Hello and welcome to Sax Comprehensive. My name
is Ken Gowdie and in this video I will tell you everything that you need to know in order to play
the saxophone. Now because this channel is called Sax Comprehensive, it will be a comprehensive
guide which means that I will go through it in detail but if I start rambling, you do have my
permission to fast forward to the next section. So you've bought your new saxophone looking all
nice and shiny and you're ready to put it all together and start playing your first notes but
before you can do that it is recommended that there are a few things that you should buy
first. One of the things that is recommended that you buy is a saxophone stand. Now saxophone
stands come in all designs, shapes and sizes. You do have some saxophone stands that have
extra security features such as saxophone stands actually will grab hold of the bell of the
saxophone. They're called grabbers. You do have saxophone stands which will have a security
cable which will go around, tie around the bell of the saxophone in case the saxophone is
knocked, it will not fall off the stand. You do have stands which are portable which can go into
the bell of the saxophone. The stand that I use is this one here as you can see it's folded but
it's easy to assemble you just pull out the legs and there it is assembled and then it's ready
to be used. Why do you need a saxophone stand, well there be times when you're practicing with
the saxophone and have to leave the saxophone. Maybe you're called away to do something. Maybe
you want to break from playing a saxophone for some time and then come back to the saxophone.
Well if you are called away from the saxophone what you gonna do with the saxophone during
that time? You could dismantle it and put it back in the case but then when you go back
to playing it you have to reassemble it and it's not convenient. You could lay down the
saxophone on a soft surface like a bed but then the saxophone does have these keys sticking out
and if you lay it down on the surface there is always the risk of bending these keys or rods, you
don't really want to do that. The easiest thing to do is just get a saxophone stand and then when
you're called away you just take your saxophone and then you just put it on the stand and then you
can leave it and come back and then start playing it again. The next thing that is recommended that
you buy is a pack of mouthpiece patches. Now why do you need mouthpiece patches? Well when you
play the saxophone, the mouthpiece is going to go in your mouth and your top teeth are going to rest
on top of the mouthpiece. Now because the surface of the top of the mouthpiece is smooth what's
going to happen when you put it in your mouth, the saxophone is going to slide in and out
of your mouth because there's nothing to create some friction and your teeth are going to
slide up and down on the top of the mouthpiece. Now the effects of that is that your teeth
is going to scratch the top of the mouthpiece and over time your teeth are going to create a
groove in the mouthpiece which means every time you play the saxophone your teeth will naturally
fall into that groove which is not a bad thing if you're going to keep the mouthpiece, it means
that each time you play it your mouth is going to be in the same position. However when you want to
use some other techniques such as subtoning and you want to put your mouth in a different position
it's going to be difficult because your teeth are going to be slotted into that groove, also
mouthpieces are expensive and if in the future you want to sell it, you want to make sure that
the mouthpiece is in the best condition possible also when you play the saxophone, when you play
notes, the saxophone begins to vibrate which means the mouthpiece will also vibrate and because your
teeth is in contact with the top of the mouthpiece you're going to feel those vibrations in your
teeth and in your skull. Using a mouthpiece patch will dampen those vibrations and not only will it
dampen those vibrations but it would also protect your mouthpiece from the scratches. You can buy
mouthpiece patches in different colors. They also come in different thicknesses. I used a thick
mouthpiece patch because if I use a thin one within a week my teeth will actually bite through
it because my teeth are very sharp and jagged and it would just bite through it and begin to scratch
the top of the mouthpiece so I use the thick one. They come in different qualities, so you, you
want to make sure that you get a good quality mouthpiece patch. If you buy a cheap one you're
going to find that when you take it off, you peel it off the mouthpiece it will leave a residue
of glue on the mouthpiece and so it's going to take you some time to clean up all of that glue in
order to replace it with another mouthpiece patch. Also you may find after using a mouthpiece patch
for some time it will actually leave a mark on top of the mouthpiece where you've actually placed
it so you can actually see a discoloration there where the mouthpiece patch has been placed. It is
easy to stick a mouthpiece patch on a mouthpiece because a mouthpiece patch is self-adhesive. You
just peel it off the backing and stick it onto the mouthpiece in the correct position. I will never
play on a mouthpiece without a mouthpiece patch. Now the last thing that you're gonna have to buy
is a reed because you cannot play the saxophone without a reed. Now maybe a reed came with your
saxophone. Maybe you bought it from the shop and the shopkeeper gave you a free reed for you to
try. If it did not come with a reed then you're going to have to go into a shop and buy one
so which read do you buy? Reeds are made from different materials. You can get synthetic or
plastic reeds which are made from a synthetic material. You can get cane reeds which are made
from an organic material, cane grown in the earth and you can get a combination of both,
cane reeds covered with a plastic coating. Cane reeds are more popular. The main advantages
of cane reeds are that they are cheaper compared to the other types of reeds and there are lots
of choice of brands and cuts. The cut refers to how the cane is shaven to a particular design
to give a better articulation, response or tone. You will not notice the difference in cut
by just looking at it unless comparing filed reeds to unfiled reeds. filed reeds have more
of the cane shaved away just above the stock or bark of the reed. The disadvantages of
cane reeds are that they are inconsistent meaning that in a box of 10 reeds you
will find different qualities of reeds. Some will play really well while others not so
well. Also cane reeds attract mold and bacteria so they will need to be cleaned regularly. Synthetic
reeds are more consistent but are more expensive. For the price of one synthetic reed you can buy 10
cane reeds though having said that synthetic reeds last longer and are less likely to be damaged
by accident. When you get a box of new reeds as a beginner you probably just take the reed out
of the box and out of its small plastic container and then start playing on it but as you get
more experience you might want to break in the reed and prepare the reed first before you
start playing on it because if you break in the reed then that will allow the reed to last longer
and when you consider reeds can be quite expensive in a box so if you break in which allows the reed
to last longer that can actually save you money. Now there are so many different ways of breaking
in reeds each musician will have their own secret ritual in breaking in their reeds
but one thing that you could do, you could get your reed and play on it for one
minute the first day within the middle register, two minutes the second day, three minutes the
third day and start to increase the time that you play on it, increase the registers that you play
within and that will gradually break in the reed and will get the reed to become accustomed to the
forces that will be applied to it and therefore prolong the life of the reed and save you money.
