Still can't growl… grrr

[Jazz Cat]

It’s a must-have skill; esp for songs like johnny b goode im practicing now; any tips? I watched your video but still cant get a growl out; using vandoren 2.5 java green & otto link metal mp; any tips to add to the video? much appreciated; you do a great job with growls; adds so much heart/body to the horn

[Anonymous]

wow, you’ve worked thru charlie parker’s omnibook decades ago, and yet you cant growl? Wish i could help, i can only re-iterate what’s already been said pertaining how to growl. Just hum while you are playing….

[brother cavefish]

just clear your throat, but with more wind, or make a growling sound

[saxomonica]

🙂 keep smiling, try tasty peppermint flavoured oral cavity growling gum, at a drugstore near you

anyways there’s good tips here – thanking you, gents

my suggestion is go back to a normal mouthpiece and get it happening there first – and hum for the fifth of the note that you want to growl and are playing ie finger growl C but hum G (really hum it out / spit it out)

could be its like bending two suck on a harmonica, say, very hard at first, then one day it just happens and is there on tap evermore, hmm a good way to show beginners is to tilt the harmonica up (thus to bend the reed and attain the note), later dropping the tounge and different kinda throat pressure makes it simply happen

good luck in any event i’m just saying this coz i got my flutter tounge happenning on the normal mp ok but can’t do it on the metal mp at all yet

anyways i’m growling guys coz my tenor fell of it’s stand bigtime 2nite (from the table !!) and bent the front of the bow, caved right in, and my fave note F# is motorboating in a dissonant fashion which does not resonanate well with me or even flatly bode too well for it’s future playing pleasure
my other tenor fell out of it’s dud old clapped out case one nite from a greate height back of ute and itz turned into project that will prob realistically never be completed or a happenning thang so my penance for being stupid is henceforth to pick the alto that i earlier bought for my daughter (which she doesn’t want or use) and go down that trck – incidentally the sax stand is a cheap crap piece of junk that came with the sax nameless brand variety built way back beyond the black stump; its aluminiumm paper thin crap tube has the end pipe flattened and then welded to the curve bar under the bell and appears weld has given way over time it just flopped down

*so far be aware hey check your stand and the angle on the bow support

itz not all bad, the cows will come home to pasture,
well howz about speak up on this , try growling to this tenoriffically
ta tatata ta
E AEG E
rpt slowly

all the best, stay happy, and growl long
i betcha you’ll be harmonically stoked soon
to achieve one must heap up small things

[john]

I can’t really add any thing more…
it really is just getting a hum in your throat and transplanting it thru your horn.
I guess there will be some who just can’t get it to happen, this can also happen with the flutter tonque technique which is rolling your R’s. some tongues just can’t do it.
I don’t think your setup will have much to do with it, meaning that whatever you play with shouldn’t change in order to get a growl to happen.

[Martin Pavíček]

Johnny, making a “hum” without sound (made up of my vocal cords) is difficult. Or do you mean to make hum with the sound?

[Anonymous]

Take a very deep breath, and keep your mouth closed and hum a constant pitch as loud as you can, the droning noise should be coming out your nose as you breathe out your nose.

Now Take a very deep breath, and keep your mouth closed and hum a constant pitch as loud as you can, but this time open your mouth slightly and let the droning noise go our your mouth while breathing out.

Now repeat this while playing a single note on the sax. So in effect you are playing a note on the sax, and at the same time ,you blow the humming/droning noise through the mouthpiece.

If you have sax lessons from the start, a sax teacher will tell you to sing the pitch of any key on the sax, he will also tell you how you position your lips and mouth for that pitch is exactly how you should position your lips and mouth while playing the same key on the sax.

In effect when you play different keys on the sax, it is exactly as if you were singing through the sax😄

[Anonymous]

to explain the singing technique better.
open your mouth and sing a constant Mid C pitch.
memorise the exact position of your mouth and tongue.
This time keeping the mouth and tongue in exactly the same position, dont sing but just blow air out of your mouth instead.
now pick up the sax and using the exact mouth and tongue position,
play Mid C on the sax.

You might find this technique helpful, to get higher overtones on the sax, leading on to mastering the altissimo notes, the reason being, you might now be playing mid c on the sax in a different way (mouth/tongue wise) to the way you normaly play mid c.

this is why when you hum or sing through the sax while playing, you can alter the shape and colour of the sound coming out of the sax, bending the sound up or down, to distorting the sound, darkening or brightening the sound. Dropping your jaw when playing, increases the size of space inside your mouth which helps bend notes up and down, or laugh on the sax.

Having well kept teeth, ie removing all the plaque and bits of food sticking to your teeth, helps create a much clearer perfect pitch, all the vibrations go from teeth to bone in your face. Increases the growling and buzz.

You can also hold back spit in your mouth to create different effects while playing. or play with air escaping from your lips while playing.

Once you start bending notes, you can get better control over the sweet spot of pitches, have more control over saddening a pitch or brightening it up.

If you dont try all these things, you’ll just end up with a boring monotonous lifeless pitch on the sax,

[Jazz Cat]

thanks; some really good tips there; I’ll try them out! i changed reeds to a new one and can occasionally get close to growls when blowiing hard; it’s a challenge. re flutter tongue sure i can roll tongue but not w/mp in; good points re singing/playing

[Martin Pavíček]

Sxpoet, thank you, it is very helpful.

Would you manage to record a tone and examples of how you can change its shape and color? This has been greatly appreciating me for a long time but I have never seen anything like this on the web ….

[Author]

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