{"id":19102,"date":"2010-05-08T10:41:51","date_gmt":"2010-05-08T17:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=19102"},"modified":"2021-02-28T10:34:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T12:34:50","slug":"don-menza-demonstrates-how-tone-is-really-more-of-an-attitude-adjustment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2010\/don-menza-demonstrates-how-tone-is-really-more-of-an-attitude-adjustment\/","title":{"rendered":"Don Menza Demonstrates How Tone Is Really More Of An “Attitude” Adjustment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, a member on the Woodwind Forum<\/a>, repair tech jbtsax from Springville, Utah, provided a link to an excellent video that demonstrates how a player’s set-up really is secondary to achieving tone. In this promotional video for Cannonball saxophones, renowned saxophonist Don Menza, plays a Cannonball Vintage Tenor with the “Brute” finish and Lady Godiva engraving (just in case you were interested).<\/p>\n

The point of the video is tone, and throughout Menza discusses tone in detail. He talks about how a player’s embouchure, jaw, and throat positions can change the sound of the horn.<\/p>\n

Without changing his set-up, Menza demonstrates a wide variety of different tones that the great saxophone players of the past had\u2014players such as: Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, and Stan Getz with his signature full-horn subtone.<\/p>\n

The different tones that Menza manages to obtain through controlling his embouchure, jaw, and throat, are simply amazing. It really should make players who are constantly in pursuit of gear in a effort to obtain the sound<\/em>, sit back for a moment and think.<\/p>\n