Understanding the role of the facial muscles, lips, and teeth in creating the sound is
essential to producing a quality saxophone tone. Most importantly, these components should work together to form an embouchure that controls the speed and evenness with which the reed vibrates, without inhibiting these same vibrations.

With this in mind, think of the lower lip as being a firm mattress upon which the reed rests.
The objective is to provide support for the reed without pinching or biting with the lower teeth. This means that the teeth should be pulled down while maintaining constant firmness with the muscles in the lower lip and corners of the mouth.

It is important that the muscles controlling the upper and lower lips be focused inward rather than stretched in a smiling position. This inward focus should result in a round or oval-shaped embouchure that seals around the mouthpiece. The difficulty is keeping the lower lip firm during this process.

One way of knowing that the teeth and facial muscles are in the proper position and
functioning correctly is that the chin should be flat when the embouchure is sustained. This
position may be achieved relatively easily at first, but students often have difficulty maintaining control over these muscles while playing. For this reason, I have included some exercises for achieving, strengthening, and playing with the correct saxophone embouchure.

A common saxophone embouchure exercise involves closing the teeth in a relaxed manner. Without biting, press the upper and lower lips firmly together. Keep the corners of the mouth
in place and the lips pressed firmly together as you separate the teeth as far as possible. Sustain this position until you feel fatigue, then rest and repeat the process. Done daily, this exercise
will serve to strengthen the muscles used in forming your embouchure.

A variation of the exercise described above is also helpful in setting the embouchure for playing. Close the teeth without biting. Press the lips firmly together. This time separate the
teeth enough that you can stick the tip of your tongue between them while keeping the lips pressed firmly. Retract the tongue and push the lower teeth forward (assuming you have a
slight overbite) into the lower lip. Keeping the teeth in this position, separate the lips and place
the mouthpiece into your mouth with the upper teeth resting on the top of the mouthpiece
and the lower lip making contact with the reed. Focus the corners of your mouth inward to
close securely around the mouthpiece. Be certain that the chin stays flat and the lower teeth down during this process.

Another important consideration in setting the embouchure is knowing exactly how much mouthpiece to place in the mouth. Hold the mouthpiece sideways so that you can see the
angle at which the reed and rails of the mouthpiece come together; then place your thumbnail at the intersection. This marks the approximate amount of mouthpiece that should enter the mouth. Listen to the tone when you play. If it is thin or dead sounding, you may need to place more mouthpiece in your mouth. If the tone has a duck or goose-like quality to it, chances are that you have too much mouthpiece in your mouth. By listening for the sweet spot, you will eventually learn to feel the right bite on the mouthpiece.

I recently received an email from an adult student of the saxophone with a question regarding transferring his musical ideas to his instrument. He seemed frustrated because he felt that while he was able to whistle or scat his musical ideas, he was unable to locate these sounds on his instrument.

In reality I believe that many students are capable of hearing ideas in the mind's ear that they may or may not have the musical vocabulary to reproduce on their instruments. So, my suggestion for these individuals is to experiment with what they know they can play.

I've developed an exercise designed to help students make the connection between the mind's ear and their instruments. By working with this exercise, players with a vocabulary of just a few major scales can begin to establish that link between their ears and instruments.

Here's the exercise:

Play a major scale...one that you know very well and can play freely up and down your instrument. Next, learn to sing the same scale. Take your time, making certain to match the pitches exactly. You may wish to play and sing the scale several times to assure accuracy.

Beginning with a simple passage, vocally improvise a phrase using only tones from this scale. Next, locate your starting tone with your instrument and play the phrase. If you have difficulty locating your starting tone, try again by first establishing a starting tone with your instrument.

As you progress, try starting on different tones. You should also experiment with ascending and descending passages, note length and varying intervals.

Continue using this process as your musical vocabulary grows to include different kinds of scales (i.e. pentatonic, blues, minor, etc.). With a little creativity, you can even use this exercise as an aid in learning to hear and play chord changes.

Students often experience difficulty bridging musical the gap between the mind and instrument. Hopefully this exercise will provide students with a method for using their existing instrumental vocabulary to get in touch with the mind's ear.

Randy Hunter is an Atlanta-based freelance saxophonist and long term private instructor. He self publishes a series of educational jazz books entitled "Complete Jazz Styles." His series of etude and duet books have been endorsed by Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, John Fedchock and a number of other world renowned jazz artist and educators. www.randyhunterjazz.com