How Do I Sound Good On Saxophone? [avoid these 3 awful mistakes]
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
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Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
0:47 - Theme music
0:54 - About the videos
01:39 - Mistake #1 - Breathing
04:23 - Mistake #2 - Embouchure
08:13 - Mistake #3 - "Voicing" Larynx etc
11:21 - Summary recap
12:39 - Sign off
13:24 - End music & Bloopers
Also check out these awesome playlists...
🎬 Improvising
• Improvising
🎬 Beginners
• Beginners
🎬 Technique
• Technique
🎬 The Greatest Pop Sax Solos Ever
• The Greatest Pop Sax S...
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Jamie, I've probably watched at least a 100 hours of instructional videos in the past year and I have to say that I've gotten more out of these three tips than hours of other tutorials. I was skeptical about my abilility to change pitch using just my throat/larynx, but it worked!! Thank you so much. You are the best. PS: I am 80 years old and loving my alto sax.
Fantastic ... enjoy your music! Thanks 🙏
Go you, you octogenarian!
@@JayCee-hw4zc Thanks Jay Cee
I just stared 6 months ago and I’m 62… you give me inspiration 🎷
@@petermansi3661 👍🏻
Can't express enough how great this lesson is!!! Not only have you given players some great, practical techniques to build real tone for themselves, you did it without ever ONCE introducing the idea that buying a new mouthpiece, ligature, reed, or otherwise paying money for some accessory that bolts on to a horn will be "the difference" or fix a thin, weak tone. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much 🙏🏻
Wow. I've been playing the sax for a few years now, and these videos have been so, so helpful in helping me stop sounding... Not the greatest. Thank you so much for this!
Happy to help!
As a self-taught saxophonist your tips about breathing, embouchure and voicing have helped me correct a ton of bad habits. This video is a nice summary of your "Get Your Tone Together" Masterclass Series. Thanks Jamie!
Thanks Rob!
not only you , me also😊
Mate...long time. I'm so grateful you're doing this and discussing this with such clarity, spirit and heart. I hope you're keeping well and mucho mucho rescpecto. ☺️👌🏾
Thanks! 🙏
The larynx / voicing tip is a tone game changer Jamie. I’ve heard other tips like separate back molars / jaw down but the dropping of the larynx is the key. Thank you !!!
Boom!
Amazing, thank you so much dear Jamie!!
👍 🙏
Thanks for the awesome wisdom shared. Can’t wait to get home and try this!👍🏽
You are so welcome!
Another brilliant lesson. The very very best teaching make it sound so simple!!!
Thanks! 🙏
Excellent video Jamie! Thank you!
Anytime frank. 😎
Thank you Jamie, great lesson as always
Thanks!
thank you for this! I was having trouble making this in tune and this really helped me out. Been trying out the pop solos but trying to improve my tone first :)
Glad I could help!
Amazing and practical advice, I am impress !!!!
Thanks 🙏🏻
I salute you for your passion for the saxophone.
Above all else, practice seems to be the most important thing. I will practice hard.
always be healthy
🙏
Hey thank you. I've never heard these points before. Excellent stuff.
Glad it was helpful!
Total tone mastery is amazing! Transformed my tone is just a few week and I still have a lot to work on.
Jamie is awesome at breaking things down to the most basic elements and showing how to make simple adjustments along the way.
Wow thanks! 🙏🏻
very usefull video thanks
You are welcome
Extremely helpful, much thx.
Glad it helped!
Thank It realy improve tone
Great!
I AM SO GLAD YOU MENTIONED THE SHOULDERS! 😅 Back in university my professor was the FIRST person to catch my shoulders, after I had already had two private coaches before. It’s something that I still work on till this day…in front of a mirror.
Love it!!
Hi Jamie. Great video as normal. I dream of sounding like the ‘before’ video! ‘After’ is a bit of a pipe dream at the moment but really enjoying following your advice, practicing and improving slowly
You can do it!
