How "NOT" to Squeak on Saxophone
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- This is a lesson on squeaks and how not to do them and also how to actually do them! Let's take ownership of every sound coming out of the horn.
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SIRVALORSAX PLAYS:
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12 Fingerings for Altissimo "G": • 12 Altissimo "G" finge...
Gearing the Sax for Altissimo: • Gearing the Sax for Al...
Multiphonics for Altissimo: • Multiphonics For Altis...
Getting Started with Altissimo for Tenor Sax: • GETTING STARTED WITH A...
I love you
I think you're both cool.
The fact you watch all these channels awes me idk why
@@spootersply181 same 🙌🏾
Dude I thought I was crazy when I was squeaking that note. I didn’t know high g was actually finicky for everyone.
First time I played my new Tenor coming from Alto I was convinced there was something wrong with the horn, I thought wth is wrong with that high G, so annoying the first few times I tried to play that thing. :-)
@@overthetarget9401 lmao me too
I all of a sudden started having this problem after years. I was ready to sell my horn, until I was testing a new tenor and had the same problem. Embouchure and ligature are the issues.
Just bought myself a secondhand Yamaha yts23 and facing the exact problem with the high g
@@overthetarget9401 OMG!!!! Finally I am not alone ))))
Very insightful, you hit the nail on the head! Embouchure is so critical, yet so many of my students roll their eyes when the topic is broached. Maybe if we change the name, we can get kids excited about embouchure work? Facia power continuum? Oral Flux Capacitor? Great vid, Sirvalorsax!
LOL!!! Oral Flux Capacitor!!!
It's so good to hear someone else talk about the problems with high G. I knew I wasn't crazy. Thank you!!!
Cool
Thanks for also showing how to get to the squeaked pitch.
These are the sax samples that I was looking for!
THANKYOU! This tutorial is super helpful and easy to understand by a newb like me. I am new to Tenor and needed to find you--I am stoked to have stumbled upon you!! Cheers!!
I always had a problem with that high G on tenor, which I didn't have on alto and soprano that I played when I was young. I aways thought I had a bad horn, took it to a number of techs and the problem persisted... Glad I watched this lesson, I will try this exercise.
Cool, I hope this helps.
Broo I thought I was the only one who squeaked the high G lol.
Good vid man God bless
Thanks
I get such a kick out your teaching. Find out how to do it, and then don’t do it. Brilliant! Thanks again.
:)
I play alto and bought a tenor 6 months ago.I sent my horn back because I couldn't play that G.I was told its hard on tenor and I need to relax my embroucher. Your video proves that point.Im getting better on it now.
Cool. Thanks for watching and I hope it helps
Another thing you can practice with this is the 5th down ghost note thing. So play a palm D and go between a high G that is squeaked and plam D. You should just get 2 different D sounds, it kind sounds like the difference between a palm F and front F. Then do the same with high C and F, High B and E or High A and D. Bob Becker does this a lot when he solos.
I play alto and am auditioning for a tenor sax solo in our upcoming marching band season and this video helped me out so much!
Awesome, thanks for watching
I had just had to comment also, like others have said I too have had trouble with that note and so glad you talked about it and this has been great help. Thanks!!!
Always the saxophone saviour! Once again I am giving the video a thumbs up without watching it first! Will work through it later as squeaking right now is an issue for me as I am in the middle of changing my embouchure! Btw that was a great tip in the last video about working through funk bass lines. Big thanks 👍🏾
Rock on!
I’ve been renting a Jupiter for the past year, but in the past few weeks I’ve been trying out a Martin Indiana and experiencing the squeak on G for the first time. For better or worse, it seems the Indiana requires a significantly looser embouchure than the Jupiter.
I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST MEEEE
(composes herself)
Thank you!
😄
Thank you thank you thank you!
At least one of the best saxophone channels. With really helpfull advices that works well on practice 👍
Thanks
Really helpful thanks - I thought it was my sax developing a fault! video shot of you altering mouth position rally clarified what to do & I can now both replicate squeak and most importantly stop it, thanks
Great!!
Yet again an incredibly valuable lesson. Thank you for your insight and generosity to share.
Cool
Great Topic and Video Sir!
Thanks for watching
Please correct me if I’m wrong here good Sir V (wish I knew your actual name!) cos I’m kinda out of my wheel house on this topic, but aren’t the 2nd octave G and Ab relatively unstable because they’re the last two notes on the first register vent hole (the one at the top of the main sax body) before you switch to the register vent hole on the neck? Really there should be a register vent hole in a different place for every note, so they’re all compromised anyway, but the Ab and G are the MOST compromised and unstable of the middle D to Ab set as they are the last notes before the octave hole switches position. Someone smart will hopefully reply to this! 😂 Nice vid man. Lovin’ the new “blue screen” production values! 😎
I mainly don't use my name because the cruise line can still use my name and image for free. Kind of like when Prince changed his name to a sign but far less money and fame LOL!!!
