Help on mouthpiece exercise!!!

[Chris04]

Hi, I've been playing for about 2 and a half years now, and I'm trying to do the mouthpiece exercise where you play just the mouthpiece and try to get it in tune with a concert G (for tenor). Anyway, I'm finding it much more difficult than I expected to get any sound at all out of the mouthpiece. When I do, the note is usually a G# (actually about 10-20 cents sharper than G#) and no matter how I adjust my embouchre (sp?) I can't get a solid, steady G. When I put the neck on with the mpc, there's MUCH less resistance, and even less with the whole sax. Is this normal? If not, what do I need to change (mpc, reeds, embouchre, etc)? Thanks for the comments!

BTW, I'm playing a Bundy mpc (no markings as to tip opening, although it's either 0.074", 0.076", or 0.080" ) with Rico Royal 3's and a standard 2-screw brass ligature. Also, I play with my teeth resting about 1/3 the way up the beak of the mpc.

[Paul Coats]

Experiment with slightly changing the amount of mouthpiece you have in your mouth. Also, what about the position of your tongue? Is it flat in your mouth, as if saying ahhhh, or arched up as if saying eh or eee? The latter can make your mouthpiece pitch too high.

The fact that you are getting G# instead of G on the tenor mouthpiece indicates a problem, which is probably seen with difficutly playing the low register, and a harsh tone.

Continue to work with this. When you get the mouthpiece working efficiently, with the correct pitch, you will find that your playing will improve.

[Chris04]

I've tried changing the amount of mpc (probably too extremely though), but the tongue thing is probably my problem, I'll have to try and note where my tongue is next time I practice. My low register playing is pretty good (not perfect by any means), and my tone isn't very harsh except the G on the space above the treble clef (G2 I guess), which has the tendency to pop up to what sounds like a D. The more I think about it, the more my tongue seems to be the problem. I'll work on that and let you know if it helps. Thanks!

[colibri]

The mouthpiece exercise gets you in the ball park of how much pressure you have to apply to the reed. If you're playing with a real big jazz sound, it's normal to have about a semitone flat.