly. 

Then try getting faster like this on the saxophone. It has to sound like a chain reaction. 


I hope that this is a good help for you, 

sincerly, 

Hannes Rössler.