Question on Intonation

A saxophonist recently asked me a great question about whether intonation adjustments should be done through embouchure pressure or through manipulating the air stream (the same way overtones and altissimo are produced). It's a fairly complicated issue, and I thought it was definitely worthy of a blog post.

Word of Warning

While it's clear that pitch can be controlled by both embouchure and air stream, many intonation issues are actually the result of poor air stream focus and incorrect embouchure pressure. A correct approach to air stream and embouchure will alleviate a number of common intonation problems. With that being said here are some tips in approaching real time intonation adjustment.

Raising the Pitch

Adjusting pitch up or making a note sound sharper than your default pitch center is much more difficult to do than lowering the pitch, so we'll start with this problematic technique first. Trying to correct a flat note by adding embouchure pressure can quickly constrict and distort tone and even make response feel sluggish. Adding embouchure pressure can easily be counter productive, and I don't like to approach raising intonation in this fashion generally (DISCLAIMER: I'm sure I do it in a pinch or even in a very minute way on the regular basis without even realizing it). 

Adjusting the pitch with air stream is also possible, and much safer than using embouchure pressure to adjust the pitch upward. There is more flexibility in raising the pitch before you start to introduce strain into your technique degrading tone and response.

Honestly, when I find myself playing flat, I usually just push in the mouthpiece because the normal result of trying to regularly adjust intonation up is degraded tone and response.

Lowering the Pitch

Adjusting the pitch down is generally easier and less risky in general. You can lower the pitch using embouchure a fair amount without distorting or constricting tone and slowing response. That's why most embouchure driven saxophone inflection (bends, etc.) deal with the pitch center and below it rather than above it. 

Lowering the pitch using the air stream is also very possible ,and it might be equally as flexible as embouchure in that regard. Again if you lower the pitch too far by either method you will find that your tone and response suffer significantly.

Combining Embouchure and Air Stream Flexibility

In any kind of timbral or pitch adjustment it is most important to focus on tone quality. If I can get a beautiful tone I know that my playing will also feel very responsive, and I'll be playing at my best. I find that both of these methods, adjustment using the embouchure and the air stream, can combine when adjusting pitch in a way that allows the most flexibility and preserves the best tone quality and responsiveness of my playing. 

When I do adjust pitch whether for intonation's sake or for some inflection or other I simply do whatever needs to be done without sacrificing tone. I have practiced and do practice both methods of pitch adjustment. That practice along with my focus on tone quality allows me to find the path of least resistance to adjusting intonation, or in other words, the best technique that will allow me to play and sound my best. 

In terms of what to practice, I recommend practicing adjusting intonation down both with air stream and embouchure. If and when practicing adjusting pitch up, do it primarily with air stream, and even then only in very short spurts as that kind of practice can easily introduce strain into your technique. The simplest form of practicing these techniques is a slow pitch bend away from the pitch center and then returning to it. Good luck!

Multiphonics Dissected

I've been using multiphonic as part of my tone practice over a long period of time, and while I have always thought of them as an interesting extended technique, I'd primarily viewed their purpose as a tone building exercise. More recently I began to better understand their mechanics and, in result, gained the ability to use them in musical contexts.

Basic Mechanics of a Multiphonic Fingering

Multiphonic fingerings are actually rather simple. They create at least one open tone hole in the middle of the air column that allows the air to alternate between at least two different fingerings. I have understood this basic concept for some time, which has allowed me to create my own multiphonic fingerings. While creating some of my own fingerings I came to a more significant discovery, which was that if I started with a normal fingering, left an open tone hole, and closed some of the keys further down, I could in many instances create a multiphonic that included my original pitch. This discovery allowed me to create multiphonic fingerings which predictably included a desired pitch. DISCLAIMER: This doesn't work for every fingering, however it does work nicely for quite a few of the notes.

Here is a basic example. On the left is my multiphonic fingering on A. You can see the a fingering held down in the left hand with the g key left open. Then in the lower right hand you can see a number of other keys held down in succession. The open G allows the air column to alternate between the two fingerings. Of course it produces a number of different pitches, but A is clearly discernible, and that's what makes the fingering predictable and possibly useful! I have seen various analyses of multiphonic fingerings before outlining all their suggested notes, but I hadn't yet made a clear connection between the fingering and any of the actual pitches, so discerning this connection naturally made me more interested.

After some further experimentation I also realized that the lower fingering often predictably created a note as well, often at the 2nd harmonic, an octave and pefect 5th higher than original fingering. For example, the fingering on the left also produced a Bb an octave and a fifth higher than the low Eb fingering. Crazy sounding, interesting, and, happily, comprehensible. Not all multiphonic fingerings are this easily understood, but many are.

Classifying Multiphonics by a Single Pitch

From here I decided I could likely create a system of multiphonic fingerings that I could actually use. Most multiphonic produce sufficient pitches to make up complex 9th chords, so focusing in on just one (or sometimes two) of their pitches allows me to utilize the fingerings in a simpler and melodic way. In order to think this way, you do have to accept a lot of collateral damage however, meaning a lot of notes that have nothing to do with your desired note or even the scale, chord, or tonality you're dealing with.

At this point, I'm well on my way to constructing a chromatic scale, but I haven't quite put all the pieces in place, so, for the moment, below is a diagram of multiphonic fingerings for the C major scale. The G fingering appears to be the normal octave key G fingering, but if you relax your airstream slightly it produces a nasty multiphonic (beginners do this all the time). I should also say that the desired pitches don't always sound in the same octave in successive fingerings. For example, the A fingering's A sounds in the lower octave and the B fingering's B sounds in the higher octave. (For what it's worth, I'm not terribly satisfied with my B fingering. I'd like to find something where the B was stronger.)

Here is a clip of a C multiphonic major scale (It sounds terrible, which is pretty much default setting for multiphonics): Multiphonic C Major Scale.mp3

Benefits of Subtone and Diaphragmatic Breathing to Tone

Ben Webster, king of subtone...

