Saxophone Embouchure | Classical vs Jazz
Summary
TLDRSaxophonist Dr. Wally Wallace discusses differences between classical and jazz saxophone embouchure. He teaches the Larry Teal method of resting teeth on mouthpiece, cushioning reed with soft lip, and focusing corners, allowing flexible tone. For jazz, embouchure relaxes more with ah/e syllables brightening sound. Voicing shapes embouchure and throat changes naturally. Qualified teacher essential for adjustments. Tips: mark reed/mouthpiece meet point to gauge mouth position; dental pads relieve lip pressure. Big announcement next video.
Takeaways
- 🎷 La embocadura del saxofón varía ligeramente entre el jazz y la clásica, pero ambas pueden ser versátiles con pequeñas modificaciones.
- 🎓 Dr. Wally Wallace enseña la embocadura basada en Larry Teal, promoviendo una técnica sólida y versátil para ambos estilos.
- 👥 Existen debates intensos entre los saxofonistas sobre las técnicas de embocadura, particularmente entre los seguidores de Larry Teal y Joe Allard.
- 📚 La técnica de embocadura se enseña en tres partes funcionales: descansar, amortiguar y enfocar.
- 🛠️ Usar una almohadilla en la boquilla puede aumentar la comodidad y evitar morder demasiado fuerte.
- 🔊 La modificación del sonido en jazz y clásico se logra ajustando la embocadura y la posición de la lengua, influenciando la vibración de la caña.
- 🗣️ Cambiar la posición de la lengua (voicing) y la cavidad oral afecta el timbre, utilizando sílabas como 'vo' para clásico y 'ee' o 'ah' para jazz.
- 🤐 Se desaconseja enfocarse demasiado en manipular la garganta al tocar, ya que puede causar tensión y afectar negativamente el sonido.
- 📏 La cantidad de boquilla que se toma en la boca varía según la estructura dental del individuo y el tipo de boquilla.
- 💡 Para aliviar el dolor en la embocadura, se pueden usar protectores dentales o piezas de almohadillas dentales sobre los dientes inferiores.
Q & A
¿Cuáles son las diferencias principales entre la embocadura clásica y la de jazz en el saxofón?
-La embocadura clásica utiliza generalmente una sílaba 'oh' abierta que proporciona un tono más oscuro y atenuado en los armónicos altos. La embocadura de jazz suele ser más relajada en las comisuras y utiliza sílabas como 'e' o 'ah' para un sonido más brillante.
¿Por qué algunas personas se ponen muy intensas sobre sus preferencias de embocadura?
-Hay una minoría pequeña pero vocal que tiene opiniones muy fuertes sobre la 'embocadura correcta'. Incluso he visto saxofonistas llegar a los golpes por este tema, aunque generalmente termina en ataques de asma.
¿Cómo se relacionan la embocadura, el voceo y la garganta al tocar el saxofón?
-Forman una reacción en cadena, ya que al cambiar la forma de la cavidad oral con distintas vocales, la embocadura tiende a seguir ese cambio de forma. Es mejor enfocarse en las vocales y dejar que la garganta se ajuste naturalmente.
¿Qué recomienda para aliviar el dolor en el labio inferior al tocar?
-Se pueden usar protectores dentales, o pedazos pequeños de ellos, para poner sobre los dientes inferiores y aminorar la presión. También existen almohadillas dentales desechables para el mismo propósito.
¿Qué método recomienda para determinar cuánta boquilla tomar en la boca?
-Desliza una tarjeta de índice entre el cañón y la boquilla hasta que descanse donde hacen contacto. Marca ese punto en la tarjeta, que es un buen punto de partida para experimentar.
¿Se debe tomar más boquilla al tocar jazz que música clásica?
-Personalmente sí, pero se debe mayormente a que uso una boquilla con tabla más larga para jazz. Va a depender del equipo que se utilice.
¿Qué opina de la embocadura de double-lip?
-No la recomiendo. Es mejor enfocarse en los principios de descansar, amortiguar y enfocar con la embocadura simple.
¿Puede evaluar una embocadura correctamente solo viendo un video?
-No realmente. Se necesita estar en persona haciendo micro ajustes para escuchar el efecto en el sonido. Los videos no son un buen sustituto.
