Saxophone Embouchure tutorial 5 mistakes

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I’m rather partial to the “Jazz” embouchre, it just feels more comfortable for me. But sometimes I switch to the classical one, just for a change 😊🎷

I’m a oboe player moving to tenor saxophone for highschool this year and I still am unsure how to form my embouchure and I have to do a lot of unwinding since oboe you need have to a very… different embouchure. Thank you for this :)

Excellent 🎉

I just signed up for course I just replaced my tenor and alto and my chops are shot. I don’t even know which emboucher playing rock and blues when younger I’d say closer to lip out as I naturally seem to have a bright sound. And volume has never been much of an issue for me playing on a size 6 dukoff. But biting to hard is def something to look at. Tenor still feels ok but alto has been not so good.

I do not play sax myself, but my son plays alto and soprano, but without doing embouchure-training in this way. I am not going to "goad" him into "bite"-embouchure, but I want to be able to help him suggesting some type of embouchure when he whines about the sax being "out of tune".

I'm a singer and a recording musician 'n I thought alto sax would be a fun, easy instrument to play and use on my blues recordings, so I rented one and thought I could figure out how to teach myself, but my chagrin, all I could get out of it was honks and squeals and somewhere around a raspy Eb I think. I couldn't get a single musical note out of it, or anything that sounded like a sax, and the lower keys would not work, pressing them made no difference at all. The upper keys only changed a couple of raspy off-pitch sounds, I tried and tried to no avail to figure out how to run a scale and I couldn't. Then I tried different reeds, at $32 a box. Yeah well there was some bull manure in how the sax instructor at the music store was booked up solid for months, so, I just gave up the sax, and from now on, I'll just use my Roland synthesizer keyboard sax, what DOES sound 95% the real thing. Oh and I tried to look up a teenage girl i knew who played sax, but she coldly refused to help me.

ive been looking online if anyone has used doubled lips style. I am a returning saxophone player and i play with my lips covering my teeth on both sides and i see no one talking about it. I'm not sure if i should keep doing this or not

I wish I had this tutorial back in 1967! The first 4 years I played sax I used a double embouchure (lips wrapped around top and bottom teeth). Nobody told me it was wrong until a summer clinician recognized it and had me correct it!

I’m halfway into your video, and you’ve not said ONE thing that I ever heard from Joe Allard. Of course Joe cited his great students AND those great players who never studied with him as examples of great successes and great playing. I’m coming from 40+ years of this whole thing…..what of what happens behind the teeth? Throat? Aural Cavity? This reminds me of all things mother england, not all things sax!

not gonna lie- that channel name sounds kinda familiar

👌

Brill, thanks so much.

I usually use the jazz style colourful playing. I like to show my real personality through my sax.

Now do it for the soprano.

Thx guys, I love your style and enjoy the fun the two of you have😄 Although I am still struggling with the embouchure, it shows opportunities to improve!

Hi there you guys, thank you for your very helpful video. I took up the soprano saxophone at Christmas as it was a present from my dear husband. One problem that I've been having which is very frustrating, is that no matter what strength reed I play with, the sound keeps going soggy as the reed gets waterlogged. Is that caused by embouchure or is there another reason? Other than that, I'm getting on quite well, bearing in mind that I've been teaching myself. I've been playing alto sax since 1982, so not new to playing. My upper register is improving though, after starting off being very difficult, sounding thin. I have been spending lots of time working on this. Your help and advice would be really appreciated please. Thank you very much.

Hi Nigel, I recently tried three different Jazz mouthpieces and with all three I could not stop squeaking above high G. With my inexpensive Yamaha 5C i can hit the upper register with never a squeak. Is there a different embouchure for Jazz mouthpieces? I returned the Jody Jazz Custom Dark and the D'Adario Marble. I now have a Meyer M which I still squeak with.