I've made a couple fun discoveries recently, and while both are rather simple, they are certainly worth sharing. Best of all, both will help improve tone.

Subtone

Have you ever noticed that playing in subtone, when you pull back your bottom jaw and create that warm and smooth lower register, can at times be much more demanding than playing in full tone with a normal embouchure. After some exploration I discovered that creating a good subtone, especially in the lowest part of the horn, requires a correct breath support, more so than a full tone embouchure does.

OK, so you have to use better air support. So what? Well, that makes subtoning one more tool you can add to your arsenal of exercises that build support. Need to develop air support? Pick your favorite ballad and play it, focus on the lower register of the horn, and subtone through the whole thing. Effective and fun. Even if you never use subtone in your normal playing, it is still a fantastic practice tool. Practicing subtoning also helps you learn to keep a flexible embouchure and keeps you from letting your sound become to brittle at the other extreme.

For those of you who haven't even tackled subtone and are not sure of the sound you are aiming for, here is a clip of myself practicing subtoning, something I recorded on my old Buescher True Tone Tenor:
Ben Subtones on Body and Soul (for anyone who is interested, the Buescher is for sale here)

The effect is created by pulling your bottom jaw back and a bit down. The sound becomes rounder and warmer and inflections become more exaggerated.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing now enters the scene as it is practically necessary to subtone correctly. Correct breathing on the saxophone can sometimes be a bit of a mystery, but I found a simple way to explain it to students. Simply, push out your abdomen when you breathe in. That's right, make yourself look fatter... when you breath in. After that go on autopilot and just play, but each time you breath in make a concerted effort to push out your stomach.

Try this simple experiment. Play a low Bb with a chest breath, meaning breath in lifting your chest keeping your stomach in and play low Bb. Now try breathing in with a diaphragmatic breath pushing out your stomach while your breath in. Play low Bb. It's noticeably easier. Try again with a subtoned low Bb and compare the two methods. Diaphragmatic breathing feels easier and sounds better every time.

Take Home

Subtone practice will help you maintain or improve your air support, and it's fun. It does require correct breathing technique however, which can be pretty simple. Push your gut out when you breath in. Good luck.

A Complete Approach to Sound for The Modern Saxophonist

I am pleased to announce that my book is officially in print. For those who haven't caught me talking about it yet, here is a quick description:

A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist has been immediately recognized as “a highly-concentrated, efficient approach to tone production” by (Bret Pimentel, bretpimentel.com) and has been endorsed by world-renown saxophonist Walt Weiskopf. The book is designed to guide saxophonists of any genre towards achieving their ideal sound. Pursuing this aspiration will not only result in a more beautiful and powerful tone, but it will also promote virtuosity in other areas of technique such as the ability to execute technical passages, extending the range of the saxophone to four octaves, and widening the palette of available tone colors. The guiding principles for reaching these goals are taught in the text as are corresponding specific exercises to help effectively achieve them. Many of the concepts in the book are based on those taught by Joe Allard and Sigurd Rascher, but the text also develops these ideas in new ways that help further expand the players capabilities.

Beyond the text, the book has a accompanying sound clips for many of the exercises which can be found at www.benbrittonjazz.com/completeapproach.

Where To Get It

For those you who are already convinced, you can get A Complete Approach in print at Createspace, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or you can get the digital version at Payhip. A kindle store version is in the works as well. 

Endorsement, Review, and Feature

"This is a terrific book on an often neglected yet integral part of saxophone playing. I recommend Ben's book to every serious saxophonist." - Walt Weiskopf

"...a highly-concentrated, efficient approach to tone production." - Bret Pimentel, full review

Article featured on bestsaxophonewebsiteever.com.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 – Foundational Concepts
Introduction to Air Support
Exercise 1.1 - Breathing In
Exercise 1.2 - Blowing Hot Air
Exercise 1.3 - Up Against the Wall
Introduction to Embouchure
Exercise 1.4 - Mouthpiece Test
Exercise 1.5 - Mouthpiece Bends
Introduction to Air Stream Focus
Exercise 1.6 - Low vs. High
Focusing the Vocal Tract
Exercise 1.7 - Bending Up
Air Stream Focus vs. Embouchure Pressure
Other Contributing Factors
Overview

Chapter 2 – Air Support: The Key to the Saxophone
Exercise 2.1 - Long Tones on the Mouthpiece
Exercise 2.2 - Air Attacks
Exercise 2.3 - Low Note Bends
Air Support at Soft Dynamics
Exercise 2.4 - Whispering Hot Air
Exercise 2.5 - Soft Long Tones
Putting it to Practice

Chapter 3 – Embouchure
Embouchure Pressure
Sound and Feeling
Exercise 3.1 - Wrong Embouchure
Exercise 3.2 - Embouchure and Articulation
Exercise 3.3 - Interval Jumps
Embouchure Flexibility and Timbre
Exercise 3.4 - Roll In, Roll Out
Exercise 3.5 – Subtone vs. Full Tone
Looking Forward

Chapter 4 – Air Stream Focus
Exercise 4.1 - Lower Lip Out
Exercise 4.2 - Tongue Bends
Overtones
Exercise 4.3 - First Flight
Techniques for Executing New or Difficult Overtones
Guiding Principles for Overtone Practice
Types of Overtone Exercises
Long Overtone Variations
Level I Exercises
Level II Exercises
Overtones and Altissimo
Multiphonics
Exercise 4.4 – Multiphonics with Tongue Bends
Last Thoughts
Level I Long Overtones
Level I Overtone Flexibility
Level II Long Overtones
Level II Overtone Flexibility
Bugle Calls
Scales Using Multiple Partials
Scales Using a Single Partial
Slurring Up

Chapter 5 – Articulation
Articulation Techniques
Exercise 5.1 - The Lightest Articulation Possible
Exercise 5.2 - Moving Beyond Low Bb
Exercise 5.3- Legato Tongued Scales
Exercise 5.4 - Staccato Low Bb
Exercise 5.5 - High Register Staccato
Exercise 5.6 - Staccato Scales
Exercise 5.7 - Real Music
Conclusion

Chapter 6 – Daily Practice and Warm Up
An Approach to Daily Practice
Regularly Recording Yourself
Why Warm Up?
Importance of Long Tones
Warm up Outline
Customize Your Warm Up

Glossary

About the Author

Excerpt from Exercise "Roll In, Roll Out"

"The amount of lip rolled in over the bottom teeth often changes according to the style of music. Typically, jazz and pop saxophonists will play with the lower lip rolled out in while classical players will tend to roll the lip in further over the teeth. A common problem with beginners is to have the bottom lip so far rolled in that it stops the reed from vibrating properly."

