Breathing Technique
One of the most important elements of saxophone playing is a consistent and relaxed approach to breathing and breath control. A good sax player always produces a strong, even tone and sounds relaxed regardless of the difficulty of the music being played. Outlined as follows is a method of breathing which will help you gain more control over the way you breathe when playing and give you a solid consistent approach which will eventually become automatic, enabling you to forget about breathing and concentrate totally on the music you are making.
Step 1
Lie on your back on the floor, legs straight out. Place the palm of one hand over your navel. Make as if you are blowing your nose. Feel your muscles tighten underneath your hand as you do this. Continue blowing until the muscles are quite tight.
Hold them tight for a few seconds. By this time you really need a breath. Let go those muscles you were blowing out with. Notice that your hand moves up and you get bigger round the waist as your new breath fills your lungs. Just relax your abdominal muscles and you will breathe in automatically.
Step 2
Repeat step 1. Observe that blowing out equals effort, and breathing in equals relaxation. Now blow out through your mouth, very gently and slowly. Shape your lips as if you are playing the saxophone. Breathe in and out, over and over, until you think you understand.
Step 3
Stand up and go through the cycle again. Don’t try to suck air in. Think of an inflatable life raft - you pull out the plug and Floop!, it fills up by itself.
Step 4
Play the following examples on the saxophone. Let your breath out evenly and take breaths at the places marked, even if you don’t need to.
Remember
- Breathe in - Relax
- Blow out - Tighten
