Articles on Intonation and Working with Transcriptions

Coleman Hawkins looking awesome.

Over the first half of this year I was writing for Saxophone Life Magazine, which has been a lot of fun, though it has meant less articles here on my own blog. Just recently the magazine released all of its past content on its website, and I wanted to point out two articles that might be worth your time.

"Intonation and Your Ideal Sound"
This article is on the effect your mouthpiece placement on the cork has on your sound and the response of the reed as your body compensates for intonation issues. The basic principles outlined help players to use timbre and the feeling of reed response and resistance to arrive to the best mouthpiece placement, which in turn makes it easier to play and sound your best. In terms of saxophone technique, these concepts are very important to consistently playing at a high level.

"Making the Most of a Transcription"
Here I write about using audiation (the "inner ear"-to-instrument relationship) and the way our brain processes music in improvisation to get more out of the transcriptions we work on. Some of this we know we should be doing, and other aspects covered are new ideas based on some of the interesting research I've learned about recently.