Thank You Jamie!!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
🙏
Waw still a leaner though buh I av learnt a lot today thanks.... My teacher will always tell me to explore my instrument I didn't understand then.❣️ All the way from Nigeria
Cool man. 👍🏻
Great video. I'd have put clarinet embouchure as #1 - those teachers create a LOT of problems. Wish I'd had the confidence to explain these points to the sax players in a wind band I was in a few years ago.
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thank you very much... 😊
Anytime 😊
I am 61 and getting back into playing after 25 years. I fully expect to play better than ever because I know more theory and absorbed more styles of music. More than anything want to get rid of that nasally thin sound for a rich, "pro" resonance. My band director said 45 years ago "fill the horn up with air". Here's that same advice again. Never got the instruction on voicing. THANK YOU!!! A new subscriber.
Thanks and Welcome to GYST!
Fear of upsetting the neighbours with lungs full of air and a big sax sound is perhaps a factor in some students not attaining the best sound/tone possible. It helps to have a practice space where you don't have to worry about that aspect and that's not always possible.
Great video.
👍
People always have the same request... Can you play "Over the hills and far away"?
That's one of my faults or problems
This was my problem exactly. I got complaints for playing any time after 3 pm. Luckily for me, the law here says I can play between 8 and 12 am, so, sorry neighbors, if you were a bit nicer maybe you wouldn't jave to listen to me in the morning 🤣
Yes and YES gib321!!! And feeling embarrassed in front of the family working through bad tones.
Attention to detail always separates the good from the great - love to see a video on how to mix the final recording - thanks for sharing Jaime - part of my Sunday morning is listening to your next tutorial 👍 best wishes Paul #saxocoustic_channel 🎷😎
Thanks Paul!
Incredible knowledge, tone is getting better, but it's so much to take in 🥴
Enjoy the journey!
awesome video
Thanks!
Best on the web
Thank you
Super helpful video, Jamie, thank you. I reckon I’m getting there with the breathing as confidence increases, but the embouchure still needs work and the voicing is something I’m really struggling with. I have a very limited upper singing range, and wonder whether that is what’s holding me back with overtones. Might it be?
Nah, my singing range is crap as well!
Great tutorials! To help with the Larynx position, think of you having swallowed a large apple and hold that position with practice next to a piano or digital tuner! Good luck to every Sax player beginner to intermediate levels!!😊
👍
Hey Jamie! Great stuff as always. I do have a question on the amount of air to blow into the horn. If I am going for a Paul Desmond/ cool jazz sound, do I still need to blow as much air as you mentioned?
My understanding was that excessive air will make the sound automatically bright.
Good question that, but no, I don’t think it’s really an air support difference to sound like Desmond. It’s other stuff.
Since I learned French horn long before sax, it was really easy to figure out how to change the tone just using my mouth.
Cool!
My first sax tutor didn't teach me about voicing - I discovered it by accident when I got hit by a yawn while playing - hey I was in my twenties and was having too much fun to sleep! 😀
🤣
Hey Jamie, could you do a whole video on the topic of split tones?
All these times I’ve listened to the likes Nelson Rangell and David Sanborn and didn’t realize that they employ the use of quite abit of split tones in their playing. 😅
Great suggestion!
Great content as always! I have been following you since I started playing alto sax about 8 months ago, and have really learned a lot! Thanks!
Right now, I'm working quite hard to try to get better at the things you talk about in this video.
A couple of questions though.
When playing with just the neck, is there a specific pitch to aim for or is it individual? (I have read about concert A-flat being a target, and I think you may have mentioned concert F# as a possible target in an earlier video.)
Also, when practising with the neck or even with just the mouthpiece, is the quality of the sound that I make a good measurement of how well it will sound on the sax? If it feels like it 'sings' on the neck, does that mean it will sing on the sax?
Ab is good, sure. Not sure the "kazoo" sound on the neck equals a good sax sound, but it stands to reason that if it's loud and full that will translate!
@@GetYourSaxTogether Great! Thanks!
