As a beginner sax player I have many things to try and learn, so I thought I'd drop my "notes to self", thoughts and questions in one thread here publicly, if that's ok?
Reeds
So far I've been playing Daddario Royal 1.5 which I actually got for my xapoon some time ago. I've ordered Vandroren Blue Box 1-2.5 to try them out. I thought it would be best to go with something classical, although I don't play classical music, to learn the basics.
I've been trying them out today:
strength 1: quite easy to play, the easiest to hit low notes, obviously. It seems to be a bit "unstable" if that makes sense, and perhaps it's a bit to responsive? I don't know the standard ways to describe what I mean. The biggest issue are high notes, high C sounds flat. I'm not even trying altissimo yet, but I guess that's a no go.
strength 2: much more "stable", easier on the high notes, harder to hit the low notes, but not orders of magnitude harder. Sounds a bit airy compared to 1. I think it sounds better than 1, but that's hard to say yet. Transition from upper to lower octave is harder. Still, it kinda feels this is the one I should go with.
strength 1.5: although it's between the two, it's not perfect. In a way it's closer to 1, but low notes seem as hard as on 2. It's not airy though. Rather than having strengths between 1 and 2, it seems to have weaknesses of both. Of course that's all based on trying a single of each reads, so there could be a variation.
I think I'll go with 2 and see where that leads me.
Embouchure
I'm amazed how many sounds there are... how embouchure can change tone quality. Interestingly, if I take a lot of mouthpiece in my mouth, it seems to be easier to play, including the low notes, but sound quality is really bad.. like a loud duck or something.
Turns out I like playing softly and at lower volume. Taking less mouthpiece in my mouth gives me that nice tone (but strength 1 reed is harder to get that tone with). But somwhere about the low E is a breaking point where that embouchure doesn't work anymore and I hit problems.
I've watched this video where Harvey says to take less mouthpiece in for low tones, but my experience is the opposite - when I go low, I need to push my lower lip further out, effectively taking more mouthpiece in. I have quite an overbite, so that might be a factor. So to start playing a low note I would apply lip pressure somewhere in the middle of the reed, get it to vibrate and then pull a bit further out (less mouthpiece in my mouth), seems I can catch it this way.
The most puzzling thing is, if I haven't managed to hit those low tones (other than sluring them), will I ever learn? There doesn't seem to be much more I could be doing with my mouth / lip / tongue. What am I missing? Does it just come to you one day?
Reeds
So far I've been playing Daddario Royal 1.5 which I actually got for my xapoon some time ago. I've ordered Vandroren Blue Box 1-2.5 to try them out. I thought it would be best to go with something classical, although I don't play classical music, to learn the basics.
I've been trying them out today:
strength 1: quite easy to play, the easiest to hit low notes, obviously. It seems to be a bit "unstable" if that makes sense, and perhaps it's a bit to responsive? I don't know the standard ways to describe what I mean. The biggest issue are high notes, high C sounds flat. I'm not even trying altissimo yet, but I guess that's a no go.
strength 2: much more "stable", easier on the high notes, harder to hit the low notes, but not orders of magnitude harder. Sounds a bit airy compared to 1. I think it sounds better than 1, but that's hard to say yet. Transition from upper to lower octave is harder. Still, it kinda feels this is the one I should go with.
strength 1.5: although it's between the two, it's not perfect. In a way it's closer to 1, but low notes seem as hard as on 2. It's not airy though. Rather than having strengths between 1 and 2, it seems to have weaknesses of both. Of course that's all based on trying a single of each reads, so there could be a variation.
I think I'll go with 2 and see where that leads me.
Embouchure
I'm amazed how many sounds there are... how embouchure can change tone quality. Interestingly, if I take a lot of mouthpiece in my mouth, it seems to be easier to play, including the low notes, but sound quality is really bad.. like a loud duck or something.
Turns out I like playing softly and at lower volume. Taking less mouthpiece in my mouth gives me that nice tone (but strength 1 reed is harder to get that tone with). But somwhere about the low E is a breaking point where that embouchure doesn't work anymore and I hit problems.
I've watched this video where Harvey says to take less mouthpiece in for low tones, but my experience is the opposite - when I go low, I need to push my lower lip further out, effectively taking more mouthpiece in. I have quite an overbite, so that might be a factor. So to start playing a low note I would apply lip pressure somewhere in the middle of the reed, get it to vibrate and then pull a bit further out (less mouthpiece in my mouth), seems I can catch it this way.
The most puzzling thing is, if I haven't managed to hit those low tones (other than sluring them), will I ever learn? There doesn't seem to be much more I could be doing with my mouth / lip / tongue. What am I missing? Does it just come to you one day?