"For this exercise, play the following example, or a familiar melody, first with a majority of the bottom lip rolled over the bottom teeth. With the lip rolled too far in, as described, the sound can become thin and sometimes even harsh or biting. Next, roll the lip in only moderately so that a little less than half of it is pulled over the bottom teeth and play the melody again. The tone should have less highs and more depth than before. Now, roll out your bottom lip so that only a little of it remains between the bottom teeth and the reed and play the melody again. The sound will become brighter and lush. Some players will find they need to either roll their bottom lip in or out to achieve their desired sound. Make note of any needed change and review your bottom lip position and resulting sound regularly during your daily practice sessions until you have formed a consistent habit."

Sound Clips:  Lip Rolled Out.mp3,  Lip Rolled In.mp3,  Lip Rolled Too Far In.mp3

Excerpt from "Introduction to Air Stream Focus"

"Another foundational determinant of tone quality is the concept of air stream focus. The initial speed of the air stream is determined by your air support, but it can be further shaped by the vocal tract, which consists of the throat, tongue, and mouth. A well-focused vocal tract will help the tone sound supported, in tune, full and rich in harmonics. This will further relieve any need for added embouchure pressure."

"Controlling the muscles involved in focusing the air stream can be elusive and it is something most efficiently learned through experimentation with overtones, which will be addressed in chapter 4. However, you can start experimenting with some simple recommendations and exercises to begin learning this concept."

"The tongue plays a primary role in the vocal tract, and getting in the habit of placing it in a supportive position is one of the first steps to focusing your airstream. The tongue should be relaxed and wide, but the sides should be high enough in the mouth that they touch the bottom and sides of the upper back molars. Keeping the center of the tongue relaxed and wide, while raising its sides in the back to touch the top molars, will focus the airstream, and promote good tone quality and intonation."

Exercise 1.6 - Low vs. High

"This exercise contrasts incorrect and correct technique. First, play a medium fast slurred scale while keeping the sides of the tongue low so they are not touching the bottom back molars, and then contrast that with the correct technique described previously. Note how supported and in tune the sound is when using the correct technique and how dull and unsupported it is when the sides of the tongue are lowered."

Sound Clips:  Scale with Correct Tongue Position.mp3,  Scale with Incorrect Tongue Position.mp3

Links

Get A Complete Approach at:

• Createspace.com (print)
• Amazon.com (print)
• Barnesandnoble.com (print)
• Payhip.com (digital)

Inflection and Improvisation

EDIT: There has been some confusion over this post, and I just want to make it clear. The point of this post is not that inflection is bad. The point is to warn of technical and artistic problems that commonly rear their head when inflection is used in improvisation. Whether you are a player who uses a lot of inflection or just a little, you should be aware of these issues.

This past week I had an opportunity to take a lesson with Walt Weiskopf, an amazing saxophonist and great teacher. I had studied with him during my undergrad at Eastman, and on various occasions I had heard his philosophy on inflection. It came up in our lesson this week, and I think, for the first time, I really understood the points he made.

The basic premise is that inflection can be problematic for a number of reasons. It can detract from time feel and content, and it can become a crutch. Walt is an advocate of minimal inflection for those reasons and others. I would like to outline those points in detail because many of them get at the basic mechanics of improvisation, and whether you play with heavy inflection (Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Chris Potter) or much less (Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Walt Weiskopf) you need to understand how to deal with inflection. You do not want it detracting from your playing no matter your aesthetic. Following is a laundry list of guidelines that will keep you on the right track.

• One of my favorite points that Walt made was that inflection takes time, just a moment, but it often adds time to the execution of an idea. Because of this it can detract from time feel and groove. It can ruin the forward momentum and feel of an improvisation if you let time feel take a back seat to inflection. Don't do it!
• Inflection can also detract from content. Walt made the point that you can only focus on so many things at a time, and if inflection becomes your priority, content can suffer. 
• I would add that inflection can get in the way of execution of an idea. Sometimes an idea is hard enough by itself and trying to inflect it adds to the difficulty and stunts your ability to play it. This has happened to me, and I have heard it happen to the best of players.
• Inflection easily becomes habit. A great exercise, Walt's suggestion, is to improvise while trying to keep your playing free of all inflections. This will show how much of your inflection comes by choice and how much comes by force of habit. Every inflection should be an artistic choice.
• Finally, inflection can become a crutch. As an improvisation progresses, some player rely more on inflection to carry their solo, instead of musical content. It can be a tell-tale sign that you are uncomfortable or running out of steam. At times like these it is important to keep focused and continue improvising creatively instead of resorting to a stylist-only approach.

I realize that is all pretty negative, but sometimes a good dose of cold hard reality is the best thing to improve your playing. For some, these guidelines will result in less inflection, and for other it will mean they need to execute their inflection more carefully, avoiding detracting from the groove or the execution of their content. Again, no matter the aesthetic, these guidelines can be helpful in maintaining a high level of playing and in focusing your improvisation.

Slurring Up the Overtone Series

Note: This post is meant for players already familiar with overtones, and who have already expanded their range to 3 octaves or more. For a more comprehensive approach to working on overtones try this post.

Ever tried slurring up the overtone series? You can pretty easily jump from the fundamental pitch (low note) to the first octave or from the fundamental to some higher pitch in the series, but most players find starting on anything higher in the series and trying to slur up from there to be impossible. However, once you get high enough (altissimo Bb) it becomes fairly easy to slur up, that is if you can play up there already.

