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How to change my tone

5K views 16 replies 15 participants last post by  814jazzer 
#1 ·
I don't understand how to change my tone. I want to resonate, for example John Coltrane's sound, but also sound dark. I don't know if changing my embouchure or my throat or tongue position changes my sound. Can someone please help?

My Long tone practice and overtone practice consists of the rascher overtone series and 24 second count on every note of the tenor from low Bb to altissimo D.
 
#2 ·
Changing your embouchure, throat and tongue position will change your sound.

Immediate changes show immediate results. But to change your tone takes time. It takes lot's of proper practice and patience.

If you have a player you want to emulate all you need to do is listen to and play along with their recordings. It is a very hard task but time and time again said to be the most effective at improving your playing (and sound)

Even if the music is very challenging you can pick out some long notes and phrases and try and copy them to the best of your ability. Do it every day and you will start to notice improvements with time.

Overtones and Long tones are great. It is not however about how long you can hold the note. It's about the sound you produce. You need to listen while you do your long tones and make subtle changes.

I can not hold a low Bb for 24 seconds. No way. Never. If I was playing a yamaha 4c with a rico 2.5 I bet you I could. But I would not like the sound that was coming out and would probably throw it in the garbage.

All the best to you.

Play along to some Trane.
 
#3 ·
Overtones and Long tones are great. It is not however about how long you can hold the note. It's about the sound you produce. You need to listen while you do your long tones and make subtle changes.
This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
#4 ·
I developed a tone that I assuming is similar to what you are talking about and it took me so much in depth listening to players I adored and many hours of long tone practice.

As far as long tones go, you have to be very deliberate, trying to hear and produce the tone you want like the above two have already said. On top of that, do not forget that your embouchure is just part of the battle. How you control your air is so so so important. Make sure your air flow is controlled and even during every exercise you do. It makes no sense to any overtone exercise for ever how long a period of time if all you do is play till you run out of air, this will become habit and you will never learn how to stop notes properly. Phil Barone posted up an overtone exercise up on this website which is great. Also, playing and practicing ballads is a more engaging way to develop a strong tone and if you use a metronome with the practice, you can develop your rhythmic accuracy simultaneously.

The way I see it is that the first thing I mentioned is the most important, listening. I feel this is what creates a lot of frustration in individuals. You have to sit and dissect what you like about their tone and try to be very specific about what it is you like about there tone. This seeps in to your noggin and when you practice you can be my aware of specifics aspect of your tone if you practice being critical of others.

And have patience, developing a tone is one of the most challenging and ambiguous aspects of becoming a mature saxophonist.
 
#5 ·
You have to want to play like somebody you heard. Like they say, keep listening to the sound and style you want to emulate. You can't separate sound from style - they go hand in hand. Really, they're not separate at all - two facets of the same thing. There's no way anybody can tell you 'Do this to get that' except in the broadest sense. When you really want to get this, in time you will. The wild thing is, in the future your tastes will change and you'll chase other styles. Eventually they tend to merge, and suddenly people are listening to you!
 
#6 ·
I used to work with a tenor player in the Navy band who could alter his tone at will to sound like just about anybody. He was the tenor sax version of an impressionist. He could go from Dexter to Trane to Sonny to Gato Barbieri instantaneously. We used to have great fun just calling out various players names and listening to him copy their sounds. It was a gift not many of us possess. Funny thing was he was a great player in his own right but when he was just being himself his tone was somewhat generic. Pleasant enough but not all that special. He didn't seem to have much interest in sounding like anyone other than himself in his own playing. As others have mentioned it has a lot to do with who you listen to. I find that when I get on a kick of listening to a particular player over a period of time my tone tends to take on that player's characteristics to some degree. I will never sound exactly like Wilton Felder (who will?) but if I listen to him exclusively for several days I will begin to sound somewhat similar. OTOH, if I get on a Dexter kick I will begin to sound a lot like Dexter without really trying all that hard. I really just want to sound like me but certain characteristics of the people I listen to will creep into my playing in very subtle ways. I really could not name for you any particular famous tenor player that I would say I wanted to sound just like although I could name a few that I would rather not emulate. What I'm after is a tone that makes my own ear happy regardless of who else it might sound like. So much of tone production happens on an instinctive level once you get the fundamentals down. You can make subtle adjustments to the shape of your oral cavity and ever so slight adjustments to your embouchure but they have to be just that. Subtle adjustments. Too far in one direction or the other and you run the risk of developing bad habits that can adversely affect your intonation, control and your ability to maintain an even tone across the full range of the horn. Having found a mouthpiece that fits you and gives you the right combination of playability, control and overall tonal concept the biggest factor (beyond your own technique) that can affect your tonal concept is reed selection. I can take the same horn and the same mouthpiece and sound like two completely different players simply by switching from one brand of reed to another. All that being said, I think the best advice you've received so far is to keep up the long tones and listen very carefully to your tone. I would only add that I would concentrate less on sounding like Trane and more on sounding like the best you you can be. Some days I like my tone better than others. Today was one of the good days when I enjoyed just facing the wall, blowing long tones and getting off on the eargasm. When my ear gets everything it's asking for I really couldn't care less who I sound like.
 
#8 ·
So much of tone production happens on an instinctive level once you get the fundamentals down. You can make subtle adjustments to the shape of your oral cavity and ever so slight adjustments to your embouchure but they have to be just that. Subtle adjustments.
There's about the best answer you'll get to your question. No one can tell you exactly what to do with your airstream, embouchure, tongue, etc. And even those who have worked tirelessly for years to achieve a great tone will not know exactly what they are doing (with mouth, airstream, embouchure) to get that tone. A lot of it happens on a subconscious level. How you get there involves using your EAR and then making those subtle adjustments Jeff mentioned until your ear tells you the tone is there.

There are a few basic fundamentals such as filling the horn with air, keeping a relatively loose embouchure, allowing the reed to vibrate fully, not biting, etc. Beyond that no magic bullet or specific technique can be given for this, imo. You have to work it out yourself, using your ear.
 
#9 ·
The more you listen to John Coltrane, the more you'll internalize what he sounds like. The more you internalize what he sounds like, the easier it will be for you to sound like him.

I spent half a year two years ago with my private teacher exclusively transcribing and studying all of Trane's solos from Blue Train. Not just the written music, but the sound, the articulation, the phrasing, the feel. It was a huge eye opener. I'm not saying you have to transcribe an entire record like I did, but definitely take some time and get to know just one Coltrane record. Listen to it so much that you accidentally memorize it.
 
#11 ·
Just listen, listen, listen and practice, practice, practice (overtones, other tone builders and the never ending plethora of other exercises we should all be doing).

It will happen naturally. The more you try to change something or force it, the less it will work.
 
#13 ·
The body follows the mind.
 
#17 ·
Absolutely. And, to elaborate a little with an archery analogy

You need to aim for a specific target or you have no prayer of hitting it. So, quite simply, imagine the sound you want to produce as fully as possible. Then try to produce it. If your aural vision is strong, the body WILL follow and, over time, make changes to get you towards that target.

In other words, don't overthink it: Put on a record and try to imitate what you hear.

Good luck,
~ Rick
 
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