[rec.music.makers.saxophone] Frequently Asked Questions Originally Written by Mike Wells. Maintained by Bob R. Kenyon. (Last modified Monday, April 07, 1997) This page has been hit 8221 times since 19 November 1996. Two other version of this FAQ are available: [msword icon] Microsoft Word 6.0 zipped (112k) [bbedit icon] Plain text (190k) The Word document is somewhat out of date, and will not be updated until I figure out an easy way of doing it. The plaintext file is an exact copy of these pages. Mike's original comments: Material from the newsgroup is used in the spirit of a usenet archive. Also, as I am English I have used British spelling. Rule Britannia. ;) Also, please note that comments submitted by readers of the group, and which are quoted in their entirety, or nearly so, are set aside in block quotes to separate them from the background commentary. In addition, if you have any suggestions or additional material to add, please contact me. Thanks, Bob R. Kenyon IMPORTANT NOTICE: THE MATERIAL IN THIS DOCUMENT REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE AUTHORS AND THOSE WHO ARE QUOTED. REPRODUCTION IN ANY FORM OTHER THAN FOR PERSONAL USE IS PROHIBITED SAVE BY EXPLICIT PERMISSION. Index * 0.0 rec.music.makers.saxophone/alt.music.saxophone Administrative FAQ * 1.1 Introduction to the FAQ * 1.2 The newsgroup, alt.music.saxophone * 1.3 Adding to this document * 2.1 Baritone, Tenor, Alto, Soprano * 2.2 Buying a saxophone - the Saxophone Buyers' Guide * 2.3 Accessories - stands, maintenance, pad savers etc. * 2.4 Reeds - strengths and preferences * 2.5 Altissimo notes - fingerings * 2.6 The Mouthpiece Exercise * 2.7 Special effects - growling, vibrato, slurs * 2.8 Mouthpieces and tip openings * 2.9 Listening to music (also, `Kenny G') * 2.10 Selmer saxophones - Mark VIs * 2.11 Improvisation * 2.12 Circular breathing * 2.13 Books and publications * 2.14 The Ten Steps Guide * 2.15 Sight Reading * 2.16 Transcribing Solos * 2.17 Embouchure Control * 2.18 Famous Sax Players' Setups * 2.19 Improving your speed * 3.1 World Wide Web Sites and resources * 3.2 Acknowledgments Back to Bob's Home Page Last modified Monday, April 07, 1997 This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] Welcome to rec.music.makers.saxophone and alt.music.saxophone! These two newsgroups are inhabited by (more or less) the same people, and you can reach them by posting to either or (preferably) both by "cross-posting" to both. This posting is essentially administrative in nature. It explains why this situation has come about, recommends specific posting practices, and explains how to set about "cross- posting" your saxophone-related message so that it reaches the widest appropriate audience. An extended FAQ answering many questions relevant to the saxophone and its music is maintained by Bob Kenyon . It is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.rahul.net/rrk/saxfaq/. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following questions are answered here: Q.1 Why are there two saxophone newsgroups? Q.2 Which newsgroup should I post to? Q.3 How do I set about "cross-posting" my message? Q.4 My site doesn't receive r.m.m.s/a.m.s/either group. What can I do? Q.5 My site won't or can't receive either group. Are there any public access news servers? Q.6 Do I have to read this document every few weeks? Q.7 Who is responsible for this document? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q.1 Why are there two saxophone newsgroups? A.1 alt.music.saxophone was formed in 1994 and quickly became a lively and successful newsgroup community. However, the "alt" hierarchy is not as widely propagated as the standard Usenet ones (comp, news, rec &c.). Some organisations operate a blanket ban on "alt" groups, citing reasons such as the volume of binaries, copyright violations, objection to the topics covered (e.g. sex, drugs and rock'n'roll!), or simply its lack of organisation. For some time, potential readers at such sites were unable to participate in saxophone discussions, and related newsgroups received regular enquiries from would-be readers seeking access. During the spring of 1996, the readers of a.m.s decided to form a more "official" group with a view to moving all discussion to that forum in due course, and r.m.m.s was formed following due process. However, even though it should be more acceptable to system managers than the alt group, r.m.m.s does not yet propagate throughout all of Usenet, and as a result we have two newsgroups dealing with the saxophone. Both newsgroups are available to a large common core of readers, but there are some sites which receive only one or other group. The following posting guidelines are suggested in order to maintain the cohesion of the Usenet saxophone community during this period of transition. Q.2 Which newsgroup should I post to? A.2 The relevance of this question depends on whether your newsreading software allows cross-posting. If your software allows "cross-posting", please post new messages and follow-ups to *both* groups using the instructions in A.3. Note that you can probably cross-post to both groups even though you may be able to read only one of them. If your software does not allow you to "cross-post", and you have access to only one group, post in that group. If you have access to both groups but your software prevents you from cross-posting, post on the "official" group rec.music.makers.saxophone. Consider carefully before making an additional post to alt.music.saxophone. Remember that most of the readers of that group will see your message on r.m.m.s. Q.3 So how do I set about "cross-posting" my message? A.3 It's all quite simple, really! Start by giving your usual "post a new message" command. Then, look at the 'header' lines (either at the top of your post, or in a separate sub-window), and make sure that both groups are named on the header line which begins "Newsgroups: ". In its standard format, the line should look either like this ... Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.saxophone,alt.music.saxophone or Newsgroups: alt.music.saxophone,rec.music.makers.saxophone Note that there is normally a space after the colon, but none between the newsgroup names. However, a few newsreaders impose their own, different, format -- in other words, your mileage may vary ... If you are replying to someone else's message and both your and their software is working well, the "Newsgroups: " line should automatically be filled in properly, so the issue of 'cross-posting' need only be of major concern when you are starting a new thread. Nevertheless, it is always a good idea to check that the Newsgroups: line is properly set when replying to other posters. If either group is missing, simply add its name as indicated above. If there is a Followup-To: line amongst the headers, it should either be empty, or list the same groups as the Newsgroups: line, in the same format. If there isn't a Followup-To: line, don't worry about it. Since it is possible to do some rather anti-social things by editing header lines, some newsreaders prevent users from changing things in this way. If that's the case, you may have a newsreader which can't cross-post. Chances are that it's lacking in quite a few other features, too, so if you are planning on reading much news, you might consider changing over to some industrial-strength software such as rn/xrn/trn or nn (unix), NewsWatcher or MacSoup (Mac) or .... (....) Q.4 My site doesn't receive r.m.m.s/a.m.s/either group. What can I do? A.4 You should contact the person who maintains the news system at your site. In principal, this person should be available at an address like usenet@your.site.goes.here. Otherwise postmaster@your.site should be able to tell you how to contact the news adminstrator. (BTW -- It is conceivable that there is no-one administering the system. Modern news software is very reliable, and there are an increasing number of sites which are, in effect, running on autopilot. Not a good idea, but it happens.) Once you have located the adminstrator, ask him politely to issue a local newgroup message to form the missing group. ('Politely', because in many organisations, running the Usenet system is considered a low-priority or voluntary task, and is more tolerated than encouraged by management). The admin can determine whether articles are being propagated to your site by examining the news logs (specifically, the history file). If they are not being received, she may have to make special arrangements with upstream sites so that they also carry the group, and to some extent you are also at the mercy of those admins, too. It is possible that your request for the group will be rejected on grounds such as those indicated in A.1. Unless you are in a position to change policy, your only alternatives are to buy private Internet access from another source or to use one of the public access news services. Q.5 My site won't or can't receive either group. Are there any public access news servers? A.5 There are a number of sites which are willing to supply news to all comers, and in principal all you need to do is to point your newsreader software at the relevant site. These include sites such as zippo.com, (which also offers an added-value subscription service), and pubnews.demon.co.uk. Alternatively, you may be able read news over the World Wide Web. One major archive of Usenet postings can be found and searched via http://www.dejanews.com/ but Dejanews did (?does) not include alt postings, so you may only be able to access r.m.m.s in this way. You can also find recent news via http://www.altavista.digital.com/ AltaVista does have copies of postings to a.m.s, although their record for news as a whole does not go as far back as Dejanews'. Zippo's archives are also available via http://www.zippo.com/ A note of warning: Some organisations have a policy on use of Internet facilities, and connecting to public access sites such as those listed above may be in breach of that policy, with possible disciplinary consequences. In a few cases, these policies are enforced by barring connection to the sites, and it is not possible to gain access to them. Q.6 Do I have to read this document every few weeks? A.6 No, it is intended for new and occasional readers of the saxophone newsgroups. Use your newsreader's "kill file" capability to "kill" all articles with the title "FAQ : posting guidelines for saxophone newsgroups". If your newsreader doesn't have a kill file facility, consider upgrading to an industrial-strength model; see A.3 for a few suggestions. Q.7 Who is responsible for this document? A.7 It was prepared by Russ Evans (mailto: russ@seismo.demon.co.uk) Constructive criticism, praise and a Selmer S80 Series III soprano at a knock-down price are all welcome! Version 0.2 (draft) of 02 Feb 97. Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 1.1 Introduction to the FAQ This is a deliberately an unassuming FAQ which does not claim to solve the world's problems or give you a fantastic insight into the world of saxophony and musicianship. The idea of most FAQs, as with this one, is to reduce the number of simple questions which can be quickly answered being posted in the newsgroup. It's not that these questions aren't welcome (far from it) - it's hoped that this FAQ can solve some of the basics for you though, and lead on to more detailed discussion. The material in this document is largely aimed at new users of alt.music.saxophone (and rec.music.makers.saxophone), but even if you're just passing through you may find some helpful snippets of information in amongst the rest. Like most FAQs this one is constantly growing! Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 1.2 The newsgroup, alt.music.saxophone (and rec.music.makers.saxophone) alt.music.saxophone (and rec.music.makers.saxophone) is a special group with a solid core of expert musicians who are as helpful as you could hope for. There's a friendly and light atmosphere in all of the discussions, and even some of the flames. If you want to get a feel for the group quickly, just turn back the clock on your news server files and have a quick scan through a week's postings. After that you should be able to see that intelligent postings get helpful replies, while over-demanding or ungraceful questions (and all the usual sins of the usenet) get nothing much at all. If you are a beginner, read this document first and then post. If you're an experienced sax player with only a little net knowledge, don't worry - we're tolerant! If you're a sax wizard who's constantly on the net, you probably don't need much of a warm up to get into the swing of things. :-) Just for interests sake, I recently conducted a survey in the newsgroup which revealed the following statistics: (June 1996) Thanks very much for all your replies to the survey. I have received no more replies in the last few days so I am releasing the results - partly, I must say, because the trends are so strong that there isn't much need for more than the the fifty three replies I did get. I hope you find this information interesting: * 36% play Soprano * 64% play Alto * 68% play Tenor * 23% play Baritone * 9% play C-Melody * On average, the reader of ams plays two different types of saxophone. However, nearly 90% of respondants also play at least one other type of instrument, with 20% playing three or more other instruments! * 36% of the saxes used by ams readers are made by Selmer. The next most popular make is Yamaha with 27%. Eight other brands each contributed less than 10% each. The least popular brand was 'Riviera', with just one respondant. Sorry for being invidio us, but how about some more info on this horn, that man? * 17% of readers classified themselves as beginners. * 38% are amateurs. * 25% are semi-professional (one reader claimed 'quarter-professional'!) * 8% are students of saxophony. * 13% of readers are professional sax players. * When it comes to musical tastes, 56% of you agreed that jazz was your main field. 15% like contemporary, same for classical (ie. same figure in each case), 11% preferred pop music or rock, and only 3% preferred marching band music. I must point ou t that this may be unfairly weighted as I did not provide a long list of options. * 41% of readers have been with us since day 1. Golden clocks will be posted later. 27% have been reading for around 6 months (slightly less have been reading for around 3 months), while 14% have joined the newsgroup within the last month. * The most popular reed is Rico Royals, with 25% of respondants using these reeds. Vandoren are used by 22% of readers. The remaining brands/variations mentioned (Rico, Fibracell, Hemke, Plasticover, V16, Java, Lavoz, Bari, Guardala, Glotin and Buffet and some others) each received a small fraction of the total. Plasticover were the least popular with only 2% of replies using these reeds. * The most popular reed strength is a very average 3, with 46% of readers using this strength (independent of size of instrument, brand or whatever). 17% use a 2 while 18% use a 2.5. 16% use a reed harder than a 3, while only one reader uses a soft (1 ) reed. The only statistic I cannot summarise is the mouthpiece. You use such a lurid selection of different brands that the sample was too fractionated to make sense. I can say that the most popular mouthpiece tip opening was a 7*, ie. .100 inches. The major ity of professionals replying had more than 3 mouthpieces. Just to try and sum up what I have read in all your replies, I would say that the average reader of alt.music.saxophone plays a Selmer tenor sax, with a Rico Royal 3 reed on a 7* mouthpiece. He dabbles with a cheap/no-name soprano and also plays alto with the same or slightly different reed/mouthpiece setup as the tenor. He plays keyboard and is known to have played around with the clarinet and guitar. He is an amateur who enjoys jazz most but is not uninterested in classical music and other genres, a nd has been reading the newsgroup for about nine months. I hope this is amusing for you to mull over! Thanks for all your replies! Mike Wells Onward... Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 1.3 Adding to this document This whole document is a patchwork of opinions and other sources. I don't want it to represent just a monologue of what I think, because opinions differ and need to be contrasted all the time for a balanced view of things. If you want to add anything at all to the FAQ, or even point out a mistake (there are bound to be some) please just email me and the next revision will be produced. I am not a pro so please don't feel like there could be nothing more to say! Mike Wells Note: Since Mike has moved on, please don't bother sending mail to him. Please send it to Bob Kenyon. Thanks! Temporary notice: Quotes which aren't credited to the authors! Please claim your works and I'll add your contact address. Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.1 Baritone, Tenor, Alto, Soprano To the musically minded, these are all different pitches on the musical scale. A baritone is lower in pitch than tenor, alto is higher than tenor, soprano is higher than alto. The saxes corresponding to these sizes are essentially the same instrument, but they do look very different. A baritone sax is a big instrument! Soprano, on the other hand, doesn't really look like a sax at all when you first see one. They look more like metal clarinets, when they are the common straight versions. Alto and tenor saxes are by far the most popular. You can identify the saxes using this comparative process: Is the crook (the tube leading to the mouthpiece) straight, hump-backed, curly or indistinguishable from the body of the sax? The latter case describes a soprano, while a straight crook is the shape for an alto. A hump-backed crook is a tenor, while the curly crook is a baritone. The size of the instrument is also quite telling, if you're not sure. The tenor is substantially larger than alto, for example. An alto is generally played in front of the body, while a tenor hangs by your side. I was recently informed that some military bands have the alto played by the side, and accordingly some alto saxes have been designed slightly differently. You may like to ask harri.rautiainen@tele.inet.fi for more information on this point. Why the different sizes? Well, even though they have the same fingerings and can play notes from low Bb to high F#, the registers are very different, and the tone is noticeably altered from one to the next. Remember that saxophones are transposing instruments: soprano and tenor are Bb instruments, with soprano being one octave higher than tenor. Baritone and alto are both Eb instruments. This means that if you play a C on a saxophone, the note which a pianist would play to match your note would either be a Bb or Eb, depending on the sax. This is quite a common thing in orchestras: clarinets, trumpets, horns, double-reed instruments and the likes all have to have music written appropriately to make them sound the correct notes. The background to this is historical, but it does for instance mean that you can buy a tutorial book written for `saxophone' and it will be applicable to all of the different sizes. Accompanying instruments will have to transpose if you don't, however. The sounds you can get from these saxes, and their capabilities are intrinsically different - choosing which to play is difficult for a novice. To some extent you might need to think about your lips and embouchure (lip muscles) and then choose: Tenor saxophone is reputed to be the easiest to start on, but by no means the easiest to master. It has a versatile and rich tone when played skillfully, and needs a firm embouchure suited to most mouths. Altos require more lip control, having a more piercing but very expressive tone, again accessible to most mouths, while baritones are a little slower because of their size and mechanisms. A loose embouchure can make these a good choice if you're not able to get to grips with the smaller saxes. They can be played solo or as a bass instrument. You can, generally, start sax on any of these instruments, and eventually they become interchangeable with practise. You are not limiting yourself by playing only one sax to begin with (remember, the fingerings are the same - it's the mouthpiece which will need practise when changing). You may be happy with just one size of sax, moreover. Many players would agree with you. The only sax which cannot be taken up by any right-minded beginner is the soprano: these are noticeably more difficult to play, requiring much more airstream control. In general, an alto is a better foundation at first if soprano is what you aspire to. Sopranos are a prize in themselves, though, and have a melodic tone which is hard to match with other saxes. One last thing; more types of sax do exist. Sopranino is the smallest sax (and quite unusual) while bass saxes are available in some places. They are huge, but if it's not enough for you to own a bass, try looking for a contra-bass...very few remain in existence, but contra-bass needs elephant lungs to play and an 18-wheeler for transport. :-) Also, there are C-Melody or C-Tenor saxes, which are not transposing instruments. They are not in common use and can be difficult to get parts and reeds for. If you need a C-Melody mouthpiece, contact John Myatt woodwind as detailed under part 2.3. A chart of saxophone ranges (from Michel van Assendelft) Type Pitch Concert pitch Frequency Range (A-440) range Hz Sopranino Eb Db1-Ab3 277-1661 Soprano C B-F3 233-1396 Soprano Bb Ab-Eb3 207-1244 (1318) Alto Eb Db-Ab (A) 138-830 (880) Tenor C B-F 116-698 Tenor Bb Ab-Eb (E) 103-622 (659) Baritone Eb Db (C) - Ab1 69 (65) - 415 Bass Bb Ab1-Db1 51-277 Contrabass Eb Db1-Ab 34-207 Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.2 Buying a saxophone - the Saxophone Buyers' Guide I refer you here to the very well-written and comprehensive Saxophone Buyers' Guide, written by Jason Dumars. It can be found on the International Saxophone Homepage at http://www.saxophone.org. I have a copy which I can forward to you if this is a problem. On the same page you can find a company called USA Horn, who sell saxophones over the internet. This company has quite a solid reputation and may well be a good starting place if you are an experienced buyer. They say about th emselves: "USA HORN, one of the few dealers that has earned the trust and respect of players around the World, if you have any specific horns you are seeking just contact us via email at usahorn@travelin.com" Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.3 Accessories - stands, maintenance, pad savers etc. This is not an exhaustive list! Slings (straps). Saxes can be heavy if you're playing all night or play baritone. A sling needs to be wide (not less than 3cm) and preferably be padded. It's also to your advantage to get an quick attachment which will not scratch around the eye on the sax. Whatever does it for you. If you're experienced you may like to get an elastic strap, which will give a little bit more support and help with weight distribution. There are several versions of this design around. Be aware that they are NO use if you're in a marching band! Harnesses exist if you find the sling idea unsuitable. UK address for soft slings: John Myatt Woodwind 57 Nightingale Road Hitchin Herts SG5 1RQ UNITED KINGDOM