Hi i am primarily a clarinet player playing sax on the side hoping to make jazz band at some point and playing at church. I recently played for my band director to see what he thought and he said i had all the basic keywork down great to have taught myself the sax but he said my tone was still that of a clarinet whatever that means and that i was using the tight emboucher used on the clarinet and it was hurting my tone. He also stated i didn't quite grasp the concept of the vibrato because of my clarinet playing. Also if it helps I think the horn i have is of student quality but i am not sure it is marked Armstrong Elkhart Ind USA. Anyway my question is how can i improve my sax tone and develope my vibrato? Any replies will be appreciated thanks.

Good question!

First tone...long tones, long tones, long tones, they may be boring but nothing helps tone better than doing that. Another thing you should do is pick up the Art of Saxophone playing by Larry Teal, this should give you a really good idea your embouchoure playing position...etc.

Lastly vibrato. Saxophonists for the most part, use jaw vibrato, some may argue that diaphram is the way to do it but jaw sounds better on saxophone, and its easier. Think of vibrato as saying va va va. I practice by playing it as a long tone. Start out with a straight tone using a tuner then play vibrato (using the same breath) I usually do vibrato using 16 notes, then play a straight tone again. The goal is to begin and end on the same pitch, obviously your pitch will change when your using vibrato, but as long as you come out of it on key you will be ok.

I hope this gets you started.
CJ

You won't get very far by just reading the suggestions that people type here...take lessons. If you want to be even somewhat good at it, you'll have to take lessons because there are soooo many bad habits you can develop on the sax if you try and learn it without proper instruction.