Effects
Many effects are possible on a saxophone. Here is an overview of the most common in both classical and jazz music.
More exercises can be found in my ´scale-fitness´1 and recently also 2 , edition of Global Music Facilities
Vibrato What is it
The wavy movement of the tone.
How does it work
The vibrato is created when you move the lower jaw slightly up and down. As a result, a clear regular wave movement in the tone can be heard.
How do you practice it
Practice with slow jaw movements in the beginning and slowly increase the tempo later.
Circular Breathing
What is it.
Breathing and blowing at the same time. This is an ancient blowing technique that is still used in many cultures.
How does it work:
You roll the cheeks while blowing and, without breathing support, squeeze the air from the cheeks into the mouthpiece. At the same time, you take a quick breath through the nose.
So you shift the function from the lungs to the cheeks.
How to practice it:
Start these exercises without an instrument!
1. Puff up your cheeks as much as possible and squeeze the air out. Make sure you only have the air
from your cheeks and not from your lungs.
2. Repeat step 1 and breathe through your nose at the same time. This is the most important and most difficult
movement of the “Circular Breathing”.
3. Repeat step 2 and when your cheeks are empty blow the air out of your lungs at the back.
4. Now practice the whole cycle: Blow the air out of your mouth, puff your cheeks while blowing out, stop
blow and squeeze the air out of your puffy cheeks while breathing in through your nose at the same time.
Once your cheeks are empty, start blowing again with the air from your lungs.
If this all works out a bit, try to perform these steps by means of. blowing through one
thin straw in a glass with water.
Slap-tongue
What is it
A percussive “clack” sound.
How does it work.
Press your tongue firmly against the reed and pull it loose strongly. Your tongue will now stick a little to the reed.
By pulling it loose, the “clack” sound is created, in which the pitch is clearly audible.
It is important that you place a little more sole than normal against the reed.
How do you practice it
Practice only with a straw at first. Stick the reed to your tongue and pull it loose.
Tongue Tremolo
What is it.
A rattling sound.
How does it work.
When blowing, your tongue
moves up and down in the
mouth, just past the tip of the mouthpiece.
The tongue will come against the reed.
Flatterzunge
What is it:
While blowing you produce a rolling R, which creates a vibrating sound in the tone.
How does it work:
The tip of the tongue points upward and vibrates against your palate. Secure the wings of your tongue
against the inside of your upper teeth and produce a rolling R with the tip of your tongue.
Make sure your tongue doesn't touch the reed.
How to practice it:
Practice this by making a rolling R with your tongue and then slowly sliding the mouthpiece into your mouth
while you keep rolling with the R. Then complete your embouchure by lip tension and
increase air pressure and produce a tone with the rolling R at the same time.
Top Tones
What is it
A saxophone can go much higher than the F#. This is what you call “Top-tones” or “altissimo”
How does it work
By overblowing the tone you can address the overtones, which give you the opportunity to play very high.
How do you practice it.
1. Try to play as high a beep as possible with the following hold ( X C5 ). Hold it and release it after a few seconds
slide down slowly. You do this by opening your throat, as if you were yawning.
2. Try playing multiple treble notes with the above grip, sliding from one to the next.
You do this through your throat alternately
to open and close. Keep the lower jaw relaxed. Try playing simple songs with one grip.
3. Play a low B flat and try to hit the overtones. Use the above trained throat muscles for this.
(see further in 'scale-fitness')
Glissando
What is it.
Gliding from one tone to another.
How does it work.
There are two types of glissandi.
1. A chromatic glissando.
2. A sliding glissando with embouchure and valves.
This last glissando works from low to high as follows:
Play the beginning note and let the next valve come up very slowly.
As soon as the tone starts to rise, lower the embouchure
and the rest of the valves slowly rise.
If the distance between the grip height and the actual riveting
pitch is about a third, then you try
the sound with your throat (O, A, I sound) to slide high
your fingers gently raise the valves further.
The smoothly smooth glissando is therefore created by the embouchure
pitch lags behind the grasp pitch.
You can also go from high to low, start with the embouchure first
and let the handles come later.
Attack:
There are various ways of switching on e.g. Staccato, Portato, Tenuto.
But you can also produce other triggers by changing the trigger point on your tongue.
1.From the tip of your tongue to the center, or even it
2. without tongue, with a blast of air.