¿Cómo evitar la tensión en la garganta al tocar?
-Es mejor mantener la garganta relajada y enfocarse en la posición de la lengua y las vocales. Pensar demasiado en los músculos específicos de la garganta causa mucha tensión.
¿Planea sacar más contenido sobre la técnica del saxofón?
-¡Sí! Tengo un gran anuncio próximamente sobre algo que he soñado hacer durante toda mi carrera, así que estén atentos.
Outlines
🎷 Introducción a la embocadura del saxofón
Este segmento presenta una discusión sobre las diferencias entre la embocadura clásica y jazz en el saxofón, enfatizando cómo el enfoque del presentador, basado en la técnica de Larry Teal, es adaptable para ambos estilos. Se introduce a Nigel Sinclair como mentor clásico para demostrar la técnica. El presentador divide la enseñanza de la embocadura en tres funciones clave: descansar los dientes superiores en la boquilla, amortiguar la caña con el labio inferior y enfocar la embocadura ajustando las esquinas de la boca. Se destaca la importancia de la posición y movimiento natural de la embocadura y la cavidad oral al cambiar entre sonidos clásicos y de jazz, sugiriendo que la adaptación en la embocadura y la vozing es esencial para lograr el sonido deseado en cada estilo.
🎶 Técnicas avanzadas y preguntas frecuentes sobre la embocadura
En este segmento, se abordan técnicas específicas y preguntas comunes sobre la embocadura del saxofón. Se discuten los efectos de usar sílabas diferentes, como 'o' para un tono clásico suave y 'e' para un tono de jazz más brillante. El presentador también aborda la importancia de no enfocarse demasiado en la garganta al cambiar la coloración del sonido, y en su lugar, concentrarse en la relajación y la forma de la lengua. Se ofrecen soluciones prácticas para problemas comunes como el dolor en la embocadura y la cantidad adecuada de boquilla a usar. Finalmente, se enfatiza la importancia de la instrucción personalizada, reconociendo que no hay sustituto para la orientación en persona de un maestro calificado.
📣 Anuncio especial y conclusión
Este último segmento sugiere una anticipación hacia un anuncio importante que el presentador compartirá en el futuro, insinuando algo que ha soñado durante toda su carrera. Se hace énfasis en la importancia de la práctica y el aprendizaje continuo, y se invita a los espectadores a participar con preguntas y comentarios, especialmente dirigidos hacia Nigel St. Claire en caso de desacuerdos o críticas sobre la técnica de embocadura enseñada. La conclusión subraya la dedicación del presentador a la enseñanza del saxofón y su deseo de compartir conocimientos valiosos con la comunidad de saxofonistas.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡embocadura
💡Larry Teal
💡Joe Allard
💡clásico vs. jazz
💡amortiguar
💡foco
💡voicing
💡sílaba vo
💡zona prohibida
💡estructura dental
Highlights
There is a debate between the Teal versus Allard saxophone embouchures, with some people getting into physical fights over it.
The three functions of the saxophone embouchure are to rest, cushion, and focus.
Use a soft, cushiony lip on the reed to allow for more vibration and fundamental tone.
Bringing in the mouthpiece corners creates an airtight seal and a darker, more focused sound.
The jazz sound comes from equipment, embouchure, voicing and throat shape working together.
As you voice different vowel sounds, your embouchure naturally wants to follow suit.
For classical, use an "oh" vowel shape for a nice soft lip and cushioned tone.
For jazz, use more of an "ee" or "ah" vowel with more relaxed embouchure corners.
Keep your throat as relaxed as possible rather than engaging muscles there.
There's no substitute for in-person lessons with a qualified teacher for embouchure.
Use a notecard between reed and mouthpiece to mark how much to take in.
Take in slightly more mouthpiece for jazz versus classical, due to longer facings.
Dental pads can help relieve pressure from lower teeth on lip.
Can't fully evaluate embouchures over just iPhone videos.
Facial structure differs person to person, requiring custom embouchure adjustments.
Ask any criticism of the embouchure to Nigel Sinclair instead of me!
Big announcement coming next week that I've dreamed about my whole career.
