Best reeds for Growling?

[Jazz Cat]

I know it’s more skill/technique than tools, but in general what do you find to be the Easiest reed type & strength to get growls with?

I’m not able to do it w/my 2 1/2s van doren reds/greens. might be helpful to know a progression of ‘beginner tips’ for mp type/reed setup that’s easy to get growls with, say on middle A …? I’m determined to someday get a good growl, not there yet. Like in your video on growls, Tequila & others just doesn’t cut it w/o growls.

[Anonymous]

1 put the sax away

2 open your mouth, breathe out,
make any sound, be it a different word, pitch, scream, mood

3 now repeat exactly what you just did – without making a sound,
you should just hear the sound of air leaving your mouth

4 now pickup the sax and play any key, but do exactly what you
did in step 3

thats the 1st thing my Pro taught me. if you can do that, you can
make any key you play sound like whatever you want to make it sound,
like.

to growl just hum along to the song, low pitch hums work the best,
but in the case of growling you are putting the noise of the hum,
through the sax, while at the same time blowing the sax.

failing that, make a gargling noise while playing

[Jazz Cat]

thanks sp, will try that too…jf’s video is helpful as well…trying to find out if reed choice makes a difference

[Anonymous]

to be honest – the 1st time i started out doing all these different sounds , like overtones, altissimo, growling, flutter tonguing – i thought the reed made a difference – turns out it didn’t make a single bit of difference (i was trying to blame everything on the equipment, when in fact it was my lack of development).

beginners on a yamaha with a 4c mouthpiece can do all this stuff with a bog standard reed.

if there is something wrong with the mouthpiece, or leaks anywhere, then you will have problems.

the only thing i know is that dark mouthpieces work better with hard reeds and bright mouthpieces are easier with soft reeds, but obviously if go up a reed strength it gets harder to blow

[Jazz Cat]

excellent points, thanks…I’ll try a softer 2 (haven’t used a 2 since ’77)…softer may growl easier…just like 3 good for altissimo

[john]

Hey JC I agree with sxpoet, I don’t switch reeds to do any sort of stuff like growling or altissimo etc…
just use the set up you are most comfortable with during your regular playing. we can’t get into the habbit of
switching reeds just to do something different, I mean, you can experiment all you want but I look at it from a performer’s point of view….
what you got on your sax is what you’re going to do it with. do experiment though, that’s how we learn…bottom line is you need to do everything with the set up that you’re most comfortable with all-round playing.

[Jazz Cat]

good insights; makes sense…thank you — right re experimenting is good, will do

[Author]

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