Hi,
I am playing Grovlez's sarbande et allegro in a festival next week, & in it there is a tounge on low Bb, and low C#, and sometimes they come out, & sometimes they dont. I try changing my embourshure (sp), but it doesnt help much - any advice??

Thanks, Jonathan

My low notes are a joke..... someone once told me if you put wine corks in the bell and let them rest in the curved bit it helps... is this a myth?? It's cause I'm a clarinettist and apparenly I'm "too uptight"! Imagine saying the word Orange... I'm reeling off the things I've been told but still dont work for me!

That is where you are going wrong on this piece. There is no need to change your embouchure at all, if you keep the airflow constant and just blow down to the Bb it should be ok. Another cause is that the pad that covers the Bb one hole is not fully covering the hole, this is a problem on my saxaphone so what you need to do is be certain that you are depressing the the key fully. It is is much better to play the note with is being smoothed over than attempting to tongue the note and it not coming out. I was practising this piece earilier tonight and when I first started I too couldn't get the notes out, but just keep the airflow constant

Good luck with the festival, if you can pull it off then it is a fabulous piece.

Ben

Ben's right about not needing to change your embouchure especially for the low notes - it should remain pretty much constant through the range. Most likely problems/solutions are

1) Leaks in the sax - doesn't necessarily have to be on the Bb key, sometimes little leaks all over the sax can accumulate and cause most problems at the bottom end.

2) Not enough air support, you really need to support the note with the stomach muscles - augment the tongue at the start of the note with a "kick" from your stomach. An exercise I was given to try and clean up the start of notes is to practice scales with detached notes but no tongue, start every note from your diaphragm. Make sure you don't use the back of your throat (a "gah", or "ugh" sound) but a "hah" sound from your stomach. When you've played a few scales like this you really start to feel the stomach working, then you add in the tongue just to define the start of the note, not to thwack it out.

3) Final thing I can think of is a too tight embouchure, as Kate said can be a problem for clarinettists, but you shouldn't need to change your embouchure just for the low notes, it needs to be pretty much the same over the range of the instrument. If this is the problem it's likely that you'll also notice your high notes being a bit thin/sharp.

Low notes on sax are difficult though, one of the most difficult things I think, must be a quiet, tongued low Bb at the start of a piece.

And here's me thinking you were G8+

Well anyway, from what a friend who did this for his G8 did was slur all low register notes like B flat etc in a musical fashion to give the power of the sound, and to make life easier.

But that's only what he told me, I wouldn't know if this actually worked. Good luck

Make sure when you play the Bb it doesn't come out loud as it naturally will when you try and force it out. Work on moving down from D - C# - C - B - Bb and when you can get it going down good tonguing take the first note off so then you would get down to something like C - B - Bb. Your ultimate goal is to be able to produce the Bb straight away with a good sound and no hesitation