In my article of March 14, I discussed the 3 aspects of a saxophone’s tone. Now while main tone, shadow tone, and overtones are all components of tone, where does a saxophone player’s tone actually come from? I was having this precise conversation with someone the other day, and was relating this concept of tonal origin to the quest for gear.
Our unique, individual sound originates in our chest cavities. Our internal shape, our lung capacity, and the breathing techniques we use: these are some of the key originating factors that will determine the sound that will eventually come out of our horns.
As the air travels through our throats, and through our oral cavity, those internal structures further effect the sound.¹ As the air leaves our mouth, our tongue, and what we do with it, our teeth and the shape of our bite, our lips, and the embouchure we use, all will—to a great degree—determine the sound we have.
The mouthpiece on a saxophone is what allows the player to project his/her tone through the horn itself. The reed further shapes and refines the tone that has travelled up through the player’s body, and allows the player to make more minute adjustments to his/her sound.
Illustration by: H. Kahlke
What is difficult for most players to get their head around, is that the further you get away from the origin of the tone, the less tinkering, or making changes to gear, is going to have an effect on your saxophone tone. In a way this difficulty in understanding or believing makes sense, since buying a piece of gear to fix a particular problem, or to change the type of sound emanating from your horn, seems like an easier fix than changing a fundamental way you play your instrument.
Sometimes players also just want to buy a new or different horn, so are looking for a reason to justify their purchase. Saying that they are wanting to change their sound, gives them a justification for buying that new horn. (In their minds anyway.)
For example, if a player wants a darker tone, oftentimes that player will look for a different horn. Or perhaps a horn with a different finish. (Let’s not even go there.)
Well, if we assume for a moment that by darker we mean more main tone presence, then trying different mouthpieces with a smaller tip opening and harder reeds, is going to net more satisfying results than buying a different sax.
If on the other hand, a player is looking to improve their overall tone, rather than going out and buying a $500 mouthpiece, a player needs to start by working on the fundamentals of good saxophone sound. And as boring as this might sound, doing long tones is one of the necessary steps to do this.
I do long tones religiously every time I practice. That’s how I start my practice session. I don’t do hours of them, I do them for about 5 minutes. That’s all it takes to keep my chops in good shape. And as much of a cliché as this might be: If I can’t do anything else, I do long tones.
BTW, if you play more than 1 type of sax, you need to do long tones for each of them. So if you play alto and bari, you should be doing long tones on each one of them—ideally everyday. If that doesn’t work for you, then at least do long tones on the sax before you play it. If you’ve already done long tones on the alto, and have put in an hour of practice, and are now switching to bari, you should do long tones on it, before you go on to the next part of your bari practice routine.
Bringing this conversation back to the question of gear, and when a player might consider switching it, the answer to that question depends on a great many variables—many more then could possibly be covered in an article like this. However, there are a few really good basic tips that could help a player make the decision to buy new gear:
- When what they have is broken. Eg: M/P tip cracked
- The gear is clearly not intended for the use. Eg: A classical mouthpiece for use in the rock band that just hired you.
- Want to move up from a student horn to an intermediate or pro-level horn.
- Work with your teacher. Don’t have one? Get one. Don’t rely solely on sax discussion boards for answers. While these boards can be a valuable source of info, and most of the people there are well intentioned, many times you don’t know who you’re talking to. It could be someone with less playing ability or experience than you have.
It would be impossible to deal with all the possible variables of saxophone tone in a few articles. This is really the realm of books, and private saxophone teachers. My goal with this series is to try to write few different articles that cover some of the big-picture aspects of saxophone tone, and recommend further resources where you can get more in-depth information.
There are 2 really valuable print resources that every saxophonist should have in their library. Both of these books will assist a player in developing their tone.
David Liebman’s, Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound, is a bit difficult to find in hard copy. I did manage to locate it through David Liebman’s website though. Just go to his Shop page, and follow the link on the order button. If by the time you read this, the hard copy is no longer available, check out the e-copy on Scribd.
The Art Of Saxophone Playing, by Larry Teal, is available through Amazon.com. This has been a bible for saxophone players for a number of decades now, and for good reason. If you haven’t read it, and you are serious about playing saxophone: buy the book. You won’t regret it. It is a very handy reference manual to have in your library.
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¹ For an in-depth discussion of exactly how the larynx and the vocal chords effect your sound, please read Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound, by David Liebman.
I always thought that a player’s physical characteristics largely determined the sound that comes out of the horn. Everything else has to be functional or there IS no sound, but the timbre comes from the player first, then the mouthpiece/reed setup, then the horn itself (which includes the neck, some may list this separately).
