Hi all.
I started just over a year ago with a Yamaha alto YAS-475 and the 4C mouthpiece. I aspire to playing Jazz but also wanted to get a good technical (music reading) background. So with my teacher, I started preparing for the ABRSM exams. As I have had some musical background, I sat 5th grade first up.
As I started to get the mouth piece under control, I dropped it and it broke but being adventurous, I decided it might be time for an upgrade and went for a Meyer 6.
I struggled initially with the change and in fact it wasn't until after the exam that I started using a softer reed and seemed to be getting a better sound (Vandoren Jazz 2 1/2).
In the meantime, I bought a Tenor and planned to change over to that but it is much less practical to cart around (travel for work) so I figured I should have a more classical style of setup on the Alto to complete the ABRSM exams and then explore a more ofa Jazz setup on the Tenor.
With this in mind, I thought (given the previous mouthpiece change grief) I should change back to a more classical mouthpiece on the alto so I went for a Yamaha 5C. Initially I used Vandoren 2 1/2's but now I have gone to a 3's.
I am getting a very breathy sound (sounds like a lot of air escaping). I have persisted now with this for about 3 months and while I think it woulds okay sometimes, most of the time there is still a very sort of woody breathy sound if that makes any sense.
One thing I have been waiting for is I am getting a tooth implant (second molar) next month (the tooth was extracted prior to my starting the sax). In case that affects things like mouthpiece choice etc.
I would be interested in any thoughts on what I should do. Persist? Change? Go back to the Meyer?
Thanks in advance.
Chris
Further: I have been considering this post for quite sometime but had hoped the problem would just go away. So after posting today, I have put the Meyer back on and it just seems way better. I am using the 3 reed and it took only a little while to get back on it. The only thing I am worried about is it will not give me a suitable sound to keep going with the ABRSM, particularly in the later grades. I have read that the Meyer 5 might have been a better choice as an all round mouthpiece. Would it be that different?
I started just over a year ago with a Yamaha alto YAS-475 and the 4C mouthpiece. I aspire to playing Jazz but also wanted to get a good technical (music reading) background. So with my teacher, I started preparing for the ABRSM exams. As I have had some musical background, I sat 5th grade first up.
As I started to get the mouth piece under control, I dropped it and it broke but being adventurous, I decided it might be time for an upgrade and went for a Meyer 6.
I struggled initially with the change and in fact it wasn't until after the exam that I started using a softer reed and seemed to be getting a better sound (Vandoren Jazz 2 1/2).
In the meantime, I bought a Tenor and planned to change over to that but it is much less practical to cart around (travel for work) so I figured I should have a more classical style of setup on the Alto to complete the ABRSM exams and then explore a more ofa Jazz setup on the Tenor.
With this in mind, I thought (given the previous mouthpiece change grief) I should change back to a more classical mouthpiece on the alto so I went for a Yamaha 5C. Initially I used Vandoren 2 1/2's but now I have gone to a 3's.
I am getting a very breathy sound (sounds like a lot of air escaping). I have persisted now with this for about 3 months and while I think it woulds okay sometimes, most of the time there is still a very sort of woody breathy sound if that makes any sense.
One thing I have been waiting for is I am getting a tooth implant (second molar) next month (the tooth was extracted prior to my starting the sax). In case that affects things like mouthpiece choice etc.
I would be interested in any thoughts on what I should do. Persist? Change? Go back to the Meyer?
Thanks in advance.
Chris
Further: I have been considering this post for quite sometime but had hoped the problem would just go away. So after posting today, I have put the Meyer back on and it just seems way better. I am using the 3 reed and it took only a little while to get back on it. The only thing I am worried about is it will not give me a suitable sound to keep going with the ABRSM, particularly in the later grades. I have read that the Meyer 5 might have been a better choice as an all round mouthpiece. Would it be that different?