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

 

[compound]

OK, so in my whole life I've never been able to roll my R's...problem!

My wife, laughing at my efforts took pity on me and coached me to roll R's. She's Portuguese, so she's a natural. At first I didn't believe I'd suceed, but after only two days I mastered it. Now I can do I really proficient RRRRRR, without the sax....thanks to my Latin lover...

So the next step is with the sax...made a start this evening...not easy...cuts on the end of my tongue. It seems pretty difficult to play a note at the same time as doing the RRRRRR thing, but I think it'll come....I'll let you know.

Cheers,
Martin

Hi Martin,
If your getting cuts on your tongue your halfway there, at least you can roll your RRRRs with the mouthpiece in thats half the battle. I can roll all day till the mouthpiece goes in then nothing. By the way King Curtis doesn't flutter tongue on Honky Tonk like Clifford Scott, i've heard a lot of player's who dont, maybe they can't.?
As a matter of interest what effects are you using when you play?,It sounds very pro.
Anyway mate it wont be long before your doing it, and i cant wait to hear the results.
Very best of luck. Rob.

 

[Martin]

Hi Martin,
If your getting cuts on your tongue your halfway there, at least you can roll your RRRRs with the mouthpiece in thats half the battle. I can roll all day till the mouthpiece goes in then nothing. By the way King Curtis doesn't flutter tongue on Honky Tonk like Clifford Scott, i've heard a lot of player's who dont, maybe they can't.?
As a matter of interest what effects are you using when you play?,It sounds very pro.
Anyway mate it wont be long before your doing it, and i cant wait to hear the results.
Very best of luck. Rob.

Hi Rob,

Well this evening I decided to concentrate on my alto instead of tenor (my favorite), as the alto mouthpiece is smaller, so less of it in my mouth getting in the way of my tongue. Also, I use a more moderate mouthpiece (RPC80B) on the alto, so less effort required to produce a note....and I had modest success (very modest). Every five or ten minutes during my practice session, I attempt flutter tongue...and I find it's beginning to come. I can achieve it best in the low register. I can't get any power behind the note yet, but it's definitely there...it's just a matter of more.....practice, practice, practice. If I try a little each evening I think it will improve within the week (I hope).

The effects that I've been using up until now are the growl, with the humming technique. I used to do the throat clearing thing, but since I discovered the hum, I haven't returned to throat clearing (except when I've got a cold perhaps!)...anyway, I prefer the hum...it works for me right up and down the range. Other than that, with the PPT9* on my tenor and a softish reed, I like to play with plenty of mouthpiece in my mouth and blow hard....the note breaks up into all sorts of different sounds...harmonics I suppose. I think Pete mentions in his sales info that the PPT9* will produce plenty of overtones when pushed...seems to me that it's true!

Martin

 

[Aubrianna Merry]

I know that I don't "flutter tounge" the "right" way, because my tounge is way short, (the doctors all call me "tounge-tied") However, that was helpful. =]

 

[compound]

I know that I don't "flutter tounge" the "right" way, because my tounge is way short, (the doctors all call me "tounge-tied") However, that was helpful. =]

Hi Aubrianna,
If there's another way to do it that you know please share, i'm struggling at the moment.
Rob.

 

[Kingsleyhk]

I've accessed just about every article and website/youtube vid I can find on growling and I STILL CAN'T DO IT!!!!!

I just can't get the hum going that all these people talk about. Any one had the same problem and can help?

 

[Taz]

I found it very hard to start with, it took me ages to get the hang of it. Don't expect to be able to growl to start with, in fact when you try to hum and play it'll feel like the air is trying to go down the wrong way. Stick with it though, because when you do get it, it'll be so worth while.
Just concentrate on humming one note, don't worry if it's not a real not or in tune with anything that your trying to play, and only try to play one note as well. keep things as simple as possible to start with.
That should give you somewhere to start.
Good luck

 

[jbtsax]

To learn to "growl" try humming and blowing an airstream without the sax first.

- Start out with just humming - hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

- Then do the same vocalization while at the same time blowing an airstream - vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv.

- When you can hum and blow at the same time simply form an embouchure and do the same thing into the saxophone.