Some musicians will take the cane reed and hold up to the light, allow the light to shine on the
reed so they can look at the cane reed and see the structure of the fibers within the reed as
a dark outline. Now if this dark outline is in the shape of a v shape that's symmetrical then
they will consider the reed to be a good read, if not, then it's not such a good reed.
Some musicians in order to prolong the life of their reeds may decide not to play on any
particular reed for more than 45 minutes at a time and so they will play their reeds in a rotation.
Play this reed and then change it for another reed and then change it for another reed. they may
actually store them in cases where each particular slot for each reed has a particular number so
they can keep track of which reed they're actually using as they play in this kind of rotation. They
may use scraping tools to flatten the flat side of the stock part of the reed or rub it on smooth
paper. They may try to seal the pores of the reed by pressing down on the shaved part with their
fingernails or a spoon or even shave it more. This breaking in and preparing period can last
weeks or even months for certain individuals. Check out what David Sanborn does when he prepares
his reeds. However as a beginner you probably just want to play on the reed straight out of the
packet and when it finally dies or gets damaged to change it. Reeds come in different resistances,
a low number on the reed will mean that it is a softer reed and therefore easier to play on. A
higher number will mean that the reed is stiffer and therefore harder to play. Reeds may also have
the letters s, m and h for soft medium and hard. As a beginner you should start with a soft read
such as a one and a half or possibly a two but be aware that these resistance indicators are not the
same across brands so a two on one brand may feel like a two and a half and another brand so always
consult a reed chart when buying a different brand so you know how the resistances compare across
the brands and what is the overlap. When I was a beginner, the reed that I liked the most was a
Rico or D'addarrio hemke filed reed strength 2. I found that it was easier to play on than the other
reeds that I tried at the time. Now let me speak quickly about mouthpieces and ligatures. Regarding
ligatures they affect the sound at least with some arguing that they make no change to the sound
whatsoever, so if upgrading your ligature it is best to choose one based on the ease of use or the
look rather than how it might change your tone. My first ligature had two screws so I upgraded it
to one which had one screw the vandoren optimum which I found to be easy to use. Later I intend to
buy a ligature with no screws like the power ring. Some ligatures hold the reed well while others
move and scratch the mouthpiece so you will need to do your research before buying one. There is
a huge choice of mouthpieces, plastic, ebonite, hard rubber and metal with lots of comparison
videos on the internet which may make you want to go out and upgrade your mouthpiece. My advice is
don't upgrade your mouthpiece until you're able to play the saxophone well and have a good control of
the notes because if you upgrade early you may not hear or appreciate the subtle differences in tone
and before you know you have several mouthpieces which all sound alike. Just because a mouthpiece
is expensive, it does not mean that it is better. Watch some of those comparison videos
between cheaper and expensive mouthpieces and read the comments and you will soon realize
that there is not much difference in sound between them or at least not worth the extra money that
you would have to pay. The main thing for the beginner to look out for is the baffle and the
tip opening. The baffle is the design inside of the mouthpiece under the beak. This will mostly
determine whether the sound is bright or dark. The tip opening is the distance of the gap between
the tip of the reed and the tip of the mouthpiece. The smaller the tip opening, the easier it is to
play on so as a beginner it may be better to play on a smaller tip opening mouthpiece. Larger tip
opening mouthpieces allowed to force more into the saxophone and therefore play louder but it's
harder to control the notes and stay in tune. So now we come to the stage of assembling
the saxophone and as you can imagine different musicians will assemble their
saxophones in a slightly different ways so I will tell you how I assemble my saxophone,
tell you how others assemble their saxophones, and that will give you a good understanding so that
you can make your own choice how you would like to assemble your saxophone. When I assemble my
saxophone as a quick overview before I go into it in more detail. The first thing I do is to prepare
the reed. Now this is a cane reed so it needs to be prepared before you use it so I prepare the
reed then I put the reed onto the mouthpiece and then I secure the reed to the mouthpiece
by using a ligature. So once I've tightened up the ligature so it looks something like this,
then I put the mouthpiece setup onto the neck so it looks something like this. Now other
individuals would do it slightly differently. They will start again by preparing the
reed but the thing that is different is that they will take their mouthpiece and
then first they will put their mouthpiece onto the neck like this. Then they will
take their prepared reed, put it onto the mouthpiece and then secure it with the
ligature, so it looks something like this. So that's two different ways of actually
doing it but regardless of whether you start with the mouthpiece then connect the reed and
the ligature to it or whether you start with the mouthpiece connected to the neck and then
put the reed and the ligature on it, one thing that you must do is prepare the reed. Now there
are various different ways how you can actually prepare the reed. A reed has two parts. It has
the vamp part and it has the stock part. When I prepare my reeds, the first thing I do is to wet
the vamp part of the reed and I only wet the vamp part of the reed. Others will wet the whole reed
but I only wet the vamp part of the reed and the way I do that is to get my reed. If it's in one
of these small little plastic cases I take it out, I first look at the reed to make sure there's
no bacteria on it. Obviously you probably won't be able to tell if there is bacteria on it but
unless you see these black spots on it because if there's a lot of bacteria you'll begin to see some
discoloration and black spots on it then obviously you will have to go away and clean it but if it
looks okay then what you do you, you put the vamp part of the reed in your mouth and moisten it
or wet it with your saliva for a period of time. The length of time that you keep the reed
in your mouth is down to personal preference usually I would keep the reed in my mouth for
less than a minute though others may keep in their mouths between one to five minutes. If
you're one of those individuals that like to wet the whole reed then what you need to do is just
take the reed out of your mouth, turn it around and put the stock part of the reed
in your mouth and allow your saliva to soak into the stock part of the reed as
well. Those that wet both parts of the reed, the vamp and the stock by putting in the
mouth and then turning around and putting the stock part in their mouth may also
put saliva on the table of the mouthpiece. Now what that does is when you take your reed and
you put it on your mouthpiece to set it up because there is a film of saliva between the reed and the
mouthpiece, it acts like a glue and it creates a seal, a bond, between the reed and the mouthpiece,
also when you are setting up the mouthpiece you're going to have to make these minute adjustments
to the reed to get it in the correct position and having the saliva there may make it easier because
if it wasn't there then the reed will slide about so easily and it might make it a little