Slurring altissimo Bb to C (first slur below) using the Bb series is fairly easy and a great starting point for this exercise. With a little experimentation and determination you will find you can slur up and down some of the partials right below the altissimo Bb mark as well, so on the Bb series that would be altissimo Ab to Bb, the second slur below. The slurs can be a lot easier if you start with the higher note slurring down and then come back up. With daily practice you can work all the way down to octave key Bb or even further down the series, which is no small feat. It is possible to go further down than notated in this exercise, however they will come much easier after you have can consistently execute the higher slurs . If you get stuck on a certain set of overtones, use a higher series such as the ones based off low B, C or Db to transition from a higher slur down to the more challenging slur.

The Why

This kind of practice works the muscles of the vocal tract in a more intense way than the run of the mill overtone playing. It's another level of overtone practice for those who have extended their range to 4 octaves or more and need an exercise to help them continue developing their muscles without the threat of embouchure tightening that can easily result from practicing prolonged periods in the extreme upper register.

Finger Technique and Push-ups

Nice and close

OK, so that title is a bit misleading. This post won't deal with push-ups at all. However, it is about finger technique and arms will come into play. In terms of saxophone playing it really doesn't matter how many push-ups you can or can't do, but this post will explore some techniques that incorporate muscles above the wrist.

Don't Glue Them Down

First, we'll deal with an early step to gaining speed and fluidity in technical playing, and that is to keep the fingers close or even touching the keys. There are a few different approaches to this. One is to practice slowly and consciously keep your fingers very close to the keys. Another is to watch yourself play in the mirror and work on correcting your fingers when they fly away from the saxophone. Ideally you want your fingers very close to the keys, even touching whenever possible. My personal favorite practice method, which I believe I've espoused here on the blog before, is to run some tape across your hands. Your hands should be in proper playing position, and the tape should attach to the saxophone above and below each hand. There shouldn't be any give in the tape, meaning if you try to lift your fingers away from the keys you will pull against the tape.  Yes, you will need someone's help if you want to do both hands at the same time, and yes, you will have only the ability to the basic fingerings of the saxophone. Side keys and trill keys will most likely cause you to pull away from the tape. Play in this condition for at least half an hour if not an hour. Then take off the tape and see how you feel. Repeat this exercise on various days for the full effect.

Arms > Hands

Once your fingers are closer to the keys you will find your finger technique faster and smoother than otherwise, but you will still likely have difficulty with some of the saxophones more awkward fingerings. These include:

• left hand spatula keys: low Bb, low B, low C# and G#
• left hand palm keys, high D, high Eb, and high F 
• right hand side keys: side Bb, trill C, high E, trill F# and high F#
• right hand pinky keys: low C and Eb

These all require either using a part of the hand other than the fingers to press them or some serious pinky finger strength. Many saxophonists play these primarily from the wrist, meaning there hand muscles do the majority of the work. This often results in insufficient speed and even tension and cramping, especially for trills. Instead try using your arm to effect the fingering change. The perfect example of this is trilling from low B to low C#. OK, so you would probably never play this in real music, but you very well might play from low B to low C# in an ascending phrase. Try playing back and forth between the two notes using just your pinky strength. You can do it but not very efficiently, and if done for any prolonged period will result in some tension and pain. Now use your entire arm and hand to slide your pinky back and forth between the low B and low C#.  Using your arm and hand not only lets your pinky finger relax, but you can also increase the speed. Now apply that to the fairly long list of notes above.

One Last Suggestion

It can be very tempting to hold down the G# as you play the entire A scale, or hold down various left hand spatula keys in different musical examples.  You will find that more tension exists in your hand as you hold down that G# or other spatula key and move your other right hand fingers. They will play more relaxed and more smoothly if you resist holding down your pinky finger and only press it down for the necessary notes. Another bad habit is to use C# to play G#. That requires more finger tension than you need and you will be able to play more smoothly just using the normal G# fingering. If clarinetists can do it, you can too.

Low Bb Staccato Test

Try this - play a repeated staccato tongue on low Bb making sure your tonguing isn't too heavy. When playing staccato on a low note it's common to put a lot of tongue on the reed to force it to vibrate immediately. For this exercise you don't want to use a lot of tongue so the articulation should not sound like an accent or a slap-tongue sound, just a staccato.

If you can do this without a problem it likely means you have sufficient air support and your embouchure is effective (it's not putting too much pressure on the reed). If this is difficult for you and it very well might be then here are a couple of things that can help fix the underlying problem.

One of the possible problems is that you have insufficient air support. A simple way to both test your air support and work on it is to do repeated air attacks on low notes.  I'd suggest starting up someplace like low F and work your way down to the bottom. You want to try and repeatedly start each note with just your air, so do not articulate in any way whatsoever. Just let the air start the note, and with sufficient air support you can get a clean clear entrance to each note.  Once you can get multiple clean and clear entrances on low Bb you can feel confident you have sufficient air support.

The second possible problem is that your embouchure is putting too much pressure on the reed as you tongue not allowing the note to sound. The fix for this can be different according to the individual problem, but one thing to try would be slightly lowering your bottom lip as if you were going to bend a note downward.  When doing this don't actually lower the lip far enough to audibly lower the pitch, and make sure you lower the entire lip including the corners of the mouth. Just lowering the middle of the lip will result in increased lip pressure from the sides and result in other problems. Too much embouchure pressure can also hamper your ability to start low notes with an air attack, so if you are having trouble with them try the air attacks with a very slight drop in the entire bottom lip.

Here is a sound clip demonstrating the exercise:


I would suggest making this a regular part of your warm up or daily practice routine, at least until you've mastered it. The increased air support will make the rest of the horn feel easier to play and the increased embouchure control can result in a fatter more vibrant sound.  And, of course, you will also have a greater mastery of the bottom end of the horn.

