I Asked School Band Directors How They Teach Saxophone
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- Опубликовано: 25 ноя 2024
- #saxophone #bettersax #banddirector
Top Band Director Tips on how to teach saxophone to beginners.
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I taught HS Band for forty-one years. I always asked professional musicians about specific things they did in teaching instruments that were not my main instrument. I found something that really helped my symphonic bands sound exceptional. I would stand backstage just before the entrance to the stage and I would say to the players as they passed me; "Good luck", or, "Have fun", or "You, give me your mouthpiece".
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience, I am really considering getting back into the saxophone after 25 years of not playing. It is inspiring to watch your teachings.
Middle school band director and sax player for 16 years here. This stuff is great! I’m going to send this video to every one of my saxophone players! Thanks everyone! Only other thing I’d add is please make sure the entire reed is wet! Too many kids just wet the tip thinking that’s good enough.
Good tip Thank you!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience, I am really considering getting back into the saxophone after 25 years of not playing. It is inspiring to watch your teachings.
Wow! Excellent tips from your contributing band directors, students, and you. I’ll show this to my oldest daughter who’s also a sax player, like me.
I am a middle school / high school jazz band teacher. Been teaching for 36 years. Here’s a tip to add to the paper between the reed and mouthpiece advice. After you put the paper in take a pencil and draw a line on the reed to show where the paper stopped. Then take the paper out. Take the mouthpiece in your hand, off the horn, and put your thumb on the reed so the tip of your finger nail is right below that line you drew. Then with your thumb still right below that line place the mouthpiece in your mouth until your thumb is touching your bottom lip. This will tell the player in a very tactful and exact way how much mouthpiece should be your mouth. Love the channel by the way!
Nice tip.
6:05 I've seen mouthpiece makers themselves reference "the break" as about where your embouchure meets. Good stuff. For neckstraps I find the right height and thread a pin/button through the straps so it doesn't ever move.
different clothing has different thickness, thicker wool collar as opposed to no collar like a t-shirt.
Yeah, that’s not a good idea.
I live in Sardinia, Italy. I bought online a BetterSax alto 2 days ago from Thomann, they shipped it today, and I should receive it in 2/3 days. I already own a Yamaha Yas62 since 1986, but I wanted to own a Better altosax!
Fantastico!!!
6:27 I know AJ! Fantastic sax player, fantastic teacher, and a fantastic human being! This is a great resource for band directors. Thanks for putting this together.
Thanks so much for having me on Jay!!! Love everything that you do man
Thank you Race!
Love all the insight Jay. Been playing a Tenor for a better part of a year now (played Alto in 4th grade) and I'm still at a point where I can learn anything and will always try something different. These teachers are amazing, glad to see their knowledge being shared.
Excellent advice..... Wish I had heard some of these bits of wisdom 50+ years ago!
Love this! Middle school band directors, please teach your saxes to use the bis Bb! Don’t let your kids tell you side Bb is easier. One hand is always easier to coordinate than two. Quick rule: bis for diatonic scale passages and side for chromatic passages. It doesn’t take long to get used to and ends up being simpler.
Can you elaborate for non american band directors?
@@marten594 B-flat in English is Si bemol, B, and Bes in other languages (as opposed to H, Si, or B-natural.) The bis key on the saxophone is the little key just under the B-natural (H, Si) key. You can play B-flat on the saxophone simply by putting your first (pointer, index) finger on both keys at once making B-flat (B, Si bemol, etc.) just as simple to play as B-natural (provided you don't need to go next chromatically to B-natural.)
@@davekband thanks! I meant "elaborate on keys and their position", the different names for B and Bb are useful too ;)
Jay, great video... I also appreciate a lot your generous and honest approach to show tips from other guys' videos.. thanks a lot !
Carl Cox is a monster player!
I'm lucky, He is an amazing player and my Jazz teacher. I love to hear him play and how chill he is and how good is he at teaching.
Thank you Jay! You always give such good advice.
One mouthpiece that might fit the needs of some is the “Water” mouthpiece.
Jay, great video. Everyone had great tips for improvement. This is “real practical “applications.
A trick I learned to keep my embouchure correctly relaxed is to press the octave key, play up and down the register, but an octave down. Doing that forces a relaxed embouchure and supported air flow. The result is a nice fat sound. I like to call it working on "undertones". Of course, overtones are just as important.
Thanks Jay. I'm learning and experimenting how to get a mellow sound. These are great tips!
Amazing videos as always , as a current Sound Engineering student , I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to "mix" in saxophones with a backing track , could you make like a video on how u record and "mix" saxophone solos onto backing tracks (mic position , EQ settings etc )?
How about if you design a better sax curved sop? I would love to try one. I play alto and straight soprano, but would love to play a curved one. The good ones are just too expensive. :) Loved the tips on this video, btw. Was entertaining and educational!
That's is turnor sax
Two tips I have:
If you are a beginner, it is better to have the reed slightly in. It not only plays softer, but it protects the reed if you bump it into stuff. The mouth piece can take much more of a beating than a reed. This is especially important for kids learning to play the instrument.
The second - if you are older and start learning, you might have a hard time with the insides of your lips getting sore or even bleeding. The best course of action is to see a dental technician and ask for protector against Bruxism. There are soft protectors they make from a form based on your teeth. It is perfectly sitting to the players teeth and makes the bottom ones just slightly thicker so it does not hurt the inside of the mouth.