Tel. +44 1462 420057 £17 plus shipping. I have one of these slings and find it extremely relaxing compared to a stiff version. The above supplier also sells standard straps for slightly less, and harnesses. At this point I would like to make an addition (June 1996) of another supplier. John Myatt Woodwind are well-established and reputable, but just recently I have had some very positive indeed dealings with Bill McNaughton Woodwind (again in the UK). This particular sax dealer is incredibly helpful and very friendly on the 'phone, as well as honest about his suppliers and stock availability. More to the point, I have not been able to find a cheaper source for any sax or accessory. As well as volunteering approval sales and being very genial, Bill McNaughton Woodwind are exceptionally good value. This, you might say, is a plug, but it is unsolicited. I feel that mail order saxophone buying could not be done better, and that's the truth! Here's the address and number: Bill McNaughton Woodwind No. 37 Forbes Building Linthorpe Road Middlesbrough Cleveland, UK. Tel. 01642 231428 As the majority of readers are in America, here is another address: The Saxophone Shop LTD. 2834 Central Street Evanston, IL 60201 One other thing about slings. In my experience, the sling positioning can be much more important than you might think. When adjusting the strap try to get the mouthpiece positioned such that you do not need to move your head to reach it. This will often cure tone problems! Cork grease. The cork where you attach the mouthpiece is important and needs to be a solid seal which won't leak. This is kept in good shape with cork grease. This is a very simple compound of waxy or oily substances which should be cheap but usually gets sold at a premium in music shops. With certain exceptions, you should be able to use any fairly viscous liquid which doesn't corrode the cork or dissolve the glue. Petroleum based substances should be avoided. Lip balms are just fine. Pad savers. These are a useful accessory, like a long furry pipe cleaner. They are left in the instrument while it is being stored to dry the condensation formed during playing sessions (especially in dry air). This is very important because the pads on your sax will rot if you don't take care to dry up inside the instrument. Many players overlook this simple device but it is the easiest way to add years to your sax's life! Pad savers are sized for the sax in question (S,A,T,B), and can also be bought for the crook. The main body pad savers work best if they are tapered as you can half insert them and rotate while pressing the keys which have damp pads (eg. the palm keys) to get them properly dry. You can get them for mouthpieces, but pulling a simple cloth is entirely adequate instead, before you put the mouthpiece away. Note that pad savers will get damp if you don't let them dry out from time to time, and will start to do more harm than good. If you don't like pad savers you can get `pull-throughs' which are chamois leather cloths on a long piece of weighted string. They're not quite as effective. Note also that if you buy a pad saver, it's not a bad idea to thoroughly wash it before use to get rid of loose fibres which could get inside your sax. Oils, powders and maintenance materials. These are all quite useful if your sax has stiff or ineffective joints which need reviving. I wouldn't recommend trying to clean a sax with oils, though, as the key system is complex and you will not be able to wipe it all away thoroughly. It will then collect dust. Powders for the pads can help if the keys seem sticky, but it's far better to get them cleaned up properly in the long run. In general I advise you not to be caught out by maintenance materials: you could spend a fortune lining manufacturers' pockets and not really achieve much. Just look after your sax, and use a soft cloth to wipe away saliva before storage. Metal cleaners will not help for the same reasons that oil is not much use. Most saxes are lacquered, too, which will not take to harsh cleaners! A high quality soft cloth is the best tool you can get to look after the appearance of your sax, while a pad saver will keep the mechanisms working. Bent rods and other physical damage should be referred to a good repair shop. "After I play the alto, I run a spit cloth through the body (without the neck or mouthpiece) Then, I run a slightly damp paper towel through the mouthpiece, to get the cruddies out. (don't leave a reed on any horn, it makes it turn yucky, and a funky fungus grows in the mouthpiece) When the neck needs cleaning, rub the inside, only the first few centimeters with a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. For tenor, bari and bass, I have found that wiping the top part of the sax, where the neck fits in usually works best. The spit cloth seems to get stuck on an opening, or lost inside the body. The neck and mouthpiece cleaning is about the same, only you might be able to fit the spit cloth through the neck. Straight sopranos can be cleaned like a clarinet. I suppose C-melodies can be cleaned like altos, and I have no idea how to clean a curved soprano." Stands. Invaluable when you're out gigging. Some manufacturers are good enough to include a clarinet (or soprano) peg on the same stand, which is very handy. Baritones will require a bigger stand so make sure you specify if you're mail ordering. Reed holders. These are very useful! If your reeds are going wavy or getting broken, get a reed holder. Good ones should hold the reed flat in storage, preventing most warping. Vandoren reeds ship with a reed holder as standard (bargain!). Some luxury holders even have a humidity control in with them to keep your reed from getting damp. Typically, you can get reed holders for one, two or four reeds. Mouthpiece patches. These are a sort of rubbery shock absorber which you stick onto the top of your mouthpiece where your teeth usually go. I have recently taken to using these and have found them quite a useful accessory. Here's Miles' view: "I highly recommend playing with mouthpiece patches for three important reasons: 1. comfort from vibration on teeth from hard rubber and especially metal mouthpieces. 2. protection on the beak of the mouthpiece from teethmarks 3. (probably most important) helps open throat cavity. Actually, I can't play on any mouthpiece without at least one patch (I usually build up two or three - which helps the opening of the throat). It just takes getting use to." - Miles Osland mosax@concentric.net Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.4 Reeds - strengths and preferences This is the most contentious subject of all when sax players get together. Why does one reed perform better than another? If you're a new player, you may find it hard to understand what all the fuss is about. The fact is that almost all reeds are flawed at production because cane is organic. They often need adjusting with files, sand paper or a knife. I will quickly summarise a few ideas here in a second, but this is a topic you are better advised to get experience with, rather than taking anyone's word for it. A reed can last anything from a few days to a year. Typically, six weeks. This snippet goes a long way to explaining why it's not so easy to say: "Reeds last as long as they sound sweet - sometimes a few days, sometimes a couple of months, but that length of time is pushing it if you are playing to an audience. Lack of tone - harshness - should tell you when. You already buy by the box, which is a good move, as reed will often vary by +/- 30 % in hardness within a box - so chose the best one. Not all will work 1st time, but don't discard the others, for on another day you will find they work quite well. When higher notes are hard to play, it is certainly time to change the reed for a new one, or it may be time to move to a harder reed. I always have a few a half grade different for those days my lips are tired. You didn't say what mouthpiece you use - as it is the correct combination of the two that works best in the end. Experiment - but don't stay too long on a stale reed. This is also a health warning! An old reed will start to grow bugs, as it has been wet, and probably left to dry out in open air. Analogy: would you put the same fork in your mouth for two months without washing it?" A reed should be symmetrical, uniform and smooth. Use emery cloth or fine sandpaper to get a smooth finish without taking too much wood off (as little as possible). Soak the reed overnight when you buy it if you can as this will make it more responsive before playing. When you hold the reed up to strong light you should be able to see a heart of wood in the centre which tapers toward the tip and the sides. More than likely, it's all streaks and uneven (most reeds are). You can sand the offending areas down carefully, but don't go too far - too little is better than too much. Test the reed frequently when you sand it. If a reed is too soft you can clip the end using purpose made clippers and hope for the best. This is not really a great solution but if you're short of reeds it may save you for a gig! If the reed's too hard sand it carefully on the flat face until you like it. Do this on a solid, flat surface. Remember that the tip will become thinner and you may spoil the reed if you're not careful. If the reed is too difficult to play in the bass register, scrape nearest the steep part at the back of the reed (symmetrically) until you are happy with the sound. Don't take off much. If the middle register is stuffy, thin the top third of the reed down. The tip can be reduced a little in thickness to get a better staccato response as well as upper register sound, while the top octave can be made more responsive by shaving away a little bit from each side of the reed about half way to the heart. Get more advice if you can from a teacher, and let them show you how. You can usually tell when a reed is `bad' as the resistance and purity will tend to get harder to control. Reeds come in various strengths and styles, most commonly from 1 (soft) to 6 (hard) and usually in steps of halves. A soft reed will be unreliable, quiet and short-lived...but it'll be much easier to play for a novice. A medium reed (e.g. 3) is the most common reed for players to use, and will be consistent and responsive, as well as richer in tone than a soft reed. A harder reed such as a 5 will be much more difficult to play. With certain exceptions, a reed this hard will not sound better than a medium reed, and may actually be the sign of a lacking mouthpiece. If you've always played a 5, you are probably used to it and enjoying it. If you're thinking about using 5s, you're probably ready for a more open mouthpiece (see 2.8). These reeds do last a long time, and are louder, but they will be far more difficult to play bass notes on. Pitch bending and so on will be harder, and your embouchure will need to be much firmer to get them to play. Most players are using reeds between 2.5 and 3.5 - be aware that it is wrong to try and get onto the higher reed strengths as a mark of progress. A reed should match your style. It's no embarrassment to play a soft reed if that's how it is for you. You might spoil your tone if you use too hard a reed. Note that Vandoren reeds are half-a-strength more than their Rico equivalent, except Javas which are normal. Hemke are slightly stronger, too. If you're starting out on sax, review your reed strength frequently, and progress onto the right strength for you (and your mouthpiece) on advisement or when you feel ready. Don't go too fast. Choosing the reed is an important factor in your tone. There are generally two different types of reed, American and French. The American types are used in classical arrangements and in marching bands, having a broader and more open sound. Rico make such reeds, and they are perfectly functional in all sorts of situation. A more popular contemporary and jazzy sound is the French reed, with a thicker heart and warmer, rounded tone. Vandoren are the usual manufacturer of these reeds, with Rico Royals being close in design. Other manufacturers include LaVoz, Guardala, Hemke, Bari...etc. A few other reed-related ideas follow: "As a beginner saxophonist I've found the fibrecell reed (soft) with an ottolink super tone master (7*) is the ideal reed for my sax(Vito). They have a little edge to the tone and they are ready to play at any time (no soaking needed for me). And with proper care they last." "1) When I'm playing Rico Royals (tenor and bari) I buy them by the box and simply set down for an hour and play the reeds one by one, sorting them into good, bad, and so-so reeds. The good ones (usually 2-4 in a box of 10) go immediately in my reed holder, where I rotate 4 good reeds. The bad ones go into a tin to look at later and the so-so ones go back in the box for another playing some other time. Periodically, when I'm bored, I go through the mediocre and bad reed boxes, and I'll find perhaps 1 in 10 that really was a good reed after all. The confirmed bad reeds go into the trash can. 2) When I'm playing Vandorens (soprano), I sort through reeds at the store and select reeds that have a symmetric profile - that is, I look at the butt and the cut of the reeds for clean, even curves. I look for a slightly yellow color and stick my thumbnail into the reed to check its resilience. After I've picked out a half dozen or so I take them home and go through the same process outlined in 1." From Richard Corpolongo: REED PREPARATION How many times have you gone to your performance in a recital or an engagement thinking that the reeds you just worked on at home will respond perfectly but didn't? I bet the number is incalculable. The reason why reeds seemingly work great in your practice room and do not work at the performance hall is because both are acoustically different rooms, different temperatures and usually made of different materials. One reed could sound fantastic in one and sound dull and lifeless in the other. The answer is to bring all the better performing reeds that you pick out in your practice room to the area that you are going to perform in. Pick out two or more reeds that sound full and vibrant. Because there is usually enough time for a warm-up session in the hall before a performance, the problem of not being able to try out a number of reeds is zero. If the reeds need to be fixed in some way work on the reeds in the room. The reeds have to be as player ready as possible when you get there. They have to be moist enough to play and be worked on in either a dry or acoustically dead room. There is a way of raising the percentage of playable reeds by reducing the amount of preparation. Go to any grocery store and purchase some type of spice jar, preferably a McCormick plastic one. Any small plastic jar, possibly a pill bottle that can hold ten reeds will do as well. Purchase a reed knife and reed clipper from any woodwind store. Buy a curved tooth file from any home builders type store. A fine checker file will work almost as well if a curved tooth file can't be found. Place about ten brand new reeds tip down, right from the box and never been played in the jar. Fill the jar just above the top of the reeds with filtered water. Tap water has too many chemicals in it and can interfere with the soaking process. Let the reeds soak for 24 hours. The next day play each reed about 2 to 3 minutes. Check each reed for over-all feel, hardness, ease of playing and sound production. The reeds that play pretty well without any major repair should be numbered with an indelible marker from 1-10, 1 being the best. They in turn are placed in a reed case to dry naturally. The reeds that did not work after being soaked go into another reed case to be dried and stored to be worked on some other time. The good reeds that were put back in a reed case are now ready to be worked on. Mineral oil is a natural preservative for wood. Clarinetists use mineral oil to swab the bores of their wood instruments. Take a drop of mineral oil and rub each reed completely making sure to cover all the edges. The oil keeps the interior of the reed lubricated and water resistant making them last 4 to 5 times longer. Next, place the reeds on a piece of flat glass. Allow enough time for the oil to soak into the fibers of the reed, which usually varies with each individually. Once the oil has vanished, dry each reed with a soft towel to take all the excess oil off. Put all reeds back in the reed case for protection. The reeds are ready for performance. The day of the performance put four good reeds in a container filled with distilled water for about an hour. Replace them back in the reed case just before leaving for the music hall. The reeds then will be moist enough for your playing-check procedure later at the performance area. Keep a 35 M.M film container filled with distilled water to moisten the reeds more fully if the room your playing in is dryer than expected. If the reeds are dry in the playing room place them in the film container about 5 minutes. Play all the reeds. If they perform to your satisfaction your problems are taken care of. When you have finished your performance dip the entire reed completely into another 35 M.M film container filled with a solution of 50-50% Hydrogen Peroxide and distilled water for a second or two. Immediately dry off the excess solution and replace the reed back into your reed case. This helps to keep the reed germ free while it is drying in the reed case. The bacteria in your mouth is the reason why reeds prematurely play bad after only a few performances. The reeds that were not playable that you placed in another reed case when you first soaked them in distilled water are now ready to be corrected. If the reeds are dry when you are ready to work on them soak them for 5 minutes in distilled water to make them more playable. Place the bad reeds in four categories, soft, hard, squeaks or chirps, and stuffy. Once each reed has been corrected rub a drop of mineral oil using the same procedure that was mentioned before. If a reed is too soft simply clip the reed very carefully a little at a time with a reed clipper. Keep clipping until the desired stiffness is achieved. The problems with soft reeds are usually solved with the clipping of them. For reeds that are too hard another method is required. The first thing to check on a reed is the way it lays on the mouthpiece. Sometimes soaking the reed will swell-up the fibers and create little air pockets on the bottom or under-side of it causing the reed to play hard. With the use of your curved tooth file lay the under-side of the reed on the file and scrape very gently forward and back three or four times. Make sure you go in the direction of the curve. Filing the under-side of the reed creates a more uniform fit over the mouthpiece by eliminating the air pockets that cause the hardness in the reed. Play the reed to see if it is now workable. If not, repeat the process one more time. Continuing to scrape the under-side of the reed more than one more time will cause the reed to become soft again making it almost impossible to repair. If the reed still does not want to respond after scraping take your reed knife and lightly cut a line beginning at the heart to the bottom of the reed. The cut through the middle of the reed breaks the outer bark. This makes the reed adhere to the mouthpiece more comfortably when the pressure of the ligature is applied. It also forces the reed to compensate for problems in the mouthpiece by stretching and tightening where those inadequacies occur. Play the reed to see if the cut corrects the hardness problem. Cut the reed in the same place a little deeper if the reed still does not respond. The next solution for a hard reed is to cut a line across the body of the reed, _ inch lower than the heart. Scrape the bark off between the cut and the heart making sure not to touch the heart. If you scrape so deeply that the fibers of the reed show, you have cut too far. Cutting so much bark off will make it impossible to fine-tune repairs on the reed because the wood has been scraped away. Once the wood is gone it cannot be glued back on the reed. The hard reed problem should be a thing of the past if all the above methods are carried out one by one. The sweaky or chirping reed solution has to do with the tip of the reed. Have the student place his mouthpiece in his mouth slightly to the left of center and play some notes in all the different registers. Have him place the mouthpiece in his mouth slightly to the right of center and play some notes in all the different registers. Have him figures out which side is harder to play on. The hard side should be scraped with a reed knife very carefully one gram at a time to match the softer side. A little scrape will go a long way when it comes to the tip of a reed. This will correct the sweaking or chirping sounds from your saxophone and clarinet students. A reed that is stuffy is usually that way because it was made unevenly. It most likely has not one thing but a number of things wrong with it. The problems could be a combination of all the above or be something entirely different. The best way to find out what the problem or problems are is to first check all the above individual problems to see if the stuffiness is with a reed that is soft, hard or sweaky. If it is one of those then you have to correct the soft, hard or sweaky problems first. Only then will it be necessary to continue on to the next solution that takes care of stuffiness. What exactly is the stuffiness problem? Come to a definite conclusion as to what notes and registers are giving you the most trouble. With a pencil divide the reed into four equal sections starting at the heart and proceeding upward. * section 1. Lowest note to a 5th above * section 2. half step above to its 5th * section. 