I have gotten so much better thanks to you and I am a dedicated saxophone player I am only 11 years old but practice over two hours a day. you and saxexplained have helped me grow as a saxophone player. thank you so much.
Brilliant, Jamie! Between this and last Sunday's videos, you've hit the two things my teacher @rolysax has worked on with me for the past year: tight embouchure (former clarinet player here, trying to break the habit of a lifetime) and strident articulation. The one word he has drilled into me is "RELAX" (intensity is also a hard habit to break for a former military member--ha). Thanks for your excellent, detailed videos--key leaf tongue and all! 😜
thanking you. As prior to sax and I still do play a lot of flute, Ive often wondered why the flute tonguing techniques are not used on sax ie nit touching the reed at all but tongue hitting just above the top teeth which for me also works well.
Hey Jamie, great lesson video, enjoyed that! Absolutely spot on about the tongue, and how that might be perhaps reason 1. that a lot of saxophonists could sound way better. You can have all the dexterity and technical facilities in the world, but if this part isn't rightly done, you'll keep a sloppy sound. The other way around (great tongue independance and usage for sound/phrasing + a basic facility in technique) will get you much better overall sound , imo at least :) Thanks for these great lessons to the online sax community, appreciated! You are helping saxophonists spread better sounds which in turn can "infect" new people that love saxophone. 🎷
Thank you Mr Anderson. It is fantastic training. I want to ask you a question about bebop articulation. Many youtubers...saxophonists, teachers...every one speak about bebop articulation the same things, but with little differences. Mr Paddok says "Doit", Saxologic says "Doodl", Mr McGill, Mr Wally Wallace, Mr Metcalf and many other great saxophonists speak about bebop articulation the same but with differences. So many advices from all over the world. Mr Anderson, do you know the ultimate training for bebop articulation? Every day im training with your lesson from "lesson 138 Articulation Part 3". Yes, it is fantastic training, i feel like my sound making better and better, but when im try to say "Doit" or "Doodl", or "Dadl", or "Didl"...my saxophone starting whistle like angry policeman.
Ha! The syllables are just trying to copy what it sounds like, don’t get too hung up on them. The best you can do is learn a simple solo from the record and try and copy exactly what you hear.
Hey jamie, thanks for such an informative video! I was wondering if you tend to keep the back and middle of your tongue humped for the whole range of the horn, or just for the low and high notes? I've heard a 'ayyyy' (flat tongue) position is advisable for the mid range notes. Thanks again! 🤟🏻
Muito interessante! Tenho percebido uma melhora na minha afinação e articulação com a estabilização da língua, o que se confirma pelos exercícios sugeridos nesse vídeo,. Existem pouco conteúdo sobre esse assunto, muito obrigado, foi muito útil para mim.
Everyone's mouth shape and tongue are different and work a little differently. There is no "one way" to articulate. The end result is what is important. Listen to good articulation and practice until you get desired sound.
I think that is a food comment. I was thinking that it's about SOUND. If I try to play something like Mobley's RECADO BOSSA NOVA, I can record myself to understand if I'm getting close to how it was recorded by Hank himself. When I CAN'T do it, I have to understand why not. It is excellent feedback.
Bang on advice here Jamie, just spent 3 months practicing articulation along to Jean M Jarre Oxigen 4, plenty of Triplets in there to highlight the shortcomings , can now play the entire piece, it's a critical part of playing. Being to be able to identify your weak points also helps, these videos really help in that area 👍🏼😎
Thank you very much,sir. I Always enjoy and learn from your videos. (A small suggestion,if I may :the music in the background is a bit distracting. I think we could do without it;would love to focus solely on the sound of your voice imparting your knowledge) Looking forward to your next videos.
I like it, but I definitely see how it could be distracting for some people too. I think it's good including sometimes and leaving out other times as is.
more scoops than an ice cream parlor as my teacher says It sounds terrible and best to avoid , record your self on your phone ! it may surprise you if your an intermediate player like me . just being aware of it is a start in the right direction. great advice Jamie.
My tonguing starts to suffer, when playing faster than 150 clicks on the metronome. When playing 8th notes in a piece of music, I accentuate the second note. Any faster and I tend to loose it. Could it be an age problem? I'm 86.
I’d say 1/16ths at 120bpm is the limit for single tonguing. Not sure it’s an age thing. More likely a technique thing. Make it lighter. You need my phrase like a pro course!
That's one School of Thought, tip to tip. I was taught this way. Sax teacher, Dr. Wally, disagrees. Says your tongue will quickly tire and your speed will slow down.
That ol' Scott Paddock teaches tongue totally differently, tucking the tip of the tongue down behind the lower teeth and touching the reed with the hump of the tongue. You're both amazing professionals so whose method to chose and follow?
Scott is correct, tonguing with the tip of your tongue doesn’t sound good, unless you want to tongue mute a note. Way before RU-vid the great Mel Martin did an articulation masterclass in Jazz Player magazine where he talked about using the syllables do, da and dit to create clean articulation. These syllables mean the tip of your tongue is away from the top of the reed. Mel had great articulation and a fabulous tone and never scooped notes, unless he wanted to. If you keep your embouchure still and don’t move your lip/jaw with your tongue you won’t get scoops in or out of notes. The key is to not move your embouchure when you move your tongue and don’t start blowing until your embouchure is properly formed.
