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Embouchure, Overtones and General Improvement

2K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  littlewailer 
#1 ·
Hey all,

I am a Bari sax player and recently I have wanted to really improve my playing because I would like to join some form of band. I am still in college and not a music major. Within the past couple weeks I have started reading up and trying some overtone practice. This has gotten me to realize I have no idea how to control my throat (other than bending the pitch down but even this is limited) or the back of my tongue to control airflow. I also realized that I have made the bad habit of slightly tightening my embouchure to get high notes to come out better a subconscious bad habit and I would like to get rid of that habit. Plus, to add on to bad habits, I have found myself biting to keep lip pressure from my bottom lip.

I have done a lot of reading on correct embouchure and such and I am trying to follow it but i don't know if I am accidentally building other bad habits just to fix the bad habits listed above.

Any help or direction on this will be appriciated.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
I'm sure you will get some good advice from the forum. As far as biting, if you are aware of it, (you are), you must ease up, keep practicing, particularly long tones and think about the lip and cheek muscles as you concentrate on not biting. Be patient.
 
#3 ·
Sounds like you're on the right track with the overtone practice. I remember having the same type of problem and I'm sure many of the members here can relate to what you're going through as well. I found that practicing on my mouthpiece only (scales, thirds, ect.) and matching overtones to the regular fingerings helped me immensely. These exercises seem to put everything in the right place, embouchure wise. Best of luck!
 
#5 ·
matching overtones to the regular fingerings helped me immensely. These exercises seem to put everything in the right place, embouchure wise.
That's what did the trick for me too. Use a tuner to check that both are in tune.

I also learned to sing mid C, B and Bb (the way they sound when playing them on the bari) and then tried to keep my throat fixed in that position before playing the low C, B and Bb on my bari. They should come out as mid C, B and Bb without applying any extra pressure on your embouchure as compared to playing the regular low C, B and Bb.
 
#4 ·
For me...the one small addition that I think has improved my tone production in all these areas the most was extending the overtone practice to include using higher notes on the horn as "fundamentals" (this might be the wrong word).

Basically, this means playing the basic overtone series [Fundamental to next Octave to Fifth above that] starting on D through Bb. When I can hit those fifths using airstream alone with good control over volume and intonation, I feel like I am really doing it right.

I also think Ben Britton's idea of combining overtones with longtones is a good one.
 
#6 ·
This video is the single greatest workout for tone, tuning and general sound production I have come across. Mostly this work out will help you with "air economy" and showing you how easy it should be to play your even lowest and highest notes.

I really try and start this exercise with my first note (Bb) starting from air and then working into the note. And then moving up to the next note while still doing a rise in volume, until the loudest point where you start to come back down in volume and then switch back to your low Bb before you run out of air.

By doing it with the crescendo - decrecsendo on each Low Bb and subsequent note you really find out where your air is and how you need to move it through the horn.

And you can do it with a tuner! :)

 
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