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SAXOPHONE BREATHING TECHNIQUES

   Breathing air into the saxophone is one of the three techniques needed to produce a tone.  We were born breathing, this was not something we were taught regardless, we have to specify the processes of inhaling and exhaling to better our sax tone.  Throughout life, we understand the necessity of breathing yet pay little attention to it.  Likewise, an accomplished saxophonist will focus on performing music without thinking of the air needed to produce the music flowing through their instrument.  Many hours must be spent practicing a proper technique of breathing air into the mouthpiece, and through the sax.

     Holding your palm in front of your mouth, blow on it as if you were blowing out birthday candles.  This type of breathing (like cooling off a spoonful of hot soup) is called cold air breathing.  Now, still holding your hand in front of your face, breath like you were warming your hands, or checking whether or not you have bad breath.  This is called warm air breathing, and by doing this, you should feel warm air on your palm. 

     If someone said you had a ‘cold sound’, it would be hard to decipher whether or not they were complimenting you.  If someone mentioned that your tone was warm, more than likely, that statement would be taken with gratitude.  As saxophonists we want our tones and our breathing techniques to be warm.

   When playing the saxophone, try to always play using the ‘warm air’ breathing technique.  This style of playing doesn’t apply pressure against your lips, and is a natural way of exhaling.  The reason the air stream is warm is because it comes out of your lungs sooner with a relaxed exhalation, and isn’t slowly drawn out and circulated in your cheeks the way a cool breathe does.  Your intonation and control over sub tones, and the altissimo register will improve greatly once you play in this manner.  This is another technique that is relaxed.  We want all of our tone producing techniques (breathing, embouchure, and hand/finger positions) to be as relaxed and as natural as possible.

       While playing, the air stream should be constantly moving.  A fast moving air stream through the sax will produce a louder volume, and a slower moving air stream will produce a quieter sound.  Playing at a quiet volume is much more difficult on the sax, especially in the lower register.  Because the sax shape is conical, the lower notes tend to play louder when air is blown into the bottom of the horn.  Many saxophone instructors tell their students to blow harder when trying to produce the low tones.  Students who have difficulty with producing the low notes usually have an improper embouchure. The ‘lots of air’ blowing technique often works because blowing cold air quickly through the sax pushes the bottom lip into a better low note position.  With this technique, the note will only be played at a loud volume.  Incorporating warm air breathing into our tone production, will help to sustain a comfortable and flexible embouchure.

     

     Holding an alto saxophone with a straight arm extended from your body is not difficult, yet keeping that sax sustained in the air for a long period of time would be difficult.  You would feel your arm, shoulder, and chest muscles straining the longer you suspended it.  Similarly, your breathing muscles will quiver and flex tighter the longer you practice holding tones on the saxophone.  With practice and repetition, your breathing will be both relaxed and controlled.

LONG TONES

    Sustaining long tones is the best, and most commonly used exercise to control the diaphragm (breathing muscle).  Playing a note for an extended time is much easier when using cool air breathing.  The object of this exercise is not to be able to play for an extended time, without taking a breath, but to support the sound that your embouchure is keeping in place.  While practicing long tone exercises, always use a deep, full, warm breath. Remember that your embouchure, breathing, and your hand & finger positions should all come together to create your personal tone. 

TRY THIS

  Take a deep breath, inhaling through your mouth, and play a ‘G’ on your saxophone (closing the top three left hand keys). Try holding this for app. 30 seconds at an mf volume.  It is difficult to do this, but remember the goal is not to sustain the note for 30 seconds, but to sustain a clear consistent tone.  As you run out of air, do not add pressure to your lips and reed to squeeze out your last breath.  Although this is unintentional, adding pressure to your reed changes the embouchure position and often ends the sound with a squeak.  Think of exhaling like dispensing spray paint from an aerosol can, opposed to squeezing oil paint from a tube.

MEASURED BREATHING

     Measured breathing is an exercise that improves on the basic long tone exercise.  Using a metronome set at 60 beats per minute, inhale (through your mouth) for 10 beats (seconds) filling your lungs to capacity.  Make sure that all the air is taken in by the tenth beat, no sooner or later.  Now hold the air in your lungs for another 10 beats.  After holding your breath, exhale a consistent air stream for 10 more beats getting rid of all the air in your lungs in exactly 10 counts.  If done correctly, this exercise will take exactly 30 seconds. Try these exercises repeatedly using counts of 5, 10, and 15, seconds.  This is a great exercise to practice while you are away from your saxophone.  This technique will strengthen your diaphragm and help you to hold a consistent and clear tone.

