A Beautiful Sound on Soprano Sax : Part 1

The title says it all. This new series of articles is about one subject:how to get a beautiful sound on soprano sax.. And you can take a major stride toward just that by having a mouthpiece that doesn’t fight with you.

I’ve been a dedicated soprano saxophonist for most of my career, and that has led me on a very special path, full of many surprises, not all them pleasant, and a handful of epiphanies too. Now, after 13 years of making and rebalancing soprano mouthpieces for players of all kinds and from all over the world, I’ve learned another thing about playing soprano saxophone.

The real search is for a beautiful sound. A beautiful voice.

It seems so obvious, of course, but the truth is that soprano players are so often dealing with bad equipment that the ‘search” morphs into trying to find a set-up that just plays well. And the advice we are so often given, almost always by saxophonists who are not soprano specialists, is: practice more.

But the fact is there are probably more frustrated soprano players than on any other saxophone. The issues are well known: response, resistance, tone, intonation. Players change horns, change mouthpieces and it seems to never end for many players. When it does “end” for some, it comes as a resignation that “this is all there is”.

Yet, players speak about the “beautiful sound” of Lucky Thompson, Zoot Sims, Jane Ira Bloom, Roberto Ottaviano, Dave Koz, Wayne Shorter, Sidney Bechet, and a lot more. Of course, there are many different “beautiful sounds” on soprano. We each have our own idea of what that sound is.

So, how do we “get” that sound? What does it take to achieve that sound? How do we proceed to create that “beautiful sound” the way we hear it in our heads?

I’d like to tell you that all it requires is one thing, but that isn’t quite true.

What it requires is a process, and not a long process at all. But it “unfolds” in front of you, quite clearly and you’ll recognize where you are in the process right away, once you begin.

So, two things to remember right now:

  1. Only you can start the process moving
  2. And SOPRANOPLANET can guide you on that path that is before you.

The goal? A “beautiful sound” on soprano saxophone. It’s not hard to achieve.

Email me at info@Sopranoplanet.com and get started. There is no obligation at all to spend a penny, either.

Joe Giardullo

SOPRANOPLANET