Soprano sax tone

[ConnChu]

Ideally, should a soprano sax sound like an extension of an alto, or should it have it's own tone?

Also, how do you prevent it from sounding like an oboe? The couple of times I tried a soprano, from my vantage point as the player it sounded like an oboe. I'm not sure if it sounded different at a listener's location.

[singlereed]

Well it definitely has its own tone, or rather, range of tones. With a hard reed and close facing mouthpiece, it can sound very pure and flutey, quite beautiful. If you play a softer reed and/or a wider opening mouthpiece perhaps with a baffle, it can sound very raw and aggressive, even ethnic. I suggest you should listen to some good players and see what you like. I recommend Simon Haram, John Harle, Jan Garbarek, Branford Marsalis (especially his playing with Sting), John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Steve Lacy. It does take a lot of dedicated work to play soprano well, but then so does every other sax.

[Dave Dolson]

Conn Chu: I believe you can make a soprano sound like anything you want it to sound like. True, the horn itself and the mouthpiece set-up has some bearing on your results, but the player is the key to good tone. And of course, your good tone may not be MY good tone, but at least you can please yourself and the audiences that like what you like.

Close-facing pieces with hard reeds can give you that oboe-like tonal quality. Being a huge Sidney Bechet fan (and other soprano players from that side of jazz), I prefer the open-piece/soft-reed approach, but that's just me. DAVE

[Straightsax]

Two excellent answers above. And, I'm tough to please.

As always, Peace.

Chris.

[Minatar12]

Another good soprano player to check out is Dave Liebman, who to some people is the embodiment of jazz soprano nowadays.

[goodsax]

On my Kohlert sop, changing from a Fibracell Medium 3 to a Vandoren V16 3 reed, using the same Yani HR mpc and same player, me, creates a dramatic difference in the tone quality. The V16 helps me produce a purer, cleaner sound compared to the edgier (brighter?) sound I get with the Fibracell. Playing in a community concert band, the sound I get with the V16 blends more effectively with the group and is, I think, befitting the classical style. I might be more inclined to use the Fibracell in a jazz or pop setting.

I may not be using the accepted adjectives to describe these tonal differences, but tried to give you the general idea of how simply changing the reed can make a world of difference in the tone. I've found the same to be true on alto.