Klarinet Archive - Posting 000552.txt from 2003/02

From: Elgenubi@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Quick query on the soprano sax
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:51:53 -0500

Bill,
There are many sax doublers on this list, so it seems unlikely a sax
beginner like me could offer something, but here goes anyway. Of course make
sure your instrument is mechanically OK, as already suggested. Trouble with
the low notes is absolutely characteristic of a clarinetist learning sax.
The clarinet resistance is somehow even over it's range, and a sax seems to
me to be 'fatter' and less resistant at the bottom. I read in an old issue
of Woodwind Magazine a sax advice column that said that a basic sax exercise
was this: to play long tones on the bottom Bb or B or C. And then to play
long tones on the octave above without using the octave key. And then play
long tones on the 5th above that, again without the octave key. I believe
the writer suggested even playing the next octave the same way, but that was
way too much for me. I found that as I did this, I felt my embouchure, for
each range, somehow 'aiming' at a different place somewhere in front of the
mouthpiece. I guess this was my tongue and mouth doing what needed to be
done. The exercise was an 'ah hah' moment. "So that is the difference
between sax and clarinet!" It teaches you, by feel, what the sax needs at
the bottom and at higher registers. You can't do the same thing in the same
way on a clarinet.
Combined with the other advice on here, if I've said this well enough,
I'm sure this will help.

Wayne Thompson

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