Comments on: Choosing a Mouthpiece, Reed & Ligature setup

By: Evan Tate

Evan Tate — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:27:38 +0000

Hi Noah,
I’m all for dropping the grimace. Congrats! IMO the lower lip belongs only slightly over the teeth and somewhat further than the tip. How much? That varies from case to case, for example, if one has a protruding or receding lower jaw, etc. One has to find their position according to their structural features.

As far tilting the mouthpiece, I’d do that so that the tip points farther up in the mouth, NOT toward the bottom. Tilting upwards exposes a little more of the reed and frees it to vibrate more. I’ve done that only for the low notes when I’ve had a reed that was too hard at first. After breaking it in, I found tilting no longer necessary.

Many thanks,

Evan

By: noach

noach — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:14:38 +0000

Thanks for the advice, Evan.

Well, I’ve moved (kind of back) to a new JodyJazz mouthpiece: the DV CHI tenor, 7 opening (.100 cm) and a Gonzales 2 + 1/4 reed …. way softer than the 3s I’d been using. And now I can play again! or rather keep on learning to play.

The “clarinet grimace” came from my first teacher, and may also in fact be found in several beginner’s books such as the Saxophone Essentials series. In non-exaggerated form it consists of a tightening of muscles either side of the lips, and a slight stretching of the bottom lip.

Your embouchure exercises on the “one-note” theory have been a great help for me, and I’ve recommended your post to others including my current teacher who is comfortably in agreement – with the small exception of altering the tilt of the mouthpiece against bottom lip for upper/lower extremes of range.

Besides dropping the grimace, he’s recommend a different placement of the lower lip: slightly over the teeth, and slightly further away from the tip, to take substantially more mouthpiece than before. What’s your view?

Best, and thanks as always for your materials and posts.

Noah

By: Evan Tate

Evan Tate — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:59:14 +0000

Hi noach!
I play on a Vandoren V16 A9 with a small chamber, with Vandoren Java 3 1/2 strength reeds.
Your case does sound like that you’ve made too large a change in mouthpiece opening. What did you play before? Which reed strength(s) are you using? Try a softer reed first before changing the mouthpiece again. And if you do change the mouthpiece, make small steps in the opening.
Question: Why are you using the “clarinet grin” for saxophone? It’s a saxophone NOT a clarinet. Are you coming from clarinet?

By: noach

noach — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:32:16 +0000

Hi Evan! Tell me, what combination of mouthpiece etc do you normally use? I was very interested in your discussion of opening size. I think now that it was over-ambitious of me to move to a JodyJazz 9* 0.125 [!] for after a few months my cheek muscles have begun to ache as I can tell that the so-called “clarinet grin/grimace” is being unconsciously forced on my embouchure to offset lower-lip pressure and wide opening.