It’s so frustrating when you just can’t get the sound that you want on your sax and you don’t know how to fix it.
Don’t worry because today I’m going to share the three things you can do to fix your saxophone sound and get back on track.
Stick around to the end because I’ll be sharing a secret bonus tip that helps me to get back on track, whatever sax I’m playing. It also helps my Sax School students. So whatever level you’re at, I think this would be useful for you.
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Hate your saxophone sound?
I’m having a bit of a nightmare today. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for me. I’ve been busy with lots of different projects. I’ve had Jody Espina from Jody Jazz here for a day and we’ve been filming. I’ve been testing lots of mouthpieces and doing lots of different musical projects.
And sometimes when I do that, I find that I lose focus on the sound that I’m trying to make on my sax. You see, I like to play in lots of different styles – it’s something we do with our thousands of students in Sax School too. It’s good to play in different styles because I think it’s good to be versatile, and it keeps things interesting.
But sometimes when you’re doing lots of different things you can lose the sound that you’re going for. And when you get to that point where you pick up your sax and you play something and it just doesn’t feel right – it’s so disappointing. Or maybe you listen back to a recording, and it’s just not there.
Staying Motivated
When that happens, it’s hard to keep yourself motivated. So it’s really important that you’ve got a strategy to fix your saxophone sound Because the most important thing is that you keep practicing, keep moving forward and keep loving the sound that’s coming out of this wonderful instrument that you’re playing.
Now, some of the resources I’m going to talk about today, you can get from our Sax School Locker. It’s entirely free. It’s the place where I keep all of the free stuff. So you can register for it here or go to the Courses page of Sax School.
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Fix Your Saxophone Sound Step #1: Find a Track
So what’s the first step to fix your saxophone sound?
Well, for me always, the very first step is to go and find a track, an artist, and a song that first inspired you. This is a massively inspirational song for you. Maybe it’s what first got you interested in this particular style of playing – or even got you interested in saxophone in general.
So find that track or song that connects with you. It should be something that, when you put it on, it makes your hair stand up and reminds you of how excited you were about playing saxophone. It’s got to be that powerful.
Now I’m always looking for inspiration from an artist that’s relevant to the style that I’m working on at the moment. Because we are always doing different things in Sax School. At the moment we’re focusing on pop music. It’s Pop Sax Month. So I’ve been making lots of lessons about pop sax, and I’ve been trying to work on that style, myself, just like our students. See? even the teachers are still working on style.
So I like lots of different saxophone players depending on the style I’m working on at the moment. So it might be Marshall Royal for big band playing, or it could be Cannonball Adderley for straight-ahead playing, or it could be Maceo Parker for that funk sound.
But for pop sax, I love David Sanborn.
And the track that I’ve chosen is actually from a classic 1986 album that David Sanborn recorded with Bob James called Double Vision, and the track is called Maputo.
This is a classic track. It inspires me, because that’s the sound that I always think of when I’m looking for the perfect pop sax sound.
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Fix Your Saxophone Sound Step #2: Choose a Phrase
The second step now is to take one little phrase from this track. Because we’re not going to waste a lot of time here learning the whole song.
We’re looking for fast inspiration. So we’re going to just look at one phrase. It could be one bar, or it could be one section of the melody. It could be one section from the solo. It could even be two notes. We’re just going to choose a little section that we can start to focus on, that will give us a boost and remind us of how wonderful this sound is.
So for me, there’s this one section in the second half of the melody that I wanted to focus on. Now you could do this by just playing it on YouTube Spotify or Apple Music or wherever, and listening back. Or you could use an app, like Amazing Slow Downer.
What I like to do, is to grab the track and pull it into a digital audio workstation (DAW) like a Logic Pro, because that lets me loop it. It also lets me do the next step, which we’re going to get to in a second.
So here we are in Logic Pro. I’ve pulled in the track and I’ve marked out the little section here that I want to listen to and copy.
So now that it’s in my digital audio workstation, I can start to transcribe it, by looking at just a few notes at a time and start to work out the notes.
So when we start the process of transcribing, this is really important. We’re looking at the notes, of course, and we’re looking at the rhythms. But more importantly than that, we’re looking at the intensity with which the artist attacks the notes.
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So I’m listening David Sanborn’s playing for these things:
- Tonguing
- Vibrato
- Bends or scoops, or decorations
- growls and falloffs.
All of these things help to give the sound its style. And the purpose of this little exercise is to try and internalise that.
Transcribe
So let’s go quickly through and have a listen, and see if we can identify some of the things that are going on with David Sanborn’s playing here.
Listen to the phrase as I talk you through it.
Even in that short section, he’s got those little scoops at the end of the phrase.
The way he plays the notes at end of the phrase is really important and adds loads of character to it.
So when he hits back up on that high D he’s got a growl in there. And David Sanborn does this thing where he lowers his bottom jaw and he overblows the sax to get that growly sound. You could do it by engaging your voice as well. But putting that little growl on that D just brings it to life.
