Silver mark 7 tenor mouthpiece

[Elizabeth Wallace]

Hi….. I’m not sure whether I have been a bit foolish… I have been playing alto sax for 8 years… Treated myself to a yanigasawa tenor…. I have been finding the change quite hard… I treated myself to a silver mark 7 mouth piece…. With some advice… And I just can’t get a decent note!!!… Squeaking all the time… Its just putting me off practise…. Feeling a bit deflated… Should I persevere or change my mouthpiece… I have since been told that I should never have bought a metal one….. Ps… I play selmer mouthpiece on alto beautifully… Its not metal…. Should I stick to what I know?….. Confused….

[john]

Who told you you should never have bought a metal one and why? The material is a personal preference and there are many models that are easier to play than rubber ones so whoever told told you that doesn’t understand it.
Having said that….I would recommend you stay with a hard rubber piece for now at least because you made a saxophone change.
If your new Yani is in great shape (no leaks etc) and you’ve been playing for several years you need to look at your mouthpiece and reeds.
squeaks are usually from the reed.
I’m not familiar with a mark 7 mp, even tho I have a mark 7 tenor, so I don’t know if it’s a good easy blowing one or not.
So Liz, don’t give up on the tenor, try to find an easy blowing mp first!

[Mike Potter]

Congrats on the new sax! Yani’s are nice instruments.

Going from alto to tenor will take a little adjustment but it shouldn’t be that big of a change. Unfortunately there’s really not enough information in your description to get an idea of what’s happening. Might help to write up more info. As Johnny said a reed is typically the problem with squeaks, but you’ve got so much going on all at once (new sax, new mouthpiece) it’s not going to be easy to diagnose the problem or say for sure it’s the mouthpiece.

Did you buy the sax new or did you buy it used? Was it shipped or did you buy it from a store. If it was new from a store is should be leak free but that’s not always the case, if it was used and/or shipped you might want to have it checked for leaks. Leaky pads can cause barks and squeals and make playing the instrument in general a pain in the butt, do you find the sax squeals and plays horrible on every note or just up to a certain point in the scale?

Is the mouthpiece used or new? What’s the tip opening? What reeds/strengths have you tried with it. If the mouthpiece is used it may have table/rail problems, that becomes a little more problematic in identifying the issue and getting it fixed – and even after you go through that you might find you still don’t like it and your into it for another $50 to $100… If it’s new, you might be able to return it and try something different. But before you get rid of it you should try some other pieces first, who knows..

There’s so much that can happen on a sax that can impact the playability, you’ve got new everything so it’s going to be hard to get a good answer on a forum.

Mouthpiece suggestions:

What type/style of music do you typically play? If it’s jazz or ensemble type playing in general you might want to check out a Vandoren V16 ebonite/hard rubber piece, they aren’t expensive (about $150 new, under $100 used) and typically play nicely, they come in two chambers (medium and small) the medium is more rounded and good for ensembles, the small is a little louder/edgier better for jazz, I think they’re designed around the Link slant pieces. Jody Jazz makes a nice hard rubber piece as well, about $200 new.

Yeah, don’t give up, that’s kind of how I felt with Alto when I picked one up a decade or so ago. I was so engrained on the tenor I really hated my sound on Alto but once I started playing it regularly I enjoyed it more and can get a decent tone. Let us know! I’m kind of interested in seeing what you have and where you want to go with it!

[saxomonica]

Sweet sax! Whoo Hoo

Great advice above!

Let it Go, Liz
you have lots to unlearn / may the lips be with you
the reward of patience is more patience
suggest you try a synthetic reed in MP only to start ? ok
then plug in, gargle cheeks around, loosen up, move MP in and out, blow hard or go home
the cows will come home to pasture / things have a habit of working out
ya gonna love the tenor – like luvluvluv

stay cool 🙂

[brother cavefish]

i have had some mouthpieces that just plain sqeeked too, got rid of them, the way they were made , the tip, the angle beak, window whatever it was just did not work for my air volume, but i have also got sqeaks from proven Mps and a reed replace was the solution, sometimes if not a lot a reed just goes bad it just wimps out and thats the life of reeds

[Author]

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