Could someone please explain to me what a perfect embouchure for alto saxophone would be? And also how to lip-down to make some of the naturally out of tune notes, in tune. thanks this would be a great help im just trying to sort some things out with my embouchure right now.

augh, help.

Alright, so.. you want to know how to make a "perfect embouchure" eh? First off, you want to make sure that you don`t sacrifice the reed`s vibration. This means tightening up on the sides of you mouth instead of the middle areas. Once you`ve done that try to make it seem as if you have a frowning expression. This is important as you must put as much air through which in turn produces the largest sound. All you have to do is look at some pictures of jazz greats, eg. charlie parker, john coltrane, cannonball adderley and analyze how their mouths look.
good luck!

Your top teeth are placed directly on the mouthpiece. Your bottom lip curls up over your bottom teeth. If you look at your mouthpiece with a reed on it from the side, you will see where the mouthpiece and reed just meet. This is how far on the mouthpiece you should place your mouth.

One other thing. On saxophone the mouthpiece comes out of your mouth at about a 90 degree angle. This is different than an instrument like clarinet where the mouthpiece is tilted downward considerably.

well its quite easy to get a good or better still a perfect embouchure. follow closes as i try to explain it to you.place the mouthpiece in your mouth and allow the upper teeth to rest on its top say like a quarter way in and curl your lower lips under the reed portion.this all saxophonist should know. the perfect part comes when you make sure that the sides of the mouth covers the mouth piece and doesn`t allow air to escape. try as much as possible not to bit the lower lip. take a close look at pix of charlie parkers,john coltrane kirk whalum, kenny G,and study the pix very well you will notice this. good luck as you practice this.

thanks thats really helped me...

do any of you guys know how to circular breathe because i`m trying to learn it right now and i could really use some tips

thanx so much!!!

Trent Kynaston has a book that covers this topic, with exercises and all. Get it at jajazz.com

The way I learned circular breathing is:

First, to get oriented to breathing in and out at the same time, fill your mouth up with water and then using your cheeks spit the water out slowly while breathing in and out through your nose. Once you do this a couple times and get the hang of it, I wouldn`t bother practicing it too much.

Secondly, get a cup of water and a straw. Applying the water spitting exercise, blow into the straw while breathing in through your nose. You should work to even out the blowing with your lungs and the "blowing" (it isn`t physically blowing but you get the idea)with your cheeks so that the breathing in doesn`t affect the frequency of bubbles.

Next, using what you`ve learned so far start working on the instrument. Just begin with whatever the easiest blowing note on your horn is (i.e. don`t start with low Bb) and play the note trying to incorporate the circular breathing. This is the hardest step, but if you can do step one and two, it`s only a matter of time before you get this. Remember, the saxophone has much less back pressure than a cup of water, that`s why it is much more difficult to circular breathe on it. An Eb clarinet is infinitly easier to circular breathe on than a bari sax would be, simply because of the amount of air required to play those instruments.

The hard thing to do is maintain tone quality, intonation, volume, etc. while circular breathing. That`s why you should wait until you can properly circular breathe on one note before you apply it to scales, repertoire, etc.

Hope this helps,

Bryan