Hi..friends
I have a background on 3 years of playing clarinet.
I never seriously play saxophone. One time, I got a chance to play super action Alto, and everyone said that I sounded very good. I think I didn`t have problem with switching from clarinet to saxophone


Right now, I have a chance to own a second-handed LA soprano saxophone.
I bought it from ebay. The problem is I can`t get the tone that I want!! I want to focus on Pop-jazz style.

I purchased a joddyjazz mouthpiece. it seems to work fine along with my soprano. the facing is #6. I use JAVA Vandoren #2.5(is it too hard for this facing?)

It seem like, it I get a strong and focus sound for low notes, but i have to blow it so hard. Could it be that the reed is too hard?

Another problem is..the low notes sound very good but the high notes sound horrible to me. I have notice that sometime the octive key didn`t work and same as other key, since it`s a second hand sax. I have kept this horn for 2 years, never done any checking with this horn, and never really played it before

Before I bought this one, I have done a research on LA SAX. I heard most people say they are very good saxophones.
I assume that there could be something wrong with this sax otherwise it should sound great!!

And I would like to have some advises on how to choose reeds for Jodyjazz MP. Is Java vandoren the best rightnow??
Or they have some better ones

Thank you

u know it could be your embrochure, which is like the muscle around your lips. you might have to tighten it up when you reach hi notes and loosen it when getting low notes. if that doesnt help then you need to get your soprano sax checked out

I heard that we should not adjust the embrochure while playing low or high notes. Correct me, if i`m wrong.

Hi. I also used to play clarinet (for 7 yrs) but have switched this year fully to alto saxophone. Be sure to get your saxophone checked out. However, if that doesn`t fix the problem, it is your embochure. There is a VERY different embochure needed by sax than by clarinet, something of which i`ve had my troubles with in my switch. Your private lesson teacher should be showing you the correct embochure. Also, in reply of the other post. No, your embochure should not move. It should remain constant throughout registers. However, the shape of inside your mouth changes. You always use a yawning motion, but in higher notes, it is much more emphasized. Hope this helps.

Be sure your reeds are broken in first. If you still feel they are hard to play, then it may be the wrong size for you. Keep in mind, harder reeds make higher notes easier to play. You must get your embochure in order first and gain some endurance so you can begin to get harder reeds. For now, get reeds that you can play, and aren`t a struggle.

You said you were a clarinet player before though. What size reed were you using then?

A few things to consider. If you are switching from clarinet, you need to hold the instrument differently. A clarinet is designed so the instrument is held close to the body, with the mouthpiece coming out of the mouth at about a 30 degree angle from the mouth. The saxophone is designed so the mouthpiece should be at almost a 90 degree angle from the mouth.

The facing on your mouthpiece is very big. The LA Sax (I play a tenor) has a bright sound on its own. I would recommend a smaller facing to start. Once you can control the instrument, then move to a bigger facing. You will need to be very sure of your embouchure to handle the large facing, and you will need to unlearn your clarinet embouchure to play the sax. Eventually you should be able to switch back and forth without a problem, but you need to build up that muscle memory. This will be easier to do on a different mouthpiece.

I would recommend Hemke Premium Reeds unless you like to doctor your reeds. They are very uniform right out of the box, unlike vandoren reeds. They don`t tend to last very long though, so that is the drawback. But as you learn your new embouchure, it helps to rule out the reed as the problem by using reeds that are fine right out of the box.

If you are having problems with the keys you should have a repair shop check out the horn.