Jerry Bergonzi's No Embouchure

Though I had seen a number of these Jerry Bergonzi videos that Rico put together, I saw this particular one just recently. The way Jerry Bergonzi explains embouchure here is pretty much exactly how I conceptualize embouchure and it was really cool to hear someone else saying the same things. Enjoy!

Shaping Your Sound

Michael Brecker: Sound Shaper Extraordinaire

Today's post is possibly the last one on saxophone sound for a while. I generally write about things I'm experimenting with myself, and after my recent overtone find and air support realization, this seems to be the fitting conclusion.

At one point in the recent past I was doing my various tone exercises, and I wasn't arriving to my ideal sound. I was a little frustrated, but I was patiently working through it. My son asked me in his four year old way what song I was playing. I told him I wasn't really playing a song and that I had been playing exercises. He suggested that I should play a song. I took his advice, really just to humor him, and began playing with a record. Then, within a relatively short period of time I arrived to my ideal sound.

 What's the Point?

As saxophonists and as musicians in general we need to be engaged in shaping our sounds from the first note of the day. No amount of warming up, overtone exercises, etc. will automatically sculpt or shape your sound. Those exercises serve to strengthen and increase your abilities, but you will need to make the conscious effort to put your abilities to work.

The Shapes Your Sound is Made Of

Here is a short list of things to pay attention to which will help you shape your sound:

• The beginning of each note: articulation, intonation, clarity of sound, and inflection
• The end of each note: supporting the note to the end, intonation, and inflection
• Vibrato: speed, depth, and where and when you choose to use or not to use it
• Inflection: bends, subtone vs. full tone, and any other shaping that affect pitch or tone color
• The connection between successive notes, relates both to articulation and air support
• Dynamics

I find myself mainly focusing on inflection, and vibrato, which are related, but really all of these, and probably others I'm not thinking of, fuse to become the style of your sound. Again, long tones, overtones, bending exercises, etc. will not force you to pay attention to these moving parts of your sound. They will simply make you more able to control them.

A Few Practical Ideas

Following are a few ways I incorporate sound shaping into my warm up. They have resulted in an increased awareness of the subtle details of sound and greater consistency in sounding how I want to.

1. The first thing I play is music. Generally I'll improvise in the lower and medium register of my horn making a conscious effort to shape my sound. Starting my practice this way gets me into the right mindset from the get go.
2. At some point during my warm up I'll play a melodic overtone exercise like the bugle call in this post, or the first chorus of the main theme from Michael Brecker's Delta City Blues notated below. These more musical exercises help me be extra cognizant of sound sculpting while accomplishing my technical goals.
3. Depending on where you are in your development as part of your practice you might consider trying to imitate the sound of saxophone players you are drawn to. This will help you engage those sound shaping abilities with a very focused goal.

The overtone and register jumping make for a great workout.

This is a video of Brecker performing a solo version of the song. I've cued it up to where the theme begins.

I find that I sound my best as I both have the correct tools and make musical expression my goal throughout my practice. My understanding of the overall process of sound creation has evolved and refined over the past month, and this has been the last piece of the puzzle so to speak, at least for the moment. (If this is the first sound post of mine you have encountered, I would suggest also going over the posts I linked to in the beginning of this article and combining the information in them.)

Air Support: The Key to the Saxophone

Want to hear great air support?
Just go listen to Parker.

I recently made a significant realization about the saxophone. Tone quality, endurance, upper register, and articulation are all directly linked to air support.  Of course, we have all heard this or something similar before, but I didn't really understand how fantastically important it is until this past week when I changed my warm up routine. Instead of, while warming up, focusing on my embouchure or tongue position I've made air support my main focus, and I've been able to attain my best playing level with better consistency and efficiency than in the past.

Putting it in Practice

Following are some of the exercises I've been adapting and using to focus on air support. All of these can be expanded upon as well.

Exercise 1 - Get your Muscles Moving
This exercise is meant to get your air moving and your muscles warmed up. It's the same concept that athletes apply for their warm up. You start out by getting blood flowing to the muscle group you'll be using. Doing this first we'll make the exercises that follow easier.

• Start with some long tones in your medium register. 
• Also improvise or play melodies, but keep everything below the octave key. The reason why I preclude anything higher than the octave key is that the upper register is where most of us tend to start tightening up, and we want avoid that. While you do this focus on maintaining great tone quality through a deep focused air support. 
• Do this until you feel comfortable and established, or "warmed up" in this particular register.

Exercise 2 - Low Notes
The low notes are especially pertinent to air support because they require good air support even when playing softly.

• Play long low Bbs, Bs, Cs, C#s, and Ds.
• Practice bends on these notes. The first time you try to bend a low note you might find the pitch doesn't change or the note cuts out. With proper air support and a relaxed frown-type embouchure you will be able to bend these notes, possibly a half step down each. If you can't do a decent half step bend down on a note in your medium range, make sure you accomplish that first!

etc.

• Practice playing these notes very softly but still clearly with a relaxed embouchure. You'll hear the sound thin if your embouchure becomes tight due to lack of air support. A good test to see if your embouchure is relaxed enough is to add a little lip vibrato and see if it sounds clear and not distorted by embouchure pressure. Playing low notes quietly and clearly can be difficult to do, and I can often feel my lower abs engaging when I do it correctly. In fact the whole feeling of correct air support feels like I am blowing from the deepest place I can.
• Its also important to practice long tones with a straight tone free of any quavering.

Exercise 3 - Overtones

At this point were ready to start playing in our upper register, except we'll do this through overtones, as those are the most likely to promote good air support, embouchure, and oral cavity focus.

• Many of the various overtone exercises would be fine at this point, but my favorite, which can be found here, really focuses on air support. For those of you too lazy to click, it basically involves playing your overtones for a minute each, taking as many breaths as needed, starting from the bottom and working your way up.
• Other various overtone exercises can be found here.
• Also, very helpful is doing half step bends on overtones, just like on the low notes. It's really a great test of air support.
• Another overtone exercise I've been enjoying lately are scales made of successive overtones. For example, playing the F major scale using the overtones of the Bb scale as illustrated below. You can do this, of course, on other partials as well.

