Why do you always sound like you?

[Bobby G]

This is a follow-on from Bobk's ligature thread - why do you always sound like you? This I suppose is assuming you have got to grips with the basics and are developing your own style and sound, but is it because the greatest influence on the sound you produce is determined before the air hits the reed? Meaning, how you control your air speed and support, your embouchure, tonguing etc is far more of a factor than your horn, mouthpiece, reed and ligature.

Mainly this 'always sounding like you' will be down to how you control air, embouchure and tonguing, but possibly also due to your ability to always make an adjustment to get your sound if an item of hardware (horn, mpc, reed, lig) is changed. By extension, it could be argued that the constant quest for the ideal set-up which some people embark on is mostly a quest to 'sound like you' more easily and comfortably.

Cheers, Bob

 

[griff136]

The way you sound to "you" will be different to tthe way you sound to others - take a recording of yourself and then play it back - you will be surprised how different you sound - you may even find that you sound better than you think you do!

I thought for ages that my tone was not too clever until i heard a recording of myself!

also you are right about "sounding like you" there are plenty of people out there who will buy a Brecker guardala mouthpiece with a gold plated louis ligature and use turbo nutter goldplated resonators because player X uses them and "i want to sound just like that".

IMHO You need to use what equipment works best for you. 🙂

 

[frank_johnson]

A very interesting question and answers I can readily support!
When I think of the time and effort wasted by myself and my guitar-playing friends attempting to sound like the admired pro by constantly changing guitars and amplifiers to get "that sound" in the bedroom, pub or club.
You can obviously learn to play in the style of someone "famous", and you can copy riffs etc., but you will never sound the same; and what's the point of copying: far better to use what you've learnt to "do yor own thang!!!"

 

[fecklesseric]

I'm 6' 3", with a HUGE pair of lungs from years of cycling. I'm never going to sound like a 5' asthmatic simply because of the volume of my "tubes". That doesn't necessarily mean better though - just different.

When it comes to instrument, mpc, ligs, et.al., I'd have thought that it's a bit like buying "go faster bits" for my bike - once you've got a setup that's fit for purpose, the total objective difference of any change is close to zero but it can have a big psychological effect for the player.

Factor in phrasing (tonging, the way your fingers work, choice of alterante fingerings, etc.) and it'll always sound like you.

Interesting now I think of it... after years of guitar playing and a couple playing sax, the "musicality" of my sax playing is very similar to what I was like on guitar. I'd put that down to whatever "musical sense" there is in my head and getting round my limitations such as huge hands that don't seem to want to play blisteringly fast.

All in all, it seems to me that "sounding like you" is a far bigger subject than just equipment and depends upon what you mean by "sound" - imagine Jimmy Hendrix if he learnt to play sax, or Charlie Parker platying piano.

 

[Saxlicker]

Just to add...
I think when you plug in and blow, your sub concious is pulling on your experience and is steering you away from what you aren't striving for in your sound. (probably those things that didn't feel good when you started playing).

Straight away some personal trait is evident because of the target your inner ear is seeking.

 

[Bobby G]

Good points all. I am slightly worried since I saw an guitar amplifier with various switches so that you can 'sound like' Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain etc. This I believe is not good - firstly it strikes
me as being nothing more than a marketing hype, so if you hit e.g. the Nirvana switch it'll still be you, but with loads of distortion - think of the frustration felt by an average 14-year-old axe hero when he finds he doesn't sound like Kurt. Second, and more worrying to me, is the hidden agenda, that you need to sound like someone in order to be any good; that you have to fit into some kind of musical 'box'. Isn't most music formulaic enough already?

Cheers, Bob

 

[mfox]

to be honest you only hear what YOU sound like in recordings.
there is something going on physically inside your head when you play sax, basically your ears shut due to the muscles used in the throat and neck, even playing into a corner or using a reflector you wont hear all the frequencies especially the higher ones..so really you always sound like YOU, only in your own head..

 

[Saxlicker]

mfox wrote:
so really you always sound like YOU, only in your own head..

I agree that you may not sound how you think you sound 'in your head' and playing back a recording will vouch for that to a degree. (Can you tolorate your own voice on an telephone answer machine?)

But it still applies that to others .... you usually sound like the you that they hear! :cry:

 

[mfox]

i don't mean in a mental way, i really do mean physically (blood bone and muscle)so the sound you make is not the sound reverberating through your jaw bone and filtering through half closed off ear lugs.

 

[Linky Lee]

it's going to sound different because the sound is traveling as vibrations through bone and whatnot like you said which is going to have a dampening affect upon the higher and lower frequencies, kind of like a mid boost.

when the sound projects out of the bell as sound waves, it only travels through the air and reverberates etc until peoples ears pick it up and then send it as a signal to the brain which means they don't get the dampening effect, they get the reverberant effect.

Listening via a reflector would therefore give you a mix of the two, so you'd be more accurate bit still have too much mid EQ.

So maybe a way to hear yourself is to add some high and low EQ and that should be nearer the sound your audience perceives.

I made that up as I went along, so please feel free to poke holes in it 😛

 

[saxplayer67]

Sounds pretty good to me; I remember reading something a few years ago, that if a rock falls in the desert and no one's around to hear it, it doesn't make a sound - the reverberations - the sound waves - are there but if there is no ear or microphone to pick it up, it is, effectively, silent.

I also read very recently, that the reason one thinks their voice (or sax?) sound different on a recording, is because your ears dampen down the sound waves, preventing being deafened, since you're so close to the origin of the sound. I HATE the sound of my voice on recordings!

I've heard playbacks of my sax captured on mobile phone and it sounds really growly and gnarly all the time but if captured with a proper mic, one hears a truer sound - more as people here you, than you can hear from your position behind the sax. That's why playing against a wall or in the corner of the room will help you hear - sort of - what others do.

 

[Simon]

I've also read that physically, the way sound is created on a saxophone is very close to the human voice and singing. When you consider the various physical characteristics possible from bone structure, throat / tongue shape, lung / stomach capacity, musculature etc... PLUS the way you hear / imagine your sax sound (some people dig a dark sound, some with more edge etc) and the limitations of your own technical dexterity, THEN add the horn with its various mpc/reed/neck etc setups, you're into some wide variations.

If you consider Bird / Coltrane and more recently Sanborn / Brecker 'copyists', do they really sound exactly the same? Does Phil Woods sound just like Bird? Could you tell the difference between Nelson Rangell and David Sanborn? I think yer can.

Although saxophonists may copy others, I think its pretty unlikely they'll sound exactly the same when they perform - once you've 'imitated' and 'assimilated', after all that hard work you'd be moving on to develop your own sound...

I mean: two ways NOT to start a conversation with a sax player -
1. "Hi, you're intonation sucks"
2. "Wow, you sound just like ..."

My 5p / USD 2c / NZD 0.00008c worth 🙂
Simon

 

[Bobby G]

It's almost inevitable, though, that your sound or style is going to be at least reminiscent of someone else, even if you aren't trying to copy them.

I'm not opposed to copying others, but I always thought it should be a staging post on your way to your own sound.

On the other hand, does anyone remember all those awful LP's of 'soundalike' chart hits that didn't? Soundalike, that is. I think it must have been a PRS or something issue, I remember with horror the 'soundalike' tapes that used to play on continuous loop when I worked for MFI in the 70's >.<

Doesn't that phrase conjur up a bygone era, like Life on Mars. Just rolllll it around your mouth, very slowly like; "M F I in the seventies". Horrifying, isn't it?

Cheers, Bob