bit difficult if you're not used to it. However I don't do that, all I do is just wet the
vamp part of the reed and I leave it up to the ligature to create the seal between the reed and
the mouthpiece. If you're one of those individuals that like to soak your reed more than three
minutes then having it in your mouth for more than three minutes can be inconvenient so something
else that you can do is to get a large bowl of water. So here I have a measuring container. Now
it's a large measuring container which means if you want to just soak the vamp part, the good
thing about it because it's a large container, you can slide the reed down the side of the
container and it will actually stick to the side of the container so that you can position the reed
in the container so that the water only reaches up to the top of the vamp so that way you're
really soaking the vamp part of the reed and not so much the stock part of the reed. If you're one
of those individuals that want to soak the whole reed for more than three minutes then obviously
you can just take the reed and put it into a bowl of water and just let it sit there so that the
water soaks into the total reed. Alternatively if you don't want to wait around for your reed to
soak up your saliva or water then what you can do is get yourself a reed storage device that will
actually keep your reeds at a certain humidity. So these two cases will actually keep the reeds from
drying out. This is the D'addarrio humidification storage system and in it, it actually holds eight
reeds but you have this humidification pack. Now this one is 72 percent, you can get them in
different percent of humidity so if you want the reeds to be more dry or less dry you just have a
different pack with a different percentage on it. This will actually keep the humidity inside
the case at this particular 72 percent. If there's too much moisture in it then this
pack will actually soak in the moisture. If the reeds are drying out this would expel
moisture in this airless case or airtight case. This one is called the reedjuvinate and
inside there is a sponge which you fill with original Listerine or in my case you
fill it with vodka and what that does is sterilizes the reeds and also keep the reeds
from drying out. Comparing both of these cases then I would say if you want a reed that is moist
then this one works a lot better than this one. When you take out the reeds from both of these
cases and look at the colour of it you can see that reeds in this case are wetter than the reeds
in this case. Now these can be quite expensive and so you may want to make your own and all you need
to do is just get an airtight container so either get yourself a zip bag so that it's airtight or
get yourself um some kind of airtight tupperware. Then get your reeds that are in their individual
plastic cases just put all of the reeds that you want in there then put the humidification pack
in there and then close it so it's airtight and that would do the same job as as this. When putting the reed on the mouthpiece you want
to make sure that the reed is positioned parallel to the mouthpiece and not slanted at an angle to
one side or the other or placed more to one side than the other. You also want to make sure that
the tip of the reed is either in line with the tip of the mouthpiece or just below the tip of the
mouthpiece. An easy way to do this is to gently press down the reed so that the tip of the reed
touches the tip of the mouthpiece and position the reed so that you can see a little line of the
tip of the mouthpiece showing behind the tip of the reed. You should have the reed as close to the
tip of the mouthpiece as you can but never above the tip of the mouthpiece. Once the reed is lined
up correctly then the ligature can be put on and tightened. There will probably be a ligature line
on the mouthpiece, place the ligature after that line. For the beginner you can start by placing
the ligature somewhere in the middle of the bowel of the mouthpiece but later you should experiment
with the position since different positions can change the sound produced. After you tighten
the ligature, check again that the reed is in the ideal position and if not adjust accordingly.
You need to be careful sliding the ligature over the reed because if you hit the reed with the
ligature you may split it and damage the reed. Alternatively you could put the ligature on first
and slide the reed under the ligature, stock first which will remove this danger. Once you've
completed the mouthpiece set up and if the mouthpiece is not already connected to the
neck then connect the mouthpiece to the neck. If you find it difficult to slide the mouthpiece
onto the neck then put some cork grease onto the neck and smear it in with your fingers and
you will find it a lot easier to do that. Do not slide the mouthpiece fully down onto the
neck but there should be some cork showing. You will make some final adjustments later and then
replace the mouthpiece cap to protect the reed. The next thing that we are going
to do, we are going to connect the neck to the body of the saxophone so open the
case and pick up the saxophone by the bell. Always pick it up by the bell. This is the bell so
always pick up your saxophone holding the bell. Do not pick it up holding here, here or here because
as you can see there are all these keys sticking out and rods and if you hold it too tightly you
might bend the rods or bend the keys and then you damage the saxophone. If you always pick it
up by the bell then you know your saxophone will be safe. At the top of the saxophone you will
see an end cap. This end cap is very important so don't throw it away and make sure you always
replace the end cap on your saxophone when you're storing it away in its case. This end cap has a
purpose, it is to protect the octave mechanism. You can actually see this pin here which sticks
out, that's what this actually protects. If it wasn't there as you can see there's nothing
protecting this pin so when it's in there, this pin, octave pin, is actually protected. So
we take out the end cap then we take the neck and with a twisting motion
we slide it into the socket. We line it up so it's more or less straight
with the octave pin and then as you can see there are two screws, one is to tighten
the socket so that this doesn't twist, the other screw is for a mini, a mini music
stand. You can actually tell by looking at it which one will actually tighten the
socket. So on my saxophone I tighten this one just so that it doesn't move. You don't have to
over tighten it or you might damage the screw and the thread. So it doesn't move. The other one,
if you're tightening this one and this still moves then obviously you know you're tightening the
wrong, the wrong screw. Once you've done that and if you've taken my advice and got yourself
a saxophone stand then you can actually take your saxophone, rest it on the stand and now you
can go away, have a break, congratulate yourself for lasting this long so far in the video or
go away and get your saxophone neck strap. If you went away and got your neck strap
you'll probably look like one of these. These are the neck straps which came with
my saxophones so this is the neck strap which came with my Selmer mark 2 alto saxophone
and this is the neck strap which came with my P. Mauriat tenor saxophone and as you can see they
basically look alike. They're adjustable just the same way, you adjust it in the same way. What is
different is the hooks at the end. This one has an open hook whereas this one has a spring-loaded
um catch so this one is a closed hook whereas this one is an open hook and basically what you
would do is put the neck strap over your neck. You pick up your saxophone by the bell. At the
back of the saxophone is a ring and you basically just take the hook and then put it in the
ring and then the saxophone is secure. Now if you have a neck strap like this when
you're playing it gives you free movement. You can play with the saxophone all around.
