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by Siregbert57
(1 post)
5 years ago

Frustrated with my own playing

Hi, new to this forum because I want to experience more overall problems with my saxophone playing. I play on a Yamaha YAS-23 Alto Saxophone and I feel like I have made a very wrong approach to my embouchure which has completely duped me for over these 2 years, I find my tone is extremely airy and I also struggle with my lows. But something I do not understand is the fact that when I play with others in school band I do perfectly fine and everything is a breeze but the minute I play alone either to practice my music or to try and have some fun with play alongs everything I learnt completely goes out the window. I have recently dug into some more research and i've found playing on a Berg Larsen Tenor Saxophone mouthpiece is much improving my overall tone *atleast as much as a tenor sax mouthpiece can on an alto sax*. The current mouthpiece used with my Alto is the standard 4C. Would this be a considerable time to upgrade? I find my sax just gets harder and harder to play with each coming practice. 


Cheers! 

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  2. by GFC
    (842 posts)
    5 years ago

    Re: Frustrated with my own playing

    Your situation sounds very similar to that of others learning saxophone in school music programs.  Is that where you learned the basics?  It is very common for school woodwind instructors to teach saxophone embouchure like clarinet embouchure, with the lower lip tucked over the teeth.  That is the wrong way, and students who have not managed to get beyond it tend to hit a wall.  

    If you are not in a position to work with a private instructor to overcome your embouchure and tone production problems, the suggestions I provided to Bloo42 in a post below might be helpful.

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