Normal note heads represent fingerings. Diamonds represent pitch.

• One last overtone exercise I've been working on is the slide. Once I'm sufficiently warmed up and in control of my air stream I'm able to slide up and down the upper partials of the overtone series while holding a single fundamental fingering. Sliding up takes some serious control of the air stream, and seems to be a good indicator that I'm using proper air support. Here is an mp3 clip of the slide: Overtone Slide.mp3 

Exercise 4 - Playing Actual Music

Give yourself a break and then start the final part of this process, which is playing actual music, whether it be written or improvisation. It only takes me a few minutes of playing at this point, still focusing on air support, to establish it throughout my playing, and I quickly reach my best tone quality throughout the range of the horn and range of dynamics, etc.

The Best Long Tone / Overtone Exercise

Last week I was inspired to start a new overtone exercise. It's fairly simple and straight forward, and it's been the most productive overtone exercise I've ever used. In less than one week I've gained better control of my horn of both the altissimo register and the normal register. I'm now able to much more easily reach the 4th octave Bb and I can slide through the upper partials of the series with greater control. I should also warn you that I had some fairly sore stomach muscles during the first few days, however I did continue doing it each day.

The Exercise

Play each overtone of the Bb overtone series including the fundamental (low Bb). Start on low Bb, play it for a minute taking as many breaths as needed, and then move up to the next and play it for a minute, and continue onward all the way up to the highest partial you can manage. I spend about 15 minutes doing this each day, which lets you know by the time I get to the top I'm pretty worn out and I don't have a minute of 4th octave Bb in me.

Most importantly, I try to make each note sound pleasant, but I've also incorporated other aspects into my long overtones like bends and vibrato.

For those of you who are wondering what an overtone is you should read some of my post on altissimo. Below is an approximate chart of the four octaves of the Bb overtone series:

Recording and Perception

Artistic beauty is difficult to pinpoint. Being extremely subjective, it can vary from one end of a spectrum to another depending on the individual. Beyond that the individual's vision and perception of beauty can be a changing measure. As musicians we listen for particular sounds that attract us, and the evolving musician, the active and seeking musician, learns to hear new facets of sound and expands or refines his or her personal definition of beauty in sound. An evolving perception of sound enables the musician to overcome barriers and enter new soundscapes previously unheard by that individual.

Just as the rest of art and music, the sound of the saxophone is interpreted differently by different listeners. No matter the interpretation an evolving perception of sound enables the saxophonist to reach beyond his or her current capacity. A beginner player is not capable of hearing the nuances in intonation or clarity of tone that a more experienced player hears, and for that reason the beginner more often plays out of tune or with a muddied sound. Hearing sound more deeply enables progression and evolution as saxophonists and musicians.

This is where my personal journey comes in. The times I have made the most progress as a saxophonist have been two time periods following being recorded professionally. Each time during the session I heard my sound on the recording more honestly than I'd been hearing it while playing, and each time I heard a defect or something about my sound I didn't like. From there I was able to hear and identify that quality while I was playing and begin to address it. I've been writing this blog for a year, and that has meant a year of regularly recording myself. During this time period I have had many of those sound realizations on a small scale, and all together they've made a huge difference. I've made strides in the clarity, control, and nuance of my sound.

I think it's important to point out that I didn't just listen more carefully. I identified the problem in the sound, and then experimented using my knowledge of saxophone technique gained through private study and masterclasses, through studying great players' sounds and approaches, through my own experimenting, and, significantly, through studying the knowledge that survived Joe Allard. The process has been trial and error in many respects, but it has been a continuous and definite progression forward.

Just as an illustration, following are two clips. The first is a recording made about a year ago when I first started the blog, and the second is from my most recent blog post. I'd also like to mention that these recordings were made on the same horn, mouthpiece, and brand of reed.

Early Recording     Recent Recording

Up Tempo Playing: Common Problems and Fixes

Charlie Parker, one of the best up tempo players

Today, I want to write about playing fast tempos. It's something I think most people enjoy hearing, and something we all work on at some point or other. Today's post is aimed at addressing a couple of common problems that manifest themselves more dramatically when saxophonists play at fast tempos. The fact is that when we play music that is more technically demanding it's easier for us to lose focus and we often do, so here are two of the major things you can easily lose sight of.

Tongue Position, Air Support & Playing Up Tempo

Tongue position and breath support are easy enough to let slip a little especially after you've been playing for a while. Simply being aware of your air support and tongue position can have a great overall effect on your playing. For those of you who are asking what this tongue position nonsense is, I'm talking about the position of the back of your tongue in the back of your mouth. That is part of what helps focus your air and therefore affects your sound and intonation. A low tongue position results in dead and often unsupported sound as well as low intonation problems. A high tongue position focuses your air, sends it faster through the saxophone, and results in a more vibrant sound, a generally supported sound, and less work for your embouchure. Here are two examples, the first with a low tongue position and the second with a higher tongue position (forgive the reediness of the reed).

Scale without proper tongue position.mp3    Scale with proper tongue position.mp3

The first has unsupported sounding messy intonation, and you can even hear the extra pressure my embouchure is giving to try to compensate in the extra edge, fuzziness, and more strained sound.  The second clip in contrast  has a more supported in tune sound, and the sound is freer and more relaxed as my embouchure is doing less work.

A great way to train your tongue position is through doing various overtone exercises. I also suggest experimenting with different tongue positions while recording yourself and see what you can figure out. As far as air support goes, it's widely known that good air support is required for a good sound even when playing softly.

Articulation, Time & Burning

Articulation can be problematic for several reasons. A major problem can present itself when our articulation interrupts our tongue position. Interrupting tongue position interrupts the focus of the air flow and then wreaks havoc on our sound.

