Fly Me….Member Video Upload

[Anonymous]

Yep – i have exactly the same issue, if my mid C is roughly in tune,
using the same lip pressure my mid D is way too sharp, i have to loosen my lower lip to bring it down a lot. It must be something to do with pressing the octave key, seems to make the air flow faster in the neck, faster air increases pressure in the sax – pushing the pitch slightly higher.

If you watch big dave’s demos, he can play all the notes with hardly any lower lip pressure, by adjusting his mouth, air flow pressure etc.

When you tune up the sax – try playing low F#, with a tuner, try and play it with a relaxed no biting lower lip pressure, if you can’t do that, then move the mouthpiece in or out until it is in tune.
When low F# is in tune, it must be with out any lower lip biting pressure. This is so that if you for any reason you want more lip pressure in certain passages, then you are not over biting and chewing up you lowers lips. The other important thing when getting the low F# in key, you MUST be relaxed FINGER wise, body wise – gently touching the keys, a lot of people tense up, and this can also send them badly out of tune which they don’t realise. Just imagine you are smoking a fag, chilling out, that is how you should be playing, its not 10 rounds with mike tyson!

[William Cingolani]

[Anonymous]

Love the recording – thanks for sharing! you’ve got a great recording setup!

Interesting combination – works well for me! Cant fault it!

[Dazza]

For anyone holding off posting a video because you think it isn’t polished enough I can honestly say you might be doing yourself a disservice. Thanks JB for pointing out my high range tuning issue and forcing me to look more closely at what I am doing. I went back tonight and just looked at my embouchure, tuning and specifically the lip pressure I have been applying and realised I was over-biting. It took me a while but I reconfigured my bottom lip pressure and it has made a huge difference to my tuning and tone in the second octave. I also am now more relaxed and blowing more freely and not aching as much on the top teeth and producing a noticeably better tone. It’s amazing how revisiting this vital feature of your playing can reveal some hidden problems. Do yourself a favour and get some uploads going of anything, it doesn’t really matter. You might just discover something about your playing that you might otherwise be, to your detriment, always oblivious to and it could hold you back. If you are like me and doing this without regular one on one instruction its even more vital. Cheers all

[john]

this is a great thing to do William, play along with someone else’s version of a song. you’re blending in nicely.
also good points Dazza. when I was young and practicing my face off I recorded myself all the time, there’s nothing better to hear what’s working and whats not, and this is the same thing.

[Author]

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