(This article originally appeared in Saxophone Today, November/December 2015.)
Voicing is one of those words that saxophonists use all the time, but I often discover that many students have a limited understanding of what is really meant by voicing for the notes. Voicing is absolutely vital for good sound and intonation. Furthermore, mastery of overtones, altissimo, and multiphonics is completely dependent upon good voicing. In this article, I will share some of the ways that I teach voicing to my students, and some of the practice techniques that I use to improve my own tone, intonation, and control.
We must always remember that the laws of physics apply to everything that we do, and we live in a universe of particles and waves. Molecules of water come to together to form the mighty waves of the oceans, just as subatomic particles of energy race through the galaxies in waves of radiation. Sound is simply another expression of particles moving as waves. The air inside your saxophone forms standing waves called resonances, and when we apply energy in the form of air, the saxophone converts the directional energy of your air (i.e., you blow in one direction) into vibrational energy, moving back and forth and propagating as a wave to anyone with ears to listen. On an alto saxophone, if we finger an F-sharp at the top of the staff, the horn is set up to vibrate at 220 Hz. As soon as we provide energy to the standing wave, the reed starts opening and closing at 220 times per second. This is the frequency of the wave, and it determines the pitch that we hear.
As the reed vibrates, it is reacting to the natural resonance inside the saxophone, which is why a change of fingering causes the reed to vibrate at a different speed, corresponding to the length of the air column within the instrument. This shouldn’t be news to anyone that seriously studies the instrument, but there is another side to the story, and it is literally happening on the other side of the mouthpiece; just as the saxophone is vibrating, there is a second wave vibrating inside your body. I refer to this wave as the resistance wave. The resistance wave is easily experienced when we play a low B-flat and feel the vibration in our chest. Higher notes have shorter wavelengths, so the feeling shifts from our torso to the throat and oral cavity as the notes ascend in pitch.
In order to understand the relationship between the front wave (sound), the back wave (resistance), and the reed/mouthpiece interface, I like to use the analogy of the horseshoe shaped tube and the law of equilibrium. Simply put, if we pour a bucket of water into a horseshoe shaped tube, the level of the water will be the same on either side of the tube. This is a state of equilibrium, and from a molecular perspective, the water is spread out in an even fashion and under a minimum of stress. If we were to close one side of the horseshoe and start pumping air pressure into the closed side of the tube, the water level would go down on one side, and it would rise a corresponding amount on the other side. At the level of the individual water molecules, some would be pressed together, generating friction that would cause some energy to be lost in the form of heat. Water on the other side would be forced apart. This is an uncomfortable situation for the water and as soon as the air pressure was released from the closed side of the horseshoe, the water would return to a state of equilibrium, equalizing on both sides and reaching a maximum state of relaxation in the system of molecules.
If we apply this analogy to the saxophone, it goes like this: the saxophone is the open end of the tube, your body is the closed side of the tube, and the waves of air represent the system of water molecules. If we use our body to exert a force that is inharmonious with the standing resonance in the saxophone, the air will vibrate with the same kind of irregularities that we saw in the water molecules (some bunched up, some spread out). In musical terms, the reed will not be able to vibrate fully because it will be losing energy to compensate for the difference between the resonance in the saxophone and the resonance in your body. This is where voicing comes in.
Voicing actually means resonance matching, and this concept of matching is the key to getting the reed to vibrate in a full and organized way – in other words, getting a good tone! If you can whistle, whistle a high note and then slide down as low as you can go. If you can’t whistle, singing works as well. As you move downward, try to feel the position of your tongue. You should notice that the arch of the tongue changes. Lower notes are created by an increased volume of air within the body, affected by the arch of the tongue. Also, try saying the vowel sounds in heeee, hay, and hooooo. Tongue position creates a resonating chamber in the oral cavity, and acts as a gateway into the throat and chest. Voicing for the saxophone could be likened to silent singing, in that we are creating the proper resonance for the desired note, but singing vibrates the vocal chords, whereas playing the saxophone shifts the vibration to the reed/mouthpiece – the vocal chords of the saxophone!
Low notes require a large resonating chamber, which translates into a low tongue, an open throat, and a relaxed chest cavity. Higher notes are voiced by raising the tongue to shrink the resonating chamber. I have heard Claude Delangle, professor at the Paris Conservatory, refer to playing the higher notes with the feeling of whistling. The more closely we match the note of the saxophone with the resonance of our voicing, the more harmoniously the reed will vibrate, translating into a full, rich sound. While it might seem extremely difficult to match our voicing with every single note, it is really no more difficult than singing, which we do quite intuitively! For this reason, I encourage my students to sing, and to sing into the saxophone to get a feeling for how easy good voicing can be, with proper practice, of course.
Years ago, I started using the Sigurd Rascher book Top Tones as a touchstone for learning about overtones, voicing, and good sound throughout the registers. Yes, the book is also about altissimo, but it is equally about mastering the bottom register of the horn, and you cannot approach the former without first mastering the latter. For overtone studies, I have my students go through the following procedure, and for illustrative purposes, let’s use part of the overtone series on low B-flat:
1. Play the low B-flat and get the pitch in your ear.
2. With the lips closed around the mouthpiece and low B-flat fingered on the horn, sing a loud B-flat into the horn. (Men can generally sing in the octave of the instrument, but women will need to sing one octave higher, which is perfectly acceptable.)
3. When the voice is smoothly projecting through the saxophone, slowly stop singing and let the reed vibrate into a normal tone.
4. Play the note again, this time hearing the note in your mind while mentally “singing.”
It is very important to notice that singing out of tune will result in a warbling of the voice. Try singing a B-natural into the horn while fingering low B-flat. You should almost feel a choking sensation, and your voice will be pushed back into the proper resonance for the horn. It is important to master vocal matching in the low register, as the saxophone has very strong resonances on low notes, meaning you will clearly know if you are voicing properly, based on a smooth sound coming out of the saxophone when you sing. Higher notes have very weak resonance, so the saxophone is early overpowered and will give very little instructive feedback, comparatively speaking.
This same procedure should be applied as you ascend the overtone series, and you can use the excellent overtone variations found in Top Tones as material for study. So, while fingering a low B-flat, you would repeat on the next octave B-flat, then F, then the high B-flat, and so on. Remember to always finger low B-flat, and always sing with the lips closed around the mouthpiece. Sing out strong, and freely change octaves to find the most comfortable part of your vocal range. Repeat on the overtone series for low B, low C, and low C-sharp.
For an overview of my approach to the altissimo register, please refer to my YouTube video on the subject:
Good voicing requires practice. It is important to use singing as a way to ensure that you are in the correct vocal position for a given note. Once intuition is established between the voice and the ear (or perhaps the imagination), it will feel very normal and voicing will be integrated into your playing so that you hardly notice that you are doing it. With that said, you will certainly be aware that something is wrong when you make a poor tone quality, or miss a partial (for example, fingering a middle D but having the A above sound – which is the next note up the harmonic series for low D!). Remember that good sound is the most important aspect of playing any instrument and that good sound will always be accompanied by good intonation and excellent air support. To practice one, we must practice them all! Practice well.
Also, be sure to check out flutist Robert Dick’s excellent videos on throat tuning, which is essentially the same technique. Robert is one of my heroes, on any instrument!
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