Sirvalorsax - fair enough! Sounds like there’s a story there. Can’t work out the anagram though. I need a clue.
MyRackley 🤷🏻♂️
Check out 8va mechanism, 2 little pads...1 may not seal properly.
ServaloSax - Your Method is MAGIC!!! I play alto and have 0-Squeaks. Yesterday got Tenor - played it first time - G, F and F# -- was mix of horror and atrocity. Was ready to send it back and look all over TH-cam regarding Tenor-Squeaks. Your key-phrase "Tenor - is different beast". Today played 2 hours using all you advices and suggestions --- 0 Squeaks and sound like an Angel Charm. Thank You Sir for your care and thoughts about beginners like myself. Wish you All The Best ))))
Sweet, thanks for watching 👀
LOL! Around 8:15 you got into multi-phonics and replied, "Bet you didn't know a sax would even do that." Both my old tenors will definitely do that, thought had leaks everywhere. As you said, Tenors are a different beast. Own 3 C-Melody saxes and they seem very forgiving on embouchure with Tenor MP's. Was really struggling with this and did not want to admit it was embouchure, but that is exactly my problem. Thank you Sir!!
Cool, thanks for watching
Excellent lesson, thank you.
You are welcome!
Once again I love your videos so well explained, and showing the close up of what the lip is doing 👌on point 👉💯💯💯💯💯💯
:O ! Indeed of all notes G is unstable in my horn too. I get a multiphonic very quickly if I don't use the right air flow. If I get bored I play multiphonics with this one, hahaha. Now I'll do this exercise with other notes in my next session (today) . Thank you for this Post!
Cool
@@Sirvalorsax Yeah, I have the same problem on the alto!! I get not high D, but the multiphonics, and I also have already heard some great players having like similar problems on this this note. I think this might a very critical point for some reason. Thanks a lot for the video man... But could you explain me what you do to get the multiphonics intentionally in this exercise? I mean, you just change the lips or you make other fingerings? I didn't get it. If you are so kind to answer me, I would appreciate it a lot. 🙏🏼🎷🎶
Thank you very very much.
cool
Beautiful insight! Thank you!
You are so welcome
8:30, I KNEW IT WAS A GOOD THING TO PRACTICE THAT TO IMPROVE
Cool. :)
Thank you for all the videos you made. Im making a progress. Love from Philippines
Thanks
Thanks for this info. I play alto and have this problem with the note D. This explains why.
Glad I could help, Thanks for watching
I saw the title, 'How "NOT" to Squeak on the Saxophone' and I got excited - finally someone was going to help me! Then you said it was about the tenor sax and I was let down. But I listened. I just started on alto after playing brass for years, and I was seriously wondering how much of squeaking on certain notes (D and to a lesser extent G) was due to the reed (demon spawn from the fires of hell) and how much was my embouchure. What I think I heard you say is to work on my embouchure and relax - and take ownership of the sound. Thanks.
I should have made it clear that the first thing to do is make sure the sax is in perfect working order including reeds, no leaks proper seal on the mouthpiece ect... This applies to all saxes but that "G" in particular is pretty dangerous on tenor.
Very useful on embouchure and tenor acoustics. Thank you
Cool.
Literally looking up how to stop squeaking cus m trying to learn altissimo a and squeaking on g thinking my pad had a leak then find this!
😎 Cool
Love you Bro! you had me laughing with "Make these people give you a microphone" As always good teaching tips!
Glad you enjoyed!
I just started playing tenor saxophone after switching off of alto my alto sound was great I switched to tenor and started being sharp all of the time not being able to play a D without being sharp I’ve tried like opening up or lowering my jaw but nothing really worked so if you could help that would be much appreciated because I would like to get to a good sound
Maybe a bad reed? For my clarinet, I had a bad reed which was half a step flat until I switched reeds.
Man, I wish I had a resource like you living around the corner. So I could pop by and you could sort me out pronto. Anytime you're coming to France let me know and you've got a free place to stay.
Cool. I haven't been to France since 2001-2002. I want to get back to Monte Carlo/French Riviera
@@Sirvalorsax Do not hesitate Sir, I live near Montelimar. Hope that is South enough for you. ;-)
Looks like you’ve got a new sax, neck and mouthpiece rig.
for me, it was high G and G#. I haven't played tenor in a while, but I have a tenor coming soon so I'll see if it helps.
