Beginner (playing) Bending Notes

S

Saxissexy

Member
14
Queensland Australia
Can any one help? I have purchased Pete Thomas Learning the Sax Video. One question. He has a tune on the video as a practice tune No.2 Bending Tune. When bending does the note raise in pitch ? may be Pete if you view this you may be able to answer?
Cheers:sax:
 
kevgermany said:
You can bend a note in either direction. Tighter embouchure is sharper, looser is flatter. Have a go.
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Bending up is possible, but not very much and only if you have a very relaxed embouchure to begin with.

It's much easier to bend down, and possible to bend a lot further. I haven't watched that DVD (I know), but from what I remember I demonstrate bending down then up.

To bend up significantly, you have to start with the note already bent down. This is tricky unless you've first of all practised a lot of bending down then up. You will gradually get the hang of how to start a note with the relaxed embouchure so it's under pitch (flat) and bend it back up to pitch.

This is a clip from the Movie Tucker, where I start with a very very relaxed embouchure:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbQfB58y_Bs


This is the opposite to what a guitarist does, you can't bend a string and make it go down, when you push the string it gets tighter and so the pitch raises.

To make a downward bend on a guitar, you start with the string already pushed sideways to tighten it, then relax back down to pitch. (Or you can loosen it with the machine head)
 
Pete Thomas said:
To make a downward bend on a guitar, you start with the string already pushed sideways to tighten it, then relax back down to pitch. (Or you can loosen it with the machine head)
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Or you get a guitar with that lever thing - tremolo arm is it? Shame someone can't invent something like that for a sax - a device that temporarily lengthened or shortened the crook.......

I'll get to work on it straight away - I can almost count my first million quid 🙂))🙂))
 
Some Conns already have it, but it means taking a hand to the neck to wind the thing around a lot. ;}

Perhaps a trombone style mouthpiece mounting would be more effective, but with a retainer to stop the mouthpiece falling off... so you'd just move your head backwards and forwards to get the bend.... Hmmm I can see this spawning bawdy jokes about lady sax players... >:)
 
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dooce said:
Or you get a guitar with that lever thing - tremolo arm is it? Shame someone can't invent something like that for a sax - a device that temporarily lengthened or shortened the crook.......

I'll get to work on it straight away - I can almost count my first million quid 🙂))🙂))
Click to expand...

Sunray watches to see if dooce changes his on-line name to Dosh [or loads o money] ... :sax:
 
Johnny Hodges was a master at bending up (as he was master of all things alto of course...). He would attack a long note from below and gradually bend it up to where it was expected. Did he do it all with embouchure, I wonder, or with careful use of keys?
YC
 
Young Col said:
Johnny Hodges was a master at bending up (as he was master of all things alto of course...). He would attack a long note from below and gradually bend it up to where it was expected. Did he do it all with embouchure, I wonder, or with careful use of keys?
YC
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True. But, as Pete said, bending up from a normal embouchure position is somewhat limited even for Mr Hodges. So if you want, say, to bend from an E to an F then you have to start by playing the E whilst fingering an F. It takes practice.
 
Don't worry chaps, I'll try to assuage Banjo Bill. Some pics of steam locos might help.
Nick, that sounds right. Interesting you should pick E to F as Mr Hodges' (yes, he should have some kind of title especially with his Ducal connections; I always thought Rabbit was a bit frivolous) upward bends usually sound like a semitone - or less. It's just that he managed to hold it and the gradual bend so long, often with vibrato, and to a crescendo. One of the glories of jazz.
YC
 
Young Col said:
Don't worry chaps, I'll try to assuage Banjo Bill. Some pics of steam locos might help.
Click to expand...

How's this:
train.jpg
 
Sorry Pete, has to be a Spam Can. Used to travel on The Man of Kent.

Kev,
Scruggs as in Earl Scruggs, he of the Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Invented them for rapid changing from open G to open D tuning. Now made by two companies, the cheapies were usable, just, but the expensive are kosher. There are at least seventy known tuning systems for the banjo, some used for only one tune. And you thought that saxophones were complicated.
 
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dooce said:
Bugger! Beaten to it.

Is that Tom Mapfumo in the video?

http://www.nununugent.com/Triborg.htm
Click to expand...

I am just too attractive , with all my own hair, to be mistaken for said individual, but I might have one of those instruments hidden amongst my vast collection.........I'll go and have a look.................;}

If anyone is interested in buying a slide saxophone they had one for sale at www.pamelasmusic.co.uk - an online shop with all sorts of weird stuff.

Just looked and it is no longer there.................

Kind regards
Tom😎
 
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