You can play with a saxophone at the side. You can play with the saxophone at the front
and there's free movement which is very good. However as you can see the weight of the saxophone
is pulling down on the neck strap which means it's putting down on the back of my neck and also
because of the design of the neck strap as the weight pulls down the sides close in on the
side of your neck. When you start playing with it, it will be fine but if you practice every day,
you practice for long hours, you may find that this neck strap will cause you some discomfort
around your neck and some people will also maybe even damage their neck because of the stress
caused by the weight of the saxophone pulling down on the neck strap and if that is the case then
they would obviously upgrade their neck strap. Now there are loads of different neck straps on the
market, loads of neck straps which will actually shift the weight of the saxophone from the pulling
down on the back of your neck to your shoulders. One such neck strap is the Jazzlab Sax Holder
and this is the one that I mainly use and as you can see it just clips up and basically, this
one is the latest version, it has a push button uh to release these handles and you just put it
around your neck, click it into place and then it's got a hook at the end which you hook the
saxophone to and this works very well and out of all of my neck straps this I would say is
the best. When I first saw it, it looks pretty flimsy and you'd think that you put it on, it'll
just fall off your neck and damage your saxophone and that was one of the reasons why I did not
decide to buy it but I've got a friend who plays the saxophone and he recommended it because he's
got one and he says it's a fantastic neck strap so I got myself one and uh so far I haven't had any
problems with it. It's never fallen off my neck, there are some issues with it which I have
done a video review about and I've explained it in there uh. Some people may choose to have a
harness. Now this one is the uh Vandoren harness and you've got these straps which go around your
waist and then you've got these bits that go over the shoulder so it's secured around your waist and
around your shoulder. So it's something like this and the straps you would
just click round your waist and the shoulder bits are adjustable so they can
go up or down and it goes over your neck and you connect your saxophone to the hook. I have done
a review about this one also if you want to see that. To adjust your saxophone to the correct
position, get your neck strap, get the hook and hook it onto the ring at the back of your
saxophone so your saxophone is now secure. Then if you put your thumb of your right hand
under the thumb hook. You should be able to push the saxophone out so that it pivots on
the neck strap by the hook, so it pivots right there. Now you adjust the height
with this little catch here, the regulator, by sliding it down you lower the saxophone,
by sliding it up you raise the saxophone. So what you want to do is get it in a
good position so that you can actually hold the saxophone, push your right hand out
so that it actually will fall into your mouth but you want to make sure that it's in a nice
position so that when it falls into your mouth, your head is not tilted back because if it's too
high up then obviously it's not going to fall into my mouth, I'm going to have to move
my head back to receive the mouthpiece it's going to be uncomfortable. If it's too
low then obviously I can't reach it so I'm going to have to stretch down, bend my neck.
What you want is that your head is straight, your neck is straight, your head and neck is in
a comfortable position for you. so you adjust it so that when you pivot the saxophone it falls
into your mouth in a nice comfortable position. You can play your saxophone
in a straight upward position but you may want to tilt it at an angle this
will give you a better position for your hands. Now if you do have the saxophone in a slanted
position then obviously the mouthpiece is also going to be slanted in your mouth, it's going
to be an angle, so just make sure that you turn the mouthpiece so that the mouthpiece when it
enters your mouth is not in a slanted position. If you're going to play the saxophone while
sitting down then you can either put the saxophone between your legs and play in an upright
position or you can place the saxophone to your side. Now if you play it towards your side
as you can see the saxophone is now leaning, what you don't want to do is to lean
your head so that the mouthpiece is straight. What you want to do is turn
the mouthpiece so that the mouthpiece now fits straight in your mouth but
obviously the saxophone is now slanted. At the back of the saxophone down at the bottom
you'll find the thumb hook. Now you place your thumb of your right hand under the thumb hook. The
job of the thumb hook is so that you can stabilize the saxophone. If you place your thumb right under
the thumb hook then you may find that the top of the thumb hook will begin to rub against the top
of your thumb and cause some discomfort there, so some musicians rather than having it trapped under
the thumb hook will move their thumb a little down or may even place it over this screw or they may
buy a different type of thumb hook, one which has a platform over this key so that they can place
their thumb over this key. Basically you're trying to find a position that best suits your hand, you
want a comfortable position for your thumb. If you undo this screw with a coin or with a screwdriver
depending on the make of your saxophone, you may be able to move this thumb hook up and down or
swivel it left to right to get a better angle for your thumb. When your thumb goes underneath
it. Whatever you do make sure you adjust the neck strap correctly because you don't want
the saxophone pulling down on your thumb cause what would happen if the saxophone is too
low and it's actually pushing down on your thumb, then you can damage your thumb and it will take a
few weeks or even months for it to actually heal for you to be able to play the saxophone again,
so make sure you adjust your neck strap correctly. At the back of the saxophone at the top you
will find a thumb rest. You place your thumb of your left hand on the thumb rest which is
basically a piece of plastic which doesn't move. You place it on the thumb rest but you
extend it so part of your thumb extends over this octave mechanism key so part of your thumb is
resting on the thumb rest and part of your thumb is extended over this octave mechanism key so that
you can swivel your thumb so that it actually will press the octave key down and lift it up. At the
front of the saxophone down at the bottom you will see three pearls, one, two, three. You'll
also see these two keys here. Now the way your right hand goes is that your index finger goes
on the first pearl, your middle finger goes on the next pearl and your ring finger goes on
the next pearl, so one two three, the pinky rest anywhere on those two keys. Obviously at the
back you've got your thumb under the thumb hook and the tips of your fingers are on the pearls
and you got your fingers in a curved shape, so they're not straight but they're curved. At
the front of the saxophone at the top you can see there are lots of keys and different saxophones
are made differently so they may look a little different. Some may have pearls and some may
have tear drops so at the top here you can see my one has a teardrop but on some saxophones you
