Glad you found it helpful.. I'm a little shy about my earliest videos 'cause they're a little weak in presentation, but the info is still good. Thanks for commenting!
I played nothing but alto for many years. Pleasing tone, pleasing vibrato, an octave of altissimo. Then thought I'd "switch" to tenor. Apparently there is no "switch". Voicing is killing me. The D and G you mention are stuffy and squeaky. I believe I do need some additional pro work on this horn, but 1-2 hours a day of just blowing, with a good fraction of it doing long low notes and working on overtones is producing some hopeful results. Both horns are Mark VII. Selmer C** on the alto and new Soloist D on the tenor. I was once a music major but left for other lines of work. Now I play in the community band, church, and small groups. Just so shocked that I can be so much worse on tenor.
There's definitely a difference between the two, but the time you put in on alto will certainly make the transition to tenor easier than starting from scratch. There are a few schools of thought on the gear you use. Some people think the gear should be as close as possible between horns, but I've found for me that they require different gear. For example, generally speaking the bigger the mouthpiece tip opening is the stiffer the reed you will need, so if you are playing a #2.5 reed on Alto, you'd likely need a #3 or 3.5 on tenor. I don't play the same brand of mouthpiece on all my horns either. That could all be contributing factors, but at the end of the day, sticking with long tones and overtones should get you where you want to go. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
Hi, first of all I wanted to congratulate you on the very interesting videos!! question I'm trying to play only the mouthpiece but I always get the same note and I don't know how to change it even by changing the throat setting, can you help me? Thank you
Wonderfull explanation of voicing. I really can’t produce multiple notes on mouthpiece alone. Only one or two squeaking notes. Any advise on that.? I also noticed when playing mouthpiece only the whole embochure gets very tight
You're probably only getting the squeaking notes because the embouchure is so tight. As for advice... 1. keep at it just a little every practice session 2. check out my video on embouchure - it's too difficult to type out any sort of explanation about that. 3. You might try warming up with just the mouthpiece and the neck - you'll only get one note, but work on sustaining it while remaining as relaxed as possible. You can lower the pitch significantly using just your throat and airstream. Once that feels relaxed, then take the mouthpiece off and give it another shot. Thank so much for watching an commenting.
Thanks a lot man. I came know about it very recently and it seems it be very important, although not everyone really talks about it. I have felt some kind of pain in the throat like in the last year when playing long notes and now I think that it might be because I was not voicing correctly, so I was kind of forcing my throat and larynx. Have you ever met someone with this kind of problem? I'm not sure yet because there are only a few days I've started practicing it consciously, so it's not enough time to say if I won't feel pain anymore. But the few days I have practiced, I feel that my throat is not forcing too much when I think of voicing properly and the notes sound much better. Do you think it's also interesting to check the voicing with the vowels before playing each note? I've heard that somewhere but I'm not sure how and which vowels to use. Do you also use this type of exercise? Thank you so much...
Thank you for watching and for the comment. One thing is for sure... you never want tension EVER. That could potentially be the cause of the pain you experience and any tension will work against having a great sound. You might want to watch my video about playing saxophone Pain Free... there might be some helpful tips there. I would think the fact that you are consciously thinking about "voicing" will help all around to play with less tension and in your overall playing. You will have to let me know the results you find. As for the vowels... that's not something I've ever thought much about or focused on. I think that could possibly help to learn how to gain control of your throat and tongue position... so I wouldn't discourage you from experimenting with that. My philosophy is really more to be aware of these things and whatever you are doing should be done as relaxed as possible, while maintaining control of the instrument / sound / intonation. etc. Best of luck!
I'm keeping this video handy so I can refer to it often. This is just the right stuff. Thanks
Glad you found it helpful.. I'm a little shy about my earliest videos 'cause they're a little weak in presentation, but the info is still good. Thanks for commenting!
Thanks , very helpful !!
