The Saxophone Sound Equation

In my job as the Sales Manager for my family music store, I am constantly helping people find the best values, equipment and am constantly asked for my advice. I love it. I enjoy helping customers pursue their love of performance. Especially for saxophones, we are a place that many people trust for opinions and help and advice.

Ideally, players want to sound the best that they can. Who can blame them? After all, isn’t that the whole point of practicing and playing?

One of the most common mistakes that players can make in their never ending goal of becoming a better player is trying to emulate their favorite musician. Too many people want to know what mouthpiece or horn or reed that their favorite player is playing on in hopes of developing a sound closer to that player. While I know that it is tempting to want to sound like a player that you idolize, people need to remember that the sound of a saxophone has very little to do with the equipment they use but rather with whom the person is playing it.

The Saxophone Sound Equation
This has led me to produce my “saxophone sound equation”. Keep in mind, this is not a scientific equation and is in no way based on anything other than my own personal experience and opinion.

Saxophone Sound = 6% Mouthpiece + 4% Saxophone + 90% Player
Equipment Performance = 60% Mouthpiece + 40% Saxophone

Before you get too bothered by this, let’s take a deeper look in to my thinking on this; keep in mind that this equation is also based on comparing QUALITY products in both the mouthpiece and the saxophone. You cannot bunch in very low quality product into this comparison.

90% Player
As a player continues to develop, they need to remember that the sound of a saxophone is produced by the player. The saxophone and the mouthpiece for that matter are simply amplifiers. This is why no matter what equipment you play, you will still sound like you! Granted, changing the mouthpiece, ligature, reed, neck, saxophone, pads, etc… will all make noticeable differences to the final end product, but in the end the sound is produced by the player.

For an example on this, let’s look at the 2 extremes of level of player.

If you take a basic beginning student who has simply played for 2 weeks and can produce a basic “Mary had a Little Lamb” tune and hand that student a professional level sax like a Selmer Mark VI or a Yanagisawa 991 series horn, that student will still sound like a student. The sound might be affected by a SMALL percentage, but they in the end will still have the tonal quality and color of a student who has been playing for 2 weeks.

On the flip side, if we take a professional player who makes their living playing and recording saxophone and we hand them the same batch of professional horns as well as the student saxophone that the 2 week experienced player was using, you will find the same thing. The professional player will make all 3 saxophones sound amazing. Granted, we will notice a bigger tonal difference between the 3 horns than you would from the student, but all 3 will still sound like a great player playing saxophone.

I use analogies of cars as most people can relate to this. If the average adult driver was to take a Toyota Camry and drive it through and obstacle course and then a Nascar driver was to immediately drive the exact same car around the exact same course, the end result will be VERY different and 99.9% of the time in the favor of the professional driver.

6% Mouthpiece
Some people might assign different values to all of this, but I think that most players will likely agree with this assignment. As we have already established, the player makes the sound. So when you evaluate the rest of the equation, it makes sense to look at the mouthpiece as the most direct amplifier to the input sound of the player.

Mouthpiece makes more difference than the saxophone. This is one of the reasons why people will pay thousands of dollars for vintage mouthpieces that are hard to find. They believe that this vintage mouthpiece will give them a sound modification that a modern equivalent to the mouthpiece cannot give. Whether they equate it to the quality of the material or the quality of the craftsmanship, the point is that many of these vintage mouthpieces do play differently (not necessarily better) than their modern day equivalent.

This has also led to development of high end mouthpiece makers. For instance, we carry one such maker in the Theo Wanne mouthpieces. These mouthpieces are unique in their design, craftsmanship and performance when compared to other mouthpieces. These mouthpieces are also made using extremely expensive equipment which does mean that they cost more to produce. Theo’s mouthpieces start around $500 for his new alto sax mouthpieces, $600 on tenor, and $850 on baritone sax.

For many people they are a hard item to justify. However, when one considers the production cost of these pieces and then weighs the performance of the mouthpiece, it actually becomes easier to justify the price of a high end performance mouthpiece especially in light of how much more difference a mouthpiece makes than the saxophone.

However, I also add that I believe the customer should not spend that much on a mouthpiece unless it is the absolute perfect fit for them. This is why I personally try and help guide customers through the differences in them so that they can try the model that best suits their desired performance. After that, we give the customer the ability to try it out and send it back if it isn’t what they are looking for.

4% Saxophone
I have to say that I have had more debate with customers over the percentage that I assign to the saxophone in this argument. I will concede that the differences in these overall percentages will vary with each individual player, but I believe that the overall equation still stands that Player > Mouthpiece > Saxophone. Whatever percentages one wants to apply will depend on them.

So what am I saying? Basically this: you do not NEED a top end horn in order to be a good player. Yes, having a top end horn is going to benefit you from an overall ability/performance end, but it is not the necessity that some believe it to be in order to have a great sound. The horn is simply the end tool to finalize your sound.

A sax can affect the overall volume, the intonation stability, the “core” and a lot of other terms that will vary depending on the individual using them. So yes, the sax will make a difference, but it is not the end all say all of the art of saxophone playing.

I am a firm believer in having good equipment. I simply use this discussion to stress that as players develop, do not be in too much of a rush to “have to” replace your horn. If you have a solid good horn, look at upgrading your mouthpiece for a bigger difference at an overall lower cost.

I know this argument sounds odd coming from a saxophone salesman… believe me, I debated posting this whole post for that reason, but that’s how I do things. I give advice based on what is best for the customer first. If you are at a point where your horn is holding you back, then by all means look at a new saxophone, just don’t forget about the mouthpiece in the process.

60/40 Equipment
If we ignore the player aspect of the equation, then the new formula of simply mouthpiece and saxophone comes to a 60% mouthpiece, 40% sax. I still do hold that the mouthpiece makes more overall difference, but saxophone obviously plays a significant part.

Other Factors
There are many other factors that weigh into this discussion that I am not going in to as much depth at this time. For example the neck and the pads. These items can make quite drastic changes to your performance, specifically the neck. For the sake of this argument, I combined the neck with the saxophone as most people do. Changing the neck on your horn can drastically change the tone color, the focus, the intonation, the response, etc… basically everything about the saxophone!

Conclusion
I realize this is one of my longer posts but I want to conclude with a perfect story to prove my point. Let me first say that I do not recommend trying this at home for reasons that will seem obvious.

A few weeks ago, I had 2 different professional players come in that helped illustrate my point. I will not name them publically but needless to say, they are both professional sax players that I have known for quite some time.

Player A came in to test out the Theo Wanne tenor mouthpieces. He was playing them on his Mark VI. I know this horn to be a VERY good Mark VI. While he was playing, Player B came in to buy reeds. Player A & B know each other well. Player B quickly commented on the fact that Player A sounded great and asked what he was playing. He replied “just checking out the Theo Wanne GAIA mouthpiece, you have GOT to try this!”

So Player A handed his horn to Player B to test. Player B instantly played the horn… same horn, same mouthpiece, same reed, same ligature and grossly, same spit. The point is that not even the reed was repositioned. So with this, the ONLY variable that was changed was the person and in this scenario, all of the equipment was at the top level that equipment can be.

Both players sounded RADICALLY different on the same equipment. They both have very distinctive tone and style of play from each other. Player A sounded like Player A. Player B sounded like Player B.

They both sounded great, but they both sounded different on the exact same equipment.

As you grow as a player, focus on the playing and having good equipment. The best upgrade you can do to your performance would be through your own practice, followed by mouthpiece, followed by horn. Have a good horn and have it well regulated. Have a great mouthpiece and have a great teacher.

Lastly, develop your own sound. Take pride that only you can sound like you!