3. half step above to its 5th * section 4. half step above to the harmonic range. For example, you have a student that has no problem with soft, hard or sweaky reeds but you hear a definite stuffiness problem in the middle register which is located in section 2 of the above chart. You really haven't discovered what exact note is stuffy yet, because you have just heard a passage played while you were rehearsing the band that contained one or all of the notes of section 2. Have the student play a chromatic scale very slowly (quarter note equals 40) starting on section 2 and go upwards to find out what note it is. Listen for any fluctuation of tonal quality. The note that sounds the stuffiest compared to all the other notes of that section should be worked on. Take the reed knife and gently scrape the left side of the reed located anywhere in section 2 making sure not to go in the middle and heart of the reed. Play the notes of section 2 very slowly to see if the problem has been corrected. If it hasn't, gently scrape the right side and play the note to see if it has been corrected. If it has, the problem is solved. The only consequence to the stuffiness solution is that once you correct one note another note in some other section might be affected. Any bad reed will play after scraping the under-side, cutting a slice from the heart to the bottom or fixing the tip for sweaks. These procedures are usually fast and easy to complete. Once you start getting into dividing the reed and scraping each section it becomes a real source of frustration to complete such a monumental task especially if you are on a time schedule. If after trying all these solutions for fixing reeds fail the only alternative is to discard the reed. Once a reed has gone through all of this and still does not play it is considered dead and cannot be repaired at some later date. Richard Corpolongo My personal preference on an ebonite mouthpiece is a Vandoren 3.5, and occasionally a V16. Vandoren V16s have a thicker tip which will be harder to play but give you a more aggressive tone. They are a subtle combination of American and French designs. Rico Royal are a very popular make and again are consistently good performers. LaVoz are a slightly more expensive variation, often thought to be similar in design to Ricos, and generally work very well. Rico and Bari also make some interesting plastic reeds, which are a completely different issue. It seems that in alt.music.saxophone the slant is usually on jazz. Standard Ricos remain the world's most popular, despite this! Rico Plasticovers are a standard Rico Royal design which is then coated with a strange black compound, effectively sealing the reed in a waterproof sheath. They are more resistant to breaking and will last a few months longer on average (depending on how often you play and the reed in question). They also have a fairly good tone, although inevitably they buzz a little, especially on a metal mouthpiece in my experience. Plasticovers are about twice as much (roughly) than a Rico cane reed. Bari plastic reeds have no cane in them, and are made reliably to a consistent specification. Although not necessarily worse than a cane sound, they are a different design completely. They usually last considerably longer than Plasticovers (many months), but cost about ten times as much as a standard reed. Try one if you think this might be a good option for you. Knowing that the reed is not at fault can encourage more rigorous embouchure control and lead to a better playing technique, if you need an excuse! :-) A wavy reed is lot lost forever! Soak it in warm water for ten minutes. Never play it when it's dry, as you'll finish it off for good. "It's all a matter of who you are, how you play, and what you want. I found commercial reeds so lacking that I ended up making my own from tube cane which I imported from France. They were the best reeds I ever played. They were also so time consuming that I learned to lower my expectations and play Vandorens, but I still was particular enough that it took an average of two boxes to find one good reed. Even then I put them through a several-week period of breaking in, adjusting, and getting used to. My studiomate just slapped on a Rico Royal and played. But nobody expected him to play what I played, nor could he. What I was doing required perfection at any dynamic level from low Bb to the highest altissimo D on soprano. I needed leaps of two octaves to pop out while double tongued at high tempos. I was playing 20th century flute and violin literature which I transcribed for soprano, and I would not settle for "that sounds good... for a saxophone." There are levels of certain styles of playing that are simply unattainable without similar levels of equipment quality. So... the kind of reed you use, the quality of it, and the subtlety of the nuances it is capable of are all dependent on what you plan to do with it and what your ideal sound is. Synthetic reeds are great for what they do. But if you want control over sound and color, response and range, then you'd better look further." - Shooshie@onramp.net "My very first saxophone instructor (Dick Harvey) is in on the manufacturing of these (correct spelling) Fibracell reeds. I have had input on the quality control of the product for the past two years. They are produced in a factory in San Marcos, California (just north of San Diego, next to my home town - Escondido). I am pleased with the strides that this company has taken to please instrumentalists like myself. I am pleased with the quality. The synthetic material (with kevlar) really does have a reedy feel, without compromising the tone quality. They are worth the price, and they do last! The only problem is that before you put up the bucks, make sure you know what size you want. I just talked with Dick the other day, and he said that they are working on a process for micro-sizing the reeds. I have found that what they call a medium soft (they do tend to run a bit stiff - but that should be fixed with micro-sizing) works well on my Sugal Gonz II copper on tenor. " - Miles Osland Mail order reeds: "U-Crest Music Center in Cheektowaga, N.Y. has always given me excellent service. I get reed orders in two days. They saved me hundreds of dollars on my horns. The number is 1-800-666-1268." "Rayburn music in Boston will take phone orders and send out via mail.phone# (617)266-4727. Hope this helps..." "Discount Reed Co. 24307 Magic Mountain Pkwy. #181 Valencia, CA 91355 1-800-428-5993 805-294-9437 fax 805-294-9762" "There is a company in Indiana called "The Woodwind & The Brasswind". You can call their 800 number and get the woodwind catalog. The number is 1-800-348-5003. I have ordered from them many times. They have a HUGE selection, and VERY good prices. I highly recommend it for people looking to mail order. Everything from instruments to slings, to reeds, etc. " A chart of reed strengths (thanks to Michel van Assendelft) Brandname Very Soft Medium Medium Hard Very Soft Soft Hard Hard Buffet Crampon (France) 1 2 3 4 5 Esser-Solo (G Steuer-Germany) 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 Glotin (France) 1 1.5-2 2.5-3 3.5-4 4.5-5 La Voz (Nova Corp, USA) 1.5 2 2.5 3 4 Omega (Selmer-France) 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 Oscil-Cane (Chedeville/Glotin) 1 2 3 4 5 Prestini (France/Italy) 1 1.5-2 2.5-3 3.5-4 4.5 Rico (Nova Corp, USA) 1 1.5 2 2.5-3 3.5-4 5 Vandoren (France) 1 1.5-2 2.5-3 3.5-4 4-5 (Aside: I'm not sure I agree with all of these ratings) Hemke, Plasticover and Symmetricut are rated as Ricos (being made by the same company!). Vandoren Java are rated as Rico Royals, while Vandoren V16 are half a strength harder. Dave Guardala reeds are half a strength harder than Ricos (usually). Here's a snatch from a discussion between BB Bean and me: First I toss aside the reeds that are assymetric (at the cut or the butt), and then I look at the opaque(ness, icity?) for an even transition from the thicker heart to the tip and rails. I feel the sides of the reeds and tip and try to find reeds that feel balanced. I also stick my thumbnail into the butt to check for hardness. I usually can get reeds that are 2/3 to 3/4 playable using this method, but not in my last adventure with Vandorens. bbbean@sheltonlink.com I do all this but I've never tested the heart with my nail. Just lately I've had a really good run. I've got three Vandoren 3.5s on the go which are _incredibly_ good. I mean outstanding. They are the best I've ever had. It's going to be horrible when they get broken or worn out. :-( Looking at them, though, the main characteristic which they all have is a very exact symmetry, especially in the tip, with a good, consistent tapering of the heart. The heart is central and doesn't bleed away into the sides of the reed at all. Also, there are no streaks or stray splinters of cane. The sides of the reed are lined up with the direction of the cane's 'grain', which is often not the case imho on Rico Royals. Also, having sanded these reeds a little, they are completely smooth. I can remember that at least one of them seemed unplayable when I first got it. The sanding helps enormously. I use a super-fine emery cloth, which is technically a metal sander, but because it has no harsh crystals on it like sand or glass-paper, it is perfect for reeds. Vandoren all the way for me. If you take the view that no reed will be perfect from the manufacturer, then it's just a matter of finding the best sort of 'blank' to work on. Vandoren are thicker in the tip and, provided you find their tone agreeable, they are easier to work on. I have a suspicion that Hemke may also be good but I've not persisted with these reeds much. Rico...well...they are a good reed. They are also a little limited. I don't quite know how. Perhaps I just dislike the sound. They give me the impression of super-mass production, whereas Vandoren do seem to be just a little bit more carefully made. For example, I once bought a Rico Royal 3 which was so splintered and coarse that it would never play (it was in a box of 10 - that's one argument against buying by the box) - hand selection would have helped a lot there. It's obviously cheaper to buy mail order, though, where you just can't do that. The one thing that irritates me intensely is being offered a box of reeds which is obviously just a collection of rejects from other boxes which have been sorted through in the shop. I never shop anywhere where this goes on. It makes financial sense, but it should also be made obvious from the outset. These boxes should be cheaper, if anything. I try to buy sealed boxes only. More advice, this time from Chris Neal: I sympathize with your reed troubles!! I am a believer that reeds, like mouthpiece selection, warm-up routine, etc. are largely a personal matter. What works for me won't necessarily work for you. However, here are a few comments which will hopefully contribute to a solution for you. 1. I prefer to soak my reeds in water, rather than in my mouth. Another poster mentioned the germ factor, which makes sense (so I may experiment with the vodka myself). But at the very least, remember that the function of saliva is to chemically alter foods you eat. My common sense (such as it is) tells me that this also happens to reeds. Frustrating as it is, degradation of the reed material is a force of nature. I simply try to minimize the amount of actual saliva which comes in contact with the reed. 2. The life of my reeds seems to follow a pretty predictable bell curve. I try to have a few reeds at varying stages of this curve--some early, some working really well, and some tapering off. It's a hard balance, but see #3 for how I help this. 3. My teacher and I used to go round and round about this. He felt that if I found a great reed, I should put it away and save it for an important performance--apparently this worked for him. I tried this, but the reed never played the same when I brought it back, even if I tried to do so gradually in the weeks before the performance. As a result, I treat my reeds more like most of the double reed players I know when I find a good one, I play it consistently until it dies. I believe that the natural warping in the wood caused by changing climate affects reeds even when they are tucked away somewhere. I have gotten the best consistency by playing good reeds for at least 20-30 minutes a day EVERY DAY. If I do this to 3-4 reeds a day, I have a pretty reliable arsenal at all times. 4. It seems like mouthpieces with thicker tip rails are a little more forgiving to subtle changes in my reeds. Have you experiment with different mouthpieces?? Sometimes mouthpieces I love for their responsiveness are REALLY hard to find reeds for. 5. The first place I work on a reed is actually the back, where the reed lays against the table of the mouthpiece. I use a soft lead pencil to draw 3-4 evenly spaced lines width-wise across the reed. Then I make 2 or 3 circular passes on fine grade sandpaper, sanding only the back of the butt. I do this with the sandpaper on a mirror or other flat surface and the reed on top of that. You can really see the warping by observing where the sanding erases the pencil markings. If you don't already do this, I urge you to experiment with #5. I have had good reeds go bad after a few days (like you said) only to see an equally remarkable turnaround once the reed can sit flat against the mouthpiece again. Chris Neal (cneal@vvm.com) ...and this from Graham Seale: You have just got to overdoing the reed dependency thing. Sure you can form preferences (java.. whatever) and you know when a reed has lost its "springy" or is too hard and needs a little careful rubbing. But to be spending so much parents $ probably means your technique is insufficiently flexible to allow you to coax good sounds out of a wider spread of reed conditions - or the mpc tip rail is the problem. I suspect it is probably the mouthpiece that is giving you grief, because I think it significant that this sensitivity to reed state happens only for your tenor, and not for the alto as well. Consider that your mouthpiece may need refacing , especially to have adequate side rails and tip. No kinks dents scrapes or rounding by burnishing from asymmetric reed slap. Although the rails curve in one plane, the section across must be absolutely straight. A very narrow tip rail gives projection with lots of harmonics and can deliver a buzzy tone effect that many folk like. The downside is that it is hard to control, delivers chirps and squeaks, and is very sensitive to reed condition and fit. A slightly wider tip rail will be much more forgiving, and enable you to start soft notes. Don't overdo the tip rail, or it starts to sound like a clarinet! Find a sax doctor who cares - and ask. Do the mouthpiece exercises. Unless you have a really touchy unforgiving reed-specific mpc, you should be able to make even an indifferent reed work for you for a while. Embouchure!! I consider it significant that you say you "can't practice without a good sound". It must be nice to have an automatic good sound so you can practice other stuff. Me - I still have to practice to get the good sound! Make reeds work for longer by soaking in warm clarinet bore oil. It is a high quality mineral oil that is absolutely tasteless. It does affect the sound a bit ,but you can compensate with embouchure technique. A little hard stuff vodka/gin/potcheen whatever in the bottom of the jar slows the reed structure biological breakdown. When you have been rubbing a reed, and have it at the right state of moisture/oilsoak then burnish the surfaces by rubbing lightly with the back of a spoon handle. It seals the grain and brings on a slight shine which is less absorbent. Graham@southlin.demon.co.uk Just to finish off this section on reeds, here is a long post from Shooshie on the subject. Good advice as always! "The time has come to talk about reeds. I've been asked several times to discuss this, and have procrastinated for good reason. This is a bad idea, trying to talk reeds without even so much as a picture, but I've never really exercised the best judgment on UseNET, so throwing caution to the wind, I proceed. At best, I can only put a general idea out there; at worst, I could really give you some wrong impressions, so feel free to ask questions: Rule Number 1: Every rule has exceptions. With reeds, the exceptions are the rule. That is the only rule I'll be making. Stick to it wisely. That said, let's move on to practical advice. Start at the butt, or heel of the reed. Look for symmetry. A reed which is thicker on one side than the other at the heel was cut out of a crooked piece of cane, or else split at an angle or sanded flat at an angle, and therefore will be harder on one side. Sometimes the backbone will actually run at a slight diagonal up the reed. This always spells trouble, usually in the form of squeaks. Often these reeds are buzzy and stiff, so that if you ever get the stiffness worked out of them, they buzz like paper. Reject them. Any reed of this sort which plays well is an exception, and most likely will quit playing the moment you need it most. The center of the heel should be in the neighborhood of half-again to double the thickness of the edges. If the arc is too curved, the backbone is going to be very thick. Too shallow and it will lack support. Middle thickness rules. The second check is to lay the reed flat on a piece of glass. You must check the table of the reed to see if it is flat. See if it rocks from side to side, like the bottom of a canoe. Some may actually have a concave table. Perfect flatness is ideal, but it won't stay flat when you begin playing it. More on this later. For now, if the reed has a tremendous arc in the table, reject it. If it is only a slight arc, go ahead and work with it for now. Note that this is not so much a defect in the reed as a response to the environment. If you live by the ocean, you will find most of your reeds to be flat or concave. If you live at high altitudes, cold climates, or deserts - (dry air) - they will be canoe shaped. This is something that takes a lot of learning, and I may not try to devote much time to it here. It even changes as you play. Now turn the reed so that you see a profile, heel to tip, along each rail (the side of a reed). From the heel to the shoulder - where the cut begins its wedge-shaped decline to the tip - the top and bottom of the rail should be parallel. If it's not, then again the reed was cut wrong from the tube cane, or the cane was crooked. More problems than you want to fool with, trust me. Just reject it. Of course... if it plays it plays. But it will probably have weird extreme registers, because the fibers will not run full-length from heel to tip. Symmetry, proportion and balance are the goals Next, check the shoulders. Just like your shoulders, they work best when they are located symmetrically, relative to each other. One shoulder should not be higher than the other, or thicker. This will also mean that the vamp - the scraped surface of the reed - must form a perfectly symmetrical arc from one shoulder to the other. If this arc slides off on one side or the other, then the reed is definitely imbalanced, and even the best reed-knife technique will be challenged to restore the balance. The shape of this arc is going to differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. A good reed maker will adjust that arc for each reed he makes, because it depends upon cane thickness, diameter of the original tube, strength, and other subjective factors as well. Manufacturers cannot do this, of course. Their machines attempt to scrape every piece of cane into the shape of their pattern. Since every piece of cane is as different as our faces, this is obviously impossible. It's potluck here. You'll have to figure out how to measure a number of things subjectively. I'd have to teach you personally over time, or at least show you some pictures, but I'll attempt a description or two. Hold the reed up to the light. Shield your eyes from the light so that the reed appears to be illuminated from within. Now mentally draw an X from the corners (at the tip) to the shoulders of the reed. Within that X, you should have four sections. The rear section is roughly the backbone of the reed, and should be fairly opaque. The right and left sides are areas in which it is permissible to scrape for adjustment, and should range from dark at the bottom to lighter at the tip. These must be symmetrical. Here's the problem in `eyeballing' it: strength does not always correlate exactly to brightness of the light. You can learn what to look for within that light - coarseness of grain, density of the tubules which are the vibrating core of the reed, and the patterns they make - but when you are learning this, brightness (how much light passes through) is about as good a test as any. Symmetry, proportion and balance are the goals If you choose to adjust these sides of the reed (within the X pattern's left and right sides), just be aware that any scraping you make must taper smoothly to the tip. No gouges. If you see a little dark spot and try to scrape it out, most likely you'll end up with a gouged area which will ruin your reed. When you scrape, remember that you are scraping a tapered incline plane. One stroke near the tip is worth ten strokes at the shoulder. (Not an actual proportion, just a figure of speech) The shoulder area is where you will need to work to loosen up pudgy low registers, although, again, it must be worked proportionally down to the tip. When you work on a reed in this way, it is balance you are trying to achieve. If you find yourself trying to change the strength of each reed, making them softer, chances are you just need to start with a softer reed to begin with. But strength and balance are easily confused. The difference is this: a balanced reed plays with a nice sound even if it's hard. It will have finer overtone structure, but may just be uncomfortable to blow if it is too hard, and may sound airy, even though it responds fairly well. A reed which may be "soft" enough but imbalanced will feel hard to blow because it doesn't want to respond to an attack, and certain registers will play better than others. Often certain notes will sound good but not others even nearby. Balancing it will bring out the good overtone structure and make all registers respond more evenly. Symmetry, proportion and balance are the goals Now, the area in the front triangle of the X represents several special areas. Let's imagine it as a slice of a pie stood on its point. It is the most transparent of the four sections of the reed There at the vertex (which was the center of our X) is what we call the heart of the reed. That area is sacred. Only those who have been knighted by the reed-gods are allowed to work in that area. But it's ok to mess around with it to see what happens if you want to learn and don't mind wasting reeds. Otherwise, how are you going to become a reed-god? You gotta learn, and experience is a great teacher. Along with a few thousand reeds. Too stiff a heart will make your attacks dull and airy. Too little heart will make your altissimo and high registers weak and flat. Of course, heart must be relative to tip, and we're going to talk about tip later, so keep the heart in mind, always comparing it relatively to other parts of the reed, but don't fret with it much for now. You'll figure out what to do as you learn. This is a long-term skill. You don't become an expert on reeds overnight. Even with the knowledge of what to do, your hands have to learn it. It's as if the embouchure and hands communicate, and the brain only gets in the way when you actually start scraping. This is a craft, an art, so don't rush it. Symmetry, proportion and balance are the goals Feel the corners of the tip of the reed, and the arc of the tip from corner to corner. In our pie shape, this would be the crust. Slightly touch them so that they bend and spring back at your touch. If you are sensitive to it, you will learn to feel when one corner is stronger than the other. This always leads to squeaks, stiff attacks, and sounds which are harmonically out of tune with themselves. The corners must be equal in elasticity. Fine, even grain is a good sign, but too much grain is a bad sign at the corners. The fully-formed tubules should fade from view about one to two millimeters from the tip. A trick which helps reed response, if you can learn to do it well, is to scrape the last one-half millimeter of the tip to a very thin incline. Rather than an abrupt square dropping off at a thickness of about .3 mm, taper it down to about .1 mm. It just catches the air better and helps transfer vibration into the vamp of the reed. I do this with a reed knife on glass, but others may have better luck with sandpaper rolled around a