3. With the back of your tongue (throat base) against the palate or
4. with the tip of your tongue against the palate behind your front teeth and then not against the reed.
Give it a try and decide for yourself whether the result is something that suits your musical taste.
Tip; to know where your tongue touches the reed, blacken the edge of the reed with felt-tip pen.
Now turn on this reed once and the still wet ink will leave a stripe on your tongue.
Double tonguing
What is it.
Start alternately with the tongue and throat.
How does it work
A 'Tu' sound for the tongue and a 'Kuh' sound for the throat set.
How do you practice it.
1. Practice without the saxophone by making the following throat and tongue sounds. TuKuhTuKuh etc.
Note that the throat trigger (Kuh) needs a little more force than the tongue trigger.
2.repeat step 1 but now with the saxophone mouthpiece in your mouth, don't make a saxophone sound yet.
3. repeat step 2 increase the air pressure and lip tension so that a tone is produced during the continuous
making throat and tongue sounds.
4. There is also a triple tongue blow: TuKuhTeTuKuhTe etc
To sing
Of course you can also sing and play at a fixed pitch at the same time. What you sing
can really sound like a second voice with your saxophone tone.
Mouth Rahm(open slap)
What is it
A percussive “clack” sound.
How does it work
Is it the same as a "slap-tongue" you now only pull your lower lip and jaw free from the reed.
So your mouth is open after the Mouth Rahm.
How do you practice it
See “Flack Tongue”
Growl
What is it.
That is the characteristic tearing saxophone sound in pop music.
How does it work.
This sound is a combination of the saxophone sound and the singing or shouting through the saxophone.
How do you practice it
To learn this, start singing or yelling through the saxophone without the saxophone sound.
Slowly increase air and lip tension
so that the saxophone sound and your voice sound together. With a Growl the pitch doesn't really matter,
as long as you don't sing the same note.
You get the best result
by playing high and singing low.
Multiphonics
What is it.
Multiphonics are polyphonic sounds
How does it work.
It is possible to play more than one sound at the same time on a saxophone. Many of these “multiphonics”
are used in modern music, the sound is usually not really pure but it gives a beautiful effect..
How do you practice it.
If you want to try out more, use the book:
“Les sons multiples aux saxophones” by Daniel Kientzy (publisher: Salabert)
Bisbigliando
What is it.
A vibrato and trill-like effect.
How does it work.
The vibrato and trill-like movement is not done with the mouth (jaw) but with a flap or handle.
Bisbigliando sounds like a trill only the distance of the trill is now as small as possible. So you vibrate with one
just show that one
different color but has the same pitch. E.g. Play an A and vibrate with valve 4.
How do you practice it.
Examples. If you want to try more, see: Hello! Mr Sax by Jean-marie Londeix (Leduc)
Double trill
What is it
A very fast trill
How does it work
Where two fingers on one valve vibrate alternately. This is only possible with a small number of vibrators.
How do you practice it.
Alternately vibrate the thumb and forefinger of the right hand on the F valve.
Sons de Trumpet
What is it.
Playing the trumpet on the neck of the saxophone.
How does it work.
Remove the mouthpiece and play with a trumpet embouchure on the bare neck. With the embouchure and the
using the valves you can influence the pitch.
How do you practice it.
If you want to know more about this, look in the book: “Hello! Mr Sax” by Jean-marie Londeix (publisher; Leduc)
Percussive sounds
The saxophone can make all kinds of fun percussion sounds.
B.V.
1. Tap the reed with your fingernail
2. without blowing play a scale of C from c'' to c' down ; by closing the valves
you hear the resonance of the pitch in the tube.(Key-click)
3. Hiss sounds. Without sound, possibly with handles.
4. Kiss sounds. Make a kissing sound with your mouth, make sure the tip of your mouthpiece is in your mouth.
The sound is then amplified by the tube.
Quarter tones
What is it.
The semitone intervals between the minor seconds.
How does it work.
Even smaller distances are possible between the semitone distances.
How do you practice it.
With special handles. See 'Hello Mr Sax'.
Alternative keys
What is it.
Different grips for the same tone.
How does it work.
These handles are used to give the tone a different color. You can also use them as an auxiliary grip or as a correction grip for
the mood. Alternating an alternate grip and a basic grip is often used as an effect in Jazz music.
How do you practice it.
eg; Play a d''' with a g'' grip.