Hey Adrien good to see you.
Thanks for the tips.
I hope you and your family are doing well.
Great stuff as usual! I was actually just reading through Don Sinta’s “Voicing” having gotten it in the mail yesterday. He presented the same concept of having the student not freak out when they squeak on a note, but instead have them learn how to reproduce it, recognize what it is, and control it. I thought that was such an amazing insight and then you said the same thing in this video. :-D
I know students tend to get embarrassed when that happens and I will always explain what is happening. I never thought to take it that step further and have them experiment with it and learn from it!
On a related note, when are you coming out with a book???? :-p
It's technically finished now but I'm working on my website and possibly a publisher for release.
OMG a where was this video when I was in high school?!?!?
LOL!!
Excellent tip. Thanks
Cool
Awesome video!! Thank you!!
Glad you liked it!
Hey sorry, just saw your fingerings video link; I'll work on the variations; thanks!!!
Cool
Great video! Thanks so much for explanation!
Day 2 after getting my Yamaha tenor and I've spent around an hour practicing long tones and going up and down the 2 octaves. I had around 10% success rate on the upper G yesterday, which went to around 70% today.
What I did to troubleshoot this issue was:
1. Stand in front of the mirror
2. Try out a whole bunch of embouchure shapes
3. Once I found a shape that worked, I verified that I could reproduce the "good" tone and then the "bad" tone by going back to standard embouchure
For me, the difference for upper G was that my embouchure resembled something like "blowing out a candle" vs the standard embouchure for the lower octave, which is more "fogging up the mirror". I believe I also tightened up the embouchure as well. This new found embouchure seems to work better for the 2nd octave in general, so now I seem to be going between lower octave embouchure and upper octave embouchure, when switching between the octaves. Not sure if this is the correct method, but it seems to work pretty well!
Good luck to anyone else having this issue. Keep trying!
Thanks for watching
GRoss.. not a good idea.. .go see Dr Wally at Sax Academy (ie ..calibrate your embouchure at low Bb) essentially the same embouchure should work top to bottom
@@bluegoose555 thanks for your advice! I've been playing for about a month now and I think my embouchure is all wrong. I use the lower jaw and lower teeth to push my lower lip up I to the reed to stay in tune, which I think is a bad idea.
I've have just got my mouthpiece silencer and have been trying mouthpiece exercises to address this issue. So far - no luck. I seem to be unable to movey tongue/larynx while blowing into the mouthpiece ina way that changes my pitch. Will keep trying over the next few weeks.
I'm surprised on how little info is around this online and even my sax teacher, who I've had two lessons with did not really talk about it
@@pas0003 Thank you = Very useful experience! The whole year passed - how you are doing now?
@@sablezubshruz9811 I found something that seems to work for me. I've had a LOT of trial and error and got a few private lessons from two local teachers.
It seems that there are a lot of different ways to play the sax and what my teacher told me (he's been a teacher and has been playing professionally in bands for 30 years) is that "do what works for you" and stop overthinking it. If it sounds good and it's consistent, then there's no problem.
Great explanation man!
Appreciate it!
I used to never ever squeak this note till I had the solo in auguries of innocence
Hey man, Love the videos, I'm still relatively new to playing and the tips on embouchure control are a real help to me. Would you consider doing a lesson on learning to improvise similar to your video on how to play the blues? I've been having problems trying to improve my off the cuff playing and I know you would be the man to help me.
Sure thing! I'll look into it.
Sir! Takin ownership over here......Sir!
Sweet!
I have a problem with these notes with the octave key and I've tried different things to fix it such as adjusting embouchure and figuring out if it's the sax itself. My fix is I blow hard as hell on g and g sharp and that fixes it. Sometimes after playing a couple hours, I can play normally and get the correct notes out without a problem
It sound like when you are more tired you get a better sound. First make sure you don't have an leaks. Second, try playing with a much more relaxed embouchure but as quite as possible. Slowly increase the volume to pinpoint where the problems are. Remember to keep your embouchure relaxed as you increase the volume
aucun problème différent dans le monde qu'aux USA , les embouchures sont les mêmes partout , même en France , Sirvalorsax ! Il y a longtemps que Sidney Bechet l'avait bien compris , ha , ha , ha ! 😉
LOL
Nice brother !!!!
Thanks
Gene Parker great guy.
Questions; how many saxophones month pieces necks & reeds if U like Thanks God Bless everyone🎼🎶🎷💪💞🏹😍
I have about 60 by now across the soprano-bari saxes.
as a dude playing trumpet and tenor, what you tryna play louder than a trumpet for??? lmaoo that was so funny
Thanks for helping me figure this out, you just described my whole situation. Squeaky high G on my tenor and cutting up my lower lip when I play my alto a lot. Now I know how to address this problem. Do you think synthetic reads can also make this worse?