John - yeah, that’s called anchor tonguing. Lenny Pickett does it too. I don’t teach it as it’s a bit more unusual, kinda like double embouchure or something. Scott is a mega funk player, and so is Lenny Pickett so maybe that’s a good technique for funk, I dunno! See what works best for you I guess.
Thanks Jamie, very informative. Helps me a lot in my sax journey. Question if I may please? Understand people have different anatomy. But most often, our tongue sits naturally where its tip touches the back of lower teeth. So when you put the mouthpiece into you mouth, that's probably about close ~2 cm or so. At that position, the tip of tongue is probably aligning close / heading the middle of the reed(just estimating here). For it to touch the tip of the reed, tongue needs to back off, or curl up perhaps. Usually this can be achieve by using words such as "la-la-la" instead of ta-ta-ta. Just not feeling natural to me, but i guess it's down to practice. What do you think? - appreciate for the advice. Thanks a lot.
I think you might be overthinking it. The tongue is super nimble and can “shrink” inside your mouth and move almost anywhere with ease. Ultimately, try stuff and go with what works best for you. 👍🏻
This is so scientific it made my High School Chemistry teacher retire lol. Love the way you teach, it's almost an "athletes way" to get a more solid tone.
A comment not related to the topic but presentation which also occurs more and more everywhere on even serious news/commentary podcasts such as The Guardian and that I guess is the assumption that the listener will turn off if there isn't more stimulation that the spoken content. For example the news item could be reporting on some catastrophe and in addition there is dramatic music. So Im listening and very interested in the tonguing topic and I have to turn off the attention grabbing wonderful fast moving piano. Im thankful that it is turned off when you are actually demonstrating.
well im all messed up. All my life. 30 years of playing sax I have never tongued the reed. I tongue the top of my mouth. No wonder I still suck after 30 years.
Wait wait, are you saying tip of the tongue to tip of the reed? Not what Im teaching my pupils, completely wrong in my opinion. Contact happens slightly behind the tip of the tongue, half an inch maybe. Tongue is in its natural position, you just open your mouth and when you put in a mouthpiece the tip of the mouthpiece comes exactly on the part of the tongue it needs to touch. Tip of the tongue touches lower teeth. I was expecting more from this channel...
If you weren’t so disrespectful and rude I might have taken some time to answer your comment. There’s no excuse for this kind of comment in this friendly saxophone community.
@@GetYourSaxTogether Wow, disrespectful and rude? Just because I dont agree with you? Where did that charming, happy guy disappeared? Disrespectful and rude is posting these kind of videos for masses to see and Im being mild with this statement.
@@sfxjura8834 Okay. The temptation to “ban user from commenting” is real, however, let’s try one more time! First of all, you know me but I don’t know you. You’re obviously a saxophone authority, so before you tear me down anonymously, what’s your name, where are you from, where do you play and what are your notable career highlights please? Let’s not hide behind screen names with letter and numbers if we’re gonna have an adult debate. Now, an apology: maybe I overreacted with “disrespectful and rude”. For that, I’m sorry my friend. I will admit to being triggered and defending myself a little disproportionately. I’m not the Buddha. You poked the bear and I roared. Let me explain why I was triggered. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the term passive aggressive, but that’s what your comments were. Saying I’m “completely wrong” (twice now) and adding “in my opinion” as a disclaimer is textbook passive aggressive. As is “I expected more”. You’re either naive not to expect a reaction, or you’re deliberately provocative. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and say you’re naive. Bear in mind that you’ve said you’re a saxophone teacher. That means we’re practically colleagues. Would you treat someone you work with like that? Especially publicly? I hope not. Next point: anyone that’s been round the sun a few times will realise that absolutes in saxophone pedagogy are dangerous. People do different things which all get good results. Look at the double embouchure debate. Do you think John Coltrane told Sonny Rollins he was “completely wrong” for not doing that? My awesome colleagues on RU-vid (Dr Wally, Jay Metcalf, Scott Paddock, Patrick Bartley etc) each have differing opinions and that’s healthy. We don’t get on each other’s comments saying “you’re completely wrong” though. Unlike you, as fellow educators we RESPECT each other’s valuable opinions. If you want to be a valuable member of this community I’d invite you to cultivate a more open minded communication style. That way we can engage with each other in a healthy way. I am more than happy to debate saxophone pedagogy with anyone. I don’t profess to have all the answers. I generally try and teach the method that has the greatest result for the greatest number of people. It’s RU-vid. You can’t cater for every individual. Also - I know that when people try and tongue with the tip of their tongue they inevitably end up using the spot back from the tip. That’s experience. Experience you choose to, yes, disrespect. As for saying that me even releasing videos is “disrespectful and rude”. Well, I don’t think we need comment on that. You can always ask all the enthusiastic saxophonists who have seen awesome results from this channel what they think about that. There’s 4.5 million of them though, so it might take you a while. 🤣 I look forward to finding out who you are and, hopefully, having an adult debate about all this. The ball’s in your court.
@@GetYourSaxTogether Omg...no need to add anything more after that. Listen, I don't know your real name and I'm not interested in knowing it. Look at the main picture of your video. It shows, in my opinion, proper tonguing or at least it looks very similar to proper tonguing and what did you write next to it? "FAIL". As a teacher how can I not be triggered and shocked with it....I'm sorry that many people will look at this video and think it's the only way and learn it the way you do it. I'm sorry for them...oh and btw you are in my opinion completely wrong x 3. Get your sax together man....