fingertip, or with dutch rush - an abrasive member of the fern family which grows around creeks. Looks like a corrugated straw about a quarter-inch (7 - 8mm) in diameter. Do not work on the area from the heart to the tip (the "pie" shape, excepting the crust - the extreme tip as described above) unless you are experimenting. It is usually counterproductive, since that area of the reed is the "patented" shape of each manufacturer's scrape, and since it is very sensitive to mistakes of imbalance. If the scrape in that area is not right for you, try a different kind of reed or make your own. Symmetry, proportion and balance are the goals Ok, that is a brief discussion of the scrape of the reed. Now for a serious problem that affects everyone, but which few people are aware of just how seriously it affects them: the table's flatness. If there is any leakage between the table of the reed and the table of the mouthpiece, that leakage forms the equivalent of a vent, like an octave key. It wants to make your tone break at a squeaky-high harmonic. One way to tell if you are getting a leak between the reed and the mouthpiece is to place your hand against the back of the mouthpiece (or the larger end of the saxophone neck with the mouthpiece on it) to seal it off, then form a suction in the mouthpiece, pulling it from your mouth and sealing it off with the reed as it goes. This should hold for at least a couple of seconds. If you can't get a suction, there's a leak. I find this test to be slightly damaging to the heart of the reed over time - it's not good to bite on it - and it can actually create a leak. So, I perform another test which kind of gets a `crowing' sound from the reed by sucking air through your horn (fully equipped with mouthpiece and reed). There's a certain sound it makes when everything is ok, and it cannot do it if there is a leak. This is a more benign test, and easier to perform, but more difficult to describe in print. If the reed is warped in a canoe-shape convex table, then you have some choices. You can sand it flat if the warpage is minor. Beware, though, because this weakens the overall reed. A better approach is to wet the reed and store it in a hermetically sealed container overnight, then take it out, play on it and work on it the next day, then repeat this each day for about two weeks. Before you play, soak the reed well with saliva from heel to tip and give it time to absorb it, rewetting it from time to time over a period of about three minutes. After about two weeks the reed's pores begin to seal off and the warpage becomes less pronounced. At this point, you can polish the table of the reed by placing the reed flat on a piece of paper on glass. Not sandpaper, but plain paper. Holding onto the reed with some downward pressure, slide it from side to side, quickly, as though you are sanding it. After a while, you can achieve a hard shine as the surface becomes glazed with heat and friction. This helps seal the table itself. I recommend two methods of storage. Smaller reeds store well on glass in those felt-lined wooden reed cases. Larger reeds are even more susceptible to weather changes, and I recommend a bottle of some sort with a sealed lid. I have a plastic bottle not much bigger than the reeds themselves. I put sponge in the bottom to protect the tip. As I put reeds into it (after playing), I may breathe a little air into it before putting the cap on. That puts the moisture of my breath in there for the reed to absorb. [note: if you leave this for a few days, it will be nicely covered with a furry mold. I've actually just scraped it off and continued using the reeds. Sometimes the mold actually fills the pores and prevents drastic warpage! But I'm not recommending it.] If you live in a relatively humid climate, this is not a problem you will have to deal with so much until you go on tour. When you tour the mountain or desert states, you'll be wishing you remembered what ol' Shooshie told you. As you play, the reed may dry out and warp on your mouthpiece, especially in the desert states. This is why I keep all sorts of reeds in the preparation stages, and finish them on site. A reed which is concave in Miami is going to be flat in Denver or Phoenix, but a reed which is convex in Miami will be unusable in Denver. Again, this is an art form, and many people develop their own methods. I'm just trying to make you aware of it. Younger players tend not to know about these things, and get bewildered especially when they travel and find that their lightning technique suddenly can't get off the ground when they change cities. It's an eye-opening experience, but you don't have to travel out of state to experience it. Go from a house with old-fashioned gas space heaters and into a building with central heat and you'll get the same effect, or from an air-conditioned practice room to an outdoor concert. Five pages. Too much. And I've really only scratched the surface. Let me tell you, reedmaking is the evil twin to all the technique which you work on daily in the practice room. Ignore it, and it will steal away all your ability and make you impotent just when you think you're a stud. If you are playing on a high-level, or aspire to it, then you're either an expert on reeds or soon will be - or else you'll soon shift careers. Oh yes, one last thing; did I mention that symmetry, proportion and balance are the goals?" Shooshie@onramp.net Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.5 Altissimo notes - fingerings The altissimo register is particularly popular in jazz circles. As each note that you play is already made up from other notes (giving your characteristic timbre) it should logically follow that with a little effort these notes can be separated out. In fact you can go further than this and play notes which normally a saxophone could not play (above top F#). The way to play altissimo is not easily taught but in general you need to have a much more supportive embouchure, and a controlled airstream. Experimenting will soon show you what is meant. When you can play one altissimo note, try the next. Remember that some will follow sequentially and need little adjustment, while others will need a completely new airstream to be playable - these will be a problem until you have learned how to predict the next note. Caveat: student instruments and closed mouthpieces will underachieve in this department. It may even be impossible to play altissimo notes on your instrument. If you can't get anything to work, don't give up too soon but do seek advice in the newsgroup. Remember that if you are a novice you will probably only spoil your enthusiasm for playing if you try this too early! :-) NB. Octave key depressed in each case, although it is in the essence of the altissimo register that you don't need to use it! These fingerings will need adjustment for the intonation of your instrument in many cases, but are valid for all saxes (expect the last two notes). Note Left Hand Right Hand F# Front F, C E side G Front F F side G# Front F E side A C, G F, E, D Bb G C side B D palm None C D palm, Eb palm None C# Front F F D D palm, Eb palm, F palm Bb side D# D palm, Eb palm, F palm E side, C side E D palm None F D palm, Eb palm, C E F# D palm, Eb palm Bb side G C F G# None None A D palm, C, G F, E, D Bb None Bb side D# BARITONE ONLY D palm, C, G F, E, D E BARITONE ONLY D palm, G F, E From Shooshie: "Now... let's talk about creating your own fingerings. Look closely at the fingerings you use and figure out what they are doing. Essentially they are creating a new octave overblown at a harmonic rather than the octave. They enable you to use that overblown harmonic with your key system for a span of a few steps at a time before having to overblow at the next harmonic and start the key fingerings over. One key generally acts as a vent (an octave key) to force the harmonic to sound, while the other keys give you some fingerings that connect chromatically. The best altissimo notes are those overblown at the lower harmonics. They will be firm and have tone, not just squeaky sounds. The higher harmonics are absent in lower overtones, and therefore have less body to distinguish them from the same note on a flute or clarinet (or reed squeak). So, with this knowledge in mind, you can make up your own altissimo fingerings so that you can connect chromatic fingerings and have true usage of your scales and arpeggios up there without jumping from one key system (at one harmonic) to another key system (at the another harmonic). Am I making sense to you? I never tried to put that into words before, but have used it for decades in creating my own fingerings. Most people have trouble with altissimo not because it's hard to produce, but because the fingerings are so awkward. And they ARE awkward when you are jumping from one harmonic to another with each note. Keep them connected under the same harmonic and you will have virtuosic control." Shooshie@onramp.net The following document is an appropriate supplement (or replacement) for the chart of fingerings I supplied above. Jack Laing's fingerings for the altissimo register differ because this register is such a pragmatic zone in sax playing. If you are having p roblems producing altissimo notes you will find these hints useful! There are numerous fingerings for altissimo notes some of which are more suitable for alto than tenor or are dependent on which make of sax you play. The main thing that helps in achieving the note is pre-hearing, in other words, knowing what the pitch of the note is before you go for it. Practice Shooshie's m/piece exercise so that you can apply it to the sax and try to lower notes within the normal range by up to a minor third. Try playing bottom C, middle C, top C then harmonic C (this is one of the easier harmonics to get). Then try bottom B, middle B, top B then harmonic B using the same fingering as harmonic C but bringing the note down a semitone by using your larynx. B altissimo is usually a difficult note to get so this makes it a b it easier. I usually do this when going for an Ab by using the A fingering and pitching it down as the Ab is usually an awkward one to get. Before trying to play altissimo notes it helps if you practice overtone exercises as follows (see David Liebman's b ook "Developing a Personal Sound"). Play middle Bb then finger bottom Bb and try to get the sound and pitch of middle Bb. With the same fingering try for the F above (top line of the stave). Now try F then slur to middle Bb then bottom Bb all with the bot tom Bb fingering. Next see if you can get top Bb then a D above that. This is more difficult but don't squeeze the reed up; alter your larynx as a singer would to get the note. Again, David Liebman's book and Shooshie's mouthpiece exercise notes are help ful. It is the harmonic series of Bb that you are trying to achieve without using any fingering but bottom Bb. Next try the same exercise using bottom B as the base note, then C then C#. Fingerings: Where a front key is to be pressed I will show a cross instead of a circle and a will show only those side keys that are to be used. Octave key on at all times. Notes are often better with the bottom Eb key depressed. F# AuxF AuxF AuxF AuxF O PalmEbO O X O O O PalmD X X O X X O sideBb side sideBb PalmF O O X Bb O O Ekey OF#key O X X X O F#key O O O O O X O O O O O O G AuxF AuxF AuxF O O O X X X X O O O O X O O F#key Bbkey F#key O O O X X X O O O O O O X O O O O O O O O O O O X O X O Ab AuxF O O X O X X O X X O X O O O X X SideC SideBb SideC SideC SideC X O X X O O O X X O X O O O O O O O O O EbKey Ebkey O X O O X O A O O O O O O X X X X Side Bb O X X X X G# X X X O O O X X O O O X O O O Bb O O O O O X O X PalmD PalmD SideC X X X X O O X X O O X X O O O O B O X O O O PalmD X PalmD SideC X X X O X O O X O O X O C X X X O O PalmF PalmEb O O O O O PalmD PalmD SideBb SideC X X X X O X O X O O O O O O O X X Ebkey O O X C# AuxF AuxF X O Palm O O X X O Palm Eb Eb O O Palm O O O X O Palm D D O X X X X X O E key E key O O O X O X O O O O O O X O O O O X Eb keyX O Ebkey O D AuxF AuxF AuxF AuxF O O O O O OPalmEbO O O O O X OPalmD O O SideC Ekey O X X Ekey O O OPalmF O O O O X O X O O O O X O O O O O X X O O Ebkey Eb O X X O X X X X SideC X X O O O X X O O X X O O Ebkey O O X (If you have a top F# key you can get an Eb by pressing all the palm keys( D,Eb,F) and the top E and F#) E X O O X X PalmEb O O X X O PalmD X SideC O SideBbOX X X O X O O X O X X O X O Ebkey X O O F X O X X O X jack.laing@onyxnet.co.uk Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.6 The Mouthpiece Exercise The following is a copy of the post which Shooshie (the founder of this famous exercise, I believe) posts from time to time. This exercise, in my opinion, is one of the finest ways to improve your tone you can try. It's not meant to be easy but if you can do it, you'll notice the results pretty quickly. Experienced players and newcomers should at least try this for a few days because it's not a common thing to come across by word of teachers and so on. It's worth the time. It's also the crux of several other methods, notably circular breathing and vibrato, which are covered elsewhere. Ok, there have been a couple of requests here, and a couple in email, so here goes again. This is pretty simple. It is not something that should ever become a source of anxiety. If you have an inflexible airstream right now, it may seem frustrating at first, but you will "discover" the methods through practice. While at first you may want to spend a little time on it fifteen or twenty minutes seems excessive to me, maybe ten would be more like it - from then on you probably don't need more than a couple of minutes of it as a warm-up exercise to get your bearings. The objective of this exercise is to put you in touch with the muscles which control your airstream and teach you the coordinated movements of them which enable absolute pitch and timbre control at any volume level (within reason), which I will call "velocity" from here on out, borrowing the MIDI term for attack rate. Velocity, then refers to the speed of the airstream, not the tempo of the music as in Czerny's exercises for piano. Along with the muscular coordination and control, we will need to learn a way to remember specific positions of those muscles so as to enable their quick recall when attempting to practice a difficult passage for consistent perfection. I use a phonetic system for this, since we each have learned phonetic systems since birth to enable us to perform the miraculous muscular acrobatics of speech. The tongue is a free-form muscle, and very few of us really have any idea what it's shape is at a given moment. I've seen people do fiber-optic cable photos and videos of the tongue so as to determine these shapes, but such studies have little practical applications for three reasons: 1) the people doing the study do not necessarily know which positions are "right" for airstreams. 2) the subjects being studied (saxophonists) may find it difficult to produce the proper positions with the apparatus in their mouths 3) even if the above two points are corrected for, a picture doesn't give us any connection with a physical means to produce the positions in the photographs. So in response to that last point, I searched for a means of locating and coordinating the airstream positions necessary to play the saxophone, and a means of describing and recalling them. The solution was extraordinarily simple. We have both right here in our mouths - the mouthpiece and our ability to speak. Here is the exercise, and following the exercise a description of the phonetic tools to help you recall certain positions, and then a discussion of how to apply the exercise to your other exercises and to playing (also, how NOT to). For first-timers: Holding only the mouthpiece (with reed and ligature mounted and fully ready for playing), play a sound, keeping your hands away from the back of the mouthpiece. This will all be controlled by voicing the airstream. Find a pitch that is comfortable and begin by attacking that pitch a few times with different velocities. Now that you have a feel for playing on the mouthpiece alone, try lowering the pitch. You may at first just imitate a slide whistle until you get some control over it. Immediately upon success of this little glissando down and back up you will be aware of at least two things: something is at work with your tongue and throat positions, and you have to support the sound with a lot of diaphragm pressure. No namby-pamby little toots; you will need long, broad lines of airstream sitting on top of a solid set of stomach muscles. (Later you will need to learn to do it with minimum effort, but we're just getting started.) Now that you're an expert slide-whistle-duck-calling mouthpiece tooter, it's time to control it and learn coordination. Play a comfortable pitch. The pitches will depend on the size of the mouthpiece: soprano: anywhere from a concert "A" to "C" alto: concert "A" tenor: concert "F"-"G" (some small chambered mp's may do well with "A") bari: I honestly don't remember. It's been 10 years since I sold my bari. Using the above determined pitch as your starting point, set your tuner to that pitch (playing an audible sound, not measuring your pitch) and begin playing a scale downward. Match each interval as closely as you can, listening for "beats" between your sound and your tuner's sound. (A synthesizer will do if you don't have a sound-producing tuner). Attempt to play an entire octave. As you get down to about a sixth below, your jaw position will change, and you will go to something like a subtone embouchure. These lower notes represent extreme flexibility and changes, but I think they serve a purpose. Don't feel lost if you can't get them, though; the real meat of this exercise can be had even if you only can play an interval of a fifth or sixth. Now that you have accomplished the scale, or at least the beginnings of it, let's move on to the real stuff - the part that gives you control over some coordination: dynamic control. Begin your scale again. At a tempo of approximately quarter note = 126, make each note 8 beats long (or longer if you like). Begin each pitch rather forcefully, being considerate of your neighbors, though, and again match the pitch to your fixed pitch reference tone. Now decrescendo to PPP over four beats and then crescendo back up to your starting velocity over the next four beats. Keep the pitch constant. Then repeat it for each note of your scale, always keeping focused on the pitch. Consistent pitch is the key to this exercise. Ok, that's it. Now you've done it. Do this exercise as a warm-up on a daily basis, before you do your harmonic (overtone) exercises. Ok, now that you have learned to play scales (and a few of you have probably even been playing tunes) on your mouthpiece alone, what can you do with it besides surprise your friends with a mouthpiece serenade? Plenty. If you have mastered the velocity/pitch control, then you have accomplished a lot. You already found out that as the velocity of the airstream diminishes, the pitch goes up, and vice-versa. You learned that you could control it, though, without necessarily even having to know what you were doing. It's just a natural and intuitive act of compensation. You also learned that tightness and reliance upon jaw pressure alone (biting) is the enemy of airstream control, and yet it is very much a part of the overall act. Learning to coordinate these actions is what makes you a virtuoso. Now at this point, I could launch into a lengthy dissertation of exactly what is happening in your mouth, and give you exact descriptions of tongue positions, and thus-and-so, and do this and don't do that, and if it's not precisely my way then it's not right, and blah, blah, blah. But I won't, and for good reason, too. I don't really know. Well... I kinda know after all these years, but it's really not important, and I sure wouldn't want anyone out there going around saying "Shooshie says it has to be this way," and starting a whole new "school of thought." Schools of thought are good ways to lock you up and inhibit your ability to learn. As soon as someone points a school of thought at you, get ready to run or be shackled. Not that what they tell you may necessarily be wrong, but simply because they're liable to say it's the only way. "School" in this sense translates into something like a "cult." So, instead of telling you what's what, I'd rather tell you how to use this to find what works for you. That is, I'd rather give you some tools than to tell you what to build with them. So here goes: What is it that enables you to change pitch on the mouthpiece alone? Is it "lipping down"? No. I can bite the reed nearly shut and still do the scale. Your lips are involved, and must be supported with muscle, but it would be wrong to say that we are lipping down. Are we opening our throats or closing them? Maybe. It's not so important to know this, since whatever it is happens automatically in order to successfully do the exercise. But one thing is for sure. The tongue and other things do move as you get softer or louder or change notes or correct the pitch, just as they do on the horn, and they do so in a coordinated "dance" just as they do on the horn. This range of motion, whatever it is, and the positions of things in your mouth and throat are all important in finding what will work for a given musical circumstance. For instance, you are playing in the lower middle register and have a quick leap into the altissimo and back. You can play the altissimo note fine by itself. You can play the middle register fine by itself. But putting the two together you always squeak, squawk, and get all tense. How can you nail it as if nothing happened? Simple. Remember the positions of each one. Reduce the changes between those positions to the very barest minimum necessary to accomplish it. It is much less of a change than you might imagine if you are playing correctly to begin with. Now comes our trick. Determine the phonetic positions of your mouth for those two different ranges on the instrument at the volume you want them to happen. Now put them together. It's as simple as saying a phrase like "any ann." Notice what happens when you say "any ann." Your tongue locks quickly into two different positions and back. It is not difficult at all, but it produces completely different sounds. That is how simple it should be on sax. But you may be like a baby when it comes to speaking on the sax. It takes a little time to learn, therefore you should practice things slowly until you get the hang of it. Soon you will be talking full speed. Back to the mouthpiece exercise. As you play the scale, determine the phonetic positions for each pitch and volume. Notice that you will be addressing three parts of the tongue - at least that's how I've divided it up: Back, Middle, and Tip. The back of your tongue stays the same pretty much all the time. You've heard some people say that you keep your throat open, while others say that you close it down. Some will talk about warm air or cold air, fast air or slow air. There is a great deal of confusion about this, and nobody seems to agree. There's good reason for that. Nobody really knows what's going on back there. But you do know, even if you can't put it into words, because you've done the mouthpiece