DYNAMIC LONG TONES   

     Dynamic long tones are a more exciting routine than the regular procedure of practicing long tones.  This technique consists of playing your long tones at different volumes.  This should be practiced in all ranges of the horn.  Starting again with the note G on your horn, sustain the note at an mf volume and try to sustain the tone while bringing it to a pp volume.  Make sure that your pitch is unaffected.  Now with the same starting note and volume, try building your tone to an ff volume.  If your pitch is consistently going flat, then more than likely, you are using cold air breathing that is pushing your bottom lip out and downward. Now try starting at a pp volume and over app. 20 seconds, gradually increase your volume to an ff volume and then gradually decrease it back to a pp volume.   An easy way to make your playing more dynamic is to add dynamics.  Logical isn’t it?  The only way to improve in this area is by often incorporating it into your practice routine. 

PRACTICAL BREATHES

When we need to chill-out, take a load off, meditate, calm our minds, de-stress, or (for some women) give birth, we are told to take a relaxing breathe.  When people take Karate classes and when they take saxophone lessons, the most important and curious thing that is needed to be understood is the importance of learning how to relax and take a focussed breathe.  In Karate, Yoga, and Lamaze classes, a relaxed breathe is taught to be drawn in through the nostrils.  This method is great to use before a performance, preceding a solo, or during a pause in the music.  While playing the sax it is necessary to inhale and exhale through the mouth for the sake of speed and accuracy.  A breathe drawn through the nose is long and “cool”.  Before you pursue memorizing a Chris Potter transcription, or breaking bricks with your head, take a deep relaxing warm breathe.

        

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LISTENING TO THE SAXOPHONE (BIOGRAPHICAL)

    In my formative years of studying the saxophone, the most guidance I received was from listening to lots of jazz saxophonists.  I learned to understand that music was a language, and that the best way to learn a new language was to listen, imitate, and then communicate.  Because the majority of saxophonists and saxophone music reside within the jazz cannon, I could say that my love for the saxophone lead me to become an adamant jazz enthusiast.    

     Signing up for music class, and joining the school band has been many musicians’ first  introduction to music.  The school music classroom was my first ‘hands on’ encounter with instrumental music. I was told to practice, but my love of music often made my mother tell me to stop practicing and to do other homework, after hearing me play the sax for hours.  In the early 90’s I practiced, listened to music and read music books and magazines excessively.  Most of my friends were musicians and music students.  The high school I attended received a lot of funding towards developing the music department.  The students played on quality instruments, and we used some of the best musical technology of the day to help us learn.  I grew up in a very nurturing, extraordinary musical environment with lots of room to develop. 

     The tones produced by a beginner don’t showcase the saxophone’s abundance of colors, dynamics, and nuances.  It takes years for a new player to develop an attractive and personal tone.  These tone developing years can be sped up by listening to a variety of saxophonists, but the one saxophonist you should listen to most should be yourself.   Practice is often emphasized with beginners, as it should be, but listening to saxophonists with personalized tones is equally important.  Hearing other saxophonists can guide a student towards sounds to strive for.  Listening to the pros was very valuable in my musical development.

     My first teacher was more of a mentor than an instructor.  He is a French Canadian named Jean-Yves Begin (J.Y.) who now resides in Sudbury Ontario Canada, and is one of the most called upon saxophonists in that northern city.  He was a few years ahead of me in High School and was an advanced player for a high school saxophonist.  When I approached him for lessons (the summer before entering the 9th grade) he quickly obliged. Jean-Yves gave me four recordings to listen to that contained a variety of saxophonists playing Bebop, as well as modern jazz styles.  As the months went on, he’d continue to instruct me, and continued to lend recordings of sax greats. I soon started purchasing my own recordings.  It wasn’t long until I started lending my recordings to J.Y.  Between the two of us we now have thousands of CD’s cassettes and records containing great saxophone music.  I’m indebted to the artists that I’ve heard over the years. Their music has been inspirational, inspiring, and educational.  As for J.Y, I’ll always regard his friendship and his help towards understanding the saxophone as the paramount building block towards my development.  He was always giving and humble enough to know that his knowledge could not surpass the master saxophone recordings of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, and a myriad of other saxophone innovators.  Thanks J.Y.

