Before a student plays a note, we talk about what to buy. Then they learn to put the instrument together. Then — and this is the whole of the first week — they learn position.
Position is three things: posture, hand position, and embouchure.
Posture. Stand as if you were at military attention. Chest out, stomach in, looking straight ahead, chin slightly down. And then relax the entire body. That sounds like it contradicts the instruction before it. It doesn’t. The frame is upright; everything hanging inside it is loose.
Hand position. Every joint in both hands is rounded — no straight fingers anywhere.
- The tips of the fingers sit in the center of the mother-of-pearl that covers the tops of the main keys.
- The pinkies of both hands are rounded, not straight out. This is the one most beginners get wrong.
As for working the keys, there are only two possibilities: you are pushing, or you are not. There is no in-between and no “how hard.” Use the minimum pressure needed to close the leather pad against the metal tone hole. Nothing more.
Embouchure is a French word for how you place your teeth, lips and mouth around the end of the mouthpiece.
Rule number one, and it stays rule number one forever: stay relaxed.
- Teeth perpendicular — upper and lower teeth even with each other.
- A very small amount of lower lip over the bottom teeth, and in front of them.
- Say the letter “M”, the way a flute or trumpet player would, to keep the muscle of the lip flat against the bottom teeth.
- The upper teeth touch the mouthpiece very lightly. Many players put a rubber patch on top — it deadens the buzz, and it keeps the upper teeth in one fixed place. Without it, young players drift. I did.
- The amount of mouthpiece in your mouth is deceptively tiny. Look at the mouthpiece from the side and find the point where the gap between the reed and the mouthpiece closes. Your teeth sit at about the middle of that distance.
- Then simply close, very gently, and smile. Gently.
A word about the reed. Hold one up to the light and you can see the fibre, and a curve through the middle of it. That curve is the heart of the reed. When the reed is on the mouthpiece, you do not want pressure on the heart.
What actually makes the sound. The reed vibrates at the tip, and that vibration carries back through the whole reed to the butt. That is the genesis of the sound on every reed instrument. So in order of importance for producing a good sound: the reed first, the mouthpiece second, the saxophone third.
But say that, and then be honest about the other thing: getting a great saxophone is one of the most important goals a serious young player has. Buy the best instrument you can possibly afford, and play with musicians who are better than you.
For saxophone that usually means a Selmer. A player who doesn’t have one is, in practice, treated as not serious — which isn’t fair to the other great makers. Yanagisawa and Yamaha build superb instruments, and the best student model is a Yamaha. But almost every major saxophonist in the modern history of the instrument has played Selmer, and that history is impossible to walk away from. I am a Selmer artist, so take that as the bias it is.
On mouthpieces: for a beginner I think the Selmer Concept is simply unbeatable. I don’t recommend it for a beginner in jazz — but for a jazz player five or six years in, a Vandoren V16 is a very good choice.
Maintenance, and the pop. Clean the pads with a Q-tip and a very little water — preferably a wooden one. Barely damp. Moisture on the tip, no more, and done with great care.
Doing this regularly will lengthen the life of the pads by years. It also solves a sticky saxophone, and it will dramatically reduce the resistance of the instrument, which is a serious concern. A saxophone has to have a permanent seal to work. It really has to be popping. One of the great pleasures of playing this instrument is closing the tone holes and hearing that pop — because that sound means your saxophone is working.
Week one. Posture, hand position, embouchure — and nothing but air. They blow air into the instrument, no notes. I teach the left-hand fingerings for G, A and B: G is the first three fingers closed, A is the first two, B is the first one. They go home and work on position, and on blowing air.
Week two. More notes. More of the same. By now there is a sound.
Week three. They should know every note on the instrument. Now we start the articulation exercise.
That exercise is called the Milestone, because getting past week three with every note speaking is exactly that. In that moment you can get all the notes to speak and you have a good position — and you can call yourself a saxophonist.
