Don't forget my archives...

"If they act too hip, you know they can’t play $#!T."
- Miles Davis


So I finished my mouthpiece article and posted it. Now I guess I have to come up with some other subject matter. I hope people are checking the archives - I have a lot of great posts written on various topics that are worth checking out, and just because they're a couple of months old it doesn't mean that the information isn't current anymore.

I guess I'll list some ideas I have for upcoming posts. Reply in the comments section of this post if you have any preferences.

- Improvisation 101 for the non-musician
- jazz history in 500 words or less
- musicality vs. technical proficiency

L8R

Q: When should a saxophonist change his reed?
A: Whenever a difficult section comes up in the music score.

Mouthpieces & You

There is a lot of ground to cover when the subject of mouthpieces is up for discussion. With so many variables, it's hard for us to know if we've really got the right one. Not only do we have dozens of mouthpieces to pick from; there is the issue of how they all interact with our horns and our reeds. The ligature is another concern, and of course if our embouchure is incorrect, nothing will sound good. Whew! While it all seems like too much to consider, and just going ahead and getting a mouthpiece that was recommended on a jazz forum by 'Saxy372' appears to be the easy thing to do, perhaps I can ease the pain by offering some real nuggets of wisdom, hard won through years of trial and error. The following are some thoughts on mouthpieces, and I hope you all find this useful and informative.

Table
This is the part that the reed is clamped onto by the ligature. The table must be extremely flat or the reed will distort and cause squeaks or allow air to leak.
Chamber
The inside of the mouthpiece. The size and shape of the chamber can have a big effect on the sound.

Rails
The sides of the mouthpiece along the vibrating part of the reed. The thickness of the rails has an effect on the sound. They should be symmetrical.

Tip
The tip of the mouthpiece. This should line up with the tip of the reed when looking at the reed side of the mouthpiece. The better the fit, the better the consistency of response.

Lay
The curved part of the mouthpiece. This curve allows the reed to vibrate. Long lay = more resistance. Often if the tip opening is very wide the lay is shorter to allow for proper resistance.

Shank
The part that joins onto the neck of the saxophone. There must be an airtight seal between the inside of the shank and the neck cork. The seal should also be quite snog to allow for strong vibration transfer.

Baffle
A relatively modern innovation. Some mouthpieces have a wedge shape built up inside which causes the airstream to flow faster, resulting in a brighter, more cutting sound.

Ligature
This clamps the reed to the mouthpieces. Some people consider that the type of ligature affects the sound - I’ve never noticed this, however it is very important that the ligature is not distorted or the tone will definiteley suffer. For this reason the more flexible textile based ligatures may sound better if compared to a damaged metal one. Do not overtighten the screws, they should be tight enough to just stop the reed from slipping.

Dimensions
The length of lay and width of tip opening are usually the most important considerations for the player when choosong saxophone mouthpieces. Wider tip openings can be harder to play, though it is the combination of lay length and tip opening that really determines this. A long lay can make a wide tip opening easier, and a short lay can make a narrower tip opening harder to play. Generally the wider the tip opening, the softer the reeds required.

Material
Saxophone mouthpieces are usually metal or hard rubber. The main differences in sound are due to the dimensions and shape of the mouthpiece.

So that's a quick list. Below is a more personal rundown.

First, let me remind you that I'm a tenor player. I've doubled on alto and soprano in the past, for the most part this mouthpiece info is pertaining to the tenor, although much of this is universal to all saxes. So first, a bit about alto and soprano mouthpieces.

Now don't get excited, but I believe that there's no reason for anyone to use a metal mouthpiece on alto or soprano, because the horns already have enough brightness to them. That is, unless you play nasty dirty funk, or lead in a big band. My favs on alto are the C** (no, not the C*, and not the D either), and the Meyer (can't remember the tip opening and type). For, sop, whatever is easiest to blow on and stays relatively in tune. The tuning is hard to tell, as the Sop is notoriously hard to keep in tune anyway.

Basic Tips On Selection, Etc.
I'll string together some random bits of bite sized wisdom here...
Get familiar with a couple of reeds before you go out mouthpiece hunting. You'll want a slightly weaker, broken in one, and a slightly stiff newer one. Every mouthpiece responds differently to assorted reeds.

Do the suction test. Put a reed on – that you know isn't warped – and blow a buzz note. Then, suck the air out a little and close up the reed to the tip of the mouthpiece with your tongue. If it holds for a split second and then pops off, you've got a good seal. If it doesn't hold the air, there may be a problem with your mouthpiece. Of course, if you didn't really wet your reed down or if it is warped, this trick won't work.