The second one is a godsend for me as I started learning when I was 29. I played too much and my lips started bleeding. The protectors help me keep up the speed :)
Classically, and cheaply, a folded up piece of cigarette paper does the trick! The paper for rolling your own, though best to skip that part 😊
@@djasge3893 I started with paper as well - but it tended to melt after some time. But a proper technician made is so so sooo nice.
I also tried some other things. There are protectors for bracers as well. They can be shaped with a little bit of heat. They were not strong enough though. But there might be other solutions as well :)
Wonderful content as always, Jay! There are still a lot of misconceptions about breathing (e.g. about sticking your belly out). The great trumpeter Bobby Shew talks about “wedge breathing” and it’s worth checking out. I realised I’d been doing it wrong for decades. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Such great teachers!
I have been teaching adjunct at private college and have students who are taking saxophone as a secondary instrument. One thing I've noticed is the majority of new players typically are playing flat. I think this is due to not having a steady strong airstream and or embouchure too loose. If the student can buzz a tenor mouthpiece at concert G, and alto at concert A it typically helps them get in tune and a good starting point on tone.
It could also be due to their voicing. Their tongue might be too flat and not engaged when playing
This is applicable to all instruments, but i use it for saxophone:
Air support, what does that even mean? Act like you’re punching yourself in the stomach, stop just before you hit yourself. Those muscles you feel tighten in your abs-ish area? Those are what you use for supported air.
I spent years, literally like 5 years not knowing what was meant by air support. Then I got punched in the stomach again and felt those muscles tighten. For whatever reason that time it just clicked. Been teaching it this way ever since, because it’s tactile. You can feel what is supposed to happen.
Nice vid. Parents should try to get their saxophone kids to watch it. My kids went from elementary through high school without ever having a teacher who played a WOODWIND in their schools! They continued marching band through college but not sure if that would've mattered by then. They made almost all of their friends with music. thanks... the guy who put the mouthpiece on and took it off without holding on to the neck got me a little nervous though ... "buy my sax. NO PULLDOWN!" Ha!
oops. He did touch the neck... my bad
I bought 2 of the original altos and then the F# sax came out. I wish I had waited but I didn’t know that was going to come out. I’m ordering the Tenor now☮️🎶🎵🎶🎷
Yeah but the no F# horns are collectors items now 😉
Thank you for the feature!
Thank you!
Jay that was a great informative video different views on all aspects of playing ideal for all players thanks for posting.....peter ..spain
Hey Jay, long time fan here. :) I just started my 9 y.o. Grandson on alto. I'm teaching him the "no embouchure" embouchure saving him the two years I wasted. I had him try yamaha 4c and a meyer 5m and he did better with the meyer. Really not surprised, I always thought the 4c was a waste, just too closed up. I'm curious how you came to choose a .070 tip opening for beginner which is same as Yamaha 6c and Meyer 5m which I totally agree with. (just ordered him Bettersax Classic :) ) Thanks for all you do Jay!
Great! This mouthpiece is way better than the 4C you will see.
Jay, do you have tips on going in the double altissimo register? I can hit double altissimo e (G6) but no higher
Hey, Jay...GREAT video, as always! Would you consider, if you haven't done so already, doing a video comparing your Classic mouthpiece to the Burnin' mouthpiece? Thanks, Jay! nuff said.
Yes I’m planning on that one.
I teach a lot of private students who are doing band, and my tip would be balance your ensembles. Don't put six kids on alto and two on flute and then try to get the saxes to play soft enough for you to hear the flutes. Your saxes will sound awful, and you still won't be able to hear the flutes.
It works way better to work on developing the flute players' embouchure and air so they can be heard within a balanced ensemble.
Great!!
I meant to share a clip with you, been up to my neck rebuilding a program needing everything top to bottom. Nevertheless, I’d love to try on the next round!
No worries. Next time!
Thanks!
Always practice
What are you doing on YT? Go practice!
A hand faced mouthpiece for $40!?! Amazing!
Hi, I was wondering, do you have an email or anywhere that I would be able to send you a video of the saxophone I bought? When I press c one of the bottom notes shakes and Id just like to check if that’s meant to happen, I’m fairly certain it’s not, or if I need to return it? Would be very helpful, thanks :)
If it were only this easy! Crucial point: Not all reeds (from the same box) are the same!!! Unfortunately, students are struggling because more needs to be taught regarding quality and consistency (or lack thereof). It's critical to learn how to be more discerning of reed quality. Students are also underserved by mouthpiece quality. I'm partial to Yam. 4C then Selmer C*. Sorry, Better Sax.
I agree that students are underserved when it comes to mouthpieces that’s why we made the BetterSax Classic. I invite you to try it to see how much better it is to a Yamaha 4C. No contest.
Kids need to start off with a Yamaha 4C and a rico 2 reed or 2.5. As beginners, sax should be fun and not a chop workout. I had one kid where his face was bright red, I asked what number reed he was using,and he said a 4.!!!
I agree for the soft reeds. But the Yamaha 4C is not a very good mouthpiece. The BetterSax Classic blows it away in terms of quality, consistency and ease of play.
@@bettersaxI'd argue that 2.5 may still be too much for beginners. 1.5-2, so they have less to overcome as they are learning many different things at once.
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I was hoping to see Jesus Bermeo in this video but I guess he didn't get around to it.
Me taking notes as a beginner 😂:
How does this ruin Lebrons Legacy