Pull out exercise?? I should be great at this one 👍🏽😂
Seriously though, thank you so much for talking about the proper embouchure! Very few cats talk about tightening the sides
Thanks!
jamie im not sure you would remember but i was one of your first subscribers, oh, sorry i brought up the hazel occonor thing, i now realise just how hard it is. just to piss you off a bit more, how about twin saxophones on ian Dury hit me with your rhythm stick ? feel free to tell me to sod off. im a londoner so its all good fella. however, i owe you my thanks, i am now jamming with a band and that is down to you which id have thought is why you started the channel. thanks mate.
Aw man - I think what a lovely comment! As you can see, I eventually crumbled and covered Will You! 🤣 So chuffed you’re an OG subber. That’ll be a badge of honour someday! Re Rhythm Stick, yeah, why not!
@@GetYourSaxTogether Top man. Never seen a alto and a tenor played together before. Honestly though, thanks fella because I no longer sound like a goat with its head stuck in a fence and someone heard me practising and stuck a note through my door saying they were looking for a say player to jam with. I'm in my late 50's and disabled. Given me a new lease etc.
Probably a rank beginner question, but when you have the breath support necessary, and you're using your ab muscles like a bellows, how then do you manage to blow a quiet note?
Thanks for a great video. I know I'm guilty of all three of these mistakes, especially trying to control dynamics with my air stream
Well, you do blow softer for quiet notes of course, but keep the air support throughout.
Is this goldfish the same thing as the "lip out" embouchure that I've seen some videos about, or different? How does it affect intonation, do you have to push in more?
Yeh you might have to push in more and your lip will naturally be more out. As opposed to tucked fully over your bottom teeth.
Jamie your videos and tips on sound production are amazing. Your interview with Donna Swartz was awesome a lot of great information. Keep up the great work
🙏
Where can I find that interview??? Thanks
@@markmontaquila2699 try this link ua-cam.com/video/2cYydxwm3ys/v-deo.html
@@markmontaquila2699 Everything saxophone podcast .Download it and you can watch on UA-cam
Great video as usual! I have a question: when I move my larynx down my tongue moves back. I feel that this affects my sound, I can't make a good staccato and the notes always sound funny for the first fraction of a second. How can I fix it? Thank you so much!
Try anchoring your tongue behind your front teeth?
Hi! Regarding the 1 point (breath). How do I play soft type of jazz like paul desmond ballads if I am always supposed to use as much breath as I can?
That’s a great question for my inner circle!
Hi Jamie, does releasing all that air really hard, like you demonstrated, make the saxaphone sound louder? If not,how do you play softly with the same breathing technique?
Yeh it will make it sound louder. Once you’ve got it you can blow softer but keep a full sound.
Hi Jaime, I definitely feel like I struggle to get enough air through. But if I blow lots of air, and get a nice big tone, how do I get the same good tone if I'm playing a gentle ballad in a quiet room, or wanting to play backing notes to support a vocalist. I still want the rich tone, but not the volume?
You blow more gently and get a different type of more airy tone behind a singer etc.
What mp you playing? Sounds amazing.
Vintage link.
@@GetYourSaxTogether love your channel!
You have maybe Pay Pal. You could expand the payment option to buy me a coffee. I like Your lesson.
Thanks so much.
Both options available:
✅ Buy Me A Coffee (PayPal not accepted)👉www.buymeacoffee.com/GetYourSaxTogether
✅ PayPal to buy me a coffee👉paypal.me/getyoursaxtogether
Do you have training lessons for beginners to professional players on saxophone
Yes: www.getyoursaxtogether.com/teaching
This seems more like a “how not to sound bad/weak” tutorial than a “how to sound good” tutorial. These are just bad habits you need to avoid so they won’t hinder your growth. To develop your sound, you need to listen to a lot of music and different saxophonists to understand how you want to sound on the instrument, and play long tones on the instrument every day focusing solely on getting as close to the sound you desire.
Sure, but this is UA-cam Andrew. I have a comprehensive program called Total Tone Mastery which is a full step by step course for saxophone tone production. If I went through all that here it would be a 5 hour video!! 🤣
Anyway, if you stop doing the bad stuff it’s a great start to having a good tone, right?