exercise. Rather than speculate on all these dichotomies, let's focus on practicality. In order to successfully render the mouthpiece exercise, the back of the tongue is in a position to create the sound of "K" at moment's notice. It doesn't actually create that K, but it's close. It's kind of in between a "K" and a hard "G" (as in "gate"). You could articulate a sound with this position. This is very handy, since when we begin double tonguing, our tongues will already know how to do it. The position is a bit stretched for either of those consonant sounds, but we are going to use "K" or "G" to describe the position, since they are pretty close. Remember, we're using the letters to describe something we actually are doing. We're not trying to make what we are doing match the letters as we would normally speak them. The mouthpiece exercise is the authority to whom we turn in order to tell us the proper positionings. We just apply the phonetic symbols as tools to help us remember those positions. Now... let's skip the middle of the tongue and come back to it later. Let's look at the tip of the tongue. It seems to function as a focal point for the airstream before it enters the mouthpiece. When it is focused, it adopts a kind of pointy shape somewhere between English "R" and "L". It is able, at moment's notice, to pop up to the reed and make a "T" or "D" shape which can be very handy for single tonguing. (Gee... it's just amazing how all this is working out, isn't it?) :-) Again, remember that you take what works (from the mouthpiece exercise) and use the phonetic symbols to describe them, not vice versa. OK. For the middle of the tongue, we have our vowel sounds. The whole range of them. You can feel them for yourself as you do the mouthpiece exercise. Play a pitch and freeze into that position. Remove the mouthpiece and vocalize whatever comes out without moving from that position. There's your phonetic position for that pitch. You can even write it down! At least you can write an approximation that has meaning for you. That helps greatly when you're trying to remember how to make that two-octave altissimo leap on a sixteenth note. One other important position to note is the sides of the tongue. When correctly in place, the "rails" of the tongue slide forward and backward between a pair or two of the upper molars. It's not a big slide, but just enough. This helps create an actual chamber for the air to travel through. In doing all these different things with the tongue, we have created a space to act as a resonating chamber to help reinforce the desired overtones and pitches which emerge from that other resonating chamber... known as a saxophone. Put the two chambers back to back and you get harmonic reinforcement. Your resonating chamber can also act as a detriment to the sound by not reinforcing the harmonics of the tone you are trying to produce. On the mouthpiece alone, this will cause squeaks, grunts, or just a locked-in high pitch which you cannot control. The shaping of this chamber is very subtle, but ultra-important. Without it, you could not do overtones, altissimo, or pitch correction. You would have trouble tonguing some registers of the horn. You'd have trouble with large-interval leaps at speed. Sound familiar? Then you've probably been needing to do this for a while! Let's review our phonetic positions. If you put together our back, middle, and front positions, you get something like [K(G)] + [a,o,u,e,i] + [R(L)]. You won't mind if I simplify a particular position to something like [KAR]. Or how about [KIR]? We know that the K is not a real K, and that the R is really more of an L. We're just using these symbols as shorthand for what we want to remember. Now you have a tool to help you recall specific airstreams, and you have a reference exercise - the mouthpiece - to coordinate those airstreams into dynamic, practical usage. Next, you will want to apply the same airstream positions to your harmonic (overtone) exercises. Simply do the same thing. Play each harmonic on your horn and change velocities. Crescendo and decrescendo (or vice versa), noting the changes. Work on getting the timbres to match the sound you desire. Note the phonetic positions. Now play the regular fingerings. Apply the same phonetic positions. You may have to compensate, but very little. You're ready to use these exercises, now. Applying them to your actual playing, you should notice improvement and greater control in your pitch and pitch correction after an attack, vibrato (shape, speed, depth, flexibility and consistency) dynamic control (and its relation to pitch), tonguing, double tonguing, timbral consistency, altissimo, and general playing in all registers. Anywhere that you find problems you will be prepared to isolate those problems and work them out with your new-found tools. In each case, you will: 1) figure out exactly where the problem lies 2) play individually the notes giving you the problems 3) determine the ideal position for each note 4) note the phonetic positions and their changes between notes 5) practice for the minimum change between them 6) make the change as fluid as speaking 7) apply it to the music and increase the tempo until perfected Now, we're talking a lot about changes. Haven't we all been drilled with the idea that nothing changes? That we're supposed to play everything in one position? What about Daniel Deffayet (and others) who delight in public demonstrations in which they have a student blow the horn while the clinician stands behind them fingering the horns? It's amazing to see that the student really CAN play the music if someone else is doing the fingerings. That's because the student cannot predict a change and respond to it in their (bad) habitual ways. What gets demonstrated is that students typically change the wrong things, and change them too much. I can also do Deffayet's trick, but if someone does it for me, I can foil them by not changing anything. Just try playing a low Bb and freezing in that position and playing and altissimo G, or a high F. It won't come out most of the time. The secret is the three parts of the tongue. The back and the tip do not change. This is where we get the idea that nothing changes. But that idea is not entirely right: the middle changes. The demonstration trick is possible because if the back and tip do not change, nearly any note is possible with the middle of the tongue in a neutral position. In fact, some of the correct changing will happen naturally. But control over the precise pitch and velocity present a whole set of problems not demonstrated by this public exhibition. This new set of problems is pretty much completely addressed by the mouthpiece exercise when applied to harmonic exercises and altissimo studies, and then applied to music in general. So what it all boils down to, once you've established all the right positions, is that a little portion of your tongue - the same part that makes all your vowel sounds - is of utmost importance in aiding your flexibility on the instrument. It determines your pitch, timbre, and harmonic reinforcement of the sound. And it's as natural as speaking or whistling. In fact, you might think of this whole thing as "whistling while you work." The same stuff applies to flute, clarinet, and all other woodwinds, as well. In each case, the feel is dramatically different, but the principles are the same. The changes on flute are ultra-tiny, but even of more importance since you cannot lean on octave keys to do part of your work for you. On clarinet the air column overblows at a twelfth, so the feel is again very different, but it's there. Oboe is like flute - very subtle. I can't report on bassoon, since I never played one outside of a woodwinds class. But the same principles apply to brass instruments as well. In fact, you couldn't play brass instruments without these principles. In closing, let me reinforce the fact that these tools enable you to find what works for you. Maybe your sound ideal and mouthpiece and the shape of your mouth, not to mention your colloquial speaking accent (Brooklyn comes to mind), all require that you do something way different from what I do. But still we use the same tools to find them and apply them." Shooshie@onramp.net Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.7 Special effects - growling, vibrato, slurs Special effects are a favorite of mine but may ultimately make you want your old, pure style back for good. So make sure these don't spoil your sax life (oh dear...!) ;) Two effects I refer to specifically are growling, and slurring notes. Growling, as used in rock and roll quite frequently, involves getting your sax to play a combination of notes together to produce an oscillating, `gritty' sound. There are two ways to do this, humming and key work. I have never really had much success using the keys to play undefined notes and hope for the best - I suspect this is as much my fault as anything as it's not easy to remember another set of fingerings. One such fingering you may like to experiment with is playing a low C, and then releasing your right hand F key. The resulting multiphonic can be extended into all sorts of other notes, if you carefully plan your fingerings. The easy way is to hum into the mouthpiece as you play. This is quite a strange feeling and may not prove simple to master, but a few weeks will usually be sufficient to get the growl in at will. Choosing your hum is very important. If you play an A, try humming a D, or generally a 5th or 3rd. The resulting growl will be much more effective than if you just hum any note. The tendency will be to hum the same note you're playing! You'll get no growl if you do this... Slurring notes is not too difficult, but will not be easy if your embouchure is untrained (beginners) or too much jaw pressure is being used. These two evils should be the first thing to look at if you're having problems sustaining notes or are damaging your lip, incidentally. To slur a note, you may like to start with a middle C. Now, gradually, let your lower lip apply less pressure on the reed until the note begins to drop. You can keep slurring down a full semitone, if you try carefully enough and release your jaw in the correct way (while keeping your airstream going). Then, tighten your lip again to sharpen the note and get your C back. Practise! It's harder on the lower notes, and easiest in the middle register. You will need to supply more air at the bottom of the slur. Using this technique it is possible to play a low A on any Bb instrument! Vibrato is a useful technique. This is a rapid flatten/sharpen sequence, producing an oscillating note. If you can master slurs, then vibrato is the next important effect. A point worth remembering is that when you're on stage or using a microphone, you need more vibrato for the audience to get your tone. Vibrato does, of course have one problem: you are oscillating your pitch lower and then normal, lower and then normal. The net result is a flat note. Ideally, you need to be able to sharpen your note as well as flatten it. This is a feat which can be achieved (allegedly!) with the following method: Using a metronome and working out vibrato speeds, evenness, and so forth is very helpful for learning vibrato, but what you have described above is a prescription for pitch problems. It makes you flat. Never mind that it is the method most people use. I don't think it is David Sanborn's method, though, or anyone else who sounds pretty much on pitch even when using vibrato. Here's the problem. You are starting with a pitch in tune, and when you want to get expressive (with vibrato) you make it go flat. Graphically, your vibrato would look something like this: [Image] (Pitches obviously would vary a lot from player to player, and depending on how wide a vibrato you were attempting to use. This one is pretty wide, but illustrates my point.) For a vibrato to sound really nice, it must not create the effect that the pitch has gone flat. Unfortunately, that is exactly what you hear in most players, especially legit or classical players. It can be very annoying when overdone. Here is a more ideal vibrato: [Image] [note the change in the pitch range] It cannot be done if you play on the high side of the pitch. By that, I mean if you already have your pitch compressed upward so that "lipping up" the pitch is difficult in a tasteful way throughout the range of your horn, then you will not be able to do this kind of vibrato. Instead, you'll get a chopped sound where the sound chokes on every upstroke of the pitch. In order to play this sort of vibrato, you must center your pitch at the more natural level of the instrument, lower. That means you might be pushing in your mouthpiece a little bit. Many student saxophones make this undesirable, as they are designed to play with a pinched embouchure with the mouthpiece further out to compensate. The Selmer Mark VI is a good instrument for the proper kind of technique (and by no means is it the only horn), although it can be applied successfully to any instrument with some work. This gets very tedious, I know, which is one reason I've never posted on it before. Consider this information as something on the virtuosic end of saxophone technique, and don't fret too much about it if you can't or don't feel like pursuing it at this time. But if you want perfection in your control of vibrato and pitch, this is the path. That said, let's continue. In order to do this consistently throughout your instrument's range, you must first be able to comfortably vary the pitch upward on the flattest note on your instrument, which is often a low D, low G, or somewhere in the lower half-octave of your horn. This means the mouthpiece must be pushed in enough to allow for it. But it's not quite that simple. If you play a hard reed, pushing your mouthpiece in will only make you play extremely sharp. We're talking about a whole new concept of playing for some people; one where the pitch is actually centered in a much more relaxed position. Holding it stable requires - I repeat, requires - controlling the instrument through the airstream more than the embouchure. This means you'll be playing the sax more like the flute. Incidentally, the same airstream control works on all wind instruments, making doubling a lot easier. If you resort to the upward pressure you may have used before, you'll just go sharp all the time. Nobody wants to play with someone who just blows sharp, so you'll pull out your mouthpiece again, and then you'll be right back where you started with the "flat vibrato." So, if you're not prepared to go the whole distance, don't bother to try this at home! Now, I know it's looking pretty grim at this point, but do you think I'd lead you into the dark woods without a path to get you out of it? Of course not! And if you've read my posts in the past, you know what I'm going to say next: Mouthpiece Exercise. This is where it really fulfils its promise. Now let me repeat, in case you missed it above: If you play a hard reed, this will be difficult for you. I play a reed that must be very balanced, free-blowing, but with some resistance. Not hard, though. I've always used Vandoren Mediums, but I might go through several boxes of them to find one that is worth working with. Then it takes a lot of patience and reedwork to get it consistent. Note that by no means is the reed "soft." Never. Like Goldilocks preferences, it has to be "just right." Once committed to doing this, and with the proper reed/mouthpiece setup, commence perfecting your airstream with the mouthpiece exercise. I won't repeat that here. But obviously, it is a major chunk of what we're doing. Now... when you've gone through the mouthpiece exercise, the harmonic exercises, and are ready to work on long tones with vibrato, get ready to use a tuner. Slowly vary your pitch as per the ASCII diagram above and learn to do it in rhythm. Work so that every note has even vibrato. Your lower notes will change more in actual pitch than your higher ones. Altissimo vibrato is almost more of a suggestion than a real change of pitch. It is especially important that you learn that five vibrations per second difference in one octave is equal to 2 [[Omega]] vibrations per second change in the next octave up in order to keep the proportion the same. That means that your low D vibrato, applied to your high D would sound like a screaming nanny goat. See what I mean? It's tedious at first. You'll need models, so listen to flutists, cellists, and violinists. Soon you can branch off and listen to the jazz and pop players, but I recommend starting with some classical challenges for immediate perfection. This is not a comment about perfection or lack of it in jazz. Classical vibrato offers the regularity we want for training muscles at this time. I recommend listening to a variety of players, but don't miss James Galway on the flute. He has pretty much revolutionized wind playing over the past 20 years. The rest is up to you. Do the studies with the metronome at first, in 4's, 6's, and 8's. Keep your vibrato narrow and tasteful until you are in control enough to make it do what you want. Learn to apply it at different rates, varying the rate, and at different widths. Learn specially to taper it to straight tone at will, or vice versa. Listen to your favorite artists. Remember that from here on out you will never be able to play a note without considering the pitch and vibrato (or straight tone) as essential elements of your expression at that point in the phrase. Pitch isn't something you tend to when tuning your horn. It's part of your sound. Vibrato is merely the manipulation of pitch. That's pretty much it for now. There's no way that this short explanation can cover the intricacies of everything, but if you are intuitive, it will give you some direction." One last note on fingerings for sax. Your instrument will sound out of tune in some registers but there is something you can do to change this. The palm D key for example will not be right in the middle register. This is so on all saxes. There are ways to correct the intonation, by adding other keys or finding other ways to play the notes. For example, a palm Eb key can be flattened at the embouchure to sound like a D (don't play the D key). Similarly, you can get a high E by playing a palm F key only. These are not accepted fingerings but the idea is fine: experiment. Saxes are versatile! (e.g. finger C, add a D palm key - it will be quite close enough to use as a trill from D to C...play low C, release the D key for an octave A... middle D can be played in passing using the palm D key. Traditionalists would frown, but it really helps sometimes...) "In soft passages it is also possible to use alternate fingerings for a few more pitches. Add the RH E lever to the palm key E-flat and you get D-sharp. Add the F palm key to that combination and you go up another half step to E. On some saxes you go once again up to F by adding the high F-sharp key. I wouldn't use this technique except for trills or very soft passages and as Ben said, a little work on voicing is necessary." Graham Seale suggests a few ways of playing a low A note on a standard Bb instrument: It all started when I read about how it was possible (with alto) to get a low A thus:- 1. Be sitting down and doing the playing. 2. Comes time to do the low A, get the left leg up (K. Everett style!) 3. Place side of knee near bell of horn as you hit E. 4. Move onto C.. then as you finger Bb, put the leg over the bell using behind the knee joint, and work hard on the embouchure. If not playing seriously, Bb flattening to A can be tested by moving leg across at the same time as going for the lowest note Shooshie type embouchure control. Now all this seemed a bit inconvenient, and ah.. could be interesting if attempted with a tenor. The same effect can be achieved by approaching a person of appropriate height er.. from behind! In general, that method is only good for one note per person approached. So finally we contrive a workable artificial low stop. The antinode of the standing wave of low Bb can be encouraged to move up out of the bell a bit by putting the edge of the bell up against a vertical hard corner, a little way from a "top stop". The m ost convenient is to stand two crates/gig speakers/whatever slightly staggered to produce a vertical "corner. Then the "top stop" is a book/LP cover etc placed so as to "overhang", providing the third face of a point corner. You find the right place by ex periment - but once you know how, you would be surprised at the number of viable variants that will occur to you. My alto will not make low A without the "corner trick". I think, with a little trying on embouchure and airstream control, it might be possible to just do it without any special aids. graham@southlin.demon.co.uk Occasionally the question of alternative fingerings which are not the `cheating' sort are discussed in the newsgroup. For example, there are five ways to finger Bb, but these are all more or less appropriate depending on the passage. It's wrong to choose just one Bb fingering and stick to it. This can make playing certain passages more difficult. Even if you're a good, competent player, your method will be improved by the use of the correct alternative fingering at the right moment. Here's a helpful post pointing out the pluses and minuses of the `biz' (i.e. B key plus the small Bb key) and the other Bb fingerings. "I recommend the biz fingering (covering both the B key and the biz key with one finger-1) unless going down chromatically (use side or biz) or trilling (use side). Many jazz dudes use the biz. It corresponds nicely with the middle (call it the middle finger) fingering for C (when playing either the C scale or the F scale, many jazz dudes use the middle-finger fingering for C, with 1 used for either the B or Bb biz), and the 1-biz Bb fingering also corresponds as the easiest and most accurate (for execution) when playing arpeggiated or pentatonic runs involving Bb (1 finger-one hand is easier vs. 2 hands for the side fingering e.g. G# A# C# D# F G# or G Bb C# E G). I believe that the biz key was intended to be used with the #1 finger (covering both B and biz), especially when you note the close proximity of the biz key to the B key. I was a side Bb and side C player for a while until realizing that the biz was the easier (and getting the advice of Eric Kloss). It took me less than 2 weeks (the 1st couple of practice sessions were tough, I admit) to convert to becoming a biz (almost exclusively) player and I regret to this day ever starting out as a mainly side Bb/C player. The side Bb/C guys can argue against this because they can't get used to going from the 1-Bb or B fingering to the middle-finger C fingering (thus not using any side keys which means you may have to relearn how you play the Cmajor scale), but once you incorporate pentatonics/triads/minor thirds and many other arppegiated combinations and permutations involving C, you find yourself using the middle-finger fingering for C a lot anyway and to me, for improv and for the purposes of assimilating a standard "feel" for a given key signature (such as the key of C for ironic starters) I wanted to have a unitized fingering for all of the key signatures (what I mean here is that I didn't want to be improvising in the key of C