excellent talk on embouchure

[Anonymous]

i learn’t a lot from this, now i understand
how to get higher notes, and why some of
the higher notes go out of tune badly

[Anonymous]

Thanks James, it’s an interesting video with helpful tips.

Something I discovered yesterday during practice, was my wrong approach to controlling the notes via air-flow. I was trying to keep the air-flow constant to limit the volume of my sound; but different notes require different flow rates and by controlling the air-flow the notes which require more air, fade and become soft. My new approach is to use my cheeks as pressure sensors, and to try and maintain the same pressure for the pitch I am playing. This approach seems to give me a more consistent sound.

[Anonymous]

Cool – the 1st few weeks i started to play the sax, my teacher taught me correctly how to embouchure, when i was practising at home, it wasn’t sounding good (i hadn’t built up the muscles), i found that if i rolled the lower lip over the bottom teeth, kept the lip very thin & tight i was getting an awesome sound. But then when i started playing the keys above mid F, i started squeeking on the higher notes, so when i went back to the teacher, he said you’ve gone and changed your embouchure from what i showed you. So i went back to the proper embouchure (like in the video) and the notes above mid D stopped squeeking straight away, so i had sacrifice the great sound from the crap embouchure position that was limiting my range, and use the proper embouchure, and wait till all the muscles built up. Then eventually i got back the good sound with the right embouchure. Some people would have blamed this on the wrong mouthpiece size or the wrong reed size.

This is why its far better if you can get a good teacher in the 1st year at least. It took me roughly 4 to 6 months to get the embouchure sound sorted out, totally ignoring the timing, dynamics etc.. For me the most important thing i wanted was the sound sounding good, if i couldn’t do that, i would jack the whole lot in. I spend a lot of time on sound etc, whereas now i need to spend more time on rhythm (timing which is a lifetimes work, everyone knows how rusty you can get in that area, once you lay off playing).

[Anonymous]

I wish I could find a good teacher. I’ve been looking at the Sax shops in UK and America online – I would be in there for quite a while at least until I’ve checked out all their models on display.

I’m trying to find a good Sax technician to set the screws on my Tenor properly. I’ve tinkered a bit and managed to improve it a little, but it’s not right yet as D4 is very dead. I’m not sure about the pads either, they may need replacing too! You would think that a music shop trying to sell a pricey saxophone would do all the settings properly so as to present the instrument in peak performance?!?

[Marc]

Hey, Jim, thanks for sharing… Mr. Liebman manages to describe with simple words and gestures one of the (if not THE) most difficult saxophone techniques.
Very helpful to us beginners, indeed.

[john]

@Jeffrey, getting your airflow right is the biggest thing you can do at this point to improve your sound. it’s impossible for me to say if you’re doing it right but the whole thing has to come from the diaphragm. check with your hand over your tummy to see if you’re moving in right.
volume is controlled this way too. a good test (or workout) is to play full tones at a soft volume because it’s harder than playing full out loud as it requires us to produce more air support for the notes not to break, especially for the lower notes.

[Anonymous]

Hi Johnny, thank you for the information. Yes, I am using my diaphragm, but I was somehow holding back, trying to regulate the air flow as if every note required the same amount of air. I hope to be doing another upload soon which will allow you to hear how I’m playing at present.

[Author]

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