Why, recently has my tone on sax just gone completely terrible? I sound awful and it is really frustrating me now. My tone is ok, not amazing but ok, but in the past few days it has just gone yuck.

I need it to get back to how it was and better.

Argh help

mine was awful today too, but I think it's the humidty more than me.

I always blame that kind of thing on the weather!

Or the reed?

Yes, the weather or the reed! Nat, when I saw the header for your post I KNEW it was from you even before I saw your name!!

Can you do a practice somewhere in a big empty room or a hall? I find that when I have the chance to do that occasionally it's brilliant, because it makes me sound so much better than I normally do, and it's a real confidence-booster!

of course! I know what you mean though Nat where you're so screeechy it's unbearable to listen to! And you think how on earth am I this bad?!

I will try a different reed tomorrow.

jo - how did you know it was me?!

I don't know, I just did

Best of luck for uni, by the way!

You must be psychic!

And thanks

Perhaps Jo knew because you were putting yourself down again in the thread title . Have some confidence in yourself, you are good .


I think that is actually the most positive thing I've heard you say about your own playing, well done and keep it up .

PS. I'm sure it's better than OK! I can't give you any specific advice except have confidence in yourself .

A well-known phenomenon in flautists is the 'never satified with tone' phenomenon. As our tone improves, our expectations are raised, so what sounded good a few weeks before now sounds awful. It may well be that something like this is happening to you, Nat, so it's not actually your tone that has changed, but your ear.

The only remedy is to record yourself at different times and compare the recordings. This will at least assure you that your tone is not getting worse.

How weird! I was just in the middle of writing the same thing as I was told exactly that in a lesson yesterday.

If you can't practise in a big room, try your bathroom! Sounds crazy and you'll feel a bit stupid at first, but all the hard surfaces will create a big echo, and it will make you feel you are the best player in the world. It's a great confidence boosting trick.

hornplayer x

Kitchens can also work quite well.

Yes, the tone with which I would have been delighted this time last year would now disappoint me. Argh! It's kind of annoying, but then again it must mean I've got better

I'm always relieved that others are saying the same thing as me.

Don't know how it could be my ear changing but ah well..............

If you think about it, it makes sense. First time you play an instrument it is a bonus just getting a note out of the thing, however rubbish the sound is! But if you have been playing for 10 years then you're not going to be happy unless the note shows 10 years of work - and you are much more in tune with what 10 years of work in that note should sound like.

Take that down to a smaller scale, and as you progress you get to know more and more what you are aiming for (your expectations of the sound you are making are raised) and you also (simply through practice) will be more adept at noticing any imperfections in your tone. This goes even more if you are specifically working on tone, because you are listening out for the changes and looking specifically at your tone.

The tone that you may have been delighted with when you had been been a couple of months probably sounded a lot better to you *then* that the tone that you're not that happy with these days, for example, but the chances are if you could make a direct comparison you would hear that your tone has improved absolutely masses in that time.