Look for thin side rails and tip rail. This will allow for a brighter sound and a faster response to notes in fast lines. Seriously, this tip is a little jem. If you want your lines to come off crisp and clean at blistering tempos, you'll want a mouthpiece with thin rails. The opposite to this is fat rails, and all but the daftest of players can get a reed to seat blindfolded on a mouthpiece with big runway rals. This will make your sound less bright, and notes will come off a bit more sluggishly. NOTE: There is a trick you can try if you notice that your mouthpiece does in fact have wide rails; get a fine grit sandpaper (400 – 600) and set your reed on it's side on the sandpaper. Hold it two thirds of the way towards the butt of the reed, and with short, slow, light strokes, slide the reed forwards and backwards. This will remove only a very small amount of width from your reed, and will basically make it fit 'tight' on the facing. Go with 10 strokes per side untill you notice that it is thinner. Hmmm... maybe this should be a reed and mouthpiece article... naw, back to the topic...

Again, unless you are lead sax in a big band, or playing R&B or funky stuff, you don't need a giant baffle. The baffle is the amount of material just past the tip below the reed at the from of th mouthpiece. Some brands do silly things like create huge tables that destroy the tone, but allow for ridiculously easy altissimo and super peircing notes. I'm maybe old school, but I think that what one should do is get a mouthpiece with a nice centered solid tone, and work on the brightness through emboushure and tone exercises. I once had a beautifull metal Otto Link 8 with super thin rails, a nie carved out chamber, even rails, and it just played so nicely. Sadly we parted company a few years back, but it's probably for the best. It was an 8, for Pete's sake! I had to use a med soft reed in order to blow it for a long time, and I could literally crack walnuts with my lips! Anyways, now I have a metal Link 7*, and it's good for me, but it sure isn't made as well as my 8 was.

This brings me to another point: mouthpieces are fairly inconsistent from one to another. Two exact same models will blow differently, and this is the case for every brand (with a few exceptions). When you find a brand you like, get the tip opening in a reasonable range, and try two or three or four. Speaking of tip openings...

Wide tip opening = loud. Small tip opening = quiet. Well, it's not really as simple as this, but let's keep it dumbed down for now. If the tip is very open, you will need to use a softer reed than if it were small in order to do the same amount of work. You can push more air through a wide tip, and you can 'cheat' with your tuning by just blowing hard and setting that as your tuning. I know, that doesn't make sense, but let's look at it from the other side. With a very small tip opening it's easy to lip a note down or up as far as a half tone. This is much harder with a wider tip, but all in all this is pretty useless info. An average tip opening for tenor mouthpieces is between 95 and 105 thousandths of an inch.

Like the baffle, the chamber can affect your tone greatly. This is the area located just behind the baffle, and it goes all the way back to wherever the neck in the mouthpiece ends. Here is a not-so-useless-fact: if the chamber is big, this will lower the tone slightly, and a large chamber won't push air through as fast as a small chamber. Often a large/high baffle is coupled with a tight/small chamber in order to achieve a 'punchy' tone, and similary a low/small baffle can often be seen with a large/wide chambler. Oh yeah, about the air speed: mouthpieces can match horns. I have a Selmer MK VI, and using my big 7* link seemed good because it's what I was used to. Then I found a vintage Selmer Soloist D, and I discovered what matching a horn with a mouthpiece can do. The soloist has a long rolled baffle and a tight chamber, and evidently it was designed specifically for the Selmer MK VI. This can be more exact than you need to get, so just remember that it may be causing you grief, but other factors are more important than this one.

Mouthpiece cusions. Man, I'm all over the place with my topics and subject matter, but so far it seems to make sense. So yeah, if you haven't used mouthpiece cusions I strongly suggest that you do. With them it is easier to anchor your top teeth lightly to the mouthpiece, and the vibrations don't travel through the mouthpiece into your head through your teeth. Believe me, once you use one, you'll never go back. There are a few brands – Blayman & Selmer are two I've used.

I could go on, but instead I'll end this post now and offer to answer individual posts in the comments area.

By the way, the title links to the same place as the site below, and it's got great info on mouthpieces if you wanna go a little deeper. Find out what mouthpiece your fav sax player played, and compare tip openings of different brands. Wee!!!

http://www.mouthpieceheaven.com/index.php

L8R

End of Summer Woes

Q: Why can't vocalists get through a door?
A: They either can't find the key, or don't know where to come in.