Here is an exercise, allegedly suggested by Joe Allard. Play a nice loud low Bb. While sustaining the note tongue the note repeatedly, but tongue it with the lightest possible articulation. You should maintain a high volume while tonguing very lightly. I have found that this exercise trains my tongue to maintain a good position while articulating. I often use this as part of my warm up, and I find my articulated playing is immediately better afterwards.

Another common problem with up tempo playing and articulation is when a player doesn't articulate much at all. The result is often not fantastic time, and playing that is less rhythmically interesting due to total lack of accents. Accents add depth to the rhythmic palette and are a significant part in the up tempo playing of guys like Bird and Cannonball. Following are two examples. The first lacks articulation and the second includes it.

 Up tempo without articulation.mp3     Up tempo with articulation.mp3

Articulate!

Keeping a Loose Enough Embouchure

Coltrane's frowing embouchure
The frown is my embouchure of choice.

I often write about things I discover in my own practice, and today's post is the result of a few years of discovery as well as the result of some good advice from guys like George Garzone.

Symptoms

Embouchure problems come in many forms, and two of the most common are too tight and too loose. Symptoms of an overly loose embouchure include:

• Exaggerated inflections, sounds immature and uncontrolled
• Out of tune (often flat) and out of control sound
• Unsupported sounding, difficult to maintain an even tone

Symptoms of an overly tight embouchure include:

• Strained, tense sounding
• Can sound very edgy depending on lip position
• Inflections and vibrato don't sound clear or effortless (sound strained)
• Smaller sound

Chris Potter Sound Comparison

So that we have a clear idea of what I'm talking about check out the following clip of Chris Potter. Listen to how lipid and clear his sound is starting around 2:20. All his inflections sound very easy and his sound overall comes off as effortless (Not that he's not working! He just doesn't let it show.).

Train

Now check out Potter blowing on a different album. Listen to his solo starting around 3:50. This time you can hear many of the symptoms of the overly tight embouchure. The tone doesn't sound as effortless or as beautiful as the first example.
The Wheel

My point is just to illustrate the difference and to show that an overly tight embouchure can get the best of us (wrong reed, exhausted chops, etc.).

The Problem

The root of the problem is that a too tight embouchure is doing the job that your air support and tongue position should be doing (If you are wondering what I am talking about with tongue position you should read this post, here, which gives a number of voicing exercises in preparation for altissimo.) Other causes can include a too thick reed strength or chop fatigue. Even if you do have good breath support and tongue position an overly tight embouchure can be a pain to correct. Often your lip muscles won't respond nicely to your conscious command to chill out and relax. Once they are in the habit of being too tight they need more than conscious thought to convince them to relax. They need to feel that the work they are doing (keeping things in tune) will be carried out without them.

Your first job is to make sure you are doing overtones or other voicing exercises and playing with good air support. If you are doing these things than you are practicing good saxophone intonation habits and are ready to loosen up your embouchure.

The Loosening

This is a simple and painless process. Push your mouthpiece further in on your cork than normal. Now play along with an in tune sustained pitch like a tuner note. Keep a straight tone, good tongue position, and solid air support. At first you should be a little sharp (as long as you normally play in tune). Hold out the pitch evenly (no vibrato) and let yourself match the pitch. Don't slacken your air support or lower your tongue position. Let your lips gradually relax into your new intonation set point. Once you feel like your playing in tune experiment and see if your sound is more relaxed, easy to inflect, etc. It definitely should be. If not try pushing the mouthpiece in a little further and repeat the process.

After you feel like you've sufficiently loosened your embouchure play for a while and reintroduce the sustained reference pitch whenever you feel those overly tight embouchure symptoms creeping back in. This will reconfirm to your embouchure that it can remain sufficiently loose as your intonation will become sharp when they are too tight.

Doing this I'm able to maintain a sufficiently loose embouchure even with a reed that is a little too hard or out of whack. The basic function here is letting your lips relax by pushing in the mouthpiece and then giving yourself a reference point. Revisit this exercise any time you need and you should be able to maintain a sufficiently relaxed embouchure.

Altissimo Crash Course: Beginner through Advanced

Update 4/1/2014: New post on altissimo with additional insight, Easier Altissimo & the G-sharp Key.

Altissimo can be a fickle friend. I remember a few years ago at a Chris Potter masterclass someone asked something about how he had mastered his altissimo register. He replied that he just goes for it, that he wasn't even always confident it would come out, but he keeps going for it and working on it. Sometimes altissimo can be like that, a leap of faith, so today's post is designed to take some of the mystery out of it and give your confidence a boost as you explore the upper reaches of the saxophone. The article will explore low note overtones as an introduction to voicing (focusing your vocal tract), more advanced techniques and detail oriented work to help intermediate and advanced players improve their voicing control, and altissimo fingerings and exercise ideas.

First Steps

A great (challenging) altissimo method

The first step to unlocking the altissimo register, as most altissimo players will tell you, is learning to focus your airstream. Overtones are a fairly simple way of learning to focus your airstream using your vocal tract, back of your tongue, and air support. For those of you who aren't familiar with overtones, they are a series of higher pitches which can be coaxed out of a lower fundamental fingering. If you haven't tried this before you'll want to start by fingering a low note, low Bb for example (one of the easiest notes to produce overtones on), and making it sound an octave higher without pressing the octave key. It's very simple to do and you've probably already done it by accident. Try to do this by raising the back of your tongue, supporting your air using your stomach muscles, and narrowing the back of your throat. Try to avoid tightening your lips too much. You'll probably get a higher note on your first try.

Practicing overtones allows you to practice focusing the muscles in the back of your mouth that will eventually allow you to extend the range of the saxophone beyond high f or f#. They will also allow you to play your normal range with a fuller and more vibrant tone.

