alaphone
09-01-2005, 03:16 AM
As a total beginner, I have been trying a few off the wall ideas to try and improve my tone.
First off - I had a reed that really seemed bad. It squeaked way more than the others. I absolutely could not play the full range of the instrument. The tone quality was very poor and very unstable through the registers. I had graded it as a “D minus” reed, but I kind of thought that the reed might be a little too hard for me (often the case with beginners right?). So I got out my Dremel tool and cut a “V” shaped trough in the vamp just where it meets the bark (shoulder I think it is called). The point of the “V” was toward the butt of the reed and the opening was toward the tip. The “V” was about 1.5 mm deep at its deepest point which was at the point of the “V” and it tapered to the surface of the reed at the rails.
There actually was some physics logic behind this maneuver, but I won’t bother with that for now. Suffice it to say that I have tested a grand total of 10 reeds in my entire 2 month career. Out of those I have only found two reeds that I graded as high as an “A minus” (no perfect reeds yet) and this modified reed is now one of the two “A minus” reeds. While this is only one reed, I intend to employ this technique on all future “D" and “F” reeds.
Secondly I was trying to find a way to "open my throat" and I thought of "The Sniffing Position”. For those of you familiar with intubation you will catch on immediately. When one attempts to place a tube through someone’s mouth and into their lungs, you need to position the person in such a way so as to put the mouth, oral cavity, larynx and trachea in as straight a line as possible. Obviously you can not line it all up perfectly but you can improve the path significantly by putting the person in what is called “the sniffing position”. If you picture someone who is attempting to smell a flower that is maybe just a little too far away from them, then you will get an image. The head is moved forward relative to the shoulders but it is not really tipped back. The angle between the neck and the jaw has changed as if the head were tilted back but in fact the real movement here was to move the entire head forward. If you picture a pigeon walking you will note that it moves its head forward and back as it strolls along. If you freeze the pigeon in the position where it head is most far forward then you will have an approximation of “the sniffing position”. Now if you just tip the head ever so slightly backward and thrust the jaw forward you will bring all the anatomy into a fair alignment – as straight a shot as is possible to the lungs.
So I tried playing the sax while in this position. First off it is not very comfortable and it is certainly bad posture. But it did affect the tone in a positive way and it did create an interesting sensation in my airway. Perhaps doing this a few times may help me to get the feel of opening things up without looking like a pigeon on the go.
kurt
First off - I had a reed that really seemed bad. It squeaked way more than the others. I absolutely could not play the full range of the instrument. The tone quality was very poor and very unstable through the registers. I had graded it as a “D minus” reed, but I kind of thought that the reed might be a little too hard for me (often the case with beginners right?). So I got out my Dremel tool and cut a “V” shaped trough in the vamp just where it meets the bark (shoulder I think it is called). The point of the “V” was toward the butt of the reed and the opening was toward the tip. The “V” was about 1.5 mm deep at its deepest point which was at the point of the “V” and it tapered to the surface of the reed at the rails.
There actually was some physics logic behind this maneuver, but I won’t bother with that for now. Suffice it to say that I have tested a grand total of 10 reeds in my entire 2 month career. Out of those I have only found two reeds that I graded as high as an “A minus” (no perfect reeds yet) and this modified reed is now one of the two “A minus” reeds. While this is only one reed, I intend to employ this technique on all future “D" and “F” reeds.
Secondly I was trying to find a way to "open my throat" and I thought of "The Sniffing Position”. For those of you familiar with intubation you will catch on immediately. When one attempts to place a tube through someone’s mouth and into their lungs, you need to position the person in such a way so as to put the mouth, oral cavity, larynx and trachea in as straight a line as possible. Obviously you can not line it all up perfectly but you can improve the path significantly by putting the person in what is called “the sniffing position”. If you picture someone who is attempting to smell a flower that is maybe just a little too far away from them, then you will get an image. The head is moved forward relative to the shoulders but it is not really tipped back. The angle between the neck and the jaw has changed as if the head were tilted back but in fact the real movement here was to move the entire head forward. If you picture a pigeon walking you will note that it moves its head forward and back as it strolls along. If you freeze the pigeon in the position where it head is most far forward then you will have an approximation of “the sniffing position”. Now if you just tip the head ever so slightly backward and thrust the jaw forward you will bring all the anatomy into a fair alignment – as straight a shot as is possible to the lungs.
So I tried playing the sax while in this position. First off it is not very comfortable and it is certainly bad posture. But it did affect the tone in a positive way and it did create an interesting sensation in my airway. Perhaps doing this a few times may help me to get the feel of opening things up without looking like a pigeon on the go.
kurt