Playing the saxophone How to growl on saxophone - please help find examples

Examples of the saxophone growl​

Growling is one of the most popular effects on the saxophone. We often associate it with rock and pop playing but it's also a very legitimate technique in jazz, used by the greats from Ben Webster through to David Sanborn.

Before I go on the describe it, here are some audio examples:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGrg57RbqBE

Although we think of the saxophone growl as an effect, it can be applied with different intensities. You can use it here or there on one or two notes or add it quite extensively. It's up to your taste and judgment how you use it. It can be anything from a slight edge to brighten the tone to a full on snarling roaring tiger growl.

It is a sort of equivalent to a guitarist using a distortion pedal.

How do you growl on a saxophone​

First of all one of the misconception is that you growl while playing. That is not likely to work. Another misconception is that you roll your RRRs. Again, that won't work either - BUT - it does give a different but related effect: flutter tongue.

To growl you simply sing, or rather hum, while you are playing. It's not actually possible to sing of course because there is a mouthpiece in the way, but humming (which takes place in your throat) works well.

Which note to hum?​

That's the $1000 question. Some people say to hum the same note as you are playing but slightly (or very) out of tune, others to hum a specific harmony or interval relative to the note you are playing.

I have found that either of those may work, but nobody I know of has yet come up with an explanation of how out of tune or which interval. The way it works is that the note (being out of tune or different to the one you are playing) causes interference with the sound wave of the saxophone to cause the distortion. It may be that not all saxophone notes growl based on the same amount of pitch variation or harmony in the hum.

My preferred method of learning is via a sort of subconscious process of trial and error. Trying to sing along, whether out of tune, or in harmony is just too difficult a process.

So try this:

• Play a note on the saxophone
• While playing, hum any note and while keeping on the same saxophone note, vary the pitch of your hum
• Listen carefully to the note and as your hum varies and note when it causes the tonal interference - and the resulting growl.
• Play that note again (asa long note) while humming that same pitch if possible
• Repeat a few times and then move on to a different and do the same process over again

This way you will gradually find you automatically hum whatever note works best for each note or series of notes you are playing.

Another very quick example...Happy growling evybody!



PS: We are pleased to also bring you a a soundcloud tutorial from our very own cafe member Taz.

https://soundcloud.com/taz-16%2Fgrowl-tutorial

View: https://soundcloud.com/taz-16/growl-tutorial

 

[allansto]

when you were a kid /child did you ever put your mouth over a pipe and make a noise into it so that the kid on the other end could hear you ?
not like a trumpeterbecause your using your lips and tongue
so because you have a pipe in your mouth you cant use your tongue to make noise, (as with flutter tongueing against the reed) ,
use only your voice which comes from your thoat . All your mouth does is allow the sound to be changed into vowels etc or change pitch with embouchure.
so if youve got your voice coming down the pipe/sax and youve still got air going past the reed tip making noise then youve actually got two noises going into the pointy end and coming out the big end.
Well thats sort of it , technique that is . The mixing of reed and voice is what makes the growling sound .
so grab the garden hose or sax with no mp and have a go................once you can do this.... try it with the mp in.
I hope this helps.

 

[johnboy]

Got something stuck in your throat? What you do to clear it, is what you do to growl.

John 🙂;}

 

[musicalchemist]

I've been practicing the use of growling in my playing, but I find that it's much harder to do than I had anticipated. I can flutter tongue with the best of them, but I never really had any instruction on how to properly utilize the growl technique. Any tips on how to get that "growl" sound?

 

[Kingsleyhk]

You might want to listen to this, as a great example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhVFK9tYu84&feature=related

 

[rockplayer]

practice growling using different notes while you're humming as well, you can go from a bright buzzing sound by humming a high note (almost like a scream) and then get some very cool rumbling tones (similar to flutter tonguing) by humming a low note.

 

[thomsax]

I've been practicing the use of growling in my playing, but I find that it's much harder to do than I had anticipated. I can flutter tongue with the best of them, but I never really had any instruction on how to properly utilize the growl technique. Any tips on how to get that "growl" sound?

I listened to your soundclip and I understand that you find it easier to do the fluttertone than the growl. You have a clean tone and I guess you take less mouthpiece. This is a must to do the fluttertone. I think you should try to growl "more up in your head" instead of "down in your throat". Send me a PM and I'll give you an e-mail adress to a player who is a master when it comes to this.

I can't do the fluttertone because I take more mouthpiece. I have no problem doing the growl deep down in my throat. This can be hard to your throat! Beside I've always been a saxplayer with a "dirty and greasy" tone. I just sounds like that.

Thomas

 

[thomsax]

You might want to listen to this, as a great example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhVFK9tYu84&feature=related

Great! That's Ron Dziubla, CA, playing. A good player with a very intense tone/sound. He is using a Dukoff mpc (I think it's a D-chamber). I have some of his CD's. He has played with Rick Holmstrom, Kid Ramos, Janiva Magness ..... . The other month he shared stage with Sax Gordon! I wonder how that was?

Thomas

 

[Kingsleyhk]

I also have a D7 for my tenor - but that's about as far as the comparison goes! But he is a great player - very much following in the footsteps of Steve Douglas, Plas Johnson and Jim Horn with Duane Eddy. Amazing that he (Duane) is still going strong.