Because of this, I had come to the conclusion that my rather bland and uninteresting alto sound was all my fault. I didn’t even like listening to myself playing alto because of this. I have chased mouthpieces on alto far more than on anything else, tried more reeds, tried more ligatures. The differences were always fairly minor, and I despaired that I would never get the sound I thought I should have.
What started to change this was finding a tenor piece that really did it for me. I’m still a poor tenor player (I never learned to speak the peculiar dialect known as Tenorese), but I’m happy enough with my tone quality now that I have the Drake Contemporary. The Link STM was always close but not quite there, and attempts to modify the baffle made it closer but still not perfect (and made it chirpy). The Drake piece did it for me right out of the box, which completely surprised me. It’s a bit difficult to control at VERY soft volume levels, and it might tip over to an edgy sound with a bit less effort than some genres call for, but overall it’s amazingly close to what I was looking for.
Because I had made a purchase, and because I live nearby, I managed to secure a pass to NAMM 2010 from Aaron Drake. I went intending to just try out everything I could and report back, which is why I took a bag of mouthpieces. I wasn’t looking to buy anything unless it filled a hole in my lineup — like a curvy sop, or a ‘nino, or something like that. Aaron asked me to try some of his newer tenor designs because I already have one of his as a baseline. As noted, I’m not much of a tenor player, and said I wasn’t really in a position to make a judgement after about four mouthpieces. I said I was much better on alto, and we switched to testing alto pieces, using the metal Meyer 5J as a baseline. I noticed immediately that every piece he had me try was AT LEAST as good as the Meyer — and the Meyer was the best thing I had found up to that point! Around the third or fourth piece, I said “This one is special, don’t take it away. I want to use it as the new baseline.” That was a JAB Custom .075″. I played probably 10 more pieces, two of which sounded as good as the one I’d set aside, but neither was as comfortable. The JAB at .085″ would have been a good fit too, if I were willing to go reed hunting all over again. I no longer recall what the third option was.
Anyhow, I bought the JAB .075″. As you have already heard from my sound clips, it sounds very different from anything I’ve played before, and is much closer to the sound I have always felt I should have. More telling, I actually LIKE to listen to my own recordings now.
If you had asked me before that day if gear could be such a huge determining factor to my sound, I would have said no. Now that I have the piece in my hands and play it more than anything else, I have to admit that I was wrong. The right mouthpiece IS that important. That is not to say that everyone who is dissatisfied with their tone should shell out $400+ for a Drake Custom — but it was sure worth it for me!
Thanks for this great comment Mal. I think you’re giving another great example of when it makes sense to upgrade to a different mouthpiece.
In your case, you’ve already got the fundamentals of what goes into a good sound down, and presumably put them into practice. Therefore, you have moved to the mouthpiece part of the equation (or diagram if you’re following along with the visual I’ve provided in this post), and are changing your tone at almost the furthest point downstream from its origin that you can. Too bad for you that your tonal concept could only be realized once you played a $400+ mouthpiece. 😥
What you write about your alto sound is something I can completely relate to. Until about 10 years ago I was never happy with my alto tone. I was chasing pieces all over the place for it. Then finally Paul Coats suggested I try a Runyon Custom. I haven’t looked to any other piece since. It does it for me. I still have all my other pieces, and if I do need a screamer, I’ll drag out my Dukoff, or my Metalite, but for jazz (which is where I was having problems finding a good tone for) the Runyon Custom gets the job done each time. Oh, and yes, I do use the spoiler. I also use the Runyon Custom on my sopranos. (With the spoiler as well.)
I’ve sometimes wondered if it’s just coincidence that I use a Custom on my 2 weakest horns (soprano & alto), or if there is something about the Custom that makes them particularly well-suited to the task. Are they just easy blowing pieces, that allow for greater malleability in their sound, hence greater ability to reach one’s tonal concept? I don’t think so, since I didn’t have the same experience with the Custom tenor m/p I got at the same time. I was so frustrated with it, that I traded it with my friend Ray. He loves it, so it’s not the piece. Also, since I didn’t have a particularly good tonal concept for either alto or soprano–I am really am a large horn player–it’s not like the Runyon allowed me to tap into some great well of sound that was just waiting to be discovered.
One good thing though, luckily for me, my mouthpiece choices have always cost me <$200. (At least before taxes they have.)
It was a whole lot easier to pull the trigger and whip out the credit card when I had already played it first. I had no problems shelling out $160 for the production tenor Contemporary, even sight unseen, as that is well in line with metal Links and the like. $400 is another matter entirely. The fact that I was able to test a dozen or more pieces (unless he slipped a couple back to me to re-try, or lost track of what I’d already tried) helped me be secure in knowing that what I was buying was truly worth the cost. Now they’re $475 on the website, and I’d be even less likely to take the gamble. We’re getting into Theo Wanne pricing now — another maker whose pieces I would like to try, but cannot justify buying sight unseen.