The relevance of the topic is stipulated by the fact that saxophone performance is becoming widespread nowadays, it substantiates the needs to establish new performing schools and to initiate researches aimed at improving methods of playing the saxophone. The purpose of the article is to pay special attention to the social status of the saxophone, its role in the system of professional music education and the evolution of performing techniques of playing the saxophone. The research methods are as follows: theoretical analysis of scientific and methodological literature, comparative studies. Summary: The main scientific and methodological works devoted to the improvement of methods and techniques of playing the saxophone are considered. In the historical aspect, some theoretical works of domestic and foreign authors on the methods and techniques of playing the saxophone have been analysed: the American researcher Carr W.E.J., who identified the physiological features of playing wooden wind instruments (the flute, the oboe, the clarinet, the bassoon and the saxophone); the Russian Professor Ivanov V. D., who identified modification forms and types of saxophone music; the Ukrainian researchers Kyrylov S. V., who singled out the so-called "concert face of the saxophonist" and the associated set of his / her professional skills, Krupey M. V., who historically analysed saxophone performance and determined the stylistic basis for the formation of saxophonist’s performing skills, Professor V. Apatskyi, who came to the conclusion that the advantage of an "o-shaped" ear cushion is a peculiar position of the lower lip, which is necessary for flexible control of the cane. The article also considers scientific and methodological works of foreign authors, reflecting the problematic and related issues of saxophone performance, which allowed us to draw the following conclusions: academic and jazz saxophone performances develop in parallel and are interdependent; the recognition of the saxophone individuality contributes to the transformations within the professional system of education, the teaching of the saxophone having become narrowly professional in this connection; the development of saxophone performance has led to the creation of national schools, which stipulated a rise in the number of musicians of the new formation, both academic and jazz.