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Shaping oral cavity...

3K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  dowvid 
#1 ·
Hi
I always played saxes with cheeks fairly "glued" to my jaws. My classical teacher (loooong way, 1976) always told me to do so, to keep cheeks "tight".
I saw Dizzy on trumpets with rounded cheeks, and many jazz saxo players too. But I continued to play the way I was doing until this week. I'm trying to improve my sound and embouchure since I'm on SOTW. I see and read everywhere that I have to "voice" and to manage my oral cavity depending on the register I play.
I know it's all about the larynx, get an opened throat and all.
But I'd like to know if you do manage some kind of "air cushion" in between your lower jaw and your cheek when you play.
To me, it sounded like a more easier way to sculpt my oral cavity, and lower notes were easier to do and in a more related sound concept with higher ones (even if my alto leaks a little on E key) .
I really don't know if it's a good way to go, I've just tried it since monday PM. I recorded some notes, and I am on my way to listen to it.
Going to see with my coach friday, but what do you think of it ?
Thanks
 
#2 ·
No. According to the instructors on a course in breathing awareness for wind musicians, which I took last fall, the puffed out cheeks is a consequence of uncorrect breathing. Dizzy was mentioned as a specially bad example. How to breathe correctly is too long a story to mention here. Your teacher should take care of that.
The secure way to learn to manage your oral cavity while you play, is to study meticulously pages 6 to 10 of Sigurd Rascher's "Top Tones for the saxophone". After spending a couple of months on these, then take the overtone exercises, just the first two, three pages. These exercises are constructed to teach you the unconscious management of your oral cavity, (and puffed out cheeks are not part of that). You don't have to learn altissimo fingerings at all to benefit from this fabulous book.
 
#3 ·
No. I went through weeks of micro-training with a mirror to stop my cheek puffing when I was on trumpet. It's generally considered a bad idea by most teachers. I would recommend against puffy cheeks for any wind player. What Diz had was also considered a medical condition.


Turtle
 
#5 ·
I've always felt like puffing your cheeks dilutes the focus and strength of your tone. If I blow into my hand with my cheeks puffed the air stream seams spread and sloppy. With my cheeks tight against my teeth the air stream seems focused and precise. I have had many younger students start out with puffed cheeks and they all had horrible tone and intonation. They all improved immensely by changing. That said, a player can learn to sound great even if they play different or "wrong". Dizzy is a great example. There might be sax players on here that play with puffed cheeks and sound great. In general though, I don't think it is a good idea for most students.
 
#6 ·
I'm glad I grew up before the 'information age'. If I had been concerned with things like 'shaping my oral cavity' instead of just learning how to sound like the great players of the day on my own, I never would have become a sax player. And to this day, I have no idea what I'm instinctively doing to shape sounds. And I don't want to know. What I do works and that's all that matters. No wonder all of today's sax players sound alike - they all learn from the same sources, studying things like 'oral cavity shape control'. Are you kidding me?
 
#8 ·
It's also (as 1saxman was indicating) a great way to make changes in your tone. I get to futz around with different styles of music in my day gig and sometimes I use the sax. Almost all the time I at least play it (the sax) over the track even if I don't use it because I'm really loving playing sax these days. I find a more open oral cavity considerably darkens the tone for me. It may well be different for other players, but variations in oral cavity embouchure cause huge tone differences for me. If you are already proficient, there's certainly no harm in trying out new stuff... I say go for it and see what happens
 
#10 ·
For sure. But for me that's just a part of playing music. And by proxy playing the saxophone. You're not going to play Dixie the same as rock (even using the same set up) so how do you get a more appropriate sound? Well you gotta move your face and mouth and throat around a little until you find it.

I use one reed/mouthpiece set up for everything. I guess my face gets a pretty good weekly work out.
 
#11 ·
To 1saxman amen amen amen!!! I listen and its like cats are talking about a science project! I heard a teacher say, Play....I wanna hear you play! I ask
does it sound good? That's all a listener cares about! & yes most of the cats sound the same! Good players.....but sound the same.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#12 ·
For sure, listeners just want to have fun ang good sounding saxos. I play sax since I'm 15, now 59, so I can make my sax sounds good. But I can do more. I can sound the best I can, if I work on my tone projection and sound production. And I can hear the difference when I shape my oral cavity differently. It's not just keep playing, it's looking for more, better sounding, better playing, better understanding.
I always did research for better sounding and accurate tone. But I did not have all the resources available now with technology.
Nowadays, I'm working on that optimal tone production, and it's not easy. I don't always succeed, just trying since a couple of months. But I know I'm on the way, I hear it and my new coach hear it too.
What's good with music is that it's never ended. Always something to work on, something new to learn.
And why not scientific notions in sax playing ? You saw the vids taken with a camera mounted on a mouthpiece ? Tongue placement, throat opening, it's all real, not SF.
 
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