practice today

[RockinRobin]

Today I practiced with an Onyx soft reed with some of my mouthpieces the King, the Theo Wanne Durga 5, and the fatboy. Playing songs like Sting’s Field of Gold in E major, Eres Tu in F major, Fernando in F major, Always on my Mind in F major. Hard to blow low C with the Durga. So as usual I ended playing the fat boy. I always end up with the fat boy. The Durga is a real challenge
William

[Anonymous]

Is the Durga a mouthpiece for playing classical music and Jazz?

i saw a video of a trained classical music sax player, when he tried out a bright sounding mouthpiece used for rock music he visibly struggled to articulate as well as he did on his classical mouthpiece.
I think his chops would have taken more time to adjust to playing on it.

Dark and Bright mouthpieces probably vary quite a lot embouchure wise.
It took me 2yrs before i could switch over to playing on a metal guardela mouthpiece from a classical selmer mouthpiece. Every month i used to get the guardela mouth piece out and try it out and ended up putting it back in the box, was too hard to play. Then 2yrs later i was able to play it – i guess my embouchure and strength of lung control over the 2yrs allowed me to play it. It wasn’t a reed problem as i used the same brand of reed all the time, i also found the embellishments were a lot easier to control with the guardela mouth piece.

[saxomonica]

[RockinRobin]

SX Poet Here is Nigel with the Durga
William

[john]

I agree with much of what these players talk about..My Durga is a 2 so an older one I believe. I do like it but since I don’t use it that much my intonation is not as good as my Guardala which I’ve played for 30 years! So ya, I would sound better on it if I spent more time with it, but they are nice sounding and easy to blow. It’s one I would highly recommend alongside a few Guardala models which I also have; MBI, King, Fatboy.
The Durga fits well with what I look for in a mp for a big sound in the rock/blues/soul/swing type of music I play; big baffle and large tip opening.
for anyone moving up to this from a mp that’s the opposite; small tip opening and no baffle it will be a huge adjustment and very hard to control. Something in between would be a smart step.

[RockinRobin]

Ya, I do like my Durga. I might like my FatBoy a bit more and also the King.High baffle mouth pieces I find harder to play. On my Durga I moved the ligature forward to the first holes. Easier to control the sound. I was told some time ago by the Theo Wanne reps that the last ligature holes were put on the Theo Wanne mouth pieces for Dexter Gordon. The reed I favor is the soft Onyx.

[Anonymous]

Sounds a real Jazzy mouthpiece that Durga.

One outstanding thing with playing a saxophone, is how well you hear in terms of how someone sounds when they sing, if you can tell when they sound flat or their singing goes flat or off key – then you’ll make a great sax player

[john]

since my last post which was several hours ago, I’ve been playing my durga, working on intonation and reeds that go well with it…
I do feel a bit better about it but the tone that comes from my Guardala can’t be beat. I have come to this realization only after recording myself and comparing. Simply playing it didn’t tell me this cause they both feel great…but one does win out over the other.
also, the Onyx fits the best with it.

[Anonymous]

Guardala is king (imho) – once i could play mine, and found how easier it was to play certain types of articulations and embellishments and how clear the pitch can be (with the right type of reed) – i dumped all my other mouth pieces and when people say have you tried this new mouth piece or that new mouth piece, i just ignore them – the guardala is perfect. For me the mouth piece hunt is over.

[RockinRobin]

I’m with Johnny and sxpoet. The Durga will take back seat. This morning I put my Guardala fat boy on my sax with a soft onyx reed and I blew and blew. Guardala is King
William

[Author]

Posts