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John Harle, THE SAXOPHONE (2017)

11K views 29 replies 15 participants last post by  reeddoubler 
#1 ·
A two-volume book by John Harle, entitled simply The Saxophone, either is about to be published or has just been published (reported dates differ). Although I have several classical CDs featuring Harle, and like some of his playing, I certainly don't consider myself a Harle superfan, but this work looks fascinating and provocative: http://www.johnharle.com/the-saxophone.htm. However, its U.S. price is ~$120 -- quite expensive for a relatively small tome (two volumes, but they are paperback-size, not coffee-table-size). Looks to be about half that price in dollars if ordered from the sax.co.uk website.

This may be too early, but has anyone here read this book? Seen a copy? Anyone planning to order it?
 
#2 ·
The Uk-Price is 48 Pound - about half of the price you mentioned. I like some of his recordings a lot (the Villa-Lobos Fantasia f.e.) and I'll think of ordering a copy for that price, but not for 120 Dollar!
 
#4 ·
I bought it from Book Depository for around 50 Euro, got it yesterday. Looks interesting and full of information I never saw anywhere else. Very nice layout, lots of nice color illustrations and exercises. Work for some years, I guess ...
 
#12 ·
I am a relative novice having taken up the alto sax just nine months ago. I started working through John Harle's books "The Saxophone" a month or so ago. It starts with a saxophone detox explaining the correct posture and relaxing the shoulders before playing. Then moves on to embouchure, emphasising the tongue high at the back to create a concentrated jet of air aimed directly at the reed with the airstream fed from the lower lungs. Harle advises around 3 weeks just to absorb these basics. He then moves on to describe how sound resonates in the nasal and liquid cavities of the skull. I am going with his recommendation to alter the neck of the alto sax so that the mouthpiece enters the mouth at a steeper angle. A leap of faith I know but I trust his method and believe it will make me a better player.

Harle's material in this book is very different to what I've learned from traditional lessons. He clearly has a lot of knowledge and experience with the saxophone and a deep understanding of how to use the body to get the best out of the instrument. The book is not a quick read. It requires study and patience but is very well presented with large text, photographs and colour diagrams. A very refreshing new look on playing the saxophone. I'm excited and looking forward to continuing reading this book and improving my playing.
 
#13 ·
I am going with his recommendation to alter the neck of the alto sax so that the mouthpiece enters the mouth at a steeper angle. A leap of faith I know but I trust his method and believe it will make me a better player.
What do you mean by "alter the neck"? Will you be tilting the horn to achieve a different mouthpiece angle, or are you going to physically bend the neck somehow? (I hope it's not the latter.)
 
#15 ·
The effectiveness of such a modification will depend heavily on the player's facial structure. What works for him in that regard will not work for everyone.

Consider also that many thousands of other players have been successful at developing their personal sound without such a radical change to the instrument.
 
#17 ·
I've only ever heard of removing material from certain spots in the neck to bring pitches down. I think I saw a music medic video where they take a customers alto who was having intonation issues and they go through this whole process of altering the neck and relacquering it (to make it look new again) to bring those pitches in tune.
 
#21 ·
I have a Buffet alto neck on which the "Harle" modification has been done (before I got it). I believe that the work was done by the late Bill Wrathall (a great sax tech who worked for many London professionals).

I think that the neck modification was done by removing the tenon and then cutting off an angled slice from the end of the neck tube. When the tenon is soldered back onto the tube, the angle of the neck has changed a bit (maybe ten degrees or so) and the mouthpiece goes into the mouth at a steeper angle. There is a slight change in neck volume, but not very much.

I find the change of angle really strange and I got another neck for my Buffet alto.

Rhys
 
#22 ·
Yes, it would have been done by Bill: I knew him quite well and had more than a few mouthpieces refaced by him when he still worked as a camera repair technician at the BBC.
Bill was quite outspoken to a few of the young players who came to him, at Michael White's shop in Ealing, asking for this modification, along the lines of "Clear off until you've learned how to play the instrument properly first!".
I don't think there is any harm in doing this modification as long as it is done by someone who really understands the acoustic implications, however I am undecided about the actual reason for doing it.

It is proposed by JH that making this mod helps to create a smoother passage for the air-stream, thus freeing the horn up. I think this could possibly be a misunderstanding, and that it is the uncovering of a larger amount of reed, the moving of the lower lip nearer the break point between mouthpiece and reed, and the added ability to manipulate that fulcrum which actually creates the difference in freedom of vibration (somewhat like clarinet technique).
However, this is academic because it is certainly more comfortable for classical alto to have the mouthpiece enter at a steeper angle, and better for your actual neck not to be pushed back by trying to do this with a conventional angle of alto sax neck. So, if it works for whatever reason: no harm, no foul.
 
#23 ·
I sent the neck of my alto sax to a technician for modification as described in JH's book. The technician advised that the modification would require the removal of all the gold lacquer on the neck and it would not be re-lacquered after. As much as I wanted to try the modification, I did not want to change the aesthetically pleasing look of my instrument by attaching an un-lacquered neck to a lacquered body. I therefore decided not to proceed and will keep my setup as is. I may consider this modification in the long term future once my playing ability and understanding have considerably improved and if I ever came to own an un-lacquered instrument. But for now, I'm sticking with the standard setup and concentrating on practicing and working on my sound.
 
#24 ·
I sent the neck of my alto sax to a technician for modification as described in JH's book. The technician advised that the modification would require the removal of all the gold lacquer on the neck and it would not be re-lacquered after. As much as I wanted to try the modification, I did not want to change the aesthetically pleasing look of my instrument by attaching an un-lacquered neck to a lacquered body.
I don't mean to be arguing in favor of the Harle modification, since as I've already stated, I think it's unnecessary, and won't be trying it myself. BUT if this is something in which you're interested as an acoustic experiment, you shouldn't let a lacquer issue stop you. Just because this tech won't relacquer your neck doesn't mean that someone else can't. Relacquering is not exactly an obscure art. Or, as already suggested in this thread, you can simply buy another neck and perform surgery on it instead of your horn's original neck. Unless your saxophone is some kind of rare bird, it shouldn't be too hard to locate a used neck that will fit at a reasonable price.
 
#28 ·
Altho I've tended to resist formal instruction on sax, the concept behind Harle's two-volume set sounds intriguing. I don't think anybody has ever been so relentlessly systematic or analytical as Harle, & rather than dismiss the book as irrelevant I'm inclined to think that somewhere in its depths might be an idea or technique I can use. Any player who is similarly curious can go to https://www.amazon.com/John-Harle-Saxophone/dp/0571539629#reader_0571539629 -- the "Look Inside" feature offers a generous sampling of pages, certainly enough to tell you if this book will resonate for you.
 
#29 ·
Chasing another aspect of the saxophone landscape, I ran into this, which has quite a lot more information than I recall seeing before about the author.

 
#30 ·
There was a clarinet/sax guru in Pittsburgh years ago named Henry Marconi, that preached modifying saxophone necks to increase the angle of the mouthpiece going into the mouth, and at least one player I knew back then followed his example. I thought then and now that it was kind of goofy, but it’s your sax if you want to alter it I suppose, it’s not for me though.
 
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