Saxophone Embouchure for Beginners!

Hey y'all! This video goes through the basic steps of forming a saxophone embouchure! Knowing how to use a correct embouchure is crucial to making the saxophone sound good, so these tips will hopefully help you in your beginning stages of learning to play your horn! This can feel quite strange at first, but it gets easier and more comfortable with practice and patience :)
Time Code:
00:00 - Intro
00:20 - What you'll need
00:45 - Rest, Roll, Seal
01:49 - Rest tips
02:34 - Roll tips
03: 27 - Seal tips
04:55 - How much mouthpiece?
06:03 - Recap

[@tngolfer54]

One of the greatest, most detailed and illustrative explanations concerning one’s embouchure. I’m saving this vid and sharing it. It’s truly an eye-opener from so many angles.

[@stokedonsax]

That is very kind of you to say! Thank you!

[@raseshgandhi6702]

Fantastic information

[@duanearcher7576]

Excellent!

[@christineroy7739]

Thank you sir

[@raseshgandhi6702]

It's really beautiful information ❤

[@stokedonsax]

Very kind of you to say! Thank you!🎷

[@alanpavel361]

I am in a similar situation with my teeth. I had all my teeth replaced by dentures. I really can't use dentures to bite down on a mouthpiece. I was listening to an interview with Joey DeFrancesco shortly before he passed away. While he was a famous keyboard player, he was also an accomplished trumpet and sax player. He talked about a double lip embouchure. I play now without biting down on the mouthpiece. It is taking some getting use to and my sound characteristics are different. I had to switch to a different mouthpiece, but I am getting to play.

[@stokedonsax]

Joey D is one of my all-time favorite musicians and I was devastated when he passed. Thank you for sharing your perspective on adapting your embouchure - I think as long as you are able to create a sound on your instrument and enjoy doing it, you are doing things right!

[@BiswajitMondal-dt9kw]

Thanks

[@johndelali4456]

Please I really need one of the sax

[@Justin.rangel6086]

I want to learn a brass or woodwind instrument, but am unsure if I will be able to achieve a proper embouchure. I have no feeling in my lower lip and jaw after a surgery several years ago. I've settled on saxaphone for reasons such as the embouchure is more relaxed than clarinet and the sound would be produced from the reed instead of from the mouth piece like on the trumpet. Once the teeth and lower lip are in the correct place and the mouth seals around the mouth piece does that placement remain consistent throughout the range of playing?

[@stokedonsax]

Ideally, yes! Your embouchure should remain the same throughout all registers on the horn. However, this is not too realistic. Many saxophonists (including myself) may loosen the pressure in the lower registers, and "support" (tighten) a little more on the higher end. These changes are very minimal, and are only used in the extreme ends of the range. As you play more saxophone, you will find out what you need to do with your embouchure to create the best sound possible! Long tones are a great way to dig into this idea!

[@MichaelLambertin-fb1tg]

Thanks for this helpfull video! But i have a little problem when going to the high notes. when I play scales, everything works fine but when i play songs And there is a (legato) piece where I don’t need to use my tongue And i need to switch between notes with and without octave key there are a lot of squeeks… can anyone help me with this?

[@stokedonsax]

Hi Michaël! Thanks for reaching out. The first thing that I would check is making sure that your fingers are moving at the exact same time. When you move multiple fingers, sometimes our "slower" fingers (pinky, ring) move a bit behind the others, and this can sometimes cause a squeak or two. The other thing that I would check is your reed. If it is not on straight, or it is old and has lost it's seal, then this can be an issue as well. Perhaps try a new reed that is on dead straight and see if the squeaks go away.

[@davidcockcroft5444]

i am missing my front 4 teeth (health problems).. i was wondering if perhaps i might use some foam, and mould it so my front gum rests on it, imitating the distance normal front teeth would sit on the mouthpiece. think that might work? I haven't got a saxaphone yet, but will be getting one at the end of the month.

[@stokedonsax]

Hi David - that may work! In addition to that, you may want to experiment with a "double lip" embouchure, where you roll your top lip over your top teeth as well. This type of embouchure is not very common, but there are a fair amount of players who utilize this technique and sound awesome with it. The most important part is that you create a good seal around the mouthpiece and still let the reed vibrate. You will just have to find what works best for you through some trial and error. Cheers!