Saxophone Embouchure | Classical vs Jazz

[Music] the saxophone embouchure today we're going to talk about the differences between classical and jazz embouchure and i was actually a classical saxophonist before it was cool still still not cool yeah hi and welcome to the saxophone academy i'm dr wally wallace and if you're interested in saxophone master classes please do subscribe and be sure to hit the like button to make your embouchure more supple today we're talking about the saxophone embouchure and the slight differences between classical and jazz embouchure now this is a topic i've put off for some time because there's a small but very vocal minority that will tell you what i'm doing is wrong as a matter of fact if you find yourself stranded and alone on the desert island just start describing the larry teal embouchure which is what i teach and instantly someone will come along just to tell you that they studied with joe allard and you're doing it wrong i once saw two saxophonists get in a fistfight over the teal verse allard embouchure it was mostly a lot of crying and ended with an asthma attack but man they were mad now the saxophone embouchure i teach was taught to me by my mentors who actually studied with larry thiel the great american saxophone pedagogue i find it to be a very good solid embouchure that's versatile that works great in classical and jazz with hardly any modifications whatsoever though some slight ones which we'll talk about now rather than me demonstrate and take all the heat i'm actually going to bring in my classical mentor to demonstrate for you so please say hello to nigel sinclair so if you have any big issues with the way i teach embouchure don't tell me write your hate mail to nigel now i teach the embouchure in three parts not so much their form but in their function those three functions are to rest cushion and focus so first step we want to simply rest our top teeth on the top of the mouthpiece and we use the term rest to contrast the idea of biting or pushing we're not trying to dig into the mouthpiece we're simply resting the weight of the head and providing an anchor point which eliminates some motion of the saxophone and if you find that uncomfortable the vibrations of the mouthpiece on your teeth you can buy a mouthpiece cushion like i have here they're dirt cheap you can find them in music stores or online and it certainly makes it more comfortable on your teeth on top of the mouthpiece and if after several months of playing you find large divots or a little dents in your mouthpiece you may find you're using too much pressure and pushing down or using a biting motion remember we're just resting the head relaxing the head on top of the mouthpiece the second motion is to cushion the reed with our lower lip we simply bring the jaw up to create a soft cushion of our lip against the reed generally we want a soft lip because it allows the reed to vibrate more fully a soft cushiony lip allows more fundamental of the sound and does dampen some of the higher overtones and we can adjust that slightly when we play different genres to get a slightly more broad colorful brighter sound and the final function is to focus the embouchure by bringing in the corners of the mouth against the size of the mouthpiece creating an airtight seal [Music] and the more we bring in the corners the softer the bottom lip is going to be allowing a softer cushion for the reed generally giving it a darker sound stronger in the fundamental and dampening some of the higher overtones so the question you obviously have now is so how do we get the jazz sound do we pull the corners out to just brighten the sound yes and no it's a complicated question jazz sound comes partially from the mouthpiece it comes partially from our embouchure the corners pushing in or out and also from our voicing or tongue position it's a chain reaction coming from equipment to our embouchure to our voicing all the way down to the forbidden zone our throat which is kind of like game of thrones season eight it's there but we're not going to talk about it so as we voice and change the shape of our oral cavity creating vowel shapes with our tongue we also change our embouchure at the same time for instance try saying the syllable vo as in volvo where swedish luxury revolutionizes family safety we need corporate sponsors as you make the oh syllable with your tongue it's hard not to make your embouchure or your lips change to the shape at the same time try saying vo while also making an e shape with your tongue you might hurt yourself it's not easy as we shape vowel sounds inside our mouth are voicing our embouchure naturally wants to follow suit it's a completely natural chain reaction so for playing classical vo o is a really great syllable to use it's open it's going to create a nice soft bottom lip and give a very cushioned dark sounding tone let's hear an example by contrast if i use the syllable e it changes the shape of not only my tongue and my oral cavity it also brings out the corners of my embouchure take a listen to how that sounds [Music] nigel does not approve i really prefer the oh syllable with a nice soft lip when playing classical saxophone it makes the fundamental of the tone strong and kind of attenuates some of the higher partials which could make the classical sound a little bit bright or edgy now for jazz i actually do use more of an e or at times ah syllable i don't think about pulling my corners out but they're more relaxed and certainly a little bit further out than my classical embouchure [Music] now what about the throat you're wondering doesn't that change when