Aurus 7 – diaphragm

[brother cavefish]

oh hey brother, sorry for coming on so strong, i could have left out the first few words, LOL, i just hate to see young players or old get sucked into things, Golf the another one, holy clams get this and that club, the perfect club,, just play and practice, at least you have enthusiasm thats the ticket,, good job

[brother cavefish]

for me i have not found a synth reed that feel right, maybe the hemp one but its to expensive to just try,, i hear the resin man,, for me cane is the best, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRUsujkbtTc SAX uk does a sick comparison on reeds and you get great grip on what sound might interest you,, there is around 3 or 4 videos vandoren, d adarrio, hemke etc many more its very interesting, i have tried a boatload of reeds, and mouthpieces and they are all different , i have 10+ mouthpieces and each one reacts differently i have V16s, Hemkes, Javas, rico select , vandoran trads, gonzales, alexanders etc and they react different on each MP, not to mention one could get a crap reed too,, dang i ruined some reeds by dipping them in listerine they friggen molded, LOL,, reeds and MPs are an effort man, finally got some sweet ones

[john]

hey sx, interesting your teacher bought one. of course we are all trying to improve but when it comes to breath control and embouchure, for someone who’s been at it for decades those things are like talking and coughing…it just happens naturally at this point. What I’m saying, for me, improving at some things is never ending, but once you have the breathe control down and a developed embouchure that’s it.

I may be wrong about this aurus but it sounds like for a student with little experience it could be a huge help as these 2 things I mentioned (embouchure & breathe control) can take a very long time and students are not always confident they’re doing it right. There are some gimmicky things out there I agree but if this things helps I certainly wopuldn’t put it in that category, quite the opposite. If this thing actually works it can take months if not years off the learning curve.

Really interested to see if it can help you so keep us posted for sure.

[Anonymous]

Brother Cavefish, you’ve been very helpful. It’s taken me a couple
of years to settle down on the mouthpiece that feels right for me
and find the right reed that works with it, if it aint broke, dont fix it.
So i’m not too keen on the idea of trying out more reeds and mouthpieces.

Johnny, the Aurus 7 has been very helpful. Like you say – you cant look
inside someones mouth to see what they are doing.

This is the 3rd day of using the Aurus 7, what is has shown me, is
that i can actually play the sax without having the top teeth on the
mouthpiece. Because of that, i’ve now noticed that with the top teeth on
the mouthpiece you only need very tiny ammounts of top teeth pressure
on the mouthpiece to go in and out of the sweet spot.

Before that, i used to play with the same top teeth pressure on the mouthpiece all the time, and occasionaly drop the jaw for vast changes.

The other thing that it has brought to my attention, i thought i was
using my diaphragm properly, now i realise i was only using it partially
and not to its full extent. Using properly to its full extent gives
a louder, and a lot steadier sound instead of over rellying on the
facial muscles to hold a steady song, resulting in more facial tension.

Ok, overtime one could work these things out for yourself, but its a
device that opens your eyes and has shown me where to make changes
and improve. I will carry on using as a 10 min warmup device, to
remind to stay in a better habbit.

It’s no different to tuning up the sax.
Not being pitch perfect, i have to warm up on the sax with a tuner
every day, to make sure i am playing all the “F#’s” and all the “C’s”
are in tune. Being relative pitch, i can then bring all the other keys
better in tune.

It’s the same thing with relative pitch hearing, i wouldn’t be able
to tell what key is pressed on a piano. But if you pressed a piano key
and told me what key it was, then i could tell what the next key within
the same octave is being pressed with more accuracy.

[john]

excellent. I’ve gotten emails from people that say they are playing with their top teeth resting on their top lip! just like their bottom lip. this is crazy.

[Martin Pavíček]

@sx poet, some other experience, knowledge, recommendations about aurus ?

[Anonymous]

Ok Martin, i’m starting week 3 of using the Aurus 7,

here’s the difference

1) it’s trained me to fill up my lungs with air to full capacity
2) i can now feel the difference between using and not using my diaphragm
3) i now have to use less top teeth pressure on the mouthpiece, and
can even play without the top teeth on the mouthpiece
4) it’s caused me to push the mouthpiece 3mm further in the neck
5) it’s made it easier to play with more mouthpiece (about 3mm) in my mouth

Because i’m using more diaphragm air pressure and less top teeth pressure, it’s flattened my pitch, to compensate, i’ve had to push the mouthpiece in
more (which puts the sax more in tune with itself in all 3 registers).
Because of the less top teeth pressure needed to play the mouthpiece, means
in can now play the mouthpiece with more mouthpiece in the mouth and have
wider control of the sharpness/flatness of pitch.

I need to continue using the aurus 7, as its now completely changed my embouchure in terms of sounding either too flat or too sharp, in otherwords,
im having to retrain my embouchure to play in tune, which will take many
more weeks.

[Martin Pavíček]

Thank you sxpoet.
But: if you have more mouthpieces in your mouth then how do you control the height of the tone – flat / sharp? (ie, the more you have mouthpiece in your mouth, the less you can drivethe height of the tone by the lips, is that so?). The same is true for bending the tone (?).

[Anonymous]

If you have a patch on your mouthpiece, that gives you an idea how much more or less mouthpiece you can take in. Some people get the impression they have to take in 3 inches more mouthpiece, when in fact its more like less than 1/2 of an inch more. Too much mouthpiece in your mouth and you may sound like a geese honking. Bear in mind i’m talking about Alto mouthpieces
not Tenor mouthpieces.

In my case it doesn’t make any difference how much more or how much less mouthpiece i have in my mouth, i can still lower or raise the pitch, either by biting slightly harder with the top teeth, or just lowering the jaw.

I use the mouthpiece in lots of different positions to get different effects, so i dont subscribe to the notion that you must play with all of the mouthpiece in your mouth all the time.

I’ve just moved up to a no. 3 reed, early days, but the tone sounds stronger than the number 2, and the altissimo keys sound more piercing to the ear, and the very high overtones are way stronger.

[brother cavefish]

my teeth dont even touch the mouthpiece , i just bend the reed , i use wide tips

[Author]

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