say, or any key for that matter, and be using 2 different fingerings for C at anything remotely close to a 50% ratio ....even 80%/20% is too differentiated), thus my abandonment of the side C key except for trill options. That gave me a very limited need to use side C and I've never looked back... I'm comfortable using the side C option when needed and it's handy at times, but I'm glad to have converted to biz Bb and middle-finger C for the vast majority of my playing. BTW, I watched Phil Woods for 2 hours from 5 feet away at a concert in college, and aside from being awestruck at the man's BAAAADNESS the guy used the biz Bb approach almost exclusively. When going up from Bb to B he just slid his #1 finger off the biz key, which seemed to me at the time to be a more efficient thing than having to release both the 2 finger and the side key to get to B. That prompted my starting to question the side Bb/C approach." Laren_Addabbo@colpal.com Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.8 Mouthpieces and tip openings The mouthpiece is one of the most important components of your saxophone. It always surprises me that some of the best saxes in the world are still shipped with cheap mouthpieces. Your mouthpiece is the root of all the tone of your saxophone and needs to be carefully matched to your own embouchure and reed. The reed that works for one person on their mouthpiece may be useless for you. You need to experiment with different hardnesses of reed and different tip openings to get a good tone. A wider tip opening (i.e. the gap between the tip of the reed and the end of the mouthpiece) is measured in all sorts of different ways by different manufacturers, which is summarised in the following tables. Generally, thousandths of inches or a 6* rating system is usual. Soprano 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 Bari .60 .64 .68 .72 Ebonite .58 .62 .66 .70 .74 Beechler 4 5 6 7 8 Berg Larsen 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 Dukoff D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 D10 Guy Hawkins 4-5 6 7 Meyer 5 6-7 8-9 10 Otto Link 5 5* 6 6* 7 7* 8 8* 9 RIA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Rousseau 2R, 3R 4R 5R 6R 7R 8R Runyon 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Selmer C*, D/E F/G H I C** Vandoren S15 S25 S35 Wolf Tayne 4 5 6 7 Yanagisawa 5 6 7 8 9 Alto 60 62 65 70 74 75 80 83 85 90 95 100 105 110 Bari .72 .77 .82 .87 Bari (RC) 4 5 6 7 Beechler 3 4 5 6 7 8 Berg Larsen 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 Couf 4* 5-6 7-8 9* 10* Dukoff D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 D10 Guy Hawkins 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Meyer 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Otto Link 4* 5 5* 6 6* 7 7* 8 8* 9 9* RIA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Rousseau 3R 4R 5R Rousseau Classic NC4 NC5 NC6 NC7 Rousseau Jazz JDX4 JDX5 JDX6 JDX7 Runyon 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Selmer B* C C* C** D E F G H Vandoren A20 A25 A27 A35 A45 A55 Vandoren Java A35 A45 A55 A75 A95 Vandoren Jumbo Java A35 A45 A55 A75 A95 Wolf Tayne 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Yanagisawa 5 6 7 8 9 Tenor 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 Bari .85.90 .95 .100 .105.110 .115.120 Beechler 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Berg Larsen 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 Couf 3* 4-5 6-7 8* Dukoff D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 D10 Guy Hawkins 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Meyer 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Otto Link 4 4* 5 5* 6 6* 7 7* 8 8* 9 9* 10 RIA 3 3* 4 4* 5 5* 6 6* 7 7* 8 8* 9 Runyon 1 2 3 4-5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rousseau 3R 4R 5R Rousseau Jazz JD4 JD5 JD6 JD7 JD8 Selmer C C* C** D E F G H Vandoren T15 T20 T25T35 Vandoren Java T45 T55 T75 T95 T97 Jumbo Java T45 T55 T75 T95 T97 Wolf Tayne 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Yanagisawa 5 6 7 8 9 Baritone 70 73 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 Beechler 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Berg Larsen 70 75 80 85 90 100 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 Dukoff D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 Guy Hawkins 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Meyer 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Otto Link 4 4* 5 5* 6 6* 7 7* 8 8* 9 RIA 3* 4* 5* 6* 7* 8* Rousseau 3R 4R 5R 6R Runyon 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Selmer B* C C* C** D E F G H Wolf Tayne 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Yanagisawa 5 7 9 A wider tip opening will have a great effect on your tone. It is quite common for classical musicians to play closed mouthpieces while jazz musicians play open mouthpieces. Some of the more extreme designs are more like shark yawns than mouthpieces so always try a mouthpiece before buying it. You may be unable to get a note out of a mouthpiece if it's too open for you. Some experienced musicians, on the other hand, cannot play on a closed mouthpiece because their embouchure is too hard from years of playing. Choose wisely! Remember that the ligature, which holds the reed, is also very important. There are some ligatures which are built on to the mouthpiece or hold the reed in several places. These generally have a different sound from double-clamping ligatures and may even claim to extend the life of your reed! If you want to experiment with a `soft-ligature', which will be a little more flexible in changing registers and altissimo (generally), try a shoelace. Seriously! The material the mouthpiece is made from will make quite a difference. Commonly, ebonite is used. This is a hard rubber which will give you a fair sound but perhaps a little thin. There are notable exceptions where ebonite performs very nicely. It is the most common mouthpiece material, and the majority of players prefer it. Personally I do not. Metal is also common and gives you a lot more power, as well as a completely different sound. Metal mouthpieces give your sax a fuller tone which can make for far more expression and better performance. Guess what I prefer. :) They are a little harder to play (especially on cold days - put them in your pocket first). Among jazz musicians, these are the most common choice. Other materials include plastics and wood, although these are more specialised. Generally, the tone you get depends on the density and resonant qualities of the material, as well as the size of the baffle and so forth. Try before you buy! The following from Elias Haslanger refers to the Sugal Wood mouthpiece. I will add more such snippets as they become available. "The mouthpiece is truly great--- for me. I cannot promise it will work for you but I immediately could tell a huge difference between the Otto Link I had been playing and my new Sugal wood. It will take a few months to get used to it but it is worth it. The tone plates do change the tone slightly but I like consistency so I chose the darkest and stuck with it. Also, the more you change the plates, the more you wear down the rails so I would avoid switching out the plates. If you get a wood piece you must oil it and take good care of it. I've had mine for about 4 years and it is starting to show some signs of wear. It wont last forever. :-(" - Elias ---- "This is going to be a matter of personal taste. I'm lucky enough to be playing a Selmer Mark VI 120,000 series alto. I'm now on my sixth mouthpiece and the search for the best mouthpiece seems to be never-ending. I've tried the Selmer S80 C* (narrow tip opening allows saliva to produce an annoying gurgling sound after a while), Vandoren A27 (seems to take more air to blow than I'm comfortable with), Rousseau 4R (just not the sound I was looking for), Morgan 3C (a little too dark), and Selmer S80 D (if I try to use a stiff reed to get nice high notes my embouchure gets tired quickly). My preference is for the Selmer S90 -180 with a Vandoren 2.5 or Peter Ponzol 3 reed - gives a nice sound in all registers without fatigue. Good Luck !" Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.9 Listening to music (also, `Kenny G') I don't want to put any personal opinions here! Sufficed to say you can disagree for ages about this. Listening to skilled sax players is a great way to get a personal tone. Their influence will rub off on you, so try to find a sax player whose tone you actually admire. Snippets from the newsgroup follow: If you're just starting, or even trying to get serious, stay away from Charlie Parker (I know, the list people will start yelling at me), seeing as I've always thought his style lacked... well... nearly everything. Sure, he had that "play-1-million-notes-in-a-quarter- beat" thing that was so important to be-bop, but most of his playing lacks tonal quality, and thought. I find it odd that anyone could say that Parker's playing lacked thought! Whatever floats your boat, but it might be healthy as a saxophonist and as a musician to take the time to analyze some of his solo's. You might be surprised! Parker's playing required an extreme level of thought--- it's not that he was throwing out a zillion meaningless notes--- it's the fact that all of his notes had a purpose at that high speed which is what is so impressive about him. Of course... you could always say the same about Parker-influenced players like... uhm... Cannonball Adderly...Amazingly fast chops. It takes a lot of skill and practice to play that rapidly and coherently. There is no "best" player, but if you want to acquaint yourself with some of the classics, pick up some of the following players: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Arnette Cobb, Illinois Jacquet, and Dexter Gordon. That ought to keep you busy and full of good influences for a while. Well, I saw Kenny last night on TV and was very impressed because he could play boring music on the sax AND smile at the camera through all kinds of angle changes AT THE SAME TIME!! A virtuoso performance indeed ;-) He did even more. He bored me when he didn't play. If you like big band sounds then look for Jimmy Dorsey! BUT no matter what, NEVER get Kenny G! I get don't what problem you guy's all have with Kenny G, frankly, I quite like the guy. As a matter of fact, if any of us could play that well, we would be strutting our stuff. As for Charlie Parker, I always felt he was in a race to see how many notes he could get in. If you want to here a great tenor player, how about Sal Nistico with Woody Herman on Halleluja time!" This might go on for ever. Keep your eyes on the newsgroup! Personal favorites include: Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Flip Phillips, Paquito D'Rivera, Phil Woods, David Liebman. Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.10 Selmer saxophones - Mark VIs Selmer saxophones are the source of constant debate. Many would suggest that they are the best saxes in the world. Some strongly disagree. I would suggest that Mark VIs (the most sought-after Selmers) are a fine instrument but not consistently so. See Jason Dumar's Saxophone Buyers' Guide for more information. Never buy a vintage Selmer without trying it! Here is a quick quote from the newsgroup: "I'm a little depressed... why? A few days ago I picked a Bundy tenor and thought that it sounded better than my Selmer Mark VI (#83xxx). The Bundy had this weird gold/glittery-looking lacquer to it (I'm not quite sure if that was significant or not). It had no engraving, and I'm not even sure if the horn has a serial number. It's a little disheartening to see this. BTW... I heard a story about a series of Sonny Rollins recordings where he was seen carrying two saxophone cases while leaving the studio... and one of them was a Bundy... Doh! The lesson? Before you spend a bundle on an instrument (or look at a specific price range), try out a bunch of different horns. A Mark VI has the name... and the feel... but other horns just might have the sound." Kevin W. Dolorico Here's another posting from the newsgroup which explains some of the different things to expect from Selmer VIs from different eras. There were over a quarter of a million MKVIs made before (apparently) the machinery wore out. It helps to keep an eye on serial numbers when you're choosing a Selmer, but read on... "Everyone is opinionated when it comes to Mark VI's, and what you may hear regarding the differences between the early, mid, and late models will often vary wildy from player to player or dealer to dealer. Joe Sax, for example, presents a common-sense view: each horn is different (even those with nearly consecutive serial numbers), so it is dangerous to play the serial numbers game (e.g. since my favorite player, Lenny X, plays a 96,xxx Mark VI, I should get one in that serial number range). There are some really bad hrns out there with serial numbers between 55,000 and 110,000 (the "five digits"), just as there are killer horns out there with serial numbers from 110,000 to 220,000 (the "six digits"), so Joe's warning is well-taken. There is no substitute for trying out as many horns as you can to see which one you like the best. However, my repairman/dealer has noted some tendencies within serial number ranges that I have found to be quite accurate. He classifies the early Mark VI's (until the 80,000's) as ballad horns having dark, wide tones. Sure enough, I've played three horns within this range and this characterization held true for each of them. One of the horns, a 56,000 tenor, is in the same range as Joe Henderson's horn, and after playing it, I could hear why Joe sounds like he does on a horn of this vintage (listen to him playing on the State of the Tenor albums for how different he sounds on a Super Action 80). Once you get to the 80,000's, you're in the realm of the Michael Brecker horns: the tone is a little brighter and more focused, great for playing fast. The horns from 80,000 to 110,000 command the highest price tags, due a great deal to Brecker's example of what you can do with a horn in this series. The "five digits" are viewed by many as the best Mark VI's because of their consistency - most of these horns are really good or great. The next popular range of serial numbers comes at 140,000 and continues until about 150,000. These are the Sonny Rollins/Kenny Garrett/David Sanborn horns, with a beefy tone and a really free-blowing quality to them. The final series that he points to as special hovers at and just after 200,000. This is not to say that the serial number ranges left out don't contain great horns, these are just his observations of consistency in the mid to late models. To respond to your concerns, no, there is nothing wrong with late model Mark VI's, and the one you are considering purchasing may be a great horn. The later models just aren't as collectible as the older models because the values of VI's are linked to what series our musical heroes play or played, as well as speculations on consistency that are inexplicably borne out. Collectability aside, you can't go wrong if you find a good Mark VI of any vintage. Best of luck to you." Luis Scheker Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.11 Improvisation Improvising is something I cannot imagine playing without. I fall into the category of musicians that virtually `live' on improvised time. :-) I am often surprised that musicians playing straight from manuscript can do so well without being able to improvise effectively. If you have a classical training in music, you may be wondering what it is, how it's done and so on. Of course, there's no answer to this: improvisation is the heart and soul of a good solo, the makings of a musician songwriter and...well, impossible to teach. It involves you taking control of the instrument without music and playing notes based either on the chords, or the melody and timing of the music. In contemporary jazz it's essential to be able to improvise, but you need `good ears'. Listening is the first important thing to master. Singing phrasing and then trying to imitate it can also be an excellent start. The important defining point with improvising is that it can be carried over from one instrument to another, more or less. It's not just a matter of learning riffs on the sax! If you have a keyboard which will give you a rhythm section, or even play a demo for you, then get that and try playing over what it does. Get a simple 12-bar blues section going, and try just playing the root notes, e.g. E - A - B - A - E as the harmonies progress. Once you've done that, try slipping a few leading notes or trailing notes in, and experiment with different rhythm and tones. Don't try to put down too many notes at once, or do those fast licks like the greats! Take it slowly and see what you can do without technique, just you. Eventually you'll discover what sounds right, and provided you can play in many different keys, you should, with good ears, be able to improvise after a year or so. ;-) I know it doesn't sound like much fun. You can get there much faster, but years will make a solid player while months will give you an excellent head start only. That's one method. If you've been playing a bit longer, you might think that playing with scales, harmonies and music theory is a little too rigorous and constraining. Some of the best saxophonists in the world think the same, and their works are amazing! You can improvise entirely with your ear and gut feeling. If you've got a good band to play with who can follow your intent closely, then you'll find this immeasurably more rewarding. Such improvisation needs imagination and skill, as well as natural talent and practise. If you want to try your improvisation out, get a few different copies of a popular, simple song and compare them. Try playing along to them and soloing in different ways. The variation between different interpretations will make you think carefully about what note would suit the version in question, rather than playing blindly. Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.12 Circular breathing This is another difficult topic. Circular breathing has taken on mythical meanings but the one truth which has remained is that it is hard to do. Saxophones, particularly, are not an easy instrument to breath circularly on. It is possible to get the idea in a few minutes, but it can take many years to be functional in performance. The basic idea (try this with a straw), starting with a half-full lung, is: 1) Breath out through the straw until nearly all lung air is gone 2) Fill mouth with an air pocket, while still breathing out from lungs. 3) Switch over cleanly from lung to mouth air, i.e.. isolate mouth from nose&lungs, and force air out from your mouth with your cheeks. 4) Breath in through the nose fast! :) Keep mouth air coming out. 5) Switch back to the now-full lungs 6) Repeat "As you're blowing air into the saxophone, fill your cheeks with the air (to store it.) Then, while you are inhaling through your nose, depress your cheeks, forcing out the stored air. Therefore, you are making music and breathing at the same time - your cheeks sort of act like the bag part of bag-pipes. Good luck, it's hard." I refer once again to Shooshie who has mastered this art: "You've reached the point that takes anywhere from six months to six years to perfect. That little Step #5...it's the crux of the whole thing. Now here's a tip: The more resistance you have on your instrument, the easier it is to circular breathe, because an instrument with more resistance makes Step #5 less tedious. Try holding your finger over the other end of the straw, rather than blowing bubbles. Give it some pressure so that you're blowing against some resistance. Now try that Step #5 and see what a difference it makes. Still no piece of cake, but you can probably see the potential. The smooth transition from "mouth air" to "lung air" requires that you have your lung pressure - diaphragm - equalized behind the little valve in your throat before you release the valve. Seriously, that is the one little operation which takes you a while to learn. Part of the reason that it can take a while to learn is that different registers of your horn respond with different pressure, and you have to learn each of them, and be able to cross between them. Let me make it easier: If you are doing the mouthpiece exercise, you have learned about diaphragm pressure. Diaphragm pressure enables you to pressurize the airstream rather than the instrument - so it feel as if you are playing your airstream and the instrument is just out there on the end of it - and this makes the entire horn respond more evenly throughout all the registers. This will greatly enhance circular breathing. If you have followed me up to this point, maybe now you will see the validity to my claim quite a while back that the mouthpiece exercise even helps circular breathing. The less resistance you have, the more perfect you have to make the transition. The easiest instruments to circular breathe with are oboe, trumpet, French horn, and bassoon. Next would come clarinet, other brass instruments, and soprano saxophone. The larger saxes are progressively more difficult. Last, and most difficult to effectively circular breathe with is the flute. But it can be done. Galway apparently did it for the Paganini Moto Perpetuo (Man With The Golden Flute - RCA) - which is 5 minutes long without a break. Of course, the recording may have been spliced, but I can do it well enough on flute to believe that Galway actually recorded it that way. Step #5 will come in time. Practice it until it becomes a subconscious maneuver, something which you can do in your sleep. I didn't pursue it seriously for many years, but I practised it daily as I played in bands or orchestras during tutti sections, or while practising etudes. One day, I realized I was doing it without any problem. I then took it seriously enough to practice it so that I could do it in solo performance without anyone realizing it. Once I got serious about it, I was able to use it in concert within six months or so, but I had been doing it for at least six years before then." Shooshie@onramp.net Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.13 Books and publications On the net, there are various excellent resources which may be of interest to you. For example, a free trial subscription to Jazzfriends journal can be had by writing to jazzfriend@taconic.net or visiting http://tri-millenia.net/jfr/ (the email address is not a server, so make your intent clear). Also, there are mailing lists which I will detail here when news comes in. A favorite series of books I can recommend is The Complete Saxophone Player, by Raphael Ravenscroft. Printed by Wise Publications, ISBN 0.7119.0890.7. This four part series is approachable and not overbearing or over authoritative. It moves quite quickly, and the final book (part 4) is a fine source of technical material. The Art of Saxophone, by Larry Teal, is printed by Virgin Publications. This is a larger book and well-regarded. The ISBN is 0.87487.057.7. "As for the content - its great! Worth every penny. Its a soft covered American size (8.5 x 11 inches ??? i.e.. wider + shorter than A4), and is a bit of a tome. Most music publications are seldom more than 3 or 4 mm thick. This one is 9mm! Its absolutely stuffed with sax info, and illustrated with photo's and drawings. I almost creased up when I saw the one for Eb-Db shift. Ah-ha thinks I. That's Eb->C->Eb across the rollers with the pinkie. The photo is a double exposure showing the right pinkie in a state of vibration between the two - like twanging a ruler." - Graham Seale A good source of music by mail order (UK particularly) is: Music Sales Ltd. Newmarket Road Bury St. Edmunds Suffolk IP33 3YB England, UK Tel. +44 1284 702600 Videos, play along tapes and all manner of other materials do exist, naturally. Please get in touch if there are any other books you would like to see listed here. Specifically, Phil Woods has a CD-ROM sax tutor out which costs (RRP) $99. "I get all my reeds, and other bits and pieces, from: Mev Taylor's Music Shop, 212 Morrison Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EA Tel. 0131-229 7454 Fax. 0131-228 5913 They are by far the best for woodwind in the area (East Central Scotland). I don't know if they do mail order but I guess they would. As a beginner, just over a year ago, I found their advice to be sound and they even pointed me in the direction of a good tutor. One of the guys who works there plays tenor semi-professionally and he's a really friendly guy who often gives me good advice and practice tips whenever I see him. One of the better music shops in my area!" - Brad Moffat (brad@lomond.demon.co.uk) Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.14 The Ten Steps Guide This comes from a post in the newsgroup. Shooshie's methods are a little unorthodox but have gained popularity. This is included for information only! Again, if you're just starting out remember that practise is your best way to progress. Don't over-do it, though (you'll get stale!). There's no need to practise for more than seven hours per week, though you may like to. "Here are ten steps to success on the saxophone. I could make twenty or thirty, but I think ten will do for now. These are the ten steps which I say are essential for good progress. Sacrifice any of these and you have damaged your hopes of achieving your potential, no matter how much time you have to practice. 