we change our voicing it does as we plane we change the color of our sound our throat will change i just don't want you thinking about it i've had friends bring their entire woodwind studio into the ear nose throat doctors office where they take an endoscopic camera up through the nose down through the mouth and look at the throat and it does change while you're playing i just don't want you thinking about it in general i want you to keep your throat as relaxed as possible focusing more on the shape of the tongue in general i find students really bad at trying to specifically engage different muscles of the throat without going way overboard getting way too much tension constricting the tone constricting the airstream and they also kind of make a gastric distress space while they're playing and looking like you're pooping yourself while you're playing it's just not a good look so i find we can get the desired result we want by focusing on the vowel syllable with our tongue our throat will move but we don't need to worry about it so much the most efficient motions and least amount of motion possible i find gets the best results especially in classical and straight ahead jazz playing now if you're doing rock or pop playing you may want more drastic motions but that's not what i teach but i find in general keeping the throat relaxed is going to give you a very free open blowing sound so now let's cover some commonly asked questions regarding the embouchure question one how much mouthpiece do i take into my mouth that's a really good question and it's going to be slightly different for every student every student has a slightly different dental structure and face some kids just have strange looking faces so you can't really just look at the embouchure and tell if it's right which is why i always recommend i'm gonna say this again and again there is no substitute for being in the room with a qualified teacher that being said all too often i hear the answer being well don't take too much if you think about it that's not really saying anything it's like when you're lost in home depot and you're looking for air filters and you're completely lost and you see the guy with the orange vest you ask them hey sir where are the air filters and he says well not in this aisle it's not really giving you any kind of answer and it's not helpful don't be that guy so here is a general rule of thumb what you will need is an index card and your read and mouthpiece gently slide the note card in between your reed and the mouthpiece until it rests right where the reed touches the mouthpiece there's a breaking point there don't push it just let it rest right there then take a pencil and mark a little line where that point is that is a decent starting place to figure out where to put your mouth on the mouthpiece and it will change depending on what kind of mouthpiece you're playing the facing length will adjust where that happens it's a good starting point but again you're going to have to experiment and this is really best done in room with a good qualified teacher question number two do you take in more mouthpiece when you're playing jazz personally i do but it's largely a result of the longer facing on my jazz mouthpiece see question one question number three what about the double lip embouchure i know a guy that shared a ham sandwich with stan getz and he said it's the go wait in the car question number four my embouchure hurts that's not a question question number five is there something i can put over my lower teeth so my bottom lip doesn't become so sore absolutely a lot of people use dental pads tear off a little piece fold it over your bottom teeth that can relieve some of the pressure or the sharpness of the bottom teeth that works really well i also know some people that will cut up mouthpiece guards that you use for football and such sports i don't really understand them but anyway you can boil those soften them and cut off a little piece to go over your bottom teeth that works really well as well question number six can you watch a video of me playing and tell me if my embouchure is right no not really or at least i shouldn't there's simply no substitute for being in the room with a qualified teacher where you can make tiny micro adjustments to your embouchure and here not over iphone video but here actually in the room the changes that makes to your sound everyone's teeth and facial shape is different so the opportunity needs to be adjusted to everyone a little bit differently i will do what i can through video but at the same time there's just no substitute for being in the room with an experienced teacher so hit me up with questions in the comments below and if you have a problem or criticism of the embouchure make sure you write nigel st claire and stay tuned next week i have a big announcement i'm incredibly excited to share with you something i've been kind of dreaming about my entire career that is finally happening so stay tuned and until then go practice

Channel: Saxophone Academy

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Keywords: saxophone, saxophone music, sax, alto sax, alto saxophone, tenor sax, tenor saxophone, sax tutorial for beginners, sax tutorial, embouchure, sax embouchure, sax embouchure training, sax embouchure for beginners, advanced saxophone techniques, scott paddock sax, sax mouthpiece, how to get a better sax sound, how to get a big sound on saxophone, woodwind instruments, sax player, barkley brazil mouthpiece, dr. wally, saxophone academy

Id: HRIja3c9SFE

Length: 11min 17sec (677 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021