This video made my day.I was aware of the voicing but couldnt find any video about this.thanks for sharing ❤
Thank you!! I'll give those exercises a try. It's the low B I have the hardest time with.
Thanks so much sir
Great explanations. Hope your channel gets big!
Thanks. One video and one view at a time!
Thank you so much!
Thank you!
very helpful
I played nothing but alto for many years. Pleasing tone, pleasing vibrato, an octave of altissimo. Then thought I'd "switch" to tenor. Apparently there is no "switch". Voicing is killing me. The D and G you mention are stuffy and squeaky. I believe I do need some additional pro work on this horn, but 1-2 hours a day of just blowing, with a good fraction of it doing long low notes and working on overtones is producing some hopeful results. Both horns are Mark VII. Selmer C** on the alto and new Soloist D on the tenor. I was once a music major but left for other lines of work. Now I play in the community band, church, and small groups. Just so shocked that I can be so much worse on tenor.
There's definitely a difference between the two, but the time you put in on alto will certainly make the transition to tenor easier than starting from scratch. There are a few schools of thought on the gear you use. Some people think the gear should be as close as possible between horns, but I've found for me that they require different gear. For example, generally speaking the bigger the mouthpiece tip opening is the stiffer the reed you will need, so if you are playing a #2.5 reed on Alto, you'd likely need a #3 or 3.5 on tenor. I don't play the same brand of mouthpiece on all my horns either. That could all be contributing factors, but at the end of the day, sticking with long tones and overtones should get you where you want to go. Thanks so much for watching and commenting!
Hi, first of all I wanted to congratulate you on the very interesting videos!! question I'm trying to play only the mouthpiece but I always get the same note and I don't know how to change it even by changing the throat setting, can you help me? Thank you
Wonderfull explanation of voicing. I really can’t produce multiple notes on mouthpiece alone. Only one or two squeaking notes. Any advise on that.? I also noticed when playing mouthpiece only the whole embochure gets very tight
You're probably only getting the squeaking notes because the embouchure is so tight. As for advice... 1. keep at it just a little every practice session 2. check out my video on embouchure - it's too difficult to type out any sort of explanation about that. 3. You might try warming up with just the mouthpiece and the neck - you'll only get one note, but work on sustaining it while remaining as relaxed as possible. You can lower the pitch significantly using just your throat and airstream. Once that feels relaxed, then take the mouthpiece off and give it another shot. Thank so much for watching an commenting.
Thanks a lot man. I came know about it very recently and it seems it be very important, although not everyone really talks about it. I have felt some kind of pain in the throat like in the last year when playing long notes and now I think that it might be because I was not voicing correctly, so I was kind of forcing my throat and larynx. Have you ever met someone with this kind of problem? I'm not sure yet because there are only a few days I've started practicing it consciously, so it's not enough time to say if I won't feel pain anymore. But the few days I have practiced, I feel that my throat is not forcing too much when I think of voicing properly and the notes sound much better. Do you think it's also interesting to check the voicing with the vowels before playing each note? I've heard that somewhere but I'm not sure how and which vowels to use. Do you also use this type of exercise? Thank you so much...
Thank you for watching and for the comment. One thing is for sure... you never want tension EVER. That could potentially be the cause of the pain you experience and any tension will work against having a great sound. You might want to watch my video about playing saxophone Pain Free... there might be some helpful tips there. I would think the fact that you are consciously thinking about "voicing" will help all around to play with less tension and in your overall playing. You will have to let me know the results you find. As for the vowels... that's not something I've ever thought much about or focused on. I think that could possibly help to learn how to gain control of your throat and tongue position... so I wouldn't discourage you from experimenting with that. My philosophy is really more to be aware of these things and whatever you are doing should be done as relaxed as possible, while maintaining control of the instrument / sound / intonation. etc. Best of luck!
laaaaa… or is it loooo?
Thank you for commenting. I'm not sure I understand the question. I'm assuming it has to do with tongue position?