In the next few notes, he’s also got that growl on that C.
Listen to the next few notes.
There’s so much energy and emotion in that playing. It’s got real assertiveness. His diaphragm’s engaged and he’s tonguing it hard.
Next there’s a big scoop – sounds great.
Things to Think About
So there are so many different things going on in there. I’m able to transcribe it pretty quick, but you can take as long as you need.
And that’s why it’s important to use a small section, because I don’t want the transcribing part to get in the way.
And you don’t need to write it down either. It’s really about listening and trying to copy.
When I go through this process, it reminds me “I need to have my embouchure more relaxed. I need to have a more open back of my throat. Maybe I need to rethink the mouthpiece I’m using.”
I’m using a Jody Jazz Jet for this exercise, whereas I’ve previously been playing on like the Custom Dark or the HR*. This is a brighter mouthpiece and it’s more in line with the style.
So all of these things I’m thinking about are leading me to make better decisions about my playing. And that in turn is keeping me more inspired.
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Fix Your Sound Step #3: Record & Compare
So the third, important step in the process is record yourself, playing that little segment, along with the original recording.
You could use GarageBand, or Logic Pro like I’m using. Or you could even just record it on your phone. Then listen back, and compare it to the original recording.
I like to use Logic Pro so I can record myself directly alongside the original track by David Sanborn, and then I can compare and see how it sounds. So let’s have a go at that and see how it sounds.
Okay, so it’s not perfect, but it’s a starting point. And the best thing about it is I’ve spent the last 10 minutes listening to this and thinking about all those little elements. And it’s made me make some adjustments to the way that I’m approaching the saxophone – physically but also mentally. I’m trying to capture that sound in my playing, and that’s inspiring to me.
Recap
So just to recap, these are the steps so far to fix your saxophone sound.
- Find a track that inspires you
- Choose a little section out of it
- Transcribe it using your ears and look at all the little details
- Record yourself playing along to try and capture that sound, and the essence of that style in your playing.
Fix Your Saxophone Sound Final Step
The really important final step in this process, is imagining that sound every single time you put your saxophone in your mouth. So for me, it’s a David Sanborn sound. But imagine that sound in your head, as you put the saxophone in your mouth and you start blowing. And I want you to conjure that sound as you’re playing.
This is a really important step. It sounds kind of airy-fairy. But what happens when we go through this process, is you will make loads of small adjustments internally that will help you to start to cultivate that sound in your own playing.
Now, it doesn’t matter what style it is that you’ve copied. Going through this visualisation process is important, from classical to jazz, to rock, to pop like this. It’s all the same process.
There’s one more really important step that I want to tell you about.
Fix Your Saxophone Sound: Bonus Tip
I hope that you found this useful and that you’ll follow through with this exercise. But there’s one more really important step that will help you with this process, i you’re feeling stuck with your playing. And that is to go right back to the basics and to work on some fundamental things.
Now, you know what I’m going to say. And you’re probably going to think, “oh no, Nigel, don’t tell me to do this.” But trust me, it’s super important.
You need to go back and revisit your long tones, or slow melodies, or work with your tuner and work on things like overtones even.
Resources for You
In Sax School, we’ve got tons of things that help our students to work on this. We’ve got Some great long-tone workouts, and some five-minute workouts that are really good fun.
But inside the Sax School Locker, which is free, there’s also some great stuff, too. Check out these:
- Five Long Tone Exercises That Aren’t Boring
- Nigel’s 20 Killer Warm-up Exercises
- How to Play Overtones on Saxophone
- How to Play Altissimo
All of these exercises give you a great chance to visualise that tone, and focus on it, while you’re working on something that isn’t mechanically complicated. You’re just thinking about long slow melodies and single tones. And that’s a great way to cultivate that tone.
The other things it will do for you is it’ll help you to build up your embouchure muscles. So you’ll think about your mouth position, your throat position, and your breathing, and all these things will add so much to your control of the saxophone.
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Final Thoughts
My goal today is to inspire you to pick up your saxophone, and dig out those recordings that inspired you, and get you back into playing music that you love. So when you listen back to your saxophone playing, you think, “yeah, that sounds great. I’m inspired by that and I feel really good about it.”
If you can get to that stage, you’re going to want to pick up your sax every single day.
And for me, the one wish that I’ve got for my thousands of students inside Sax School is that they want to pick up the saxophone every single day. And I hope you feel like that too.
Don’t forget to sign up for our Locker. Remember all this stuff’s free and I’ve spent so many hours making this stuff for you guys to help you to move your playing forward. Click the button above.
If you’re ready for the next step, go check out Sax School. We’ve got over a thousand lessons in there and a huge worldwide community that you can come and join in, and keep yourself motivated. Get started with Sax School
And of course, have fun with your saxophone!