may have another pearl, so make sure you consult the diagram. Down here you can see there is
a pad with four keys, one two three four, so there's four keys here, your pinky of your left
hand will rest anywhere on that pad because your left hand pinky will be used to play any of
those four keys. Above it there is a pearl so the next finger goes on that pearl, above it there's
another pearl so this finger goes on that pearl, now above it you can see another pearl but it's
smaller than all the rest. This is called the bis key. You skip that and go to the pearl
above it and that's where your index finger goes. So your little finger is resting on anywhere
on this pad of four keys, your ring finger is on the first pearl here at the bottom, then the next
pearl up is your middle finger, then you skip the small little bis key and then go to the next pearl
where your index finger is. So we will label it as one two three and your pinky rests anywhere on
this pad. So the rest position for your fingers look like this. Your fingertips should be on
the pearls, your fingers should be curved, your shoulders should be down, your head and neck
should be straight and you should be relaxed. So now that we can assemble the saxophone
the next thing that we need to talk about is our embouchure. Now our embouchure refers
to our facial muscles, our lips, our teeth, the shape of the inside of our mouth and
our throats and how we use all of those things to create a seal around the mouthpiece
for when we put the mouthpiece in our mouths. Now there are various ways how we can form an
embouchure and each way of forming an embouchure is valid and used by professionals so I will
go through a few ways of forming embouchures. When you look at the mouthpiece setup you will
notice that the reed is in contact with the mouthpiece along the length of the table but then
because the mouthpiece starts to curve away, the reed is no longer in contact with the mouthpiece
for the rest of its length. At the point where the mouthpiece starts to move away from the reed, this
is the best place to line up your lower teeth for normal playing. Having your lower teeth lined
up in a different place would affect the tone, for example, subtones are produced by
moving the lower teeth closer to the tip, so you may want to experiment with
the position of the lower teeth. Now from here, it is just a matter of how you
place your lips that will determine the type of embouchure you create. The most popular form
of embouchure called the single lip embouchure is formed by placing your upper teeth in contact
with the top of the mouthpiece and curling your lower lip slightly over your lower teeth to
create a cushion for the reed. Make sure that you do not curl the fleshy part of the lower
lip over your lower teeth as this is soft and can easily be cut by the lower teeth also do not
curl a lot of the lower lip over the lower teeth. Some jazz players may curl their lower lip
out to produce a better jazz tone. Lastly squeeze the corner of your lips in to create
a seal around the mouthpiece with your lips. Another form of embouchure closely related to this
is formed by not curling your lower lip over your lower teeth. If doing this make sure that you
do not touch the reed with your lower teeth as this will create a squeak. This type of embouchure
may be difficult to do and control the notes but has the advantage of removing the possibility of
biting. The last embouchure to consider is called a double lip embouchure and here you curl both of
your lips over your teeth. This is the embouchure used by John Coltrane but I said before the
single lip embouchure is the most common form of embouchure and therefore mainly taught in videos
and this should be your first form of embouchure that you should try. So now at long last we
have finally come to that stage when we can start playing notes on the saxophone because now
we know how to set up the saxophone and what I suggest that we do is that we learn how to play
a single note, then learn how to tongue a note, then learn how to play a scale and then learn how
to play some simple songs within that scale or key of the music. So what I want you to do to start
off with is just put your fingers in their correct resting positions as I showed you before with your
fingers lightly resting on the keys and then what I want you to do is just press down in your left
hand, one two and three, just one two and three, do not press down the octave key
and then blow and see what you get. Now that note is a G then what I
want you to do is do the same thing, press down one two and three but
also now press down the octave key. Now that is also G but that is an octave
above because you press down the octave key and then try and play both of them
together. So press down one two three, play without the octave key
and then add the octave key. Now when you tried that, a few things could
happen. Maybe when you tried it no sound came out whatsoever. Maybe when you tried to play that
first G with that octave key it didn't sound that low G, it sounded an octave above like the second
G with the octave key. Maybe you got a squeak. Now the more you practice and the more
you experiment with how much air pressure you blow into the saxophone and
experiment with your embouchure, all of those things will iron themselves
out and you get used to making a nice sound. If no sound came out whatsoever then there are a
few things that you can look at. Number one for to produce the sound on the saxophone you do
need to have a good force of air going through the saxophone so make sure you blow a strong
force of air through the saxophone because the reed will not vibrate without a good pressure of
air blowing onto it. Sometimes we think about the saxophone being a loud instrument and we don't
want to create a loud noise and so we get a bit shy and timid and therefore we don't blow hard but
what I want you to do is just forget about that. Forget about the neighbours. Blow a strong airflow
through the saxophone, create the sound and then you can experiment afterwards by by lowering the
pressure of the air in order to get a lower sound. Now if you're still having problems the next thing
could be your embouchure. Now what you want to do is to apply more pressure in this direction so
your upper lip and lower lip closing in more around the reed because what you want to do is to
apply a bit of pressure onto that reed so that at the point, remember I told you your bottom teeth
is lined up to a certain point on the mouthpiece. If you're using that single lip embouchure
then by applying more pressure you get this point acting like a pivot and then the reed can
vibrate against that point and make a sound. So try those two things blowing harder or applying,
clamping down more on the mouthpiece. Obviously you don't want to clamp down too strongly because
then you might begin to start hurting your teeth and hurting your your lip because, you
know, you're biting. You don't want to, you don't want to bite down on it and obviously
you don't want it to be too loose, so it's just trying to find that that right position that
right amount of of pressure on the reed to get the note to come out. There are two ways you can blow
air out of your mouth and therefore two ways how you can blow air into the saxophone. One way is to
blow out cold air and the other ways to blow out warm air. So if you put your hand in front of your
mouth, you can blow out cold air so it feels cold or you could blow out warm air so it feels warm.