Transcripts
[Music]
the saxophone embouchure
today we're going to talk about the
differences between classical and jazz
embouchure
and i was actually a classical
saxophonist before it was cool
still still not cool yeah
hi and welcome to the saxophone academy
i'm dr wally wallace and if you're
interested in saxophone master classes
please do subscribe and be sure to hit
the like button to make your embouchure
more
supple today we're talking about the
saxophone embouchure and the slight
differences between classical
and jazz embouchure now this is a topic
i've put off for some time because
there's a small but
very vocal minority that will tell you
what i'm doing is
wrong as a matter of fact if you find
yourself stranded and alone on the
desert island
just start describing the larry teal
embouchure which is what i teach
and instantly someone will come along
just to tell you that they studied with
joe allard
and you're doing it wrong i once saw two
saxophonists get in a fistfight over the
teal verse
allard embouchure it was mostly a lot of
crying and ended with an asthma attack
but
man they were mad now the saxophone
embouchure i teach was taught to me by
my mentors who actually studied with
larry thiel the great american saxophone
pedagogue i find it to be a very good
solid embouchure that's versatile that
works great in classical and
jazz with hardly any modifications
whatsoever though some slight ones
which we'll talk about now rather than
me demonstrate and take all the heat
i'm actually going to bring in my
classical mentor to demonstrate
for you so please say hello to nigel
sinclair
so if you have any big issues with the
way i teach embouchure don't tell me
write your hate mail to nigel
now i teach the embouchure in three
parts not so much their form
but in their function those three
functions are to rest cushion
and focus
so first step we want to simply rest our
top teeth
on the top of the mouthpiece
and we use the term rest to contrast the
idea of biting
or pushing we're not trying to dig into
the mouthpiece we're simply resting the
weight of the head
and providing an anchor point which
eliminates some motion of the saxophone
and if you find that uncomfortable the
vibrations of the mouthpiece on your
teeth you can buy a mouthpiece cushion
like i have here they're dirt cheap you
can find them in music stores or online
and it certainly makes it more
comfortable
on your teeth on top of the mouthpiece
and if after several months of playing
you find large
divots or a little dents in your
mouthpiece you may find you're using too
much pressure
and pushing down or using a biting
motion remember we're just
resting the head relaxing the head on
top of the mouthpiece
the second motion is to cushion the reed
with our lower lip
we simply bring the jaw up to create a
soft cushion of
our lip against the reed generally we
want a soft
lip because it allows the reed to
vibrate more fully a soft cushiony lip
allows more fundamental of the sound
and does dampen some of the higher
overtones and we can adjust that
slightly
when we play different genres to get a
slightly more broad colorful brighter
sound
and the final function is to focus the
embouchure by bringing in
the corners of the mouth against the
size of the mouthpiece creating an
airtight seal
[Music]
and the more we bring in the corners the
softer the bottom lip is going to be
allowing a softer cushion for the reed
generally giving it a darker sound
stronger in the fundamental
and dampening some of the higher
overtones so the question you obviously
have now is so how do we get the jazz
sound do we pull the corners out to just
brighten the sound
yes and no it's a complicated question
jazz sound comes partially from the
mouthpiece it comes partially from our
embouchure
the corners pushing in or out and also
from our voicing
or tongue position it's a chain reaction
coming from
equipment to our embouchure to our
voicing all the way down to the
forbidden zone
our throat which is kind of like game of
thrones season eight
it's there but we're not going to talk
about it so as we voice and change the
shape of our oral cavity creating vowel
shapes with our tongue
we also change our embouchure at the
same time
for instance try saying the syllable vo
as in volvo
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family safety
we need corporate sponsors as you make
the oh syllable with your tongue
it's hard not to make your embouchure or
your lips change to the shape
at the same time try saying vo while
also making an e
shape with your tongue you might hurt
yourself it's not easy as we shape vowel
sounds inside our mouth are voicing
our embouchure naturally wants to follow
suit it's a completely natural chain
reaction so for playing classical vo
o is a really great syllable to use it's
open it's going to create a nice soft
bottom lip and give a very cushioned
dark sounding tone let's hear an example
by contrast if i use the syllable e it
changes the shape of not only my tongue
and my oral cavity it also brings out
the corners of my embouchure
take a listen to how that sounds
[Music]
nigel does not approve i really prefer
the oh
syllable with a nice soft lip when
playing classical saxophone it makes the
fundamental of the tone strong
and kind of attenuates some of the
higher partials which could make the
classical sound a little bit bright
