Saxophone beginners Well to say .....

[Tenor Viol]

Thank you all for your replies. It was better today. The reed was new and maybe need to settle in a bit.

I was also possibly getting in a loop of frustration and tension so who knows.

Reeds can be a challenge. The tale I tell is a wind band rehearsal some years ago - and I had an identical issue playing in a concert a year or so later.

I set-up to play and we started and nothing came out of the sax - silence. The reed had gone 'limp' and slammed shut and basically wouldn't vibrate. OK. Get a brand new reed out of the box, wet it, put it on. I couldn't get a sound out of it other than some squeaks - it was very stiff like trying to blow a plank. So, I got another new reed out of the box... and it was fine.

So, reed #1 had become very soft and was at 'end of life'. Reed #2 was extremely stiff. I think I did tame it eventually but out of the box it was unplayable.

So, from day-to-day reeds can vary in behaviour - it may not be you.

 

[thomsax]

Take 4 reeds out of the box and make sure thar are playing ok. Place and store them in a reedgard. Rotate the reeds. Make sure that your reeds are sitting well on the mouthpiece. Learn the best reed and ligature position for you.

My bad days, it wasn't the reed, ligature, mouthpiece ...... 95% of my bad days were caused by me. Un-focused, not ready to play due to no or less practicing the last weeks ..... .

 

[thomsax]

Thank you. I do feel that is probably a large part of my problem. I tried taking it a note at a time with fresh breaths every note and it was much improved.

My airflow certainly isn't as powerful as I'd like. I've started doing the breath development lessons in the Taming The Saxophone book so maybe it will help but as I am nearly 70 and hardly an athlete I'm not holding onto any certainty of becoming as powerful as would be ideal. Hopefully I will get to some workable stage though.

"Airsupport/airflow/breathing technique is important but you need some air as well. Lets face it: The saxophone is a physically instrument. That's goes for all instruments. More or less. More, if you play baritone or tenor in a loud environment (pub, street festival) and have to blow hard to be heard. Less, if you are playing at home or in the rehearsal room.

I started to play again 8-10 months ago on a more regular basis. I'm nearly 70. I began to do my old "Blues & Rock Sax Workouts" but also the swimming-, MTB- and kettlebell training. Physically training and playing the saxophone goes hand in hand for me.

 

[Colin the Bear]

A simple breathing exercise to help with lung capacity, is to breathe in as deeply as you can and hold it for a couple of seconds. Without exhaling, breath in some more and hold it. Again without exhaling breathe in some more and hold it. Exhale and repeat.

 

[cappers]

Yogic breathing! Colin Yogi the Bear 😉

Seriously though, spot-on. Scour the net for 'yogic breathing', 'Tai Chi and/or Chi Gung breathing'. All improve diaphragmatic breathing and control as well as expanding lung capacity. I'm sure the Tai Chi and Chi Gung I practice(d) has helped with my breath control for sax playing.

 

[turf3]

I only have reed and mouthpiece problems when I'm not practicing enough.

Don't always try to play on your best reed. Learn how to play and get results with all your reeds (assuming they meet a certain minimum bar). You won't always have the ability to pick the "one true reed". And of course the reed that's your very best in the practice room on Thursday is unlikely to be the best on the bandstand on Saturday. Personally, I have something like 10 of them in reedguards in my case, and I just rotate randomly amongst them. When one goes sour, I clip, or scrape, or both, or if it's really reached end of life, throw it away. But other than that, what comes out of the holder, I play.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Yogic breathing! Colin Yogi the Bear 😉

Seriously though, spot-on. Scour the net for 'yogic breathing', 'Tai Chi and/or Chi Gung breathing'. All improve diaphragmatic breathing and control as well as expanding lung capacity. I'm sure the Tai Chi and Chi Gung I practice(d) has helped with my breath control for sax playing.

I had no idea it was a thing.

 

[Tenor Viol]

I wrote a piece based on what I was taught about breathing by my singing teacher 30+ years ago... I thought it was preserved as an 'article' but I can't seem to find it.

 

[wooster]

A simple breathing exercise to help with lung capacity, is to breathe in as deeply as you can and hold it for a couple of seconds. Without exhaling, breath in some more and hold it. Again without exhaling breathe in some more and hold it. Exhale and repeat.

Well I tried that a couple of times. I can do the second inhalation but the third is crazy hard and makes me feel as if I'm going to do myself a mischief!!

 

[cappers]

Well I tried that a couple of times. I can do the second inhalation but the third is crazy hard and makes me feel as if I'm going to do myself a mischief!!

