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.
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!
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!
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!
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 !!!
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.
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 🤣
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.
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
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.
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! 😀
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.
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
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?
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 :)
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. ☺️👌🏾
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
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?
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.
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
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.
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 🎷😎
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
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
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.
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, 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. 😅
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?
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!
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?
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
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!
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!
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.
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 RU-vid 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?
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?
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 !!!!
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.
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