Question:

“How and when should I breathe and use my tongue while playing (saxophone)?”

-Claire

My response:

You use your tongue to ‘articulate’ that is to separate notes and control the length of them. The tongue stops the air from flowing, so if you imagine a continuous pressure of air flowing then your tongue breaks that stream of air into separate attacks on notes. Sometimes notes are slurred together in which case you let them flow together without using the tongue.

The style of music you are playing is one of the things you should think about with regards to articulation. Some styles are more smooth, others have more sharp attacks.

Two syllables you can think about are ‘tah’ and ‘dah’. Each has its own place.

For breathing, you want to breathe when you need air but also in places where it does not interrupt phrases of music.

You might want to think about breathing as being similar to the period in the structure of a sentence. You start a thought (phrase in music) then complete it. At that point you can breathe before starting something new.

-Neal