Trying to get that edgy, bright sound for Rock

[Dazza]

Yep. I just finished a long session practicing with the 5C and I think this is where i need to stay for now. Was getting a good tone down low and up to F# so was able to forget about the screech and focus on the scales and tone without distraction. In a few months maybe a move to a 6C then onto the Otto at a later point. I know a guy tha plays in a band and uses a yamaha 6C as it works and sounds good for him so why change he says. Just shows a $50 MP is often enough!

[Frank Basamania]

I was shopping around on line and I see that Musicians Friend and Woodwind and Brass have a 45 day return policy if you’re not happy with the product. You pay for return shipping and a sterelization fee for a mouthpiece, I think that was $10. The cost is not too bad considering you can test a mouthpiece for over a month.

[Kevin]

I was able to get out my Alto sax this past weekend for a practice session. I haven’t been able to practice but 3-4 times since my last upload before Christmas. 2014 was a bust for me with hardly any practice and certainly no progress. It was SO evident(and disappointing) during my practice that the embrochure muscles would tire in less than a minute. Couldn’t even play through an entire song. But the reason for this message was to share how that my tone is now somewhat different, but hard to compare to what it was before since I’m not playing my sax often enough to have than “recognition”. My favorite mouthpiece (Meyer Med chamber) now sounds a bit “dark” to me, and another MP (a Jody Jazz HR) which was previously a bit “bright” for my liking, now sounds good to me. Maybe my perception has to get “re-calibrated” with more routine playing, but thought it was worth sharing. Anyway hope to get an upload for the blog as soon as I can play through the entire song…

[Z]

Today after school our rhythm section and a couple soloists hung out and jammed to “Moanin'” by Mingus. I usually play the Bari solo for it but I pulled out my tenor just to play a solo once, and decided to use my metal berg larsen. Like I said before, I can’t play quietly at all, but holy crap it sounded great for Moanin’. I blasted away like crazy! After hearing my friend on his hard rubber and comparing his sound to my sound, mine had way more of a “rock tone” and way more edge that I think we can all agree that we want. 😉 So definitely try a metal mouthpiece, it was almost like a new experience jamming with it. I think that the reason I can’t play quietly is because I’m playing on too hard a reed and I’m used to playing on hard rubber. If I dropped to a 2.5 java it would allow me to get those low notes out quietly if I wanted. I hope this helps with getting that “rock sound.” After hearing myself today, I can definitely say that a metal mouthpiece will help, so long as you figure out which reeds you’ll need to use. 🙂

[Dazza]

Hey Johnny, I was captivated recently watching some videos from George Garzone who must be an accomplished jazz tenor and instructor at Berkeley Uni. He once again drives home the importance of scales and looong tones before focus on technique and fancy playing. He advocates that if you can’t play a slow ballad that captivates the listener then you cant play.. It is a common message and clearly one that we should all take in and as you say, make it part of our daily routine. He did recommend a practice of blowing long notes but not sounding the note which I found so interesting I went and did it for 5 minutes. It’s a bit weird but surprisingly I found a little more control when I played some tunes shortly after though this might have occurred anyway. Have you heard of this and do you think it’s actually achieving anything different than if you actually sounded the note for early students of the sax?

[Anonymous]

interesting stuff Dazza!
On my very 1st sax lesson with my instructor & i ‘d never played a sax before the lesson as it was a taster lesson he offered to see if i was interested in learning to play one before going out and buying one.
The very 1st thing he did was to get me to blow into it without making a sound, but to listen to the air flow, until i could blow a constant flow of air – so i wasn’t overblowing or under blowing but there was a nice full relaxed pressure of air going through the sax body. Then he got me to blow a mid b which came out perfectly – bearing in mind it was his sax & he’d already setup the mouthpiece with reed etc.
The other thing – i’ve trawled youtube and listened to all the interviews with pro sax players & 99% of them all say their tone is down practicing long tones , long tones , long tones..
All of them do scales but they still bang on about long tones, as long tones are the exercises where you learn to control the sound from embouchoure/blowing/breathing/posture/coordination of movement between keys/starting/stopping, just going up and down scales you tend to focus less on the sound and more on the fingering- That’s what i love about Johnny’s 30 minute daily sax routine!
Then when you’ve done that start on the Altissimo course as the 1st 3 lessons will take you even further before even going the Altissimo route.
It is nice to be able to play those notes, but theres no rush as most of the song sheets i have don’t even go there.
If you want to impress and show off to people then thats a good starting place to go as it shows you’re not just any old beginner.

[Lewis Pelham]

The Rico Metalite is really inexpensive.
Designed by Arnold Brilhart, it is, with practice, far more than an oyster opener, & being pressure diecast every example is identical.
Might be worth a shot.

[Author]

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