I have always been limited with the use of synthetic reeds.
@@Sirvalorsax Thanks for the feedback.
fuck YES ! much respect SO helpful
So I can get that multiphonic effect up to B, and down to Eb if I really try. Can you do a video on how to play it over the whole octave at some point?
Great suggestion. You can split every note to some degree by adjusting your embouchure.
@@Sirvalorsax Awesome! I figured it was, but I'm having trouble beyond that range like I need to change something in my throat to get the...counteracting pitch...right--or something.
awesome idea to control the trouble, reproducing it!!!
Thanks
Sir, Thanks a lot for all your thoughtful help with issues related to saxophone! What is generally the best fingering for G5 ?
Note: My Yamaha YTS-62ii, G1 neck, has the front F key, and I've learned to do it with the front F and the lowest of the three righthand side keys, but I'd like to be able to work out a fingering that would allow me to pay more easily above and especially below that G, for example F-G-F-D-C.
I always have a tough time getting the high G in with fluidity of execution. Coltrane would put out a G5 or an A5 in a solo practically as easy as it was a lower note, i.e. the solo on So What from Kind of Blue.. I was trying to play Sugar from Turrentine today and I just could NOT navigate through the high G on the D-7 starting at bar 9. I'll never be at the levels of play that I have mentioned, but I'd like to be able to pull of some of these passages at least before I turn to stone lol
Do you mean altissimo G or double altissimo G?
Do you mean altissimo G or double altissimo G?
Sirvalorsax -altisimmo G ... (the second G above middle C on piano). Tenor sax is written up an octave plus a whole tone, so altissimo G is the 5th G moving up in pitch on an 88 key piano. Sometimes the names get reclassified, but I always
go by the piano key’s nomenclature, so I always have a feel for which fundamental octaves a given instrument resides in. Like you, I mess around with several different instruments. Someone once told me no, low C on a soprano flute is C1, and I said, you can call it what you want, but you can’t change the fact that it’s C4 Lol.
@@shipsahoy1793 On Tenor I use b (1 in lefthand) and high f#. You can also add side Bb for stability or tuning, depending on your playing and your horn. Cool thing about this fingering is, that you can just add the front Bb key with the same left 1 finger for a high f# and you can experiment with more left hand fingers for high f. Hope that helps.
MarcKellerSax - yes, thanks; I’m using the B key with the high F# for altissimo G as per SirValor .. Seems to be a very easy fingering to get altissimo G in tune without any real effort and no problems.
First question off the bat: I've noticed some sax players playing a standard brass T. sax use a silver neck. Some don't saying it makes no difference but I've seen others that do. What is your reasoning behind the silver neck?
My sax is pretty neutral as far as brightness and darkness goes. I'm only concerned with how it makes the reed behave. The silver is less resistant allowing me to push more and get a brighter sound. Also, if I have a reed that is too stiff or dark it can make it work a little better. On the other end for some people it may just be cosmetic
@@Sirvalorsax Thank you, SirVS, for your reply. Your explanation on the squeak is eye-opening and can't wait to put it to use myself!
Subtítulos en Español por favor !!!!😬👍
I always squeak when I go to the altissimo range but my regular range is fine do you know what the problem could be?
Are you switching to the super tone master as your main piece? I haven’t seen the T6 in a while.
For now yes. I'm doing a lot of instruction videos and I don't want anyone to think that I'm using some trick mouthpiece. Plus, this link just sounds great
It sure does! I also noticed you keep the ligature all the way back on the mouthpiece. I’ve seen a lot of people do it for a lot of different reasons. Do you mind explaining what it does for you?
LOL I need a brutally honest teacher
:)
What is your outro song?
When I play my octave d on tenor it shoots up to high would that be an embouchure problem?
Yup.
Try blowing less
Same issue. It's probably going up to a high "A". Try using a more relaxed embouchure
How do I better my practice ethic
Don't put your horn away. you're more likely to pick it up
Make it enjoyable. It should be fun. I love learning new songs and transcribing. I transcribe Jazz the least nowadays. I love interludes from my favorite shows or movie themes and even songs from my favorite movies as a kid. I'm currently working on a song called "That's All I've Got To Say" from The Last Unicorn.
do you know of someone who plays alto saxophone that has a tenor sound
Not really. I know guys that don't sound right on alto because they are tenor players though. That happens a lot. LOL!!
I love your intros so fucking much lol
Those multiphonics make my internal organs cringe.
LOL