Saxophone - Visualising the Sound

Pete Thomas

There’s no doubt about it. Practising long notes can be boring. Bored practice is wasted practice so if you find that your mind is wandering then that is a good time to either take a break from practising or move onto some other exercises that you find you can concentrate on more easily. Ultimately though you should try to train yourself to be able to practise long notes without getting bored. You should learn to really focus on the sound and "get inside" it. One way to do this is to visualise the sound as a colour. Not only will this help you concentrate on when doing your tone study, it wil actually give you a much better understanding of your saxophone sound and how to expand its possibilities.

Using diaphragm breathing, blow a long note. You must make sure that there are no wobbles or hiccups, you must be able to imagine it as a straight line. It shouldn’t dip or rise in pitch - imagine it as horizontal. As you near the end of the note (ie you are running out of breath) make sure that you are still supporting the air in your lungs and air column from your diaphragm, and now, more than ever, you must keep that line straight - no wobbles - and hold it like that right until your lungs are empty. Breathe in slowly and relax.

NB: It may take you a while to get to this stage. I would recommend that you make sure you can maintain a wobble free note that sustains well through to the end before continuing, but if not it probably won’t do any harm to have a go at the next bit - it just may not be quite as rewarding.

Once you are confident about your "straight line " tone, try it again, this time imagine that line as being a bit broader. I don’t mean your sound needs to be broader or wider, this is just another way of visualising the tone. Aim for a nice soft, warm, dark and wide tone. (These are descriptions which may mean different things to different people - that does not matter). Again you must imagine the line as being horizontal and wobble free. No change in dynamics and hold for a full breath again.

This time do the same thing, but imagine the note as a colour. It doesn’t matter which colour because once again, different people imaging different colours to go with certain sounds, but for now let’s assume it’s purple, just because I’ve chosen that in my illustration). The important thing is that you see in your mind the colour of this sound and that it is as straight as possible.

Now try again, and as you blow, make it get louder. As it gets louder the line expands, and you can imagine the top edge gradually taking on a bright gold against the original colour. This is your warm dark tone gradually getting a bit of edge or brightness to it. It is common for the higher frequencies in the tone to be amplified relative to the fundamental" sound as the loudness increase so you are probably just visualising the changes that are actually happening to the sound, but this process is going to be very useful when it comes to you actually controlling the sound. You will be able to make the higher (brighter) overtones come and go as you play that tone. But all the time you must be aware that you are supporting the breath with your diaphragm and there are no wobbles.

Taking this a stage further

Once you get used to this you can experiment with visualising different colours to adjust your tone. The important thing is to try to note what you do with your embouchure or oral cavity to do this. It may be that it’s impossible to analyse - don’t worry, the most important thing is to be able to gain control over it - and even if you can do this without knowing exactly how, you have achieved a great deal.

After a while you may be able to identify a lot more in your sound than you at first realised, and this is a very big step towards controlling it. Listen out for a "core". Imagine this like an electrical cable with a copper middle surrounded by the insulation.

You may also identify a part of the sound that is the sound of your breath - more likely to be noticeable when playing softly or subtone as it is a quiet part of the sound. The sound of real human breath is something almost impossible to synthesise so it can often but can be a useful part of the expression. (e.g. Listen to Ben Webster)

1. Play the note and see if you can create the edge without getting louder. Try this at different levels from very quiet to very loud.
2. Play the note with a crescendo, but without adding the edge.
3. Play the note with a decrescendo but without losing any edge. (Obviously for this one you need to start the note with some edge).

Attack and Release

Visualising the note will also help you to get a clean start and finish. Bad articulation (clumsy tonguing) will make the beginning of the not indistinct, so you should aim for the start to be clean like this:

And not messy like this:

A very useful effect (once you have mastered the use of your tongue, is to articulate without the tongue. This is best used for soloing rather than ensemble unless all the players can synchronise, As well as starting the note without the tongue, an advanced technique is finish a note with no tongue to create a decay by letting it tail off evenly at the end:

All of this work may take some time, but once you are able to visualise your sound like this, apply it to all your long note and melodic study. This approach will almost certainly help you understand how to get a wide variety of tone and expression from the saxophone and it should also have the added benefit of making it easier to concentrate and focus your mind on your long note practice, always a very difficult but worthwhile thing to be able to do.

© 2008 Pete Thomas www.petethomas.co.uk

Pete Thomas took up saxophone at the age of 18 after hearing Ornette Coleman and Lee Allen. He was originally self taught before gaining a scholarship to the jazz course at Leeds College of Music. He plays all saxophones from bass to sopranino as well as flutes and clarinet. Although he has been known to play jazz, his specialities are now blues, pop and rock.

During the 80s he toured with rock and rock & roll bands (Bill Haley, Fats Domino, Joe Jackson and Richard Thompson) and worked extensively as a session musician with credits including Elton John, R.E.M., Joe Jackson, Dana Gillespie and Jimmy Witherspoon. During this time he struck up a lasting friendship and working relationship with legendary tenor player and hero Lee Allen.

Throughout the 90s he continued playing saxophone and was commissioned by Virgin Music to devise and present a saxophone tuition video/DVD. During this time he also concentrated on a new career as a composer and producer.

From 1999 to 2002 he took on a half time post at University of Southampton as head of jazz and pop performance and lecturer in composition. Many of his saxophone and jazz tutorials are now available on his website. He is currently continuing his composition work full time.