Everything Saxophone: Tips on Embouchure and Reed Keeping

Spot on about the frown - nice to have it expressed in that way. Its very much what I do.

Regarding the reeds it does make sense of why some of my reeds play brilliantly when I have accidentally let them soak in wouthwash overnight - they feel and sound really pumped up, producing a richer, fuller sound. Hence not a mistake as such.

Kind regards
Tom
 
It means that the sides of your mouth are held in more precisely preventing air leakage, and making for a slightly tighter embouchure, hence clearer tone.

Kind regards
Tom

In the same way people are advised to smile when playing trumpet to produce more taut lips which improves flexibility etc.
 
I learned to frown from reading about Joe Allard's teaching approach. He suggested a frown like embouchure or a spread and corners down embouchure like when you put on chapstick (The chapstick is his analogy not mine) so that when you play the sides of your bottom lip are not bowing the reed in. The clearer sound then comes from the reed not being bowed in and being able to vibrate more easily. Thats the way I understand it, however I could certainly see a frown fixing the problems Tom mentioned. The overall idea is to tighten the embouchure in one way so that its not tight on the reed itself.
 
It means that the sides of your mouth are held in more precisely preventing air leakage, and making for a slightly tighter embouchure, hence clearer tone.

Kind regards
Tom

In the same way people are advised to smile when playing trumpet to produce more taut lips which improves flexibility etc.

Just looked in the mirror to check, my mouth doesn't move when I frown it must be just you humans.
 
A question for Sax Players who end up wearing Dentures at some point in their lives, how much did wearing false teeth affect your Embouchure?
Ooh there is a thread dedicated to that subject on here! If you use the search facility and keyword “denture” you should find it. Thanks for finding this thread, I’ve never seen it before and I’ve just had a laugh reading the comments!
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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