Naperville Saxophone Lessons
You will find that saxophone lessons are really worth your time. The first few weeks of lessons will entail a lot of honking as you figure it out. The closest relative of the saxophone is the clarinet, which is a common wind instrument to double on for saxophone players. There are a number of things to keep in mind during your first sax lesson.
The neck strap must be adjusted so that the instrument comes to you. Also, the reed should be in good condition by being free of chips and abnormalities. Also, do not use a plastic reed because of intonation issues that are likely to arise. If it takes too much effort to attach the mouthpiece to the saxophone during your lesson, you should apply cork grease to the cork and try it again. Now that the most fundamental principles of maintenance have been covered, we are ready to start producing a sound.
Let the air flow freely as you begin taking your sax lessons. Although you regulate the air flow, you must not allow that regulation to tighten up the rest of your upper body. Be careful not to overblow, even though you are able to get a very raw jazz sax tone by doing so. Ok, you can do it once, but to start you must develop a great tone that will set develop your consistency, from which you can then experiment with different timbres and colors. When you are forming the embouchure, which is essentially what your face does to accommodate the sax, try to think of the lips as a drawstring and putting a uniform force around the mouthpiece. Be sure to adjust how tight you are forming the embouchure in addition to how much of the mouthpiece you are taking in, but stop adjusting when you are satisfied with the tone you are producing during these lessons.
-Naperville Lessons, August 2010