The biggest mistake I made was getting all my teeth extracted. Any advice on embouchure development? Thanks

I’ve just started I’ll keep in touch over the next few months with my progress and any thing I think you could help me with - finding your channel a great ❤

so nice

helpful video thank you, just starting and this is great

This is very useful i got a lot ❤️👍

I can get a sound and don't experience a problem when I play a D. But, I lack control on G below that. I either don't get a sound, or I more often get an upper register tone, instead of the expected G. Even if I attempt to recall the feel for the successful embouchure at the G, I end up fussing to try and find it again. That's why I found your video : )

I'm a beginner on Alto Sax, I use the classical embouchure, but I find it more natural to not use my top teeth on the mouth piece. I'm about 2.5 months into playing

Nigel and Joel, thank you for this teaching. I am new to the saxophone and trying desperately to learn and play it. I have an older sax (tenor) which was my uncle's sax. Don't know where he accumulated it from or if he was in the band while in school. For the most part it seems to be in good condition from what I can tell. Please keep up the good work.... I am learning:)

Never made it a habit to use the jazz version but I do like the feel better, I was also only ever taught the classical. I feel like you have to build up more of a callus for the classical though. After coming back to it after years of no practice the jazz is definitely easier on the bottom lip.

I notice I start with what I think is a good embouchure. However, as I fatigue, I notice my mouth transitions to a tight, smiling, embouchure. Suggestions?

I think I'm making about 20 mistakes 😥

I‘m still struggeling between the two versions of the embochure and I still didn’t find out the right positions.
Nevertheless your explanations will be very useful, thanks for these.

Hi Nigel, I just got started and the sounds I make on the saxaphone is terrible. 😅😅
Trying to correct the mistakes early on! Haha thank you for the free content! Love your channel! 🙏🏾❤️

Both (having come from clarinet) - and also something else for altissimo because I'm not good at altissimo!!

Very good, very usefull video as ussual!

I just realized now, after my 1st 3 months, i was taking too less mouthpiece, and too much bottom lip pressure. Thanks guys, I'll practice my scales now, and use that mm, by mm technique, find my sweet spot, then less pressure 👍🎷🎷

thanks for these very helpful talk but I have a problem
first thing first I am not a beginner i have been playing for a lot of time so
my problem is when I get to altissimo range or just high notes starting from palm keys I find out while I practice them or making technique exc that at some point I bitting my bottom lip to get this sound to come out especially when I get to altissimo so when I practice them for 15 to 20 minutes that I had some pain in my lip so if this normal to bit a little bit to get these high notes and altissimo? or we had not bit at all?

Excellent information!

I get a lot less squeaks with the Jazz embouchure. I was a trumpeter in Jazz band in public school.

I tend to get a strong sound if I don't touch the top of my mouthpiece with my upper teeth. But maybe that's because it prevents me from biting.

Use the classical embouchure. After 35 years on/off on the saxophone, I categorically disagree with Joel, the classical embouchure should be taught first (except edge cases).

I guess I’ll just stick with Legere!!!

Thank you! One of the best explanations and demonstrations of the difference between these two embouchures. I have been working toward a jazz embouchure for the past few months and your demo helped me get more clarification. Much appreciated!

That's a great video 📹 👍.
I am a brand new player of tenor saxophone 🎷 and I have never been able to play key of G.
I have begun to play key of C but even that doesn't sound soo good. (Not stable on a note). Please, I need a help.

i actually used such a big amount of lip that it hurt at lower teeth level :D good stuff there!

Thank you for a great tutorial on embouchure, I would have liked to hear you both playing at the same time, you Nigel one on standard embo and Joel playing his jazz embo, I could hear the difference when Joel gave an example but for my ear both at the same time would have helped me get a better picture. Nevertheless you guys are always great, thanks again.

I love this, I do like the Jazz style ....

So informative. Now I know why I struggle with the low notes especially on the tenor. Coming from a clarinet embochure training(classical embouchure) It is natural to apply that to sax playing.

Thanks for the great info. Do you have advice for trumpet players transitioning to sax? As a trumpet player for years but brand new to sax, I think sometimes, especially as I get tired, on sax I might pull the corners of my mouth back to hit higher notes (on trumpet that would be going from the "ta" sound shape to a "tee" sound shape). I don't want to get bad habits. Thank you.

What about used double lip I try to put my upper teeth on top and I don't like the way it sounds am I doing something wrong ???