 

[saxplorer]

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Thank you! That is the best advice on growling I have come across! ... not the closed-mouth hummming of hmmmmm, but an "open" "vvvvvvvvvv" sound. Worked first time for me.

 

[Kingsleyhk]

Thanks to all respondents - today's a practice day! I'll let you know!

 

[cannonballer]

I've accessed just about every article and website/youtube vid I can find on growling and I STILL CAN'T DO IT!!!!!

I just can't get the hum going that all these people talk about. Any one had the same problem and can help?

I have had the same problem that you have just described for a really long time, but recently I figured out what works for me. Try humming a note (besides the note that you are playing) and blowing air at the same time. It feels very strange at first, but if you practice it for 5-10 minutes a day for a week, im pretty sure you will start to get the hang of it. You just gotta spend some time messing around with it!
Good luck!
-jake

 

[johnboy]

I'm at odds with everyone over the sound produced by humming! I think this is a completely different sound to a growl.
Earl Bostic did it and it was called a 'Buzz Saw Tone', which I think is a more suitable description!
For me the only true growl, is the one as used by on the Champs 'Tequila'.

John. 🙂;}

 

[rhysonsax]

I'm at odds with everyone over the sound produced by humming! I think this is a completely different sound to a growl.
Earl Bostic did it and it was called a 'Buzz Saw Tone', which I think is a more suitable description!
For me the only true growl, is the one as used by on the Champs 'Tequila'.

John. 🙂;}

I think that Tequila used both flutter tonguing (in a few places) and growling (in lots of places). The flutter tonguing is harder for me to do and sounds more extreme - you wouldn't want to listen to that throughout a solo. Or play it either !

Rhys

 

[saxyemma87]

It took me a long time to get the growl - infactmy old band used to call me growling eyes because of some of the strange faces I would pull trying to do it. I finally got it when I joined a Pink Floyd band and had to play "Money" - the first note of the sax solo had me practising non-stop. Eventually it came.
Good luck

 

[johnboy]

Again what a strange name - 'Flutter tongue', 'Blowing a Raspberry' is more like it
I think on Tequila, he did what I do, produced the sound in his throat, by far the easiest way for me.
When soloing, I use both Growl & what I call Buzz. A Growl is Grrrrrrr. Humming to me, the sound produced is much quicker, more of a Buzz.

John. 🙂;}

 

[Riversider]

The hmmm / vvvv suggestion works for me, too, and a good tip I got for starting our with growling was to practice it with just the mouthpiece and the neck itself —ie: detached from the horn.

 

[trimmy]

Good advice will have to give that a try waste of time that clip as i couldn't get passed 52 seconds

 

[Nick Cook]

Pete's got a bit about growling here: http://tamingthesaxophone.com/saxophone-growl.html

 

[rhysonsax]

It's not any difference between the sound of a throat growl and flutter tonguing ( I still think it's a daft description ;}), that I have issue with.
I would not call humming a growl! It is more akin to the 'buzz saw tone' that used to be attributed to the great Earl Bostic.

John 🙂;}

I've always thought that the term "growling" describes what it sounds like rather than how it is achieved.


There are several different ways of achieving rough and dirty sound effects, including humming, "coughing" in your throat, flutter tonguing on the roof of your mouth and even objects inside the mouthpiece, like the Runyon removable spoiler or bits of razor blade as reputedly used by Earl Bostic.

Rhys

 

[Ruby]

I use growl a fair bit with solos in my band and tend to use the back of the throat type way, definitely not 'humming', it feels like more of a 'low gargle'. It's just fairly controlled so I don't choke when I go back to sing. I think you can get a good growl sound without giving it too much welly, it shouldn't hurt your throat. There's a good book I have too with all sorts of techniques in, including this one. It's by Mark McGee and called 'Learn to Play Rhythmn n Blues Saxophone', think I got it from Jazzwise.

 

[thomsax]

If you're in south Scandinavia the weekend 24/3-25/5 you can join Rocksax Workshops with Andrew Clark. A whole day with growling, flutter tonguing, note bending, "into the fifth" .... . The day ends with Blues and Rock ensemble/jam.

Ryanair is flying to Malmö and thier prices are low. If you don't want to bring your sax on the aircraft then you can borrow one from us/me. Just like a real pro; travel with your mouthpiece, reeds and neckstrap.

Thomas

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