There are several manageable things you need to improve to take your saxophone sound to a new level. In this article, we will explore the list of fundamental things that can be a real game-changer for you.
Using Enough Air
Making a good sound on your saxophone is impossible without blowing with enough force. To do it, fill your body with air by taking deep diaphragmatic breaths that allow you to expand your chest. Avoid raising the shoulder as the raised position creates tension in the neck and in the arms, which also results in tension in your fingers which is not what you want. When you breathe out, you should engage the lower abdominal muscles and the upper chest muscles. This will expel the air forcefully to let the reed vibrate and create the desired sound. To control your breath, try first putting your right hand on your tummy and the left hand on your chest, take a deep breath, and blow out hard.
Correct Embouchure
This is all about how you use your lips, facial muscles, and teeth. The most common issue among saxophone players is keeping their lips like a pinched horizontal line when the mouth corners are stretched to the side. To get a better sound, you need to push the sides of your lips in and forward. This helps you support your mouthpiece from the side rather than up and down. This position will push your bottom lip forward and out allowing you to cover more of the reed. You also need to relax the top and bottom lips to prevent them from clamping down on the reed. Ensure you don’t place the reed on the pink flesh of your bottom lip. Make your mouth more like a circle rather than a line. The final position should be what musicians call a “goldfish face”.
Another thing that helps you get a better sound is creating no extra pressure on the reed. It should sit still and vibrate freely.
Avoid upward jaw pressure as it chokes the reed. You can check if there’s not too much pressure by doing a saxophone pull-out exercise. Take your mouthpiece and neck, form an embouchure, and blow a note. Once you blow the note, pull the mouthpiece and a neck away from your lips. If you correctly support the mouthpiece from the sides and keep your lips forward and in, you’ll get an air stream without any noise. However, if you apply too much pressure on the reed, once you pull the mouthpiece away and keep blowing, your lips will buzz.
Tip from KGUmusic: A secure hold on the reed is what makes you feel confident during performances and helps avoid unnecessary stress. You can achieve this by using well-crafted ligatures, which will help reeds stay in place and vibrate freely while you play your saxophone.
Correct Use of Voice
Many saxophonists overlook the way they shape their mouth and throat when they play. However, this is exactly what impacts the harmonics and richness of your sound. Most saxophonists play with a constricted throat with a little space in their mouth. This position prevents them from creating a resonance to make the reed sing. What you need is to learn moving the larynx up and down.
Put a finger on the larynx and make a yawn. Once you do it, your larynx drops down and back. Blow your note as you do it normally, bring your larynx down, and blow another note. You will notice how the second note sounds lower and that means that you are already on your way to voice different pitches and different shapes of your throat to get more harmonics and make your saxophone sound richer.
Proper Neckstrap Position
When you put a saxophone neck strap on your neck and bring the instrument to your mouth, you should have a direct airflow going to the reed. If you put the strap with the instrument and it goes to your chin or nose, this means you have an incorrect position.
At the same time you need to have no tension in your upper body. When you place your sax too low or too high, you will spend extra energy that could be used to play the saxophone. So, every time you put on the neck strap and attach your saxophone, check where exactly your instrument is in relation to your body and how the weight is distributed. Let the instrument go to the end of the strap, place it a bit down and keep it upright.
Playing Soft Reeds
While hard reeds allow players to have a straight and narrow sound, they prevent them from having some flexibility and ability to manipulate sound. Sometimes music requires such a sound, but in some cases you may sound too loud if playing hard reeds. Softer reeds allow saxophonists to have more control over sound. While with softer reeds it can be more challenging to play modern music, players admit that they get more projection and more vibrations thanks to them.
Good Air Support
To improve your air support, you need to play long tones and do it properly. Bring the instrument to your mouth, pick a note and play it for as long as you can while keeping your air consistent. Never puff your cheeks, as you waste extra power that you can use for playing your instrument.
Tip from KGUmusic: By altering the mass and affecting the distribution of vibrations at significant points on the saxophone, you can really make a difference in your sound. For this purpose, try saxophone boosters. These small upgrades help your instrument respond faster to your changes in dynamics.
Imitating Sounds of Great Musicians
You can’t sound well unless you know what it means to sound good. Although well is subjective, while listening and imitating the jazz greats you can delve deeper into their technique and sound. Explore their accents and characteristics that make them stand out and be recognizable. Think about how they get their sound and try to get outside of what you know, and especially outside “correct things your teacher told you”.
Final Word
When you practice your saxophone playing, you do it not to be perfect as it’s impossible. You do it for consistency and confidence in your expression. Mistakes will happen, and that’s okay. You should give yourself time to refine your skills and be as good as you can. Just work on your breath, voicing, use your lips and embouchure correctly to avoid overpressure on the reed, ensure you play with a correct saxophone position in relation to your body, and listen to the best masters in their genre to feed your brain with enough ideas about a good sound.
Our company consistently designs saxophone gear and tools to make your playing experience better. Check out our woodwind accessories collection to select something for yourself.
Do not miss our recent article for saxophonists about Techniques to Improve Sound and Speed to boost your playing even more.
Sources:
https://kgumusic.com/pages/about-us