Europa With 3 Different Guardala Mouthpieces

[john]

Dino, please try it again because I checked your email address and it was not fully registered on the site….this was probably because the 2nd email sent out was not confirmed, either you missed it or it didn’t come.
Either way I have fixed this so try signing in again then go to the lesson video. It’s important because you shouldn’t be rolling your bottom lip over your bottom teeth. You might be doing it right, depending on how much of your lip you’re using…have a look at my example in the video.

As for the mp, for me the bottom end was immediately right there but it takes a little work on the upper range but it’ll come.

[Michael]

Hi Faustino,
I work with the Instructor from a local University every Monday and he has worked with loads and loads of students who have been taught to use the lower-lip over the bottom teeth type of embouchure by many of the teachers they had while learning to play in a high school while playing in an Orchestra, classical music, etc.. He would tell you the same thing that Johnny says to us all here: It simply won’t do! When he works with new students, that’s usually one of the first, if not very first thing, that he has to correct and folks are amazed at how quickly their tone suddenly turned from dark and congested-sounding to a big, open tone; all because of using the bottom lip like a cushion to support the reed like Johnny has always said. Using that method of the lower lip over the bottom teeth will really hinder someone from getting a good tone, playing those higher notes, etc.. One of the many problems with that type of embouchure is that it results in too much pressure being put on your larynx–put your hand over what they call the “Adam’s apple” of your throat and use then use the lower tip over your teeth…notice a little bit of pressure in that area of the throat? Even through it doesn’t feel like a whole lot of pressure, it’s enough to “choke” our tone and This alone will really constrict your tone and make hitting Altissimo notes very, very difficult to do. The lower lip acts like our cushion for our reeds; it absorbs the extreme high notes/overtones. The bottom lip plays a HUGE part in controlling the ‘acoustics’ of the reed. Using the lower lip over the teeth type of embouchure will usually result in a much darker type of tone. It will take some time/practice to get used to using your lip like a big cushion for your reed if you’ve been used to using the bottom lip over the teeth type of embouchure in your playing, but it’s most definately worth the effort 🙂

[Faustino Fredericks]

Hi Michael and Johnny,

Thanks for the replies. Yes Johnny the video is now playable. I do think that I am using the full lip over the bottom teeth. Much like Michael stated this is how I was taught long ago in grade school. In High school and College(I was not a music major) it was all jazz and everybody seemed to like my tone, as least I was never told I had a bad tone. But about 6 months ago I was invited to join a rock/r&b band and noticed that my tone was a “little off”. So since I notice such a great difference in tone (brighter) playing the Fatboy with lip over teeth, I hope to hear a difference with this “new” to me embouchure. I’m excited to get home tonight and play some long notes and check how this works for me.

Thanks!

[William Cingolani]

Nick,
Thanks for the info on reed to mpc placement, suck-pop test, reed seal etc.I always do the suck pop. Now I’ll remember to experiment with how far forward the ligature is on the mpc to get the proper seal.

[john]

Nick, your high school band teacher was probably not a saxophone player, this is typical, these teachers can’t be experts on every instrument they have in the band.

[Author]

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