You want to blow that second way so when you're blowing into the saxophone try and blow this
warm air, so think of your mind blowing warm air because then that will open up your throat and
will allow you to produce a better quality of sound on the saxophone. So never try and blow
cold air but always think about blowing warm air. When we play a note on the saxophone, there are
two ways how we can start the note and stop the note. The first way is called a breath attack
which basically means when we want to start a note we just blow into the saxophone and
that air pressure will cause the reed to start vibrating and create the sound and then
obviously to stop the sound when the reed is vibrating because of the air that we're blowing
into it, all we need to do is just stop blowing and then the reed will stop vibrating and there'll
be no sound. The problem with a breath attack is that it doesn't give you a clean start and a
clean stop to the notes. The note kind of sounds somewhat fuzzy in those areas the beginning and
the end. So what musicians would do they'll use a technique called tonguing to give you a clean
start to the note and a clean stop to the note and basically what they do is to use their tongue
to stop the reed from vibrating so here if the reed is vibrating and this is the tongue,
so to stop a note all you need to do is just put your tongue onto the reed and the reed will
stop vibrating and therefore there'll be no sound or to start a note, you start with your tongue
resting on the reed apply some air pressure and then soon as you take your tongue off the reed
the reed will start vibrating and create a sound. Now there are various ways how you can use your
tongue to start and stop a note and a lot of it has to do with the length of our tongues because
we all have different anatomies. Some of us have longer tongues, some of us have shorter tongues,
so if you have a long tongue then there may be just one way how you can tongue a note if you have
a short tongue there may be just one way how you can tongue a note, but if you got a certain size
tongue then you can choose between these various ways of tonguing a note. Some people tongue the
note with the tip of their tongue just under the tip of the reed. Here the action is mainly from
the tip of the tongue so the rest of the tongue is stationary. So to start the note, you place the
tip of your tongue just under the tip of the reed so it cannot vibrate. Make sure that it's near the
tip of the reed so that no squeaks are produced then you start blowing to build at some air
pressure, then you release the tip of your tongue which will cause the reed to start to
vibrate immediately and create the sound. Then to stop the note, you place the tip of your tongue
back on the reed in the same position which will stop the reed from vibrating and stop the sound.
It is argued by those that use this method that using only the tip of your tongue will help when
playing notes faster also because it's just the tip that is mainly moving, you are not changing
your oral cavity a lot so the space within your mouth remains virtually the same and therefore
you are not changing the dynamics of the sound also since you are only using the tip of your
tongue this creates a cleaner starting stop to the notes so that the notes do not sound muffled.
Notice that the airflow is constantly flowing through the saxophone and the use of the tongue
is merely to stop the reed vibrating rather than to stop the airflow. When playing a succession
of tongued notes, the tongue should quickly and lightly touch the reed. This is the best way
to get the same consistency between the notes. Some people may close up the mouthpiece when they
tongue a note. This will stop the airflow. This would have the effect of creating a strongly
tongued note which you will hear as opposed to lightly touching the reed. Others will lightly
touch the reed in such a way so that the reed still vibrates but the sound is dampened
when tonguing between notes. You would have to experiment with how much pressure you want to
apply to the reed when you tongue whether you want to close off the mouthpiece and stop the airflow
or touch the reed to stop it vibrating while keeping the airflow which is better or to lightly
touch the reeds so that the reed still vibrates but the sound is dampened just before playing the
next note but remember the whole point of tonguing is to stop the sound not necessarily the airflow.