Please Help, how do I get lessons from you?
Hey Chris, follow this link for info about teaching www.getyoursaxtogether.com/teaching
I'm having a hard time getting a perfect emboucher, I don't know if im doing it right, im curling my bottom lips inside slightly. Is this correct?
Check-out these videos: ua-cam.com/video/cWRyouRVoBA/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/eGEaBkvnGZs/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/cleZvTfofko/v-deo.html
There's something we don't talk about enough, it's the natural tone we own, tone is like the voice and we all have a different one and damn, some of us have incredibly gorgeous ones like Michael Brecker, Clarence Clemons, Stan Getz.. It kinda depress me to know that I will never sound like them no matter what I do because of genetic lol
You should always strive to be the best version of YOU! Do what makes your sound unique. As the saying goes: Why did Hendrix play like Hendrix? Because he couldn't play like Clapton. We all have our heroes but only tribute bands have to replicate their sound.
@@unclemick-synths The difference is that guitar, piano and non-wind instruments in general have all the same potential, I don't play piano but if I press a A key it will sounds the same way than Chopin or Art Tatum, the difference is that they have both mastered the instrument and own skills i don't have on the instrument, but the potential of the piano is the exact same for me since the piano tone is the same for all; In this video at the beginning Jamie emulates someone playing " badly ", but even playing this goofy way he still sounds amazing because of his natural warm tone.
@@nairdazitro7460 sorry, but you are grossly over-simplifying non-wind instruments. My experience is that on any instrument you can get up to a certain level of sound creation reasonably quickly but to get beyond that level takes learning and lots of practice regardless of instrument.
@@unclemick-synths I'm not talking about the skill level, but about the genetic which allows to sound special, you can sing during 20 years but you will never sound like Pavarotti because he was born gifted with an incredible voice, this is what i'm pointing.
I think you might be missing something huge here - Brecker etc all started with a terrible tone. It doesn't come "naturally". You have to work on it and get expert guidance from a teacher to get a great tone. Anyone can with the right coaching and enough dedication. I actually think you're discrediting people with a sensational sax sound - they worked their ass off to get it! And YOU can have a great tone too btw.
Sometimes, I find myself really wanting to clamp down on my mouthpiece when I get up into the high notes. I find myself stopping, when I do that, and saying to myself, "Goldfish! Goldfish." Thanks, Jaime!
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Thanks Jamie, these are very useful tips! Something that I notice is that I get into overtones/higher sounding notes when I blow too hard, what's the possible issue there? Should I exercise more on changing my voicing to avoid that?
Yes. Watch the April 16, 2023 video on voicing.
Jamie doesn't even sound bad when he's trying to sound bad!
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The BIG question ; When I yawn my larynx does drop and go back BUT LIKE I’m yawning I’m taking air in inhaling that allows this to happen. HOW do I let it drop and go back while blowing out? It physically doesn’t seem to work, when I blow out the larynx naturally goes back up and out. Help !!!!
Think about blowing out from the throat, not the lips.
i was taught how to play tenor sax by a trumbone player, so, of course, i have some of these problems after 5 years
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@@GetYourSaxTogether 🤣
While I don't disagree with anything said here, I think the most important tip has been left out. You need to listen to saxophone players to develop a good sound. You need to pick out your favorite players and play along with their music, trying to shape your sound to sound like theirs. I really don't believe you can have a good sound if you don't have that sound implanted in your head. Anyway, that's my take.
A sentiment I have expressed inumerable times! Thanks!
I forget tip#2 one second after I've heard it.
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How come sax players don't all have fantastic abs if they tense their stomach so much
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Sorry man, but if their clarinet embouchure is a line and the corners aren't in then that's a bad clarinet embouchure too.
Fair enough. I’m trying to paint with rather broad strokes here I must admit!
@@GetYourSaxTogether ok, ok. I was just feeling a little bit dragged by that is all