Sound check with a mobile & Alto Sax done spur of the moment..

[Michael Bishop]

Here’s just a quick sound check done with the Alto and the Vandoren A55 Jumbo Java. The projection ‘booms’ out pretty well. I just did this spur of the moment, on a whim with no warming up or anything, so there’s a couple a squeaks here-and-there; reed would be slightly dry too. Uploads coming soon, really excited to upload several of Johnny’s songs 🙂

[Michael Bishop]

Just forgot to mention to bear in mind that most mobiles like this are generally low-frequency devices. So the frequency naturally sounds lower than normal. Same holds true for the mobile recording our voices, capturing audio of the radio playing in the background, etc..

[wayne wojnarowski]

Mike what do you mean by mobile??What kind of sax are you blowing / looks brand new, are those the new reeds they sound nice and loud , you have a lot of sound coming out, cool ,Mike is your Jumbo java new ? I have a A75 but it’s blue maybe cause its so old ? At about 44sec I recognize a theme song from a late nite channel 2 movie show, here in Chicago,can’t remember the name of the song. Keep on blowing brother, you sound good.

[Anonymous]

Michael – sorry mate, you’re still playing out of tune, i would keep doing the sound checks until you sound in tune before playing to a backing track & uploading.

Its either 2 things, you haven’t got the mouthpiece in the right place, or when you are playing, you keep altering your lip positions or lip tensions too much.

You might be in tune to a tuner when you are relaxed – lip tension wise, but when you actually start playing/recording you sound like you are over tightening the lips – this will change the pitch a lot compared to a relaxed lip tension.

What you need is a sax sound pitch generator which will play a continuous pitch from low F# to Altiissimo C.

Then start on low F# – play alongside the pitch & concentrate on being able to play the pitch slightly flat, slightlty sharp and spot on in tune. in otherwords learn to control the reed with your lip tension, so that you can play flat/sharp/spot on – then when you do your sound checks you should be able to have better control with keeping pitches in tune. If i was you i would stick to one sax & one mouthpiece – i honestly think the various sax’s are holding you back in terms of developing your embouchure and pitch recall.

[Anonymous]

What i’m saying is – pick one sax as your main sax and play with that one 95% of the time, and then crash out on the other two sax’s for fun.

In terms of mouthpieces, i have 5 mouthpieces . But i only use the selmar mouthpiece 99% of the time, probably once a month i will pull out the king mouthpiece for fun.
but if i spend time on the king it messes up my embouchure sound for the selmar.

[Anonymous]

the only other things that i can think of sending you out of tune-

blowing harder to get louder csn send you out of tune

putting too much mouthpiece in your mouth or too little mouthpiece in your mouth csn send you out if tune

[Michael Bishop]

@ Sxpoet: Mobiles are lower frequency devices, they record at lower frequencies than normal. If I was recording a human voice, playing the radio in the backing ground, etc., all of these things would sound normal than lower on a mobile device. In private messaging/e-mail I have sent 2 members here on Johnny’s site 2 different sound checks/videos, using 2 different devices (and those 2 members know who they are) 1 was a cheap USB mic that is practically like toast that I’ve been using and the other was this mobile and doing absolutely nothing different—both videos sounded completely different on video. There’s a few squeaks and what as I explained at the beginning of the video because I hadn’t even warmed up or anything, just picked up the Sax spur of the moment; reed was a little dry because of that too. While playing in person, in the presence of my own new Instructor, we have the proof and the Tuner to prove beyond the shadow of any doubt that I’m NOT playing out of tune; and that’s the bottom line.

[wayne wojnarowski]

Mike after being gone all day and listening to you again , I just got home from work I do think you are a bit on the loud side , and a bit out of tune maybe from blowing to hard , which i think sx poet is trying to say, I also thin k that you should stick with one horn Man , don’t you think you have to get a good sound on one horn first ,then go to your other horns, BUT NOT TILL YOU GET YOUR TONE DOWN, it’s not an indictment , it’s good friendly advice, I’m not a pro but I bet it’s quite a difference switching from Tenor than alto, and I believe you said your getting a soprano,try blowing whole tones to get your tone shaped up. I start on low Bb going all the way up to F# it kills the muscles above your teeth but I think it helps our tone. I’m don’t know Johnnie would say, but in time I think your tone will shape up, it’s what we all do on a daily basis Practice Practice Practice, Don’t waste to much time analyzing our thoughts, we all mean to help!!Your a good man Peace and Love

[Anonymous]

Michael – thats ok, just ignore my friendly advice, and listen to what other people have to say.

Microphones are like cameras – they never lie.

[john]

It takes time to get everything alligned and sound the way you want. I go back a few months to a year and can hear great improvements Michael…don’t get discouraged because everything is working the way it’s supposed to. you’re learning things and applying them and it’s paying off. only a couple lessons in with your personal instructor too so that will start to pay off even quicker than the way you have been doing basically on your own with some videos etc. like I said before, everything helps but the little things we all do incorrectly that we have no clue about but an experienced teacher standing right across from you can spot right away…. this is very valuable and you’ll see that your progress will pick up some speed now.
I like that you’re sounding LOUDER. I always tell people to practice louder…yes it can get a bit ugly but after a while we learn to harness that loud volume and in doing that we learn control and control translates into a better tone.
2 things I still see, and hear and I’ve probably mentioned before…your fingers and hands are flyin’ a mile high (look in the mirror), and you’re not stopping the notes with your tongue. that in itself can make an otherwise fine note sound flat because letting it die on it’s own without stopping it allows it to fall. hold it strong and long and put a deliberate end to it with the tip of your tongue. I hope this makes sense.

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