1) do five minutes per day, playing long tone scales on the mouthpiece alone, with crescendos and decrescendos (to ppp) without varying the pitch 2) follow that with five minutes of overtone practice, playing the harmonic series while fingering low Bb, 3) correlate the airstream positions (and feel) between the mouthpiece studies and the harmonic studies. You can use phonetic symbols to help you do that. Each pitch on the mouthpiece and in the overtone series will have three components in your airstream: A) a part somewhere around the letter "r" or "l", (tip of tongue) B) a part around the vowels "ah" through "ee" or "i" as in "it", (middle of tongue) C) a part somewhere in the neighborhood of "g" or "k". (back of tongue) You can help yourself to remember these components of a given sound by thinking of a phonetic word, like "gharl" and trying to produce it as you blow. The vowel sound will change as you change pitches. 4) correlate the same airstream from your harmonics to your actual notes on the instrument. Notice how much easier it makes altissimo when it becomes an airstream continuum following the high palm key notes. 5) spend lots of time learning to color your sounds consistently from low Bb to the highest notes. 6) as you practice everything, always check your pitch against a fixed pitch - i.e., set your tuner to play the tonic of your scale, and match each pitch to the most perfect interval possible. Even dissonant notes (half steps, sevenths, etc.) have a "consonant" placement, so find it and never vary from the pitch. Learn the difference between harmonic pitch and melodic pitch. 7) play technical exercises slowly enough that you can do them accurately without tensing your arms, hands, and airstream. Also practice them against the fixed pitch to help learn the right airstream/ear coordination. 8) be patient. Slow practice over long periods of time becomes solid technique doable at any speed. 9) Let musical taste be your guide. If you don't have a preference about how something should sound, GET ONE! 10) Use a tape recorder to monitor your progress. Listen, criticize, correct, and repeat. Don't ever assume that there is something you cannot do. Just break it down into steps that enable you to achieve it. Give yourself the time to get there." Shooshie@onramp.net Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.15 Sight Reading The following is from a posting in alt.music.saxophone. The ideas seem very well thought-out, so I would tend to concur with the following advice from Christopher John Smith: "Here is some more specific advice (somewhat dependent on your instrument): 1) Separate out different aspects of sight-reading (pitch, vertical sonorities, rhythmic subdivisions, polyrhythms, odd or compound time signatures, etc.) and read from repertoire that emphasizes those elements: e.g., as a guitarist I tend to use: a) Clarinet and violin technique books for lines, sequential melodic types, etc. b) Saxophone transcriptions (bird, trane, et al) for jazz phrasing c) (VERY IMPORTANT) snare-drum methods for polyrhythms, syncopation, etc. d) Piano transcriptions for voicing ideas 2) Transcribe: this is not, strictly speaking, sight-reading but it does a lot toward connecting what you hear with what you see, and thus helps with the reverse. a) Horn players (for jazz idiom) b) Pianists (for sonorities and understanding harmony) c) Horn sections (for voice-leading) 3) Be rigorous: set up different regimens and follow different procedures, e.g.: a) If you want to truly practice sight-reading, read something once through, at a consistent tempo, without stopping or repeating. then put it on the bottom of the stack for at least 6 months b) If you want to practice phrasing, fingerings, facility, etc., read through the item a phrase at a time (for example, a given ii-V line). then stop, finger it in every key, working it through the cycle of 5ths in all positions on your instrument. again, not sight-reading per se, but will help you immensely with the "hear-see-play" continuum There are lots of technique books for different instruments which can be used as raw material for sight-reading. Also: 1) Sight-reading methods: there are hundreds for orchestral and chamber-music instruments. Even if that's not the idiom you want to play, you can find 300 years' worth of method books in any music library. That's a hell of a lot of scales and arpeggios. Check out especially the more modern ones for under-grad music students: textbooks specifically for this purpose. Any university bookstore will have textbooks for specific music skills (e.g. sight-reading and -singing classes). Check out especially Paul Hindemith's music training series: brutally difficult, but very logically and sequentially organized. 2) Technique books for other instruments than your own are good, because they automatically take you away from things that are idiomatic or easy on your instrument 3) Even if you're working on sight-reading, as an improviser, you should always be working at hearing and playing what you see. This is more of a priority (even in a big-band) than "can you read this oddmeter syncopated string of 64th notes at mm.220?" hearing, reproducing, phrasing, tuning, articulation, are all stuff that results from the sound, not necessarily or even primarily from the page." Other advice: "I would suggest practicing scales and arpeggios in all keys. Use a metronome. Start out slow and speed them up as you gain facility. After all isn't that what music is made of?" "Unfortunately, the only way to learn to sight read is to do it. The more you do, the better at it you become. I do seem to remember a sight reading book or two, ones that mostly emphasized rhythms that were unexpected or note combinations that broke slightly from the ones you had played a thousand times. Unfortunately I have not seen these books for many years, so I can't recall any titles. Most universities have sight-singing texts, which could also be useful. I used to play with a rehearsal band in Los Angeles run by a guy who was a copyist for just about every big-name band at the time. He had a book of charts so thick it threatened to fall off the stand. We would play through some pretty challenging tunes, just once. We only stopped if we reached a state of complete chaos. This was a great experience for me, causing me to think ahead as I played. One thing you might be able to do is get some music books from the library (you are only going to play them once, why buy?). Set up your metronome, and start in. The point here is to develop not your chops, but your brain! Sight reading is a purely mental exercise." Richard Corpolongo posted the following on improvisation: Have someone play some notes on a piano in the medium range. Try to sing the notes that were played. Next, try to play those notes on your saxophone. If you can sing and play those notes without too much trouble, you are ready for your next lesson. If for some reason you can't sing or play those notes try some other combination of notes. If this fails, a suitable ear training program should be considered. In order to improvise, musicians have to be able to hear the note, recognize it in their minds and then be able to vocalize it to transfer it to the saxophone. Once you know that your ear is sound it is time to develop your ear to where it can be used to your advantage. Start by picking a simple tune, nursery rhyme, traditional song, standard, television theme, commercial jingle, or any tune that you are sure that you can sing or hum without to much trouble by memory. If you can?t think of any tune off the top of your head then the only way to learn one is to read it off the music. Play the tune by memory or read it off some music Try to sing the tune after playing it. Keep on playing the tune until you can sing the tune by memory. Turn the music over and try to play the song on the saxophone. If your memory fails go back to the music and correct the problem. Try to play the tune by memory using only your ear. If you continue having trouble go back to the music and find where you made your mistake. This first attempt might be hard but will get easier as you continue finding more tunes to play by ear and memory. For example the simple nursery rhyme, "Three Blind Mice". In the key of C it is written this way: The tune starts ( E, D, C/E, D, C | G, F, F, E/G, F, F, E | G, C, C, B, A, B, C, G, G/G, C, C, B, A, B, C, G, G | G, C, C, B, A, B, C, G, G, F | E, D, C/E, D, C ). Now, if we play the tune _ step higher by ear the notes are: ( F, Eb, Db/F, Eb, Db | Ab, Gb, Gb, F/Ab, Gb, Gb, F | Ab, Db, Db, C, Bb, C, Db, Ab, Ab/Ab, Db, Db, C, Bb, C, Db, Ab, Ab | Ab, Db, Db, C, Bb, C, Db, Ab, Ab, Gb | F, Eb, Db/F, Eb, Db ). By going up another one-half step play the tune by ear without looking at any music beforehand. Now, continue going up one half step using nothing but your ear until you return again back to the original note that you first started with. This process is called using the Chromatic scale as root or starting notes. The Chromatic scale consists of 12 half-steps: E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C, Db, D, Eb. When you have successfully played a tune using all 12 notes without looking at the music, and only using your ear and memory, you have begun the process of relating the melody notes to the same pitches on your saxophone. In short, you are starting to transfer the notes in your mind directly to your saxophone. Get used to playing one tune every day in all 12 keys. At the end of a six month period you will see a major leap in your ability to hear and distinguish melodies in all keys. This ability is crucial in your future improvisation studies. A musician has to know many tunes in order to work. These tunes most often are played in different keys. Written music sometimes is not available especially when people ask for requests. You have to know it by memory in any key, and start on any note. Make a list numbering 1 through 30. After you have successfully played a tune in all 12 keys write the title of that tune on that list. The next day after playing a tune in all 12 keys write the title on the same list. After 30 days of tunes in all 12 keys, start another list. The second 30 tune list does the same thing as the first 30 with one addition. When adding tunes to the new list of tunes review one tune from the first list. Once you have reviewed the first list and added a new tune in the second list simply check off the reviewed tune of the first list. Do this every 30 days. Every new list period starts with a review of one tune from the last period and a brand new one. Example 3: 1st month, learn 30 new tunes, 1 for each day. 2nd month, every day review 1 tune from last month and learn 1 brand new tune. The second month will have 30 reviewed tunes and 30 brand new tunes, 60 tunes total. Repeat this exercise for at least 6 months, or until you have acquired a good grasp of playing in all 12 keys. The practice of singling out certain intervals is also a great way to develop your ear . Start by using a Major 2nd interval, then a Minor third, Major third, Perfect fourth. Augmented fourth, Perfect fifth, Minor sixth, Major sixth, Minor seventh, and finally a Major seventh. ?example 4? Play each interval using the chromatic scale as root notes. For example let?s take the M 3rd interval to show how this practice would be done. ?example 5? REVIEW With only the use of your natural ears and memory get into the habit of playing and singing a tune everyday through all the keys. After playing and singing a month of tunes by ear and memory begin a procedure of reviewing one tune while learning another. Thus, you would be playing two tunes starting the second month. One would be a new one while another would be a reviewed one. Once you have reviewed a tune scratch it off your list. Play and sing all intervals starting with the M 2nd and going upward to the M 7th through all the keys. CONCLUSION Practicing ear training this way establishes a more direct link between your mind, fingers and memory. No matter what style of jazz or contemporary classical piece you might be playing, your tool for a successful solo depends on the depth you went to train your ear in recognizing all intervals both randomly as in playing songs and through patterns as in all the keys. Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.16 Transcribing Solos When you hear that great piece of music on the latest addition to your jazz collection, it might take your fancy to try and play it yourself. It's a great talent to be able to translate what you hear into manuscript - the only permanent record of how to play a piece of music that exists. Scott Fultz, who has transcribed an incredible amount of sax music, writes the following: "Transcription of jazz solos is an inexact process. The nuances in rhythm, pitch and phrasing are too subtle to render precisely in western notation. That said, someone doing solo transcription can let go of spending too much energy trying. If the goal is to emulate a player, the best exercise is to memorize the solo and learn to play it along with the recording. I try to work in chunks of complete phrases with a goal of one complete chorus per practice/transcription session. I don't always make that goal, and you won't either (unless you're one of those rare lucky freaks with phonographic memory). It's good to acknowledge this to avoid some of the inevitable frustration this effort can bring. Also remember that the players you are transcribing are human. They will play things that range from "wrong" notes to gibberish. When a phrase gives me trouble, I deal with the rhythm by itself - where in the bar the phrase starts and what the note values are. I try to determine the notes that occur on rhythmic landmarks (such as the beginning of the bar). If I can't play a solo up to the tempo on a recording, I set a metronome and lay the it slowly in time. After I've got the solo, I put it to manuscript. I sure can't remember every solo I've learned and it's good to have a document of the work. I've also transcribed directly to the page. This process, for me, involves a combination of idiomatic phrase recognition, pitch interval recognition and theoretical assumption. Again, you can get to a point of diminishing returns trying to figure out what a player "meant to say" in a given phrase. Either transcription process leaves you with an "etude" that allows you to experiment with all the elements of execution that make jazz such a wonderfully varied and individual art form. One last bit of advice - crawl before you walk before you run. Pick solos you can accomplish and build gradually to more complexity. The rewards are worth the work!" About the writer: Scott Fultz released a CD of original music entitled JUNKET (reviewed at http://absolutejazz.com) and can be reached at sfultz@bitstream.net or you can visit his web site. Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.17 Embouchure Control This is supplementary to (but intrinsically different from) Shooshie's Mouthpiece exercise and ten steps guide. Thanks to Jack Laing for the document. Survey On Embouchure One of the first things to trouble the beginner on either saxophone or clarinet is the formation of a reliable, steady embouchure which will suit his facial build up, helping him to develop freedom of blowing coupled with a good tone. Faults developed at an early stage carry right through to a moderate or advanced player and, of course, can give trouble at any time. A bad embouchure can result in a thin, rough or otherwise unpleasant tone, or to uncertain control with poor intonation and vibrato. Exact measurements as to how much mouthpiece to put in the mouth and how much pressure to apply cannot be given because each player is an individual, with differently shaped teeth, lips, jaw. However, whether you possess thick lips or thin ones, prominent teeth or a receding jaw, there are two basic formations of embouchure. Within these two basic formations are countless tiny variations from one player to another. Both formations are widely used and the adoption of one or the other, coupled with experiments to determine the exact position which gives the best results, depends on the physical features of the player. 1) The Normal lip method. It is called by this name because the lower lip is left in its normal position so that a cushion for the reed and the teeth is formed by the fleshy top of the lip. The lip is neither curled over the teeth nor pouted out but is brought up naturally to the reed as if you were smoking a cigar. Try to imagine that you are pronouncing the letter "F" when saying a word such as field or form. 2) The Closed lip method. Here the lower lip is tuned in slightly over the teeth so that part of the outside of the lip forms the cushion for the reed and the lower teeth are in more positive contact with the inside of the lip. This method is probably used more by alto players than by tenor players and is the norm for clarinet players. Imagine you are pronouncing the letter "V" as in victor or very. In both methods avoid putting too much pressure on the reed as there should be just enough pressure to give you control of the note; too much will restrict the vibration of the reed and result in a thin tone. Which Suits You? First place the mouthpiece in your mouth (try it without the saxophone) with your top teeth on the mouthpiece and bring your bottom teeth up naturally without any facial contortions (it helps if you do this looking into a mirror) and keeping your bottom lip in its normal position. Do the teeth come up just inside the lower lip or do they slide up past it so that, if you continued to bring them up, they would contact the reed? If the teeth sit comfortably inside the lip the normal lip method will probably suit you. If the teeth miss the lip then you should turn the lip over, just enough to find the teeth, and use the closed lip method. There should be a minimal amount of turning in required. Do not exaggerate this as a minor adjustment is all that is usually required. In both methods, the idea is to provide a resilient cushion for the reed assisted by the teeth. If you double on clarinet, you may find that you need to play the closed lip method on clarinet but the normal lip method may give better results on the sax. Top Teeth On The Mouthpiece. This applies to both methods. The top teeth should lie naturally on the mouthpiece in a position relative to the bottom lip, again, with just enough pressure to maintain control. The upper teeth exert a natural downward pressure because of the weight of the head. The top teeth serve to hold the mouthpiece securely, but not viciously. Too much pressure will mean that you will bite into the top of the mouthpiece and too little will send vibrations rattling up into your head. If you have uneven or very sharp teeth you can buy one of those little adhesive patches to stick on the mouthpiece. It might also be worth having a word with your dentist who might suggest a little bit grinding down or, alternatively, making a little shield to go over the teeth while you are playing. If you have very uneven teeth, this could lead to the mouthpiece wobbling in your mouth. In a case like this, you could try moving the mouthpiece away from a central position so as to find a more comfortable spot. Remember, it is your face. It is important to avoid leaning the head too far downward as this restricts the laryngeal area and produces a pinched sound. To avoid this, stand in a normal, relaxed, upright position and bring the saxophone to you; not you to the saxophone. If the sling is correctly adjusted, pushing forward with the right thumb should place the mouthpiece in your mouth without any need to bend the head downwards. The lower teeth should act as a support for the lower lip, a foundation on which to build your embouchure. They do not act as a means to apply pressure or control; this is done by the facial muscles surrounding the lips. If the lower lip and teeth are too near the tip of the mouthpiece, even a small amount of pressure will tend to close up the reed and restrict the tone. On the other hand, too much mouthpiece in the mouth will result in a raucous tone and the breath will tend to rush away from you. You will get more volume but of the wrong kind. So; we come to the question, how much is the right amount? First of all, this depends on your teeth formation. The normal "bite" is where your teeth come slightly behind the front teeth when the jaw is closed. Because of the differences in our facial structure, this is like trying to find an average family of 2.4 children. Some people have top teeth which project considerably in front of the bottom ones; some have top teeth which exactly meet the bottom teeth; some have a jaw structure where the bottom teeth project in front of the upper ones; this is called an underbite. Because the lower lip is the most important one in playing the saxophone, it follows that it is the placement of that lip that is important and the top teeth are placed in relation to the lower lip and teeth and in accordance with your facial structure. Most people advocate placing the bottom lip at the point where the reed parts