About Brad Carman

Brad Carman enjoys an unusually diverse musical career. Beginning his professional career as a freelance trumpet player, picking up the saxophone, clarinet, and flute as an adult while earning a degree in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since then, Brad has worked with wind ensembles, orchestras, jazz combos, big bands, ‘pit’ orchestras, show bands, studio horn sections and with numerous chamber ensembles, including Quattro Formaggi Saxophone Quartet which he founded in 2005. He is also a charter member of the 9-piece rock band The Big Payback, and has worked as an entertainer for Carnival Cruise Lines, sailing out of New Orleans, Miami, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Awarded the first-ever Gerald B. Olson Award for excellence in music education, he is frequently called upon as a master class instructor, ensemble coach and clinician, and has maintained one of the most active private studios in Madison, WI for over 17 years.

Posts by Brad Carman:

One Of The Quickest Ways To Get You Flying Through All Twelve Keys

Professional classical musicians seem to be able to memorize impossibly complicated solo works, orchestral excerpts, and other pieces in a short amount of time and with remarkable recall and precision. Similarly, professional jazz musicians know hundreds of tunes and seem to be able to play back almost anything they hear – in any key [read more…]

These Fun Technical Exercises Will Prepare You For Just About Anything

Technical Exercises in all Keys All players should organize their practice, but that structure should also leave a lot of room for variety and creativity. For most of my students, I recommend they practice in one key every week with a combination of scales and arpeggios, plus some kind of technical exercise that resembles the [read more…]

12 Tips for Hitting that Altissimo G Like a Pro

This is a guest post by saxophonist, arranger, and educator Brad Carman of BradCarmanMusic.com. We all know that some notes on the saxophone are tougher to hit than others, especially as we begin to delve into the altissimo register. While there is a great deal of information out there about the art of altissimo as [read more…]