The average time to practice If you’re serious about learning the saxophone would be 30 minutes, while an hour would be ideal.
The professional level player would need at least 2-3 hours of daily practice.
Whilst a rough guideline of about 3-5 hours of practice every day would be necessary to be the best of the best.
However, the number of hours you need to practice saxophone still might depend on many other factors provided below
Your current level
One of the first factors is the level you already have might determine a lot while practicing.
If you’re familiar with the woodwind instruments and have been playing for some time in the band or as a solo artist, it might not be crucial for you to practice long hours to keep your skills in check, however, this brings us to the next question.
Your final goal
You need to understand what is your final goal. There might be a big difference between how much an amateur saxophone player should or would practice compared to the ultimate professional.
The answer to this question might seem quite straightforward to some, but to others, it takes some thinking before you decide what level of mastery you want to achieve overall.
When thinking about the end goal, you have to think about your free time and daily availability.
If you’re young and single and have much time it might be quite realistic to become a professional quite quickly.
On the other hand, if you have a family and work a full-time job, that goal of becoming a saxophone pro might not be as realistic.
So, do think about your circumstances, decide what goal are you aiming at, and adjust the practicing tempo accordingly.
These might be the final goals you might think of achieving:
Beginner
At this stage, you know some basics, however, you do recognize the skills you can learn to get better.
At this point you are between 100 – 500 hours of playing the instrument (for some it might come early, for some late).
Some of the skills you might know at this stage include: being able to play notes in a clean manner, having developed a sense of rhythm, able to play simple songs without much improvisation.
Amateur
Here is when you begin to put your general knowledge of the instrument in the physical practice.
At this stage you already see some tangible results, you have played around 500 – 2000 hours of saxophone.
Even though its quite slow and you’re still having to think about the the whole process, you feel that your fingers align with saxophone naturally, and the relevancy of the next notes come semi-naturally.
If you desire to go further, with steady practice, you will enter into the next and probably the most joyful stage of learning the saxophone.
Professional
The final stage of mastering the instrument is the professional stage. These are the fruits of your hard work which is long hours of practice.
At this stage you might have already played around 5,000 – 10,000 hours on the instrument and with it mastered all the essentials as well as complicated skills to play the instrument naturally without any disruptions.
Hope this information shed some light on the amount of time you need to practice for the saxophone.
If you are a beginner and would like to find a teacher to start your journey try a website Saxprofiles where you will be able to find the right tutor for your level.