or edgy now for jazz i actually do use
more of an e
or at times ah syllable i don't think
about pulling my corners
out but they're more relaxed and
certainly a little bit further out
than my classical embouchure
[Music]
now what about the throat you're
wondering doesn't that change when we
change our voicing
it does as we plane we change the color
of our sound our throat will
change i just don't want you thinking
about it i've had friends bring their
entire woodwind studio into the ear nose
throat doctors
office where they take an endoscopic
camera up through the nose down through
the mouth
and look at the throat and it does
change while you're playing
i just don't want you thinking about it
in general i want you to keep your
throat as relaxed as possible
focusing more on the shape of the tongue
in general i find students really bad at
trying to specifically engage
different muscles of the throat without
going way overboard getting way too much
tension
constricting the tone constricting the
airstream and they also kind of make a
gastric distress space while they're
playing and looking like you're pooping
yourself while you're playing
it's just not a good look so i find we
can get the desired result we want by
focusing on the vowel syllable
with our tongue our throat will move but
we don't need to worry about it so much
the most efficient motions and least
amount of motion possible
i find gets the best results especially
in classical and straight ahead
jazz playing now if you're doing rock or
pop playing you may want more drastic
motions
but that's not what i teach but i find
in general keeping the throat relaxed
is going to give you a very free open
blowing sound
so now let's cover some commonly asked
questions regarding the embouchure
question one how much mouthpiece do i
take into my mouth
that's a really good question and it's
going to be slightly different for every
student every student has a slightly
different dental structure
and face some kids just have strange
looking faces
so you can't really just look at the
embouchure and tell if it's right which
is why i always recommend
i'm gonna say this again and again there
is no substitute for being in the room
with a qualified teacher that being said
all too often i hear the answer being
well don't take too much
if you think about it that's not really
saying anything it's like when you're
lost in home depot
and you're looking for air filters and
you're completely lost and you see the
guy with the orange vest
you ask them hey sir where are the air
filters and he says
well not in this aisle it's not really
giving you any kind of answer
and it's not helpful don't be that guy
so here is a general
rule of thumb what you will need is an
index card and your read and mouthpiece
gently slide the note card in between
your reed and the mouthpiece until it
rests right where the reed touches the
mouthpiece there's a breaking point
there
don't push it just let it rest right
there
then take a pencil and mark a little
line where that point
is that is a decent starting place to
figure out where to put your mouth on
the mouthpiece
and it will change depending on what
kind of mouthpiece you're playing the
facing length
will adjust where that happens it's a
good starting point but again
you're going to have to experiment and
this is really best done in room
with a good qualified teacher question
number two do you take in more
mouthpiece when you're playing jazz
personally i do but it's largely a
result of the longer facing
on my jazz mouthpiece see question one
question number three what about the
double lip embouchure i know a guy that
shared a ham sandwich with stan getz and
he said it's the
go wait in the car question number four
my embouchure hurts that's not a
question
question number five is there something
i can put over my lower teeth
so my bottom lip doesn't become so sore
absolutely a lot of people use
dental pads tear off a little piece fold
it over your bottom teeth
that can relieve some of the pressure or
the sharpness of the bottom teeth
that works really well i also know some
people that will cut up mouthpiece
guards that you use for
football and such sports i don't really
understand them
but anyway you can boil those soften
them and cut off a little piece to go
over your bottom teeth
that works really well as well question
number six can you watch a video of me
playing and tell me if my embouchure is
right
no not really or at least i shouldn't
there's simply no substitute for being
in the room
with a qualified teacher where you can
make tiny micro adjustments to your
embouchure
and here not over iphone video but here
actually in the room
the changes that makes to your sound
everyone's teeth and facial shape is
different
so the opportunity needs to be adjusted
to everyone a little bit
differently i will do what i can through
video but at the same time
there's just no substitute for being in
the room with an experienced teacher
so hit me up with questions in the
comments below and if you have a problem
or criticism of the embouchure
make sure you write nigel st claire
and stay tuned next week i have a big
announcement i'm incredibly excited to
share with you
something i've been kind of dreaming
about my entire career that is finally
happening so stay tuned and until then
go
practice
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