how much mouthpiece in mouth?

[dora]

hello, I have ordered the book 'Art of playing saxophone' but the book will take a few days to arrive. Meanwhile, I am anxious to make some progress. Can anyone tell me how much of the mouthpiece to put in mouth? I played the clarinet for several years before, I put less than 1/3 inside the mouth. Is this correct on the sax? Alto sax, yamaha v23. Currently I have a really bad basic mouthpiece, I will buy new one after I read the 'Art of playing sax' book. Thanks!

[gary]

Dora - as a general rule of thumb, put a reed on your mouthpiece and put a piece of paper between the reed and mpc, paying attention to where the paper stops, i.e. where the mpc and reed meet. Maybe mark your mpc, or put your thumb there, put a rubber band around it, whatever. That is the starting place for where your lip muscles should touch the mpc. You may need to make a fine adjustment with more or less but that's a good starting place.

If you aren't taking enough, your tone is likely to sound a bit small and not resonant; too much and you will have a hard time controlling your pitches and dynamics.

[Ruediger Kramer]

hello, I have ordered the book 'Art of playing saxophone' but the book will take a few days to arrive. Meanwhile, I am anxious to make some progress. Can anyone tell me how much of the mouthpiece to put in mouth? I played the clarinet for several years before, I put less than 1/3 inside the mouth. Is this correct on the sax? Alto sax, yamaha v23. Currently I have a really bad basic mouthpiece, I will buy new one after I read the 'Art of playing sax' book. Thanks!

you'll feel and hear if it is to much - it sounds tubby then. try it, read and look at that book...