Well, it seems that summer is over and I didn't even get to go camping. In fact I didn't do much this summer. It seems like all I did was work and change diapers. Well wait a minute - it wasn't all that bad. Life really is moving forward and I'm enjoying it. If I ever get pissy about the little stuff, I just have to remember back to what my life was like at a time in the past when I was totally lost (see post called 'musicians & drugs').

So yeah, I'm having a good year. I'm sad for all those whose lives have been directly affected by the hurricane that tore through the gulf. Of course we'll all be indirectly affected, but like I said before, it could be worse.

My wife asked me this morning, "If we had to evacuate suddenly, what would you take?" I replied, "My sax, my reeds (I have lots), and my music books. Period."

So she reproachfully asked why I'd leave Graham (our 18 month old).

Oops.

"Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments."

- Mingus

New Links At Bottom Of Page!

Check out the new link list at the bottom of this page. I scoured the web to find you only the best sites to list here. I'm not exaggerating - I spent hours searching for thrilling nuggets of surfing bliss for all of my faithfull jazz-head blog readers.

Enjoy!!!

How To Get Paying Gigs

How To Get Paying Gigs

There are books written on the subject of how to be a successful musician, but I haven't seen any that address the subject of pay. Here, now, I will offer some tips on how you can get a gig, and get paid well.

Portfolios.
Every band and their dog has a demo C.D. How excited would you be to get a copied low quality recording of some guys jamming in their basement? Not very. That's why you want to have a portfolio. This is simply said C.D., plus a professional band photo (8x10 is best... c'mon, you're friend has a 3.1 MP camera and you've got a color printer – Do It!), a bio including info on you and your band with history, and a letter to the specific establishment you are dealing with (to make them feel important). Put it all in a good quality folder – found at your local office supply store – and don't expect to see it again. Don't get your girlfriend to color it with sparkles around the band name; just put the stuff in there and take it to your meeting with the manager of the club. You did call ahead and schedule an appointment with the manager, didn't you?!? Oh yeah, and do a follow up within the week. Close that deal man, or get the portfolio back (if you can).
The sale for them here is that your band will draw more business. If your not charging at the door and there's no cover, then you need the venue to know that it's going to be worth it. Sometimes the public needs to know that it's a regular thing, so tell the venue that you're doing crazy promotion in the newspapers and postering all over town. They'll like that. If you do want to charge cover, don't go over $5.00 because people are cheap, and they want to spend their money on booze. $7.00 is the max, and if you are well known with a following, $10.00 is the absolute max, but be ready to see people go elsewhere for their music. Seriously, cover should be 5 bucks or less, so sometimes a cover plus base pay is a great way to do it. You can really complicate things here though. Say the club charges a $2.00 cover regularly, but because you want $100.00 per man, they're gonna charge 6 bucks for cover, and you're not getting any of it directly. You do the math. Or, they give you a minimum pay of , say, $25.00 per man for the night (not good), and a percentage of the bar sales. Hmmm... sounds tricky, and even if it looks busy, they can give you whatever they like. Stick to simplicity and get a flat pay deal. See below for the actual numbers.

Unions.
You should look at the local musicians union, but I don't necessarily recommend joining one. You can accept gigs that pay less if you're not with the union, but if you are a member, you cannot play for less, unless as a sideman secretly, maybe... Just look into it.

Be Nice.
So the manager of the bar or restaurant is a jerk, and you want a gig there because it's a great venue. Brown nosing isn't the answer, and may in fact make him/her respect you less. Instead go in hard, with a 'business proposal' that shows why they want to hire you. If you are confident and pleasant, they will listen. If you are nasty, confrontational and insecure, they will smell the fear and piss on you.

