Post 2: Adjusting and Settin'-up for JAZZ

This week was my first week really trying to explore jazz, and up until now, it's really been an experimental process. I had my saxophone lesson last Monday, and I spent a whole hour with my teacher, Professor Dragan, discussing the mindset, sound differences, and just overall elements that make jazz JAZZ. After that, I was probably fiddling around on my sax for at least another hour everyday, simply trying to get used to playing in a jazz mode. While it is without a doubt loads of fun and really cool to just flat out be "jammin'", I've found myself to still love the refinement of classical music more. Still, it's been really interesting to start poking around jazz these past few days.

With the help of my saxophone teacher, online jazz saxophonist Greg Lutz (check out one of his videos HERE), and Eric Ruyle of the University of South Carolina (a really informational and helpful article! HERE), I've been able to gain a base knowledge of what I want for jazz:
1. SWING. Swing, or the rhythmic integrity of jazz, is at the foundation of playing any jazz. There are lots of types of swing, but mostly, it's an emphasis on hearing and creating, well, "cool sounding" off beats to a steady pulse.
2. IMPROVISATION. Jazz is all just about feeling the music and having fun with it, not playing a piece to "perfection". It's based on the premise that you should never play any song the same way twice and instead use variation, pattern, and just your own interpretation in making things sound good.
3. BRIGHT, PROJECTING SOUND. For phrasing and making a statement in jazz, saxophonists are going to want to have the right set-up that will make their sound really "happy" and penetrating. As a classical saxophone player that has constantly striven to achieve a dark, warm sound, this was really quite a setback. Learning to play the saxophone with a completely new tonal signature definitely took a bit of getting used to, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Also, below, I've described everything that I changed in my instrument set up in order to help me reach this new kind of sound.


4. A JAZZ SET UP
As a classical saxophone player, I've been trained to use and play with a saxophone set up that is very well suited towards classical literature. However, I think it's pretty clear that the parameters for proper performance of jazz and classical music are quite different. And so just as like how you have to gather ingredients in order to cook a recipe, I had to adjust aspects of my current alto saxophone set up in order to really get closer to that jazz sound that I'm looking for. I have everything about it described below:


WARNING - From here on out I do talk about some pretty cool things (at least in my opinion), but it is a bit of a ramble. So I apologize ahead of time, and feel free to not read and to just admire the pictures... hah

THE SAX: So, to start things off, the saxophone I play on is the Cannonball Big Bell Alto, Stone Series, Black Nickel Finish. The picture below is a pretty accurate representation of what it looks like.

While, yes, it does look absolutely saxy (HA GOOD PUN), what's more important than the exterior finish is the sound and connection of the horn. Thus far in my music education, my Cannonball Stone Series has been excellent in providing a very smooth, fluent, and controlled tone. I know that the Big Bell isn't any Selmer Mark VI (which is considered to be the professional standard in saxophones), but for myself, I've found it to be more than adequate.  In these past few years that I've had this saxophone, it's been more than AWESOME and I don't really see a need to change the current saxophone body that I'm playing on. And anyway, I doubt that I'd be able to afford buying a new saxophone...

THE NECK: The "neck" of the saxophone is the curved part that comes out at an angle from the top of a saxophone. Most times, the neck makes a pretty significant difference, mainly because it's the first canal that controls the flow of the air into the rest of the instrument. When I play classical literature, I like to use what Cannonball (the brand of my sax) calls their "Traditional Classic Neck". It's slightly longer, has the air travel a longer distance to the rest of the instrument, and provides a nice degree of resistance to focus any sound. But for jazz, where things have to be as natural and easy as possible. I'll be switching over to a special neck developed by Cannonball as well, known as the "Fat Neck", which is shown below. I normally never use this neck, but for jazz, it's perfect. Cannonball itself describes the fat neck as "one of the most free-blowing experiences that can be imagined..." and "unmatched in its ability to generate a 'Fat' tone" and "vibrant resonance." 

THE MOUTHPIECE: The mouthpiece of a saxophone is exactly what it sounds like... it's the piece that I put in my mouth. In a similar respect, the mouthpiece has an even greater influence than there neck, because it literally is the first medium and hole through which the air is directed through. For this project, I won't be changing my mouthpiece, even though I'd very much like to. I currently play on what's known as a Selmer C Star, which is pretty much the professional standard, but for a really bright and penetrating projection, I would have liked to use a mouthpiece made of metal, as opposed to the plastic that the C Star is constructed from. However, a quality metal mouthpiece would be upwards of probably at least $100. So for my purposes (and for my lack of any money), while the C Star isn't intended or designed for jazz, it's is still an easy-blowing, well-connected mouthpiece to use at the end of the day.

THE REED: The reed is just a small, wide, and flat stick of bamboo cane. It's attached to the mouthpiece, and it's the source of the sound on the saxophone. By vibrating when it comes in contact with a stream of air, the reed makes sound. I think that by changing up my reed, I can make the most difference in my sound. I use just Traditional Vandoren 3.5's for my classical studies, but in order to really open up my air flow, widen up the size of the reed vibrations, I think that switching to Vandoren v16 reeds would work really well. A box of ten of these reeds costs about twenty dollars, which definitely isn't cheap, but certainly affordable.

and FINALLY THE LIGATURE: The last adjustment that I'll be making is on the ligature, or the metal brace that holds the reed to the mouthpiece. On my ligature, the Vandoren Optimum, I have the ability to change the pressure plates that actually touch the mouthpiece, meaning I can change the way that the points of pressure come in contact with the reed, and consequently, effectively manipulate how the reed vibrates. Below, you'll see a picture of the three pressure plates I have. I normally like to use the middle plate, which, by placing two rows of restraint across the reed, really centers and smooths out the sound. For jazz, however, I'll be doing more honking and trying to get a lot of loudness, so I'll be using the plate on the left. You'll notice it only has four small dots that actually come in contact with the reed, and this allows the reed to vibrate in total freedom and magnitude. 

This past week I've really spent a lot of time experimenting with different set-ups and combinations of all of the above parts of a saxophone, and what I finally came up with, as you can see above, is an end result that I'm already pretty proud of. But ultimately, it's the person on the sax itself that really matters, and as I've said, I've already begun just to play around with this new jazz sound just by testing it out on just a few simple tunes. 

Next week, I'll talk about what "jazz chords" and "jazz scales" really are, and how I'll use them. I might even throw in a video demonstration, so stay tuned.

 Until then, JAX SAX OUT