vandoren zz

[Anonymous]

Finaly bought a box of zz, so far just tried one and it plays well in the altissimo register.
Definitely feels and sounds different to thd java greens .
But can’t just them on trying 1 reed.

[jake]

i got a box coming for my alto tomorrow. will let you know how they fair as well.

[Michael]

Johnny told me, before I got them, that they all play well straight out of the box. I have found them to be my favorite/best alto reeds I have used so far, but again everyone is different in their personal preferences, etc..
SXPOET: If you playing notes in the Altissimo range, would love to hear you play some of them on your next blog upload; that would be way cool! Incorporate them into your playing.
JAKE: I’ve started working on the 2nd half of our duet and should have it done by around the end of this month; remember to just take your time and don’t feel rushed; it’s only going to sound that much better. There’s some cool things to do in this portion of this song; especially when watching Johnny and seeing what he did when looking at the sheet music and watching him play. Gonna be a fun project 🙂

[Anonymous]

Chromatically i’m playing from High C to altissimo Bb.
My Altissimo G isn’t very strong so i’m concentrating just on that area until the altissimo G is a lot stronger.
Back in April the Altissimo G was hit & miss! I’m not sure if its to do with my yamaha, if i play around with additional keys i can sharpen & flatten it .
But i’m trying to stick to Johnny’s basic position 2.
I was watching a sax teacher on you tube and she teaches altissimo to her class, and she was saying some similar things about her yamaha alto.
differenent instruments have weak and strong areas?
I’ll see i can dig out something easy for the altissimo keys i know.
But at the moment concentrating on getting my 3 songs perfect for my grade 2 in November.
Every weekly lesson i have, keep find some little area to improve on.
Today i was getting the dotted crochet / quaver / crochet in correct timing.
My teacher has useful things to help in this case he says
say ta-ha-ti-ta instead of going 1 & 2 & 3 &.

[Michael]

I’ve heard the same thing about the Yamahas too; I’ve never played one so not sure what the situation is there. I know on my Tenor, which is a Selmer, I’m playing the entire range from low Bb to high F# on it like it’s nothing and have heard that Selmers are great in the Altissimo range; guess I’ll find out soon enough as I move on to Overtones now in August; I work on 1 lesson a month in Johnny’s Altissimo course. In August it will be my 4th month of being in the Altissimo course and he said it was a 6-8 month course; so seems I’m right where I should be. I have yet to see what the situation will be with the Alto as it’s out of tune, but again playing the range from low Bb to high F# is very easy on it too so we’ll see (can’t believe there was actually a time when I took a private lesson with Johnny where I was struggling with the high F# and our whole lesson was on hitting that note alone! LOL He told me during that lesson that I would get there with it and he was right as always LOL)

In terms of hitting the Altissimo register, listen to what one of the best Sax players in the world, Gerald Albright, has to say regarding the importance of having the right MP/reed set up in order to play up there in that high register; and a good working Sax (just glad he’s not in my house to lecture me about taking my Alto to the repair man LOL, but it’s off to the shop in a week or so).

http://youtu.be/UYrFZQ5pphs

[Anonymous]

Cool the 1st video i found out for myself – i’ve had to chuck quite a few good reeds which were too weak and squeaky ( i think they were wearing out, and the altissimo range is more reed sensitive). The mouthpiece reed combo is right, on my yamaha 4c didn’t seem as strong.
The 2nd video reinforces what Johnny teaches.
Overall some good tips in the 2nd video, i think this is what Johnny will be bringing out later on!
Thanks for putting it in the forum Michael!!

[Anonymous]

Well out of the box of Java greens i bought this week i’m now down to 3 working reeds,
for me the vandoren reeds have never done anything for me (personal preference),
apart from the box of vandoren zz i bought this week , the 1st reed i opened is still going strong.
For me the Ricoh Select Jazz filed & the La Voz reeds seem to work better for me on my yamaha alto.

[Author]

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