Saxophone Flutter Tongue, Bending, and Timbre Trills

[Music] then scoops growls and more we're going to talk about some of the exciting sounds you can make under saxophone and I'm going to give you step-by-step instructions on how to do them support a strong cup of coffee and let's get to work [Music] hi and welcome to the saxophone Academy I'm dr. Wally Wallace and if you're interested in saxophone master classes and product reviews please do subscribe we've got some very cool topics coming up this summer now the saxophone can do amazing things it can sing scream and swing all while magically draining your bank account so today we're going to talk about three extended techniques you can use to spice up your solos but first let's start with a word of warning these are ornaments they're additions to what should our to be a great solo these techniques are not intended to be a replacement for strong melodic content so use them sparingly and most young players tend to overdo them especially the scoop we want to make sure they're adding to what is already a great solo not become a crutch that we lean on too much remember these are like spices they can add a lot of interest but too much you're going to ruin the dish [Music] [Music] the bend now before I teach my students the bend I make sure they listen to Johnny Hodges the lead alto saxophone player with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and they listen a lot he is a magical bin that really exemplifies the sultry sounds we can get out of the saxophone now young players tend to do it incorrectly and way too often they do a hall scoop with their jaw it's too fast and only done with a jaw the correct way we're gonna learn today is a combination of voicing and fingering now to make the pitch go upward and a bend we're gonna start with a lowered voicing what that means is we're gonna shape our oral cavity to bend the pitch downward and start there think of it like whistling if you haven't done this before try playing be with octave key or a palm key and make the pitch go up or down by moving your tongue just like you're whistling so if you wanted to lower the pitch while you're whistling take that tongue position and then do it while you're plank so we want to raise the notes slowly with our voicing and if you haven't watched the overtone series videos I'll put some links below it's the same mechanism we use the shape overtones that we're gonna use to bend the pitch secondly we're gonna use our fingers we're going to slowly lift keys at the same time we're raising our voicing to create a smooth Bend upwards in general I like to start a fifth or five notes lower than whatever my target note is I will start fingering the note then slowly start to lift the fingers while the bend is going upwards now while you're doing this there's going to be a moment where you're not really fingering any true note and it feels very resistant make sure you push through your air stream and don't let the sound back off while you're doing it [Music] now when you're doing this don't raise the pitch too quickly if you listen to Johnny Hodges or some other really good Alto players they're gonna do it slowly and steadily Hodges almost never gets the pitch waiting to the very last moment sometimes the correct pitch is almost implied more than reached young players tend to scoop very fast and get to the pitch almost immediately and that's a telltale sign of someone who doesn't listen to jazz because listening is the key in order to do a good Bend you can practice the techniques all day long but listening to the Masters play is what's going to make it great the flutter tongue a good way to add an exotic little bit of flair to your solos now young player is always asking you how to growl growling is easy just do your favorite zombie impression and then do that while you're playing it really is that simple just simply engage your vocal chords and then play don't ever think it now the flutter tongue is slightly different and somewhat reminiscent of a Parisian burlesque or 1960s surf music rockabilly music it's a different effects all together and a bit more exotic but to do this we have to get in the right mindset so we need to think sassy nope sassier there we go from there what we want to do is roll our tongue while we're playing so you're simply gonna roll an R sound while you're blowing now to do this we can't keep our tongue in the normal position or it will be blocked by the mouthpiece so what we do is we pull our tongue backwards and our mouth and it's fairly simple to do it takes a little bit of practice and you're going to have to increase your air velocity picture your tongue like a windsock flapping in the wind the faster the wind the more air the easier it's going to be able to do so try the flutter tongue seldom and sparingly but it's an interesting little effect to add some spice to your solo [Music] the tambour troll now this is a fun effect that can really add some rhythmic punch to your playing this is best seen in some of the 1950s jump blues players like big Jay McNeely from back in the day essentially what it is is playing a note in repeating it but with a different fingering thus creating a different timbre or color to the sound gives a little punch while you're playing modern guys do this too you can hear a Kenny Garrett Michael Brecker doing it a lot I really love the way the 1950s blues players do has a really meaty sound to it that really makes solos kind of drive forward now to do this we're just going to play a note then change to a different fingering of the same no there's a couple ways we can do this number one is with overtones so say we play G to orgy with octave key we can then create the same note with the overtone of C just like we talked about in previous overtone videos you want to go back and forth between the two [Music] and you could do this with any note and the overtone fingering adds some rhythmic punch going back and forth between the two notes very fun technique the other way we can do this is with false fingerings there's a couple notes that it works really well on on middle D you can't really play that as an effective overtone so what we can do is one at our low B key or we can also add our left side key number two your a flat side key while you're playing middle D both will give the same effect you'll also hear this in some of the higher registers using false fingerings an easier way to do this is to try it with a two or a with octave key you can finger a then add the right stack keys with the right hand while you're playing [Music] and these work for the surrounding notes as well generally you want to do this in a rhythmic fashion not a trilling fashion to give a little rhythmic drive to your solos very fun effect but like all others use them sparingly now all of these techniques we need to view as an ornament or a spice it needs to add points of interest to something that is already there we need to have a well built melodic solo first then we add these to make them even a little bit more interesting use them sparingly but practice them a little bit but don't overdo it in your practice session spend a couple of minutes maybe a couple times a week but don't become obsessed with these like overtones they're a tool in our practice to add to our tool bag of awesome saxophone tricks now in the comments below let me know what are your favorite extended techniques or what would you like to learn how to do I'll see you next week and until then go practice you

Channel: Saxophone Academy

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Keywords: how to growl on the saxophone, how to growl on the sax, growling on sax, growling on saxophone, sax, saxo, saxophone, sax tutorial, sax tutorial for beginners, sax tutorial norteño, raspy saxophone sound, raspy sax sound, raspy saxophone, sax tone exercises, alto sax, tenor sax, intermediate saxophone lessons, intermediate saxophone, blues saxophone, blues saxophone music, sax technique, wally wallace, dr. wally, saxophone academy

Id: atJHtqJfe7s

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020