    I listened to a variety of different horn players for months until I was able to discern the differences between the alto, baritone, tenor, and soprano saxophones.  The first thing that attracted my attention was the tone of the saxophone.  Some players I could listen to for hours, while other saxophonists made it difficult for me to listen to an entire track.  Instead of not listening to an unfavorable recording again, I would give a second listen to figure out what it was that I didn’t enjoy.  As well, I would try to understand what I could learn from every saxophonist.  If I didn’t like a player’s tone, I’d analyze the qualities that I disliked.  Soon my sax playing and tone were being influenced by a variety of players while still developing into something personal. 

      The saxophonists that I could first relate to played modern styles of music that I was used to hearing.  I liked the sheen of digitally mixed recordings, and the use of popular grooves and rhythms.  I was told to listen to players like jazz legends; Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane to name a few.  Today, the previously mentioned saxophonists are on my list of favorites, but it took me a while to understand the music that they were playing.  I needed an understanding of jazz music before I could really appreciate these legend’s saxophone styles.  After College I started transcribing saxophonists to glean specific elements from their playing. Here is a short list of players that helped specific areas of my technique.  Keep an open mind, and the heart of a student (not of a critic) when listening to sax players.

-Eric Alexander:  I wanted my phrasing to be super clean with an almost liquid quality to it.  In my mind I’d hear each note clearly stated with a relaxed transition between notes, even at fast tempos.  At one point my phrasing was an area that I was unhappy with, and it was my weakest skill.  Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander had the phrasing closest to what I was hearing.  He has a beautiful personalized tone, with an elegant and refined way of phrasing through his combination of precise articulations and relaxed breathing.  

-Jerry Bergonzi :  Harmony is a strange concept for saxophonists to conceive when improvising.  Jerry Bergonzi is a great teacher that explains how notes work within a key.  He also explains ways to cleverly move away from a song’s key centre.  I found that after transcribing his solos, I started to understand about 25 amazing concepts that I’m still working on today.  Lots of the music I perform hovers around one or two keys per song.  Being able to think of  twelve tones within any song provides a broader palette to draw from. 

-Michael Brecker:  Most of my saxophone inspirations come from the music of Michael Brecker.  I could write a book on the innovative contributions that he debuted to the world, instead I’ll list the main things I’ve learned (and am learning) from him.  1. His comfort of playing fluently in any key.  2. His use of false fingerings and overtones, and the way he incorporated them into his playing.  3. His unbiased approach to music that showed him comfortably playing with the most gifted jazz players, and the most famous pop artists. 4. His dedicated practice routine.  Michael Brecker practiced for several hours on most days.  I had the privilege of meeting him.  We had a conversation in a Montréal hotel lobby.  After listening to him speak, It was obvious that he loved playing the sax.  He would play his horn for several hours daily because of a passion for learning the saxophone, opposed to a desire to be the best saxophonist on the planet…yet he was.

-Jan Garbarek:  When I started playing the soprano sax, my biggest influence was, and still is, Jan Garbarek.  I haven’t heard a tone that compares to the beauty of his soprano saxophone.  His tenor tone is very similar, yet contained within the lower range of that bigger sax.  Tone is the most important technique to pursue and Jan Garbarek has surpassed the arduous task of creating an original saxophone voice.

1. -Dave Koz:  In 2011 I was asked to play in a horn section for Dave Koz.  Its really cool when you get to play saxophone for a saxophonist, especially for someone who is so talented and respected.  I did my homework and memorized the tenor charts so I could fully engage in the concert and I’m glad I did.  That spring night in Canada I saw how Dave earned the respect of the audience, fed off of their energy, entertained the crowd, and respected  them as music loving/supporting fans of his music.  He is a great guy and leant me a saxophonist once when I was visiting L.A.  Dave Koz’s success has a lot to do with the great person he is as well as the great saxophonist that he’s known to be.