Saxophone Pressure 

So many factors involved in being able to produce the sound you want. Today I also noticed the different pressure needed to play clear notes above G# on the soprano,

Bought a couple of saxophones last week. Been playing blues harmonica for about fifteen years And decided to give sax A try. Been looking on RU-vid and came across your channel. I like what you're putting down and the way you put it down.

Great explanation thank you.

Great video

I just got my low Bb nicely on curved soprano, as I watched this video . Thanks valor!

Thank you I found that very informative and explained a lot about my new T Wanne Gaia mouthpiece & set up . Wondering how you get 🤔 that staccato-sounding run (e.g. starting @ 5:29)... Can't imagine you're tonguing every one of those notes so gotta to be your fingering?

This concept has always interested me a lot. I personally hate that feeling of having to work for sound; seems like such a useless barrier. If my diaphragm feels like its fighting against the mouthpiece at all: that's needless tension, to be eliminated imo. Sometimes it's just the horn regardless of any other setup eg. if it's ribbed construction it will tend to have more resistance. Having worked on several mouthpieces now myself, I can definitively say I like a "longer" facing curve. The "break" should be at least 48 (they measure in half-milimeters for some reason so "24mm"), but I've never had a problem with 50. If the curve is good then it really gives you control over bends and stuff. Turned my Yamaha 4C into an 8 opening recently and I now like it more than my Berg response-wise. Has that effortless ability to start any note that I associate with a lack of "pressure". The tone is still too dark for it to be my main piece, but it has TONS of that Joe Henderson super sub-tone thing, so it will definitely get used. Still happy to reface some pieces for you if you ever want to get in touch.

When you say "pressure" do you mean how hard you blow? I have a Meyer 6 on my alto, and it's always felt like I got to push really hard to make it talk. I'm old now and need something easier to play. What features on a mouthpiece do I look for? I like to get a big, full sound and to use the fattest lip I can.

I have been interested in this for a long time. I have a slightly shorter bottom jaw so on Alto sax I cannot play wide mouthpieces. I also find thin tip mouthpieces play far too buzzy for me no matter what reeds and reed strengths I use, either too buzzy or too hard to play if I go to a harder reed. 1.65mm to 1.70mm tip is around the widest I can play without issues but it has to have tip thickness like Selmer mouthpieces have, any thinner I only have that buzzy issue. On soprano sax, it is a bit different. I can play thinner tip mouthpieces without the over buzzy sound. I actually prefer slightly wider mouthpieces on Soprano sax also (I currently play a Selmer Super Session E). For myself, I have found with narrow tip Soprano mouthpieces, I can keep them in tune if the note is close to being in tune, I can adjust my embouchure to get the note in tune, but find it harder if the note is more out of tune. With a wider tip, I feel less pressure, it plays better but due to the wider tuning on wider tip mouthpieces, I find it can be hard to keep most notes in tune especially if one note is much more out of tune than the last one I played. It can be easier to lip a note into tune due to the wider distance from the mouthpiece tip and the reed tip so there is more room to bend the reed up or down in and out of tune. I noticed that especially when moving from my Selmer Concept to Selmer Super Session E mouthpiece. I have also found I have to play with a thicker mouthpiece patch or my front teeth tend to vibrate but when I do have a thicker mouthpiece patch, I notice it can dampen the reed and give a darker sound and add a little resistance due to the added material on top of the tip where the reed vibrates against. I have found how/where the mouthpiece patch is placed on top of the mouthpiece has an effect on how it feels to play and can make a mouthpiece play fine or be slightly harder to play, like a reed that is sitting perfectly on the mouthpiece to being slightly off center where you could be more prone to squeaks and issues that if it was perfectly aligned.

Excellent video. Thanks.

I'm a little confused by the description of tip openings. Having played both classical and jazz mouthpieces, I find that it is the smaller tip openings that produce sound more easily. Wide tips require great effort to play into and frequently sound stuffy and airy.

You need to talk about the amount of mouthpiece you take in also. If you take a lot of mouthpiece even on a small tip opening it's a completely different thing. Look at Trane taking in a lot on that relatively small tip.

I have been loving your latest videos very information ... lip out ... will try. Hopefully I will not need all new equipment, don't like changing mouthpieces all the time. What do you have on ear training /playing by ear exercises?

Resistance is the term used more than pressure.

Hey Dr.... Bingo. TY Do you lip out as much on clarinet? What flute you playing these days? You ever jammed any pricey pro ones? The 'intermediates' ain't cheap. How about a 'Flute for Sax players vid.? Rock on, Sir. P.S. the blond wig reminded me of the surly women down at the clinic

If we’re playing a low tip opening with standard embouchure for classical, and a low tip opening with lip out embouchure for jazz and pop, what else is changing in those two situations aside from our embouchure?

7:08 what if we frequently play both jazz and classical? I assume we won't want a lip out embouchure for classical, so should I even try lip out embouchure if I have to play classical as well as jazz?

nice hair sir

How on earth did you know that this is what my lesson this week was about?????

Jajajaa 4:44 Is fxxxing hilarious!..

👌🏾

What's the tune at 11:24? Interested in listening/purchasing .wav

blood money

im inclined to feel that there is no such thing as a jazz mouthpiece…..joe henderson being an example i believe

Man you are great but refacing mouthpiece not really your thing, no offense. The longer the face of the mouthpiece - more free blowing, less control

The more i watch you videos the less i dare practise as its all so overwhelming.