One of the first overtone exercises I give young students and one that I still do each day is as follows (as prescribed by Walt Weiskopf). You can apply this to any scale, but basically you play the overtone version and the normal version of each scale note. The basic idea is to be able to one, produce the overtone, and two, match the fullness of the overtone with your normal pitch. Here is what it looks like written out:

The circle whole note heads represent the fingering used and the diamond note head represents the desired pitch.  You'll notice that there are two different overtones that produce the higher Bb and we'll want to practice both of them.  Each note can last as long as you'd like, and I often play these notes very long and multiple times as I'm doing this exercise for a warm up.  Here is what it sounds like in a basic format without repeating any of the notes exactly as written above: Bb Overtone Scale.mp3

Intermediate and advanced players will want to tackle the above exercise with a couple other concepts in mind. You should be able to apply vibrato to each of the overtone without losing the overtone even slightly. The easier and clearer the vibrato sounds the better. You should also try to achieve perfectly clean entrances.  The clean entrances aren't always easy, and your ability to nail the overtone from its entrance might vary from day to day. With a little extra focus on your embouchure you should be able to clean the entrances up which results in more dependable control over overtones and altissimo.

All players should take the time time to extend the range of their overtones.  Play each one long and add some vibrato.  The easier and clearer the vibrato sounds the better. Here is the overtone series on low Bb written out through high F.  Many players run into difficulty after the 2nd octave Bb, and at this point it would be good to work hard at refining the overtones you are able to produce as well as experiment with overtones off of different fingerings. Again, all of these can be produced while holding a low Bb.

You'll soon find out that even though you can play up to high F or F# on your saxophone it might not be easy as pie to play that high F as an overtone using low Bb. Practice makes perfect. Some techniques that might help include playing and holding the regular fingering first and then switching to the regular fingering, or singing the desired note just before you attempt the overtone.  There are various tricks for getting the overtones to come out, which can be helpful. Many players feel satisfied by just being able to hit the overtone briefly, but they don't progress beyond that. Playing the overtones long is important as it refines your voicing ability through endurance and mental focus. Working towards consistently being able to hold out overtones will improve your overall control, and it will bring you closer to achieving other more difficult overtones.

Flexing Your Overtone Muscles

As your overtone range extends, and really even before that, its important to do flexibility exercises. The point of flexibility exercises is to increase your ability to jump between overtones in the series as well as clean up those jumps. As you learn to jump cleanly between the overtones your ability in your normal playing to jump cleanly from low notes to high notes will improve also.

There are many overtone flexibility exercises out there, and you should feel free to make them up or adapt others to your ability. Here is one based on a bugle call that I run through each day. Its all based on the low Bb fingering and requires you to be able to play Bb's overtones up through high F.

I used regular notation to clearly show the rhythm.  Each of these pitches are overtones produced while holding low Bb. You should practice starting each of these overtones with your airstream only and slurring as you descend from higher to lower, and you should practice tonguing each overtone as well. Either way the entrances should be clean. You could also play this exercise in the key of B, C, or C# by simply playing the same series of overtones off of those respective low notes.  I normally play this exercise slowly, so I can concentrate on the clarity of each overtone as I go.

Extending Into the Altissimo Register

If you've been able to get through a lot of the material up to this point you should start experimenting with the altissimo register. At this point we are ready for some altissimo fingerings. Why not skip the lower note overtones and start with the altissimo fingerings? Overtone practices ensures that you are developing good focus in your vocal tract while the altissimo fingerings are easier to cheat on and play with a tight embouchure and less vocal tract focus. The skills you learn working on overtones will allow you to go higher and get around easier than a too tight embouchure would ever facilitate or allow.

There are many altissimo fingering charts out on the web. Following are the fingerings I use on my Selmer Super Balanced Action tenor.  They've worked on most vintage tenors I've tried and many modern tenors. Every horn can be a little different, and you'll want to explore some of the various options out on the web.

Diagrams courtesy of the 'Fingering Diagram Builder' on Bret Pimental's woodwind blog.

I recycle the fingerings from Bb through D to continue upwards onto Eb through G.  Also, the first fingering in the chart, E, I use as a substitute for the regular palm key E fingering when I'm launching into the altissimo.  The normal palm key E most often has a fuller sound.

If one particular note is difficult feel free to skip it and find the next note up that is possible for you.  Don't get hung up on progressing chromatically.  Find the fingerings and pitches that work for you, and then work on refining those by playing them long, adding vibrato, doing bends, experimenting with articulation, etc. As you challenge yourself and gain more control on the notes you can get out the other more challenging notes will soon become possible.

One of the obvious things to do as you work on mastering these fingerings is to play your scales into the altissimo register. Make sure you start below the altissimo register so you also work on the transition between the normal fingerings to the altissimo fingerings. Advanced players will want to work on articulating scales and other exercises, patterns, and melodies in the altissimo register.

Eventually you'll be able to continue the overtone series into the altissimo register as well. Here is a more complete overtone series on Bb written up through 4th octave Bb.

The 8va indicates sounding an octave higher and the 15ma indicates sounding 2 octaves higher. Play each of these long. Be able to play them softly and clearly. Add a clear vibrato or even try some deep bends. Do your best to keep the sound clear and distortion free as you try out different things. Practice the entrances and get them clean as well. These overtones can be more difficult than the altissimo fingerings, but once achieved will help players continue to refine voicing control.

Putting it to Practice

Finally, for those of you looking for a way to continue developing your skills beyond this. Simply put, improvise up there. Set a lower limit, a lowest note, let's say 2nd ledger line C or palm key D, and don't go below that limit. Practice improvising lines that go over the transition and go as high as you'd like. Pick something easy at first like a blues or rhythm changes, and progress onward from there. I saw Chris Potter demonstrate this exercise on Giant Steps at the same masterclass I mentioned earlier. The sky is the limit. Here are a couple of my practice sessions. The first is a slightly simpler approach and the second is a somewhat more chromatic versions.

Ben Plays Altissimo Blues.mp3      Ben Plays More Altissimo Blues.mp3

Today I've also released my new recording, "Children at Play". If you've enjoyed the blog or my playing please take a moment to check it out here. The post has previews of the tracks, studio footage, and reviews from great sax players like Matt Marantz and Adam Larson. Thanks!