A friend of mine who has lived in Hong Kong for many years went to see them at a show in Glasgow last year. He managed t talk himself backstage and got a great chat with Duane in his dressing room - apparently an absolute prince.

 

[Kath]

so the growl comes from the very back of the throat?

 

[Colin the Bear]

Lower than the throat. Open up right down to your diaphragm and moan like love sick moose.

 

[jrintaha]

Tried this out yesterday, and JBT's "vvvvv" did the trick for me. Say "humvee" slowly, the "hum" part to get the low hum going, then stop at the "v" part, "humvvvvvv" and there's the hum and blowing air at the same time.

 

[C_Claudemonster]

I was taught to make a 'grrrr' sound at the back of the throat, the same action as if you were gargling water but obviously with no water, it does tickle and if done for a long period I guess you'll get worn out lol but worth a try! I have no idea if this is the 'correct way' but it works for me 🙂

 

[spike]

I've read this thread several times, it seems to get more bizarre the longer it gets.
It's called "Growling" but that doesn't mean you have to cough yer guts up to achieve it.
The principle behind the technique is quite simply to produce a sound with the vocal chords or, an interuption to the air flow at the same time as blowing a note on the horn. Capisch so far?
There are several ways of doing this, two of them can be extremely painful (the coughing guts-up version and the fluttering of the Esophogus - neither to be recommended for a 4 hour x 45 mins per set gig) and the easiest way is really quite simple.
Good, we've all been to the doctor with a sore throat, what does he or she do? The doc sticks a lollipop stick in yer mouth and invites us to say "Aaaah".
So now comes the scientific explanation. Did you know that when two different sound frequencies interact with each other they produce an oscillation?
The "Growl" technique produces an oscillation as well as interupting the airflow. I'm not a mad scientist I'm just a certified sax nut with honours.
Isn't science amazing - bring back Blue Peter and Dr. Who.
Jolly good. Now - lotus position, or cross legged for miniscus sufferers, stand on one leg or your head if you're so inclined - on your local mountain top, backyard outside toilet, living room or perhaps a vacant neighbourhood cruft and all together take a deep breath and say Aaaaah!
Buddhist monks do this all the time but they go on to Ooow, Oooh and then Omnnn, in order to get that they close their mouths so the sound ends up coming down their noses.
Hang on a minute we are saxophone players, we don't play nose flutes, we blow down long tubes. What we want is to combine the sound that we're producing with our vocal chords with the airstream that we're pushing into the saxophone.
So - okay so far? Now we do need a bit more air - if you're lucky enough to have a six-pack below your ribcage fill it up before you start this exercise.
Take a deep, a really deep breath or two so the oxygen is giving you a ting-a-ling feeling in your finger tips, now exhale and switch on yer vocal chords, any note you like, you can even do Ave Maria if you're so inclined.
Now, purse yer lips to the polite kiss positon, so you're blowing and singing at the at the same time - Oh Boy, the suspense is killing me with every word I write.
Big moment, Crescendo, Finale con Supremo, insert the saxophone mouthpiece between those quivering lips, play a note and growl yer heart out from the bottom of yer latest C# Blues.
Did it work for any of you ? I'm hanging on tenterhooks, I've always wondered what a tenterhook is.
gruss - spike

 

[trimmy]

Lower than the throat. Open up right down to your diaphragm and moan like love sick moose.

Just cried with laughter at this.......You crack me up Col 🙂))

 

[Koen88]

I allways use the Kazoo analogy.. you humm to produce noise the only difficultie is to do in combination with a reed and mpc and where I had some "difficulties" with is not to humm te same note as you want to play. if you do that your tone `ll get all over the place ;-)

 

[jbtsax]

I remember another thread on this subject a while back. "Growling" is basically humming at the same time you play. The difference is that you blow an airstream at the same time as the hum.

1. Take a big breath
2. Begin to hum
3. Open the lips, blow, and turn the hum into a "vvvvvvvvvvvv"
4. Do this into your saxophone

Have fun experimenting with humming the same pitch you are playing, other pitches, or a fixed pitch.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Another type of growl can come from the back of the throat. Way down the back of the throat. Like lifting something heavy.

I think my last reply was to moan like a love sick moose.


The trick is to pitch your voice to give maximum interference to the reed but not loud enough to sound like Pavarotti on a vuvuzela.

Think dirty sax and it will come naturally with practice.

 

[Adrian63]

" Moan like a lovesick Moose " Thanks Colin; I never could find a way to explain how to growl, That,ll do just fine!!

 

[muzza]

The first book I have that introduced a growl did with the bar include. Apart from a nice ending to the tune, I found these notes good/easier to start with.

 

[navarro]

Re subject of growling. A player of some accomplish a regular at winter gigs in Alaska, decided to enhance his performance by learning to growl.

Came the summer months and our brave sax venturer wandered into bear country listening to the grizzlies as they awakened from their hibernations.

His ear quickly attuned to the growl library which he transposed for his E flat. Unfortunately he was most successful in growling within one of his renditions to the exact mating calll of the female brown bear.

The lady bear not aquainted with the vagaries and eccentricities of us humans, made all the right advances, but did not take kindly to her advances upon the player being rejected and tore his head off.

At this very time in the Alaskan hinterland locals will tell you of a bear seen carrying a rather battered saxophone and of it`s plaintive wailing being heard mourning a lost love, just before hibernation lights out.

Strange,and rather sad but true, as reported by the National Enquirer. Regds N.