Another way of tonguing the note is position the tip of the tongue down by the teeth and to raise
the tongue so somewhere further back on the tongue touches the tip of the reed so again here you
start with the tongue touching the tip of the reed so that it will not vibrate then you build up
the air pressure by blowing and when ready you lower your tongue so that the reeds will start
vibrating. To stop the reed again you raise your tongue until it touches the reed again and stops
it vibrating. Another way of tonguing this is the same as just mentioned but this time the tip of
the tongue is anchored somewhere at the base of the teeth and stays there. This will be difficult
to do by those who have short tongues so that was a few ways of tonguing used by musicians and each
will have their own advantages and disadvantages. This last way of tonguing is the way that I
tongue and many other saxophone players use that same type of tonguing. So the tip of
your tongue is down at the bottom of your teeth where it actually meets the gum. The tip
is anchored there and stays there and all that you need to do then is just to raise the middle
of your tongue until it actually meets the reed. So now we're going to learn how to play the C
major scale when playing notes on the saxophone try to imagine that your fingertips are stuck to
the pearls so that so that they do not come off the pearls. So when you're playing, try
not to lift your fingers off the pearls also when you press down or close a key then um
just use enough force so that you can close the key. It doesn't have to be pushed down with
excessive force. If you use excessive force um grip hold of the saxophone tightly then
you're only going to put stress into your fingers which will make it difficult for you to play at
speed. The C major scale is one of the easiest scales to learn because the finger positions are
easy to remember. Basically for most of the scale you're just gonna raise up the lowest finger one
at a time until you get to the to the top note. So you're gonna start by pressing down in your left
hand one two three and then in your right hand one two three, that's how we're going to
label it, one two three, one two three, and then at the bottom with these two keys
you're gonna press the lowest of the keys which is the low C key. So we've got one
two three, one two three and the low C key. Now that would give you low C so if you
blow into your saxophone you should get a low C Then what we're going to do, the octave
key is not pressed down at this time, what we're gonna do is just gonna one at a time
remove the lowest finger until we get to the top. So the lowest finger is this pinky so I'm
gonna release that pinky so now that all I've got pressed down is one two three,
one two three, that's going to give me D. Then I'm gonna release the next lowest finger which is this one so now I've got one
two three one two that will give me E Then release the lowest finger so now it's going
to be this finger so that gives me one two three and one that gives me F Then to release the lowest finger
again which will be this finger so that just gives me one
two three that gives me G Then the lowest finger will
be this one so if I release that one that would just give me one and two Then to release the lowest finger would be this
one which would just leave me with one press down that would give me B Then from here I flip my fingers from this
one to this one, so now I'm just pressing down just the two key nothing else but the two key that gives me C again but an octave
above the first C that I played From here I go back to the beginning
whereby I had one two three one two three but now I'm not going to press down that C key
so all I've got down press down is one two three one two three and the octave key. I'm going to
keep the octave key pressed down from now on as I get higher and higher in
the notes so this now gives me D Then if I do exactly the same thing and release
the lowest finger until I get to the top so the lowest finger would be this one so now
I've got one two three one two that gives me E Release the lowest finger which
will be that one so that gives me one two three and one that gives me F Release the lowest finger which would
be this one so now I've got press down one two three that gives me G Release the lowest finger which is this one
so now that I've got press down is one and two and that gives me A Then I release the lowest finger which is this one so now I've only got one
press down and that gives me B and then again what I did last time was flip
the finger so now I'm pressing down just a two key that's all and obviously with the octave key
pressed down that will give me the last note C So all that you're doing is from that low C one two three one two three and that low
C key you're just gonna release the lowest finger one at a time until you get to the top
then you're gonna flip so you're just pressing down the two key then you're gonna press down
one two three one two three with the octave key pressed down and then from there you're going
to do the same thing release the lowest key one at a time until you get to the top then flip again
so that you got that two key pressed down which will give you C. Once you can play the C major
scale going up then play it in reverse going down, then if you are a complete beginner then try
these two simple songs Mary had a little lamb and Twinkle twinkle little star. You can check
out my other videos on how to play the other 11 major scales or how to play the chromatic
scale which has every note on the saxophone. When you start playing a saxophone as a beginner
you probably won't be concerned about whether you are playing in tune or out of tune or whether the
notes that you play are at the correct pitch but as you become more experienced and as you start
to play with backing tracks and other musicians you're gonna have to think about your tuning
because if you play with backing tracks and you play with other musicians and you're not playing
in tune at the correct pitch then obviously it's going to be quite noticeable that you are playing
off. So what you're going to have to do beforehand is to tune your saxophone. Now in order to tune
your saxophone you're going need some form of tuner and with the tuner all that you're going
to do is adjust the position of the mouthpiece, either push the mouthpiece further in or pull
it further out and with the tuner you'll be able to find out which is the correct position for
the mouthpiece in order to tune your saxophone. To tune the saxophone you first need to choose
a note to tune to. Let's say that that note is a concert A which is a good note to use. Because
the saxophone is a transposing instrument to sound a concert A note you need to finger an F# on
an alto saxophone and a B on a tenor saxophone. Now play that note with your normal embouchure
without the octave key and check whether that note produced is in tune on the tuner. If
it is flat push the mouthpiece in slightly If it's sharp pull the mouthpiece out slightly Do this until the note played is in tune. Once done, the saxophone will be tuned and
whenever you play a concert A, it will be in tune and hopefully if you have a good saxophone
all of the other notes will be in tune as well. If you find that a note is not in tune then
you have to adjust the pitch of that note individually by adjusting your embouchure since
there's nothing else that you can do by changing the position of the mouthpiece to change the pitch
of that individual note. You may find that using a different note to tune the saxophone to instead of
concert A may help if you're still having problems also be aware that the temperature of the
room will affect the tuning of the saxophone so you may need to recheck the tuning
once you have warmed up the saxophone by playing for a while. After you've been playing
on the saxophone for a long period of time you may have noticed that there is a buildup
of condensation inside of the saxophone. If you were to turn upside down you may
see some liquid fall out of the saxophone. If you look down in the bell at the bottom of the
saxophone you may see a little puddle in there or if you look on the outside of the body you
may see some droplets of liquid on the outside or maybe if you're more unfortunate as as you were
playing the saxophone you may have noticed that your fingers get very wet and you have to wipe
off the liquid off your fingers as you're playing. All of that is condensation it's not pure water
but that condensation is filled with all kind of contaminants, things uh produced from your body as
you're blowing that warm air into the saxophone, sugars from the food that you were eating. It
all gets into the saxophone and if you leave it in there it's going to cause damage to your
saxophone. It may cause your keys to stick so when you're playing, these keys don't release,
they stay stuck down um or it may cause damage to the pads and you'll have to take it in to