Pay.
Well, this varies greatly, and that's the whole point of this post. No one wants to work all night for 20 bucks only to have to pick up the $30.00 tab at the end, and we all dream of big money, so what can we really expect? Take a good look at the venue for an idea of what you'll get. This is where you have to think about the bands split. I truly believe that pay should be split evenly for everyone. Maybe, if you are the leader and you are fronting the cost of the bands' portfolio, and you are doing all of the promotion, then you can take a little extra. Let's see if I can break it down. Remember, I'm using Canadian funds.
You might get $100.00 per musician for a two set gig, with 45 minute sets & 15 minute breaks. That's pretty good, and I'd say it's a good starting point. You could also say, for the same band, same amount of work, 'X' amount for an entire show, and have them break it down. This can sound like more to the venue, as it's a lump sum, so be ready for a haggle. I'd go no lower than $200.00 for a four man two set gig, and the venue might want a third set thrown in. In fact, many gigs are three sets, so set your price higher ($300.00) and go from there. Try for a free dinner or a few complimentary drinks thrown in after the deal is inked out, but don't let that count as pay, unless you like to be pushed around. At the nicer popular spots start higher. $600.00 for a three set four man gig, or $100.00 per man with free dinner and a drink. That's a sweet deal. Give it a shot – you never know. If you've represented your band well, you'll get the cash, and maybe a solid weekly or monthly out of it if you're play well and put on a good show.

So there it is. Go get that gig and get paid.

L8R

Practicing In My Mind

"Opinions are like assholes . . . everyone’s got one."
- Art Blakey

Sometimes I can't get my sax out to practice. If the situation arises where I wan't to practice and have the time to do it, but something gets in the way. When this happens I can 'practice' in my mind. Going through the motions while moving my figers as if I was playing has been productive for me, and I even do it when I'm on long bus rides or in line ups.

Imagine reading a theory book, or a scale/pattern/technique book, and instead of playing the exercis you visualise them in your mind. Tap your foot to keep time if you want. Practicing in this way can make it easier to get through the tedious stuff like learning patterns using triad pairs, with inversions, over weird chords.

Anyways, if you haven't tried this, you are probably still wasting your 'bored' time away. Why not be the only person in the line-up at the bank with a smile on your face?

L 8 R

Small wonder we have so much trouble with air pollution in the world when so much of it has passed through saxophones.

Jazz on Star Choice Satellite Cable

"Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious."

- Thelonious Monk

If you are looking for a new cable service provider and live in North America where Star Choice satellite cable is available, I recommend trying this company. I live in a valley where FM radio doesn't penetrate, so I do my radio listening on my satellite radio.

The jazz played on one of the 'galaxie radio' channels is mostly current canadian artists, and good ones too. They have other channels with classic 'jazz masters', and a cheezy easy listening jazz-rock.

Supposedly they may get the Cool TV channel for subscription soon. I hound them weekly to see if it's available.

Anyways, forget Shaw, Bell, and any others. Star Choice has wicked programing, good features and good rates. I get basic cable with radio for $26.00 CDN a month!

L8R

Q: If you were out in the woods, who would you trust for directions, an in-tune tenor sax player, an out-of-tune tenor sax player, or Santa Claus?

A: The out-of-tune sax player! You were hallucinating the other two.

Jazz & Sax Myths

- You need the same mouthpiece as your favorite player in order to sound like him.

- You need to do lots of drugs to be a great player.

- Talent and/or being 'gifted' is the more important than hard work & tenacity.

These three misconceptions have caused a great many players to experience far more greif than they should have. I think it's sad that so many cats are giving p because they don't think they're talented enough, getting high all the time in the name of deep music, and buying new mouthpieces only to find that they sound like themselves, maybe with a hint of their favorite sax player mixed in only in timbre of tone (not tone quality - I don't want to mislead anyone with the word 'quality').

So, if you've subscribed to any of these myths, you're in luck! Now you have been saved from years of greif. Below are the facts...

- To sound like Johnny Longhorn, lift his solos. The gear is relatively unimprtant compared to how many transcriptions of this cat you do. Play along with their albums and you'll sound like them. Just keep the gear somewhere in the same ballpark.

- Forget the drugs. They won't do squat for your playing, and eventually if you get messed up with the hard stuff your life will go down the toilet. They won't make you play the blues better, they won't give your playing 'soul', and they definately won't give you groove.

- If you go to a karaoke bar, you'll see great talented singers wail out their impressions of their favorite singers. Most have no formal training, only some natural talent. These are not the singers who go on to get record deals. The singers who work hard at their art are the ones who go on to be great singers. There's no substitution for hard work, and in the long run that karaoke singer will be wishing they'd put a little more effort into learning how to sing. When I was a kid I had some natural talent, but most of all I worked hard. All through high school I busted my butt to get better at playing the sax, and eventually I ended up at a respectable post secondary music program at 17 years of age, exempt from most 1st year courses. I didn't just stop there - I had a lot of work to do. Talent isn't even a part of the equation.

If you know of any other music myths post them in this posts' comments.

L8R