I was looking around the internet today for a music book that I could use in my online video lessons. I’ve had a bunch of requests for some lessons on sight reading and I thought it would be cool if I could find something to use that was in the “public domain”. I was surprised to find out that the “Universal Method for the Saxophone” by Paul De Ville is in the public domain. From what I gather from what I have read this means that it no longer copyrighted and can be used as you wish. Here’s a link to a site to download it.
http://www.archive.org/details/universalmethodf00villuoft
I used the Universal Method a bunch when I was in high school and still have the copy on my book shelf. It’s 318 pages long and is filled with some great exercises for sight reading, technical finger passages,duets,scales and many articulation exercises. It’s cool to look at the copy I have because it is filled with my sloppy eighth grade pencil notes all over. It’s funny to see how obsessive and organized I was even in eighth grade.
I challenge my students to do 5-10 minutes of sight reading a day so if you are looking for material…….check it out. You have nothing to lose since it’s free! I’ll probably be using it for my sight reading lessons in the future…………….
I am very happy
Thank you for this Steve! One question…I’m playing tenor (Bb), so when going through method books like this, would I have to transcribe each note up a whole step to match each written note, or would I just finger a C like a C, etc.?
Robert, You just play the notes as they are written. For a written C on the stave, you would just play a C on the saxophone. Steve
Thank you for this Steve! One question…I’m playing tenor (Bb), so when going through method books like this, would I have to transcribe each note up a whole step to match each written note, or would I just finger a C like a C, etc.?
No, you don’t have to transpose. You finger a C like a C. You only have to think about transposing notes when you are playing with other people and playing from a piece of music written in concert key. If you play the Bb part for Bb instruments you don’t have to transpose.