Slowly and gently at first, it takes time. Try 70% capacity then 75% slowly increasing over a few days.

 

[skeller047]

Take 4 reeds out of the box and make sure thar are playing ok. Place and store them in a reedgard. Rotate the reeds. Make sure that your reeds are sitting well on the mouthpiece. Learn the best reed and ligature position for you.

My bad days, it wasn't the reed, ligature, mouthpiece ...... 95% of my bad days were caused by me. Un-focused, not ready to play due to no or less practicing the last weeks ..... .

This key, thank you thomsax. Reed rotation does several things for you:

• You have several reeds that you know work
• By playing a different reed every day, you train yourself to adapt to slight differences, which forces you to concentrate on how to make a good sound
• Your reeds will last longer because they dry out for a few days before being played again

I know several working pros who just play one reed at a time, but I have seen these same folks struggle on the band stand trying to find a reed. I don’t ever want to be in that situation myself.

 

[Jeanette]

I wrote a piece based on what I was taught about breathing by my singing teacher 30+ years ago... I thought it was preserved as an 'article' but I can't seem to find it.

OK - I'm a "classically trained" singer and I think there are aspects of singing technique that will help. Make sure you are breathing from the diaphragm and not shallowly from the top of the chest. Here's an exercise to help get you into the right technique.

• Stand upright, shoulders down and relaxed, feet shoulder width apart, arms at your sides, and breath out
• Breath in deeply, slowly over a count of 4, raising your arms upwards, straight out in front until horizontal at shoulder level
• Hold for 4
• This will lift your rib cage. Your lungs should have inflated and pushed out your spare tyre . Shoulders should be down and relaxed, not raised
• Breath out slowly hissing (like a snake on a 'ssss')
• Lower your arms as you exhale
• Your rib cage should remain raised, your shoudlers should remain relaxed

You should vary the length of breathing out - 4, 8, 1,2 16 etc. You should be able to produce a steady continuous flow of air (that's why you're hissing). Change the 'breath in' count from 4 to 2 to 1. Eventually, you should be able to empty and fill up quickly.

Other points. Singers have to mark up their parts with where they're going to breath - composers aren't always that kind with phrase lengths (JS Bach anyone?). Usually indicated by a pencil stroke or an apostrophe. Sometimes, you have to break a tied note or chop something out of a note length to get the breath in - be musical about the choice of where you do this. When you breath out, you "push" from the diaphragm. Breathing out is imprtant

 

[Tenor Viol]

OK... I've found a PDF of the more extensive item I wrote about breathing exercises - based on my experiences of being trained to sing.

 

[mizmar]

Fan-bloody-tastic.

 

[wooster]

OK... I've found a PDF of the more extensive item I wrote about breathing exercises - based on my experiences of being trained to sing.

This looks similar to Pete’s in his book but expanded a bit. Thank you for posting. Most useful for me

 

[Colin the Bear]

Breathing is very underrated. 🤔

 

[Vlad]

Breathing is very underrated. 🤔

But not Underwater..

 

[Colin the Bear]

But not Underwater..

But often overlooked.

 

[Woodpad]

In 1980 I bought a book of 200+ pages with all known breathing techniques and exercises. The author became a speciakist in breathing exercises for recovering patients. Never seen a breathing exercise that was not in this book. This dutch book (ademen wij vanzelf) is still for sale.

 

[Wonko]

OK... I've found a PDF of the more extensive item I wrote about breathing exercises - based on my experiences of being trained to sing.

Interesting.
Thanks for sharing.

The last 2 or 3 years I have started to realise that my breath support is not what it should be. When I focus on it or when I play easy notes or passages, it works fine.
But I find that my breathing is not consistent enough to reliably get some notes out in some circumstances.
I have done lots of breathing exercises long before I started the saxophone. In aikido we start every training with a set of breathing exercises.
I now think that my breath support has always been adequate or even good (good enough) to be able to play the stuff I was playing in those first 10 years or so. But now I find that my breath support is sometimes lacking. It might have something to do with the fact that I got myself a Conn 10m (from 1963) to replace my Yamaha (YTS32). I get the impression that the Conn is challenging my technique a bit more than that Yamaha.
Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am (working on) getting rid of some bad habits (like biting). And that I need a stronger breath support to compensate for the effect of those bad habits....

Anyway, What I want to say is, that breathing exercises are probably helpful, something else is needed as well. And now I am working on getting that under control.