Tone Playing into a corner to improve emboucher/tone

[johnboy]

I have a question for beginners.

Do your teachers advise you to face into a corner when practiceing at home, and do they sometimes play along with you at lessons?

johnboy.

 

[Sunray]

Gone to the wall ...

I have a question for beginners.

Do your teachers advise you to face into a corner when practiceing at home, and do they sometimes play along with you at lessons?

johnboy.

As a lad I was always sent to the corner for NOT practicing ... "The Naughty Corner" 🙂))

Seriously though ...

I haven't started lessons with a teacher yet - so no ...

But I do play to a wall if I want to hear what my "squeals n squeaks" really sound like ... ;}

 

[johnboy]

I was a "goody two shoes". In other words - scared to death of everyone in authority.
The reason I didn't mind going to first school, was my first girl friend. Her name was Maurine Mole.
Now don't laugh (oh go on then), my name is John Crow!

 

[Mamos]

I have a acoustic guitar hanging on the wall and the tone hole is just the right hight when playing the tenor. I get some nice sounds coming back at me when playing into that.
I wonder if we could design an acoustic panel for playing at

mamos

 

[Dave Mac]

Something like a satellite dish, you could orientate it to push the sound back up at you......

 

[AndyG]

Something like a satellite dish, you could orientate it to push the sound back up at you......

Such a thing does exist http://www.johnpacker.co.uk/Catalog...essories/Ploeger-Sax-Sound-Mirror-SATB-202924

Haven't personally tried one but there is another thread here about them and folks generally seem to thing they are really good.

 

[dave 645]

The room I have my lessons in is very small, and so every direction is a corner. At home I practice in a bigger space. I love the way I sound in the small room compared to the bigger space.
Sometimes my teacher plays along, sometimes he doesn't, I like it when he does.

Why the questions?

 

[half diminished]

I have a question for beginners.

Do your teachers advise you to face into a corner when practiceing at home, and do they sometimes play along with you at lessons?

johnboy.

In answer to the first, not exactly but is well known that it's difficult to accurately gauge ones own sound as the sax produces sound out of lots of holes. My teacher encouraged me to play facing a wall or into a corner or to record myself. I do all three and also have a sound reflector on my mic stand or music stand. There is a recent thread about this if you do a search.

I do play with my teacher which is a real buzz as she is an awesome top jazz saxophonist though mostly she accompanies me on piano.

 

[Der Wikinger]

Q: Where do crows go to have fun??

A: A Crow Bar !!

 

[jthole]

Playing in a corner helps to give you some idea about your real sound, but the result is probably more centered than what the public really hears.

No, my teacher hardly ever plays along (but then I am not a beginner). We talk about phrasing and timing, I play a piece (sometimes only a few bars), we discuss about that, and so on. Or we listen to a piece on a CD, to discuss about that.

I take lessons every two or three weeks, btw. Usually I prepare a piece for the lesson, and I take some bigband or quartet music with me that I want to talk about.

 

[johnboy]

The reason for the questions is to try to help with emboucher problems. If reed and mouthpiece selection are O.K. then playing with a profficient "saxophone" musician, the subconscious will be listening to their performance and trying to mimic them.
Back in the fifties when I was learning alto, my tutor (a big band tenor player) sometimes brought a friend along from the band (alto). They would "sit in" for the two hour lesson. The first time this happened, my tutor looked at me, and pointedly raised his eyebrows. It was then that I realised that my jaw was working, and I was trying to match their performance.

This also happened when I played the cello with a more profficient player. My wrist just started working!