Saxophone beginners Embouchure Modification?!

[muzza]

I came across this last week, that may be of interest to you.

http://www.steveduke.net/articles/mouthpiece.shtml read the Pdf on the page, as it has a little more stuff in.

 

[kevgermany]

Think I figured it out. When I practiced my notes, I noticed the B note was a little flat, so I compensated for it by tightening my embouchure a bit. So when I started to go back down the notes, because my embouchure was tighter, the lower notes would go into the overtone. So I fixed it by just tightening when I get to the B then loosening it when I go down, though I'm not sure if this is the correct way to go about this. I've read up on something called voicing that might be of use in this situation, but I'm not sure.

Any thoughts?

(By the way, thank you all so much for helping me!)

Most saxes have a few notes that aren't quite in tune. It's usual to have to adjust embouchure to correct intonation as you play. Initially the lip control tends to be a little coarse, but with practice you'll develop much finer control and the intonation corrections will become automatic.

 

[Colin the Bear]

I came across this last week, that may be of interest to you.

http://www.steveduke.net/articles/mouthpiece.shtml read the Pdf on the page, as it has a little more stuff in.

That article is very interesting. I aquired a new chromatic tuner with a clip on it this weekend, so have been experimenting with clipping it on the bell of my alto. I was confused by what it was telling me but this article seems to explain it. I'm all over the place. I even checked the tuner out against an online tuner I use but it's not wrong, it's bang on.
.
Pushing in to tune up and pulling out to tune down has been my only adjustment but I was confused to find that pushing in was flattening one register while sharpening the other. Same with pulling out. I was thinking it was a characteristic of my horn and feeling a little disappointed with it. It sounds fine when playing and I was wondering if my ears were worn out or tuned wrong or something. I was watching a clip someone posted of a Joshua Redman concert which includes the tune up, probably just a quick recheck The keyboard gives him 3 notes spanning 2 octaves and he plays these and arpeggios. Gives the mouthpiece a little tweak , same again then off they go. I knew the position of the mouthpiece was important if not crucial for a good sound but this has been a revelation. I'll be tuning the whole horn in future. It may help with my playing stamina. Constantly adjusting and compensating without realising is bound to overwork my chops.

 

[muzza]

Sorry mangosax for the slight diversion here:

Colin, you mentioned tuning over multiple registers. I found this exercise "Sax: tuning the registers" see http://digitalpill.tv/Content/category/lessons/saxlessons/ , for video and pdf of exercise tuning over 3 registers.

There are a couple of other lessons on the site.

 

[johnboy]

Goodness me, how did we ever manage with just our ears, and a tuning fork or a piano

John 🙂🙂;}

 

[mangosax]

Hey guys! here is what i have so far:

https://www.box.com/s/ruaxcuy3msf2d86prvdu

what do you guys think? listening to it, i think i need to work on tonguing and maintaining my air pressure while I do it. any feedback is appreciated

 

[muzza]

Sounding good.

There are a couple of times, one about 30sec mark, it sound as if you are not changing cleanly between notes. Not sure of notes so for example you change from B to G, but your middle finger is slight faster than ring finger so you are adding a quick A before G.

 

[mangosax]

Sounding good.

There are a couple of times, one about 30sec mark, it sound as if you are not changing cleanly between notes. Not sure of notes so for example you change from B to G, but your middle finger is slight faster than ring finger so you are adding a quick A before G.

yeah, i still have to work on the notes, especially getting the dang A to not jump octaves all the time! it seems to be the most sensitive...

 

[johnboy]

The reed's too hard. You are going flat at the end of some notes, which suggests that you are biting up, and having to blow hard.

John 🙂🙂;}