Saxophone Fundamentals: Voicing. Part 1, Voicing Introduction

[@robbiegallagher7821]

Grateful for your sharing of useful ,detailed information. Thank you,sir.

[@SteveBecraft]

You are welcome! Thank you for watching!

[@lameirao3717]

Ola Steve!!! Adorei a aula. Muito esclarecedor !!!

[@SteveBecraft]

Fico feliz que tenha sido útil! (With Google Translate, I think I said: "I'm glad it was helpful!"

[@presequel]

wow, fantastic video, great advise :) thanks Steve!

[@SteveBecraft]

Glad it was helpful!

[@РифхатТуктаров-т9в]

Hello, friend! Could you explain what type of mouthpiece is best for sax beginner like me, please?

[@SteveBecraft]

I'm not sure that there is a BEST mouthpiece for a beginner, but generally it is good to avoid a mouthpiece/reed combination that requires too much jaw pressure. Many of the jazz-style mouthpieces require more bite and/or embouchure control, so you should stay away from those for now! I think that the Vandoren Optimum AL3 is a very playable option, and other classical-style mouthpieces can work well too (Yamaha 4C, Selmer C*). I hope this helps!

[@fredrikgunawan9506]

L

[@chimneydriptray2439]

Hi Steve, the reed on your mouth piece looks further out than what I’ve been told as a novice Saxophone player? Please can you tell me if I’ve been advised wrong?

[@SteveBecraft]

That's a good question! The short answer: no, you haven't! The tip of the reed needs to seal on the tip rail of the mouthpiece. Most of us will try to get the tip of the reed where you can see a sliver of black mouthpiece above the tip of the reed. I think what you're seeing in this video is an illusion that has something to do with the curvature of the mouthpiece facing. It can appear that the tip of the reed is higher than the tip of the mouthpiece when you're looking at it from the beak-side of the mouthpiece! Try this with yours: place the reed where you think it should be, then turn it around to look from the beak side. It will look like it is too high!

[@chimneydriptray2439]

@@SteveBecraft Thanks for clearing up my concern up Steve, I thought I may been following the wrong advice. .

[@MiguelGebremedhin]

Hi Steve, this video is phenomenal. I took a long break from playing sax and decided to play again but this time I wanted to really improve my embouchure. Everything in this was spot on with my findings. I used to apply too much jaw pressure and found out about the making a ooh and sealing it around the mouthpiece. I'm currently working on developing the altissimo range, so my goal is to be able to hit high notes just on the mouthpiece but I'm having a bit of difficulty. I have enough mouthpiece in, and I have just enough pressure to vibrate the reed, but I just can't hit the C above the A in the video. Another KZbinr mentioned that if you can hit that high C with voicing alone you can definitely hit Altissimo notes. Let me know your thoughts.

[@SteveBecraft]

Thank you for your positive comments! I actually don't work on playing any overtones with the mouthpiece alone, but it doesn't surprise me that some do. I think that trying this with such a "short" instrument (the mouthpiece!) could be more frustrating than not! Maybe for someone who has comfortably developed their altissimo controls this would be a fun challenge, but I wouldn't recommend it too soon. A slightly more manageable challenge could be mouthpiece + neck, as Tim McAllister shows in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6uodWevap2Sb8k The sequence that has worked for my students is: 1) Mouthpiece A, followed by "warping" down to a P5 or more; 2) on the sax, warping down a P5 from a palm E and/or front F; 3) overtone work in the Santa/Dabney book, "Voicing...". I hope this is useful!

[@toomuchtoofast4533]

Subscribed.. can u mention tenor as well? That’d be great

[@SteveBecraft]

The mouthpiece pitches for the other saxophones crawl across the bottom of the screen starting around 7:40. If you weren't staring at the screen you would have missed them! Tenor should be a G5. I hope this helps!

[@8tungdata]

The audiolevel is way too low. Please normalize your audio.

[@SteveBecraft]

I am not very high tech with my operation! This was recorded with a simple Zoom video camera, edited in iMovie, and uploaded to KZbin from there. I've tried to make sure the audio isn't clipping, but besides that I don't know what else I should be doing. If you have any suggestions I'm happy to listen!

[@8tungdata]

@@SteveBecraft If you want to post more videos like this on your channel I would highly recommend you take a look at OBS-Studio (Open Broadcaster Software). Its simple, you don't have to use all the different options. You can keep it simple. And there are bazillions of tutorials on youtube. The quality is good, costs nothing, runs on Win, Mac, Linux. And you can adjust easily your audio-level. Just my two cents.

[@SteveBecraft]

@@8tungdata Thank you for the input--I'll take a look. I did just go back to look at the original in iMovie, and I think I see what my problem was. I'll experiment with the next one, and if it doesn't seem like it will be better, I can check out OBS Studio.

[@saxman14214]

Is this guy for real?

[@chrismills5110]

I watched this to 9.32, and this man said nothing whatever of any use about voicing a Saxophone

[@SteveBecraft]

I'm sorry that you didn't get what you were hoping to find, Chris! You are correct, I don't really get to the USE of voicing on the saxophone in this video since it is an introduction. I've been teaching this technique over 20 years now, and a high percentage of Jr. High, Sr. High, and incoming college students cannot immediately lock into the mouthpiece 'A' due to embouchure problems, air issues, and too high or too low tongue positions. The introductory information is to try to account for these variables.

[@jardov1234]

Then you didn't listen to what he was saying. His approach was to first explain why these things are important, most of us are not taught why we do things but only how to do them - in my experience knowing why to practice in a certain way greatly improves the learning cycle.