Sax NOTES

Aaron Henry

6/16/2024

TONE & FOUNDATION

• AIR! Relax and Blow

• Long Tones - When you get tired of people telling you how great you sound, you can stop doing long tones!

• Embouchure

  • No more lip over bottom teeth!! 60% out, 40% in

  • Set top teeth on mouthpiece (can use a pad), open bottom jaw, come straight up, and have a fold of lip “squished” between teeth and reed. Experiment with what is comfortable.

  • Very little jaw pressure - use your muscles!!

• Think air SPEED and air BULK

  • Low notes = Lots of SLOW air

  • High notes = very little FAST air 

• Tongueing - Use good air - Think “Dah” instead of “Tah” (keeps the tongue back)

  • Staccato - Dit Dit 

  • Legato - Dah (or Lah - tongue barely hits the reed)

• Vocalization!! (this is huge) 

  • Alto - Huhh, Haww, Heh, Hee 

  • Tenor - Hooo, Huhh, Haww, Heh, Hee

  • Bari - Hooo, Huhh, Haww, Heh, Hee

• Emulation - Encourage (require?) your students to have a favorite player and to COPY them (it’ll never happen!)

• Altissimo/Top Tones (Fork Key left hand) - Think Like a Cat!! (Heeeeeee) = fast air

• Overtones - first 4, Match the pitch with regular fingering to dial in the pitch

FLEXIBILITY & FINGERINGS

• Relax and Blow! (Again...)

• Lip up Exercise

  • Using a lip out embouchure, thinking “Hoooooh,” put your top lip up and blow lots of air to get a sound

• Find the fulcrum of your reed - How much mouthpiece do you have?

  • Less mouthpiece = too little resistance

  • Too much mouthpiece = harsh, difficult to control/speak

• Fingerings -

  • Bb - Avoid 1 and 1 - use 1-2 (A) and side, (chromatic lines) or the Bis key (intervallic) - but of course I break these rules regularly ...

  • Bis key very useful for G-Bb, or Bb-D -

  • Side D is useful - Middle D very stuffy/out of tune

  • Side C is useful for B-C movements

  • Fork F/E key - difficult to blow properly (fast air) but very useful for C-E or C-F or to facilitate transition to altissimo 

• Vibrato!

  • Open up - Ah~Ee~Ah~Ee (center line and a wave equally above/below, like a sine wave)

  • VERY LITTLE JAW PRESSURE aside from what happens naturally

  • Don’t close the reed (think open in the throat)

EXPRESSION

• Tone - Open up! Relax and Blow! (can’t be said enough)

• Stylistic Tendencies

  • Vibrato at end of notes (jazz)

  • Ghost notes (air)

• Sound “Type” - bright vs dark - how much mouthpiece, how open, how much pressure - Tone Manipulation - Think Color

  • Light vs Dark

  • Edgy vs Rounded 

• Reed brands/strength

  • Lots to say on this - recommend Rico Royal (basic), Dadarrio Jazz Select (jazz), Dadarrio Reserve (classical)

  • Not a fan of Vandoren for students unless they are “advanced” - very hard, thick cane, inconsistent 

• Genre/Setting

  • Embouchure and tone - Classical concerns vs jazz - making the lip up embouchure work for classical

• Technique/Fingerings - try to keep your fingers on the keyboard (touch the keys when you’re not using them) - Don’t “lift your fingers up,” just “don’t press them down anymore”

• Survey Results:
  Beginning literature - EE, S of E, Etc, Hite (Melodious and Progressive Etudes),Voxman (selected studies)

• Common pitfalls with fingerings - Bb choices is the big one. Middle D - very sharp, Low D flat. Squeezing the reed will make you sharp, so encourage lip out for flexibility. Tune G to G (high/low). F#/D (concert A/F are good tuning notes). Tongue placement makes a big difference in intonation.

• How to choose reed strength - Too soft means too little resistance: kids are stronger than they think. Rico Royal 2-2.5-3, D’Addario 2M - 3H (Even a 2 strength might be too soft - needs air to work, and a soft reed closes easily)

• Embouchure, tonguing - Lip Out, Dah or Dit, Tongue Back/Down vs Up/Forward alternate fingerings - Bb, D, side C, High E-F

  • • • • • • 
              

• 1. General technique info 

• 2. Instrument/reed recommendations. (Get a good mouthpiece!) 

• 3. Teaching vibrato to middle school students (open ah-ee, no jaw, sine wave). 

• 4. Model videos/recordings.

•  5. Repairs/Maintenance (Watch for loose screws, springs off, check the register key closes, check left hand/side keys first, Take your reeds off and rotate) 

• 6. Considerations when switching students to tenor/bari. (Use lots of air! More open vocalization. Bigger Reeds means more reed to vibrate)