company with the mouthpiece, and, in order to find this point, you should fix your reed on the mouthpiece, just as you normally do, then drop a piece of thin card or stiff paper down between the reed and the mouthpiece. Pencil a mark on the reed where the paper comes to rest. This is where you should place your bottom lip and the top teeth should come down naturally in accordance with your facial structure. If you use an old reed for this, you can cut a little notch on either side so that you can feel it with your lip. If you then place a patch, such as a bicycle puncture patch or a piece of electrician's tape, with the edge at the point where your top teeth go, you can feel this with your top teeth and use it as a guide until you get used to the feel of how much mouthpiece to put in your mouth. It is important to keep your face in as normal a position as possible and not make any weird contortions with the bottom jaw just so that you can look like your favourite sax player. The Upper Lip. These comments apply to both methods. The top lip is not drawn in under the top teeth, nor is it pushed forward. The lip is not allowed to be blown forward by the force of air. Place your teeth on top of the mouthpiece, bearing down slightly, and close your top lip down naturally. Now lift it and place it very slightly nearer the teeth. The top lip is not left in a flabby state, neither is it used in a vicious squeeze. The muscles in the lip and those which run down from the nose to the corners of the mouth are used to give an easy, comfortable control to the lip in order to stop the air blowing past it. The Lower Lip... Normal method. Putting your top teeth on the mouthpiece, bring up your bottom lip naturally. The reed will then rest on the fleshy part of the lip. The lip is not turned out abnormally since this would make it too flabby and the lower teeth could not offer any support to the lip. By bearing down with the top teeth (not too hard) the mouthpiece is pushed down slightly into the bottom lip causing a little ridge to form inside the lip. The lower teeth come up inside that ridge contacting the lip from the top of the lip. The amount will vary with different people as some of us have thin lips and some have thicker lips. The teeth should not cut into the lip. If this happens, you are either putting too much pressure on or there is some sort of irregularity in the teeth which is causing discomfort. Closed method. This method is advised where the bottom teeth are back in the mouth or where the lower lip protrudes when you adopt your normal expression, making it difficult to bring your bottom teeth up into the lower lip. Do not jut the jaw forward to find the lip, but turn the lower lip over slightly in order to cover the bottom teeth. The idea is to form a cushion for the reed. Turn over only enough lip to feel a comfortable contact. There should be nothing exaggerated about any formation of the lips around the mouthpiece. If the lower lip is turned over too much, there is too much tension and the contact with the reed loses sensitivity. Experiment a little to see what suits you best. I would suggest that you try experimenting with your bottom lip position using the mouthpiece alone - with a reed on of course - so that you can look into a mirror to see if everything looks natural and you are not jutting your jaw forward; try to get a sideways view as well as a frontal one. If you are happy with how things look, blow into the mouthpiece to make sure that your cheeks are not ballooning out, then try blowing with just the mouthpiece and crook, again in front of the mirror. Once you are happy with the way things are going, try a few notes on the sax, avoiding the extreme upper and lower notes for the moment. You should be aiming for a controlled relaxation, or a relaxed control if you would rather put it that way. The same expression should also apply to your fingers, by the way. Try to think of your bottom lip as being above the teeth, rather than on it. Relaxed doesn't mean collapsed. The next stage is rather difficult to describe in print. Do not move your jaw either backwards or forwards but by dropping the chin very, very slightly, and supporting the reed with the facial muscles rather than the teeth, try to smooth out the bit of your face between the bottom lip and the bottom of your chin. The front of the chin should be flat and not bunched into little dimples. These remarks apply more to the Normal Lip method than The Closed since the closed method tends to put the chin in the correct position. It helps if you think of the syllable "D", as in dream, just as you are bringing the lip up to the mouthpiece. Since the embouchure relies on the musculature of the face for support, the following exercises can be helpful: 1. Place your lips as though you were whistling. The mouth corners automatically move inwards. Now smile as broadly as possible. Then alternate the smile and the whistle, slowly at first, but in regular rhythm. Think "OO" - "EE" alternately. 2. Push the lower lip tightly against the upper. Keep the line of the lips straight but press as hard as possible. Hold for about ten seconds then repeat twenty times. 3. Holding the above position, drop the jaw while keeping the lips pressed together. Now open the mouth maintaining the same relationship between the jaw and the lower lip. Place the forefinger against the lower lip and press down. The lower lip should resist the pressure of the finger and support itself by using the chin muscles. Many people advocate making an "O" shape of your mouth as you put the mouthpiece into your mouth but I think this comes from the days when sax players tried to visualise their lips as a rubber band around the mouthpiece (but see below). Joe Allard, the American sax teacher advocated keeping the lower lip as straight as possible in order not to curl the reed up at the side but if you have placed your bottom lip at the point where the reed separates from the mouthpiece, I cannot see how it is possible to bend the sides of the reed. I would like to quote from an article on embouchure which appeared in the Saxophone Journal. "Three basic concepts must be considered in any discussion of tone production. They are Embouchure formation, Throat position and Breath support, and one can easily interpret these concepts through mouthpiece blowing. The "O" embouchure The purpose of the basic embouchure is to allow the reed to vibrate in a free manner. The embouchure can be attained in four basic steps. First form the mouth in the shape of an "O" maintaining a lower lip which is somewhat thick. Do not allow the lower lip to become flat, thin or tight. Two syllables that will help achieve the necessary round formation are "O" or ""OOO". Carefully roll the thick lower lip over the lower teeth with just the mouthpiece, reed and ligature combination i.e. without the sax. Be certain to maintain the "O" shape. Next rest the weight of the head on the top of the mouthpiece with the upper teeth. This will remove excess pressure from the lower lip, enabling the reed to vibrate freely. Bring the remainder of the lips round the mouthpiece, maintaining the basic "O" shape. The throat. Think of the throat as a tube whose object in life is to carry air directly from the lungs to the mouthpiece and ultimately into the saxophone. Thus the shape of the throat will have an effect on the tone which is produced. Any tension in the throat will have an immediate impact on the freedom of movement experienced by the column of air being directed into the sax mouthpiece. It is best to relax the throat muscles as they would be during normal breathing. This relaxation may be achieved by striving for a "bottomless pit" sensation by whispering the syllable AHHHH. Breath support. Two areas of concern must be addressed in a discussion of breath support. The first is taking the air into the lungs. Inhale quickly and deeply through the corners of the mouth, filling the lungs to capacity. Inhalation through the corners will prevent a breakdown of the embouchure formation. This technique of inhalation should be similar to your natural breathing but deeper. Relaxation is very important. Next, maintain a constant rate of air speed as the air is pushed into the mouthpiece by the muscles of the abdominal wall using the concept of "warm air." Warm air is the type of air used to fog a mirror or a window. When applied to the saxophone it allows the performer to use a very large air stream, creating the optimum balance between embouchure, throat position and breath support. When trying the above, use only the mouthpiece, ligature and reed while watching yourself in a mirror. Using a well tuned piano or electronic tuning device try to achieve a specific tonal pitch as follows:- Soprano....Concert C Alto.......Concert A Tenor......Concert G Baritone...Concert D I quote from the same magazine another way of forming the embouchure. Imagine saying the three syllables "D" "U" and "PIU" as you are putting the mouthpiece into your mouth. Pronouncing the letter "D" flattens the chin, "U" focuses the corners of the embouchure and "PIU" completes the embouchure by centering the top lip. You pays your money and you takes your choice. The thing to remember is that you need to take pressure off the reed but still need to maintain control. Date: 17/06/96 From: Jack.Laing@onyxnet.co.uk (J R Laing) Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.18 Famous Sax Players' Setups The following information was provided by Luis Scheker in the newsgroup. Although there will be conflicting information this list is an excellent guideline. If you see a different setup being used, it can be added - if you let me know - as a second entry for the artist. Please keep this kind of information coming! Tenors * Joe Henderson - 56,xxx Mark VI, Selmer Soloist mthpc, LaVoz reeds * Sonny Rollins - 14x,xxx MkVI, Wolfe Tayne or Guy Hawkins metal mp, LaVoz * James Moody - Keilwerth Black Gold SX90R, Brendan Tibbs mp, ? * Michael Brecker - 8x,xxx MkVI, Guardala (Brecker mdl) mp, Guardala reeds * Joshua Redman - 48,xxx Super Balanced Action, Otto Link metal 8*, Java * David Sanchez - MkVI, Otto Link metal 7, Vandoren * Ernie Watts - Keilwerth BG SX90R, Otto Link metal 10*, ? * Craig Handy - MkVI, Vandoren V16 mp, ? * Branford Marsalis - Guardala Black Nickel, Guardala mp, Guardala reeds * Jerry Bergonzi - Super Balanced Action, Otto Link metal, ? * Stanley Turrentine - Keilwerth BG, Otto Link metal, LaVoz * Don Braden - Super Balanced Action, Lawton metal, ? Altos * Kenny Garrett - 14x,xxx MkVI, Selmer Soloist mp, Hemke * Gary Bartz - Super Action 80 II, Yanagisawa hard rubber, Hemke * Frank Morgan - SA80II, Selmer S80, ? * Vincent Herring - Yanagisawa, ?, ? * Tom Scott - Guardala BN, Guardala mp, Guardala reeds * David Sanborn - MkVI, David Sanborn mp, LaVoz * Antonio Hart - King Super 20, ?, ? * Wess Anderson - SA80II black lacquer, ?, ? * Jackie McLean - MkVI, Berg Larsen hard rubber, ? * Greg Osby - Mark VII, ?, V16 * Steve Coleman - MkVII, ?, ? * Bobby Watson - Yamaha Custom, Vandoren V5 mp, Vandoren * Mike Smith - Keilwerth BG SX90R, ?, ? Keep in mind that these setups are not set in stone. The pros are searching for the "perfect setup" just like the rest of us. I've talked with 4 or 5 dealers selling tenors previously owned by Michael Brecker...he goes through them like nobody else, but he always returns to his original horn. As another example, Branford Marsalis has gone from a Mark VI with an Otto Link mouthpiece to a Keilwerth with a Guardala mouthpiece, a Super Balanced Action, and now finally a Guardala horn. Endorsement deals are also a fact of life - your favorite player may be playing a horn because of the promotion and money provided by the manufacturer rather than a preference for that horn. Some professionals even use one horn on stage and another in the studio (Clarence Clemmons uses a Keilwerth BG on stage and a Mark VI in the studio). The moral - if you like how a player sounds, it doesn't hurt to try out his or her setup IN THE STORE, but don't expect too much, and never buy before you try. luis@iglou.com The caveat about precisely how dependable our sources are can only be restated: players change their setups regularly. This list comes from Rico's information sheet (reeds only are detailed): * Bill Bergman: La Voz Tenor medium * Jerry Bergonzi: Rico Tenor 3.5, soprano 3 and 3.5 * Ron Blake: Hemke Tenor 4.5 and soprano 4 * Buddy Collette: Rico Royal alto, soprano and tenor 2.5 * Ronnie Cuber: Rico Baritone 3.5 * Jay Davidson: Plasticover tenor 3.5 * Candy Dulfer: La Voz alto medium * Hans Dulfer: Rico Royal tenor 3.5 * Chico Freeman: Rico/Royal tenor 3, La Voz med and hard alto * Kenny G: Hemke Soprano 2.5, Tenor 2.5 * Benny Golson: La Voz Tenor hard * Everette Harp: La Voz soprano, alto and tenor medium hard * Jeff Kashiwa: La Voz alto and tenor medium, Hemke sop 3 and ten 3.5 * Dave Koz: Plasticover alto 4, tenor 3.5, sop. 3.5 * Ronnie Laws: La Voz alto, sop and ten (hard) Hemke tenor and sop 5 * Sonny Rollins: La Voz Tenor med. and Hemke ten. 2 * Dave Sanborn: La Voz alto medium * Bud Shank: Rico alto 2 * Lew Tabackin: Hemke tenor 4 Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 2.19 Improving your speed Here are a few postings taken from a discussion in the newsgroup on improving your speed. I guess my own advice on improving your speed is to look carefully at your technique. You can't turn your back on the basic premise of 'Practise Makes Perfect', but perhaps if you are really struggling you could look at your instrument. Remember that badly seated pads will slow you right down (even if you don't realise it), as will a reed which is too hard or a mouthpiece which is too open. You can get palm-key risers to bring the palm keys closer to your hand if you have big hands, incidentally. Have a look at your local store or try mail order if that doesn't turn u trumps. I wouldn't use these palm key risers unless you really are a giant, though! We all can play evenly at a slow enough speed. Smooth playing is not as much 'playing notes smoothly', as 'moving between notes' with smooth and consistant technique. Some note intervals are easy to finger and some are hard. At some point, one or more of your difficult fingering intervals will start being more difficult than the easy intervals, and you will lose your smoothness. Here's what you need to do. First, identify your most difficult note intervals. For now, only focus on intervals in a scalesÂone or two half steps. (Of course, low A with your knee in the bell and ultrasonic altissimos with both feet off the ground make a hard interval. But you can work that one out later.) Use a tape recorder and listen to yourself playing with a metronome. Speed up your playing until you can identify the hard spots. Identify the worst 5 or 6 problem intervals to start with. (You will find that some problem intervals are made more difficult to play smooth because there is a super easy interval right next to it, so when I say interval, it could be 2 or 3 intervals of a scale played together that is the problem.) Second. You've identified the problem spots. Now HAMMER THEM OUT with hours and days of sweat drenching, neighbor barking practice. That's about what it takes. Always go for total evenness. Never practice faster than you can play it perfect, except to identify problem spots. Third. This leads us to the PRACTICE TECHNIQUE that can make your practicing much more efficient. There is a BIG reason for not practicing faster than you can play perfect. By doing so, you are ingraining imperfect technique into your body. It is MUCH harder to unlearn later, than to start out slow but perfect and build up. Here's a simple technique for this (most of you probably know this). Anyway, lets say you have something you must learn that you can't play yet, either a score or a scale or exercise. Start out with your metronome slow enough that you can play it perfect. This might sound stupid and be totally unmusical, but do it anyway. Increase your metronome a little bit ONLY after you have played it perfectly THREE TIMES in a row. (You should break long pieces into smaller sections for this.) If you make any mistake three times in a row, reduce the metronome back a little. The idea is to avoid allowing your body to learn imperfect techniques, such as moving more quickly between two easy notes than the hard ones. Keep in mind that we already have ingrained certain problem intervals and techniques that have to be unlearned. (I doubt that there is anyone out there that STARTED playing sax perfectly and never quit. He or she must have played really SLOW!) Anyway, That is why we identify them and then hammer them out. Then modify your practice techniques to avoid reinforcing or learning new imperfections. Thanks, just had to get in on this one... Doug Findley I assume you mean for a fast scale from c to shining c? :) Try this (It's also great for learning other fast passages): start at the end of the end of the scale, and play the last two notes over and over until you can get them really fast. Shouldn't be too hard with 2 notes. Then try the last three, and don't go on until you have it fast and especially SMOOTH. The smoothness is more important IMHO, because if you get something fast, but it's not smooth, you'll just keep practising it unsmoothly everytime you play, if it's smooth but slow, you can go faster just by playing a lot. I find this really helps a lot. Jonathan "Jon-o" Addleman - comatose@mi.net Here is another way of saying the same thing, but which makes the underlying principle more explicit: "Speed comes from accuracy." I repeat this little mantra to myself whenever I run into technique problems with fast material. Patrick Bruer Check out the article "Speed Developement - or How to Play Fast" in the latest issue of Selmer Woodwind Notes. You can find a copy of this issue on the Selmer home page - http://www.selmer.com. The article was co-authored by myself and my graduate assistant. For further exercises I recommend obtaining my book - Scale Anthology - Linear & Vertical Exercises for the Contemporary Saxophonist. More info on this method book can be found on my homepage: http://www.saxophone.org/miles/miles.html. Miles Osland Back to Index This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996 [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 3.1 World Wide Web Sites and resources This list should be growing all the time if people are prepared to keep me up to date. First off, instrument manufacturers: * The Selmer Company home pages. Useful information and pictures. * Yamaha musical instruments - and so on. Again helpful. Reeds and mouthpieces: * Gary Sugal's mouthpiece company home page. With other features. * Rico International has a web site featuring, what else? Reeds. Web oriented band instrument companies: * Looking for a horn? Check out the Wichita Band Instrument Co. who feature lots of vintage saxophones. * Giardinelli, "more than a music store." They actually have quite a good collection of links and other info. General Saxophone information: * Indiana University Saxophone Page * Saxgourmet, representing Steve Goodson Woodwinds of New Orleans, LA. * The International Saxophone Home Page. Invaluable! Visit it. Saxophone Publications: * The Saxophone Journal * Jazzplayer publication * Jazzfriends Review, an online jazz e-zine. Personal web pages: * Martin Carter's home page featuring Sax Tutor software * Richard Corpolongo's home page * Elias Haslanger's home page (with samples) * Biography, clips and gig dates of Dennis Mitcheltree * Jerry Moore's Sax Page * Harri Rautiainen's `Sax on the Web' * Synthwind page * Richard Tabnik's Home Page * Adrienne Welker's saxophone web page where you can learn about her mailing list. General music stuff: * The Blue Note Jazz Club, Tokyo, Japan. On May 4, they will be featuring the Saxophone! In Japanese, but they promise English soon. * hangover square, featuring the FREEDOM 4 SOUNDS free music archive! * Stash Mail Order CD's! * Funk Yard Hpage. * Wind Music Online. Lots of German (some English) band music stuff. Free classified ads: "The Music Classifieds will be sent to you free via e-mail once a week. The ads which appear in this paper will be anything related to music (i.e. gear for sale, agents wanted, collaborators wanted, etc.) For your free subscription, simply e-mail me at 74072.1433@compuserve.com." "There is also a freebie ear training sw for PCs on B. Hugh's Music Instruction Software Page. You'll find a link to there from: http://www.lookup.com/Homepages/75322/Harri/OtherMusic.html" Time dilation software (for slowing down music without changing the pitch - yes really!) can be bought from: "WAVE SE II for 29 pounds including VAT and Postage Et Cetera Distribution Unit 17, Hardmans Business Centre Rawtenstall Lancs BB4 6HH or Phone +44 -1706 228 039" I can personally recommend this software as something quite incredible. Joe Sax Woodwinds (800) 876-8771. Used, "Vintage" Saxes and other winds Bought, sold Traded. Paul Cohen comments: I have been using Joe, both for his repairing and as a source for instrument purchases for students and professionals for over 20 years, and I find his work and business ethics to be unimpeachable. He maintains all of my 140 saxophones, from the collectables to the one-of-a-kinds, up through my professional horns, ranging from sopranino to bass. I receive many requests from all over asking assistance in finding instruments. Of all the dealers that we encounter across the country, there are perhaps three that I trust without reservation. Joe is one of them. Back to Index [rec.music.makers.saxophone] 3.2 Acknowledgments The writers in alt.music.saxophone who are quoted. Shooshie for the vibrato, mouthpiece exercise, Ten Steps and circular breathing texts as well as the text on making your own altissimo notes and looking after reeds. Hats off to Shooshie - he virtually wrote the whole FAQ when you add it all up! I have it on good faith that a book is being written. Riz Hassan (supplied old posts for some sections), Graham Seale (comments on `The Art of Saxophone', reed maintenance, low A notes), Elias Haslanger (Sugal mpc), Mark Allen, Adam Klein, Craig Sylvern, BBB, Mark Sizemore, Robin Hosie, P. Hekman, John Crone, Al Boyarsky, Christopher John Smith, Geoff Chadwick, William Gowers, Brian Gardner, Jason Dumars (tip facing chart, Web links), Michael Barnett, D. Ryan, Jerry Moore, Michel van Assendelft (reed chart and sax pitches), Bob R. Kenyon (maintains the Web site), Jeremy Burke, Miles Osland (Fibracell reeds, mpc patches), Scott Fultz (transcription), Harri Rautiainen (alto sax playing position), Kevin Dolorico (Selmers), Luis Scheker (Selmers and famous setups), Richard Corpolongo (Reed preparation), Laren Addabbo (alternative fingerings), Chris Neal (Reed maintenance), Jonathan Addleman, 'Captain Entropy', Jack Laing (embouchure document, altissimo fingerings), Brad Moffat (address). Adolfe Sax - 6th November 1814 - 4th February 1894 The alt.music.saxophone/rec.music.makers.saxophone FAQ - Maintained by Bob R. Kenyon, created by Michael Wells. Please send information, ideas and input to: Bob R. Kenyon. THIS TEXT REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS. REPRODUCTION BY PERMISSION ONLY. [Image] This page created and modified hourly or monthly by Bob R. Kenyon ©1996