Saxophone beginners practicing embouchure and breathcontrol and loads of odd questions ;)

[TomMapfumo]

I still have to start taking lessons, will my teacher approve this mouthpiece ?

Many teachers are completely out of touch, and will only ever recommend a Yamaha 4C or a Selmer S80 C* - they may not know any of the others available. The Bari Esprit alto mouthpiece is the mouthpiece which comes with Trevor James saxes, and most that have tried it rate it above the Yamaha 4C, which costs nearly twice as much. It dates from 2011 and is very popular according to Ackerman Music and John Packer, two major shops and online retailers. Life moves on, but not that many teachers do - most I've had (about 14 music teachers in total for sax (2), trumpet (6) trombone (2), bass guitar (2) and piano (2) know little about equipment, though were excellent teachers. Many have taken my recommendations about instruments, mouthpieces, reeds and so on!

So, do not overrate teachers!

 

[kevgermany]

If the teacher objects without good reason, find another. IF, however, he can explain why it's not working for you, then maybe listen. But this should only happen when a problem is identified.

 

[Lalythil]

I promised to get back to ya when I'd get my sax and:

Yay!

Finally got my sax! 😀
Love it! Gotta say though, my mouth is like friggin tired now! (Don't get me wrong, but I'm guessing every guy would be a lucky man if every woman would play saxophone (and/or clarinet probably) Anyway, after a while noticed some air leaking on the sides of my mouth, probably due to tiredness of my lips xD) Also starting to get a sore throat which i recognised from singing with a strain on my vocal cords. So I guess I'll have to focus again on proper breathing while playing sax. Also my sound is highly inconsistent, as in popping in squawks and squeeks. sudden octave pitch shifts (both upwards and down). Mostly due to shifts in my embouchure. I notice I'm shifting in both position on the mouthpiece and in tension. But probably also due to different airflows. been trying both soft and strong. but I also noticed that as i blew harder, the sound didn't really get louder, but the sound would become very high-pitched.

Anywayy, I've put the sax aside for today. 1, it's getting late and 2, My mouth's too tired to continue anyway xD

Soo Happy though! 😀

It really feels great! 😀

I have recorded a little bit. So, if anyone would like to have a laugh and imagine a strange kind of birdcross anything inbetween a duck and a goose trying to make music, but really awkwardly.. well... I'll upload it in a bit. In the proper part of the forum.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Little and often at first. You're building muscles and it takes time. If you strain something it will take longer. You shouldn't be singing whle playing the saxophone. Maybe a growl or two later on, but save it for now. Try to be consistent and even and generate an even tone with long notes. Start somewhere in the middle, maybe G left hand 3 fingers and extend up and down. It's fun to be all over the place and I'm sure you're impatient to get playing but softly softly catchee monkey. This is something that will be with you for life.

 

[Lalythil]

Ohhh i wasnt singing while playing. But the soreness of my throat is what i recognised from when i started singing. Like putting too much strain on my vocal cords. Meaning i need to concentrate again on using my abdominal muscles consiously while breathing. Putting my focus there. And indeed i also think short moments and often will work best at first. But after my first session of about 25 minutes i decided to let my mouth rest and try again tomorrow.

I'm confident that after a month of daily playing, I'll have improved greatly from what I can do now! ^_~

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[Lalythil]

Andctnx for the tip. Long notes and start in the middle. Why start in the middle though? I actually had no trouble playing one full scale in c. So I'm thinking of playing all those notes as long notes for a while.

And of course i got to get back to regular breathing exercises xd

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[kevgermany]

Great to hear.

Octave jumps come from lack of control of your embouchure and breath. As said, concentrate on stability and you're right, it needs to come from your stomach.

Volume control comes from a combination of the amount of air and the amount of movement you give allow the reed. So to play quieter you keep the reed more closed and put less air through. To make it louder do the opposite, but both air and reed movement need to change together, and you need to coordinate pitch as well. Just blowing harder closes the reed and gets you nowhere. It's difficult at first, not really worth trying until you get single notes stable. Until then you'll probably be playing at full volume.

 

[Lalythil]

Ok tnx!! Wonderful tips!

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[BigMartin]

Since you're already proficient on other instruments and "only" need to learn the mechanics of playing the sax(es), this book could have been written for you. I've been working with it for about a year now (and plugging it onhere for most of that time!) and it's improved my basic technique enormously. It starts right from the beginning, but is aimed at someone who knows they're going to take it seriously.

http://www.robbuckland.com/content/playing-saxophone-new-book-rob-buckland-released

 

[Lalythil]

that actually looks pretty cool! and weird! and awesome! lol really didn't know you could actually hafvfe that much control with embouchure though! wow! but very good and valid points there! i'm currently also trying to play on only my mouthpiece and make long notes and try to keep at 440Hz all the while. pretty difficult for me still 😛

 

[Lalythil]

and tnx! Martin! I'll look into that book! sounds promising!

 

[aaronrod]

Your recording brought back memories of when I first tried an alto...I sounded much the same for about 3 months! 🙂

If you can, get a teacher for at least a few lessons. There is so much information out there, but it can be very hard to figure out what actually applies to you. For example, I saw on one of your posts that someone recommended putting in less mouthpiece for greater control, but the opposite advice could also be true - many sax players don't put enough mouthpiece in, resulting in a small, constricted tone. Without seeing you play, it's impossible for anyone on the internet to know which advice is right for your situation.

With a a few lessons, you could make very large advances very quickly!

The only advice I would give is don't be afraid to only play for 5-10 minutes at a time in the beginning. You're building up your embouchure muscles from scratch, so frequent short periods of playing will probably be more beneficial than playing to exhaustion (which may only take 15-20 minutes at this stage), then waiting until the next day before trying again. If you can do a few short sessions during the day, it could be a more productive way to go. You'll find the muscles will build up pretty quickly if you work them and give them time to rest.

Most of all, have fun honking away!

 

[Saxdiva]

Since you're already proficient on other instruments and "only" need to learn the mechanics of playing the sax(es), this book could have been written for you. I've been working with it for about a year now (and plugging it onhere for most of that time!) and it's improved my basic technique enormously. It starts right from the beginning, but is aimed at someone who knows they're going to take it seriously.

http://www.robbuckland.com/content/playing-saxophone-new-book-rob-buckland-released

First time I've seen your plug and bought the PDF version last night. Fantastic book, thank you! Everyone, take BigMartin's advice, get this book. Great for working on the basics to get them right.

 

[Lalythil]

Yeah im planning to! Need to put more cash on my debitcard though xd

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