get service. So you want to clean out all of that condensation. Now the way you do that, you're
gonna have to get some cleaning cloths. You may, you may have some cleaning cloths that came
with the saxophone or you're gonna have to go and buy a pack of these cloths which come
with other cleaning uh implements such as small little cleaning brushes. So over the years
I've got polishing cloths which are soft cloths which you can clean down the outside of the
saxophone. You get various types of swabs so this one is a swab with two strings on either side and you
put it through the saxophone. This is another type of swab, it's got one string, it's got this kind
of mesh on the bottom and then the cloth and you just pull it through the saxophone. So basically
what I use are two swabs with strings on it, one is a smaller swab and the other one is a larger
swab. Now these came from my various saxophones which I've owned which I've just kept so if I were
to clean this, now it's going to be just a quick clean, later on you'll probably have to give it
more thorough clean but what you do, you take off the neck take off the mouthpiece then take
off the ligature and then the reed, usually what you do with the reed, you just get
a piece of cloth wipe off the reed so it's nice and dry and then you put the reed back in its
case, if you've got if you use one of these small little plastic cases you put it in there or
if you're using a another type of case like the uh D'addarroi case so you just put it
in there whichever one you're using and then that gets stored
away. Then the mouthpiece, you take the small swab, you take the string
and you put it down the bore of the mouthpiece so the string will go through that side, comes
out the other side and you just put it through. You never put the string through this side but
you always put it through the part which connects to the neck of the saxophone. Just pull it through
there maybe one or two times, just pull it through to get out the uh condensation that's in there
inside of the mouthpiece and then get a little bit of cloth and just wipe around the outside of the
mouthpiece and then that's good to be stored away. Obviously take care how you store this way
if you drop it if you get any chips on it then it's basically ruined
so you want to make sure that the table and the rails of the mouthpiece
do not get damaged so when you store this away you might want to put it in a pouch or wrap
it up in some kind of cloth to protect it. The ligature usually doesn't really need much
doing to it. You may want to just wipe it down but there's no condensation on the ligature so
that's fine. The neck would have condensation inside so what you do, you take the same small
swab which you use for the mouthpiece. Now as you can see on the neck you've got two holes
so put the cloth through the bigger hole. It should go all the way through to the other side,
as you can see, you might be able to see there's liquid falling out of it now and then you just put
it through. You might have to do it a few times just to make sure that it gets all of this
condensation out from inside of the neck and then take a piece of cloth and then wipe around
the outside of the the neck and it's, it's done. If you wanted to give it a more thorough clean
then you'd probably use one of these brushes and then put it inside and
then clean up the inside of it. Now for the body of the
saxophone you use the bigger swab. It's the same sort of things as a smaller
swab but it's just it's just larger and so pick up the body of the saxophone from the bell again and
then you take the string you put it down the bell it's got a weighted side so in the bottom
of this there are there are metal weights in here so it just falls through, then take
the large bit of swab put in the bell. If you hold the bell and turn it upside down
then you can see the string comes through and then just like what you did with the neck you
just put it through and you do that a few times Just to be careful when you're holding it
and doing this you may want to rest it on your knee etc turn it upside down and then put it
through. You may want to do it two or three times and then you would want to get some of the
polishing cloths and just go lightly round the outside of the saxophone to get rid of any
um fingerprints or any condensation that's come out from the uh that's come out the uh
tone holes and landed on the body of the saxophone. You might want to wipe those
away as well. Obviously you don't want to go too rough on it in case you damage any of the
the keys What I usually do, you don't have to do this but what I usually do is get a small piece
of cloth and then I open up some of the keys which have, which are spring closed. You open
them up you put the cloth between the key and the tone hole and that will take out some
of the condensation that's underneath those uh closed keys. The keys that are gonna stick are the
keys that when you put your saxophone in its case, those keys which are spring loaded closed, the
keys that are open they're obviously going to dry and the condensation is just going to dry
off. The keys that are closed the condensation is going to dry with the keys close and it's
going to form like kind of like a glue which is going to stick the keys to the tone hole so I
basically take a cloth and then go through most of the keys that I usually have problems with just wipe it around and then some of these
other keys I might do the same sort of thing do it kind of quickly but uh like I said you don't really need to
do that. Then what I do once I've done that I will put it on my stand and then I'll leave
it there to air dry uh for an hour or so and that will get rid of the uh the condensation
which is in there. You can buy things called pad savers, these kind of furry things and
they actually go inside once you clean it, they go inside of the saxophone to soak
up some of the condensation that is left in there. So this one here goes in the
bell of the saxophone and this one here, it's got a little bit at the top like
an end, an end cap and that goes down the top right down into the saxophone. Now some
people will use these pad savers and they would just leave it in their saxophone and leave the
saxophone like that. Some may even put their saxophone with the pad savers in it inside their
case. Now uh there's different viewpoints on the use of these pad savers and some like them, some
dislike them, but one thing you've got to realize is that if there's condensation still left inside
of the saxophone and you put the pad savers in there, then the pad savers are going to soak up
that liquid but the liquid is still going to be in the saxophone so you don't want to leave the pad
savers in there because you're still leaving that liquid in there which is soaked into
the pad savers. What you want to do is if you're using a pad saver get the liquid to soak
into the pad saver and then take out the pad saver which which will be damp because it's
soaked up the condensation and then leave uh the saxophone out to air dry or put it away
in the case without the pad saver. Some people have also commented that these kind of
strings on the pad saver do come off and then they fall into the saxophone and they get stuck on
keys and get stuck inside of the saxophone so you just got to really make up your mind
whether you're going to actually use these or or not. At some point you're going to want to
do a deep clean so if you go to the manufacturer's website for your mouthpiece you will find
instructions there on how to maintain and clean your mouthpiece but what you could do is use some
cold water, a soft cloth and some mild detergent or soap and clean it. You could use a brush to
clean the inside of the mouthpiece. What you don't want to do is use hot water, hot water can deform
the shape of the mouthpiece which you don't want and you don't want to use any chemicals because
chemicals can change the color of the mouthpiece. There are, there are cases where you have black
ebonite mouthpieces turning green because they've used some kind of chemicals on it and there's a
reaction with the chemicals. To clean the reeds you're going to need some solution that you can
put on the reed that will get rid of the buildup of bacteria and fungus but still allow the reed
to be safe for you to put it back in your mouth so it's got to be harmless for your body. Lots
of people use a chemical called hydrogen peroxide uh they get the three percent version, the
food grade quality. If it's food grade quality means it can be used on food and therefore
should be safe for you to put it in your body but always make sure that you read the warning
labels. So what you do with the hydrogen peroxide, you just pour it in the glass. You put the
reeds in the solution, you will see some bubbles forming as it begins to work. Once those bubbles
die down, then take the reeds out rinse them in cold water, dry them off and then put them back
in their cases and then they're ready for use.
