Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street tenor sax cover Leo Salu

[sxpoet]

This is probably a better comparison

small chamber smaller than the bore – bright
large chamber larger than the bore – dark

high baffle – bright
low baffle – dark

straight baffle – dark sound
roll-over baffle – dark
curved baffle – medium bright
step baffle – bright

from the physics view a bright mouthpiece is like blowing through a squeezed pipe where you can make a difference by blowing harder and softer.

Whereas a dark mouthpiece is like blowing into a balloon that has a pin hole to let the air come out the other side, in theory no matter how hard or soft you blow wont make much difference to how the air leaves the balloon so you get a more contstant smooth air flow.

[sxpoet]

experienced sax players can use their lung control to mimic the behaviour of a dark or bright mouthpiece, which is where playing long tones vastly helps in playing a long smooth note, you’re getting better at playing a note by holding a smooth note and also getting more control in delivering a steady speeded up air stream note. Giving a stronger blowing note compared to weaker sounding note.

But then your lungs are fighting against the barrel design of the mouthpiece and the tip opening. But the most import thing that works with any mouthpiece is the long tones control, if that’s bad, then you will find it harder to control any mouthpiece.

correct embouchure control, gives a better seal around the mouthpiece, a lot more noticeable on the clarinet (clarinet players make more loud piercing squeaks than sax players). How you pronounce the note when you blow is very important and does make a difference in the ex say HEE and blow exactly how you say HEE and it will sound different than if you say HAW and blow exactly how you say HAW – the difference between a tense and and a relaxed embouchure. You can try this out by trying pronouncing different vowels while blowing.

The last thing that i am guilty of is gripping the keys too tightly, if grip something tightly then all your body tenses up and affects the lungs and other muscles. can make playing sound rushed.

my two pennys worth (imho)

[Leo Salu]

As usual james a wealth of knowledge. Thanks Ls

[Leo Salu]

James your information is so helpful, i just started printing it off the forum for future reference, excellent stuff, you might consider setting up a You Two channel where you could share all this saxophone knowledge with a bigger audience. By the way how would you describe a bright sound to a dark sound.

[sxpoet]

i’ll put that in a separate topic

[Leo Salu]

My cover of Baker street is somewhat different than the way most sax players cover it, especially the first few bars, I tried purposely to keep the sound down, (i guess that would be darker) sometimes the Baker street opening sounds a little screeched to me. I guess it is a calmer cover than most like.

[sxpoet]

yeah the screech is the brighter sound belting out, then it calms down and gets more darker. it sounds like someone having a nightmare where they are dreaming they’re falling through space, a cross over between sad, depressing and then calm.

[Mel]

Leo! Leo! Leo!

🙂

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