Jeff, Do people laugh at you sometimes when you're not trying to be funny? I did at one point in this video. It is because you're extremely likeable. My father sometimes makes us laugh when he's just being himself. I doubt you spend too much time neither filming nor editing your videos. Yes, because you've done a lot of them, but you know what points you want to make. However, your high level of comfort allows your true self to come through, and this quality is that extra something that your videos give your audience.

Absolutely love it jeff! keep up the helpful videos

THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!! I tried to find so many subtone techniques on the web and I couldn't really understand but you made it so clear and simple.It's gonna take time to master it but thank you very much.

Thanks so much, Jeff. Really appreciate your posting the sub-tone explanation!

I really like how you demonstrated exactly how the problem I have with it sounds (pressure form the bottom lip) so now I know where to start to improve! Thanks :)

Thanks Jeff. Love product reviews.

Thanks, Jeff, for this very interesting video! I guess that the last, smaller mouthpiece might be good for classical music. And I think that you are on a level that you can make nice tones with every good setup that is technically okay. Please keep going on making videos!

Jeff! we want the hair products review! great content as always.

Great tip thanks, and welcome back

I recently followed and was afraid u might have become inactive. Glad to see u back man. Looking forward to more jazz chord vids.

I don't play sax, I have never even touched one, but I am so into these techniques. This technique sounds a lot like what I love from Scott Hamilton's playing!

It makes sense, and good tone too!

This is also how I subtone When working on low notes with my teacher he mentioned I was subtoning, and I needed to push my jaw out to get the full and brighter sound. And vise versa for subtoning :)

thank you for your great videos :-)

Again, you explained this effect perfectly

Your old mouth piece and the first reed you tried the best sound A1 thanks for demo.

I have the same mouthpiece they sent you!! I went to a jazz band festival back in high school and I actually won the mouthpiece in a jazz trivia game they had during one of the masterclasses

imho your tone still improves time to time! 👍

Thanks for this one!

Amazing!!! Thank you!!!

Thank you, Jeff!

Jeff, Thanks for the lesson. I've actually used sublimes in the past and never realized that's what they are called. I really appreciate your smooth saxophone playing. I've been playing professionally for over 50 years and my tone does not match yours. Embouchure is a very personal thing and some have a great one and others do not. Your's is great, mines ok and I get by. God bless; Pat Matters

Gr8 sound as always

Hi jeff, I appreciate your vids SO MUCH! quick request: Can you make a video on how to go octaves higher than the boundaries of the horn (in my case the alto) like you did at 4:45 . thanks!

really helped me thanks

great video

I am composing a sax quartet. Thanks from BCN.

Congratulations excellent sound. I liked your video I could do it in Spanish or put subtitles

Thank you so much for this!!! My biggest question since I started to play!!! Grouse lesson, thanks!!!

Awesome video learned alot from your videos !!! You should do a full tutorial about altissimo :)

you the best man

More licks please...your lessons are amazing

Beautiful Sound ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I liked your subtone tips. Thanks! I'm in the process of expanding my tone to jazz. I'm using a Selmer S80 C** on alto for classical. I just got a Meyer 6MM and it was having some table unevenness and I sorted it out and used my facing curve data to redo the facing curve, aimed for something between 5 and 6 since it plays a bit easier on #3 Vandoren Traditional. I like your Pillinger tone. It has that hint of Meyer mid-range core to the sound but sounds warmer and richer. What model Pillinger is it? Are you using 2 1/2 Hemke (I don't like RSJ most of the time, I found their heart is too thin and becomes a bit characterless, I rather have a thinner tip for crispiness but thicker heart like Vandoren Traditional). If you have any comment on matching reed to the mouthpiece please let me know. Thanks.

Is there a version of su times in the upper register because I’ve been trying to play take five and I got the notes and feel down but I still don’t have the tone is there a special embouchure to get that kind of sound?

Was the sound recorded with a webcam? Sounds great. Thanks.

Dude I find you when I look for piano stuff, general music theory stuff and now sax stuff??? How don’t you have tonnes of subs

Jeff, what was the tune you were playing at the start of the video? Or were you just improvising? Thanks for the videos they're really helpful I've learned a lot!

I have been trying to obtain the subtone sound for many years in occasional attempts. My anatomical structure does not permit even two millimeters of movement of the lower jaw backwards while I can move the lower jaw about twelve millimeters forward. Is there any other method that I could try out? Better yet would be a reference to links or videos or scholarly work done on the phenomenon of the subtone and its production. Information that would be of immediate application would be related to the mouthpiece type and reed size and positoning and ligature positioning etc etc. Thank you.

I'm not a saxophonist, but I'm still fascinated by this tbh

Jeff, have you done any videos purely on jazz tone? I went to college for sax, but all my training was very classical/contemporary. So when I play jazz licks I sound pretty square. Trying to get my tone dirtier like yours. Just wondering if you have tips for switching to that sound from a classical sax background. You've got the best videos in the business.

Jeff, I have used my tongue against the bottom of the Reed for the effect. I'm not sure if this is entirely correct...your thoughts?

What would be the difference with playing at lower volume?

I have been trying to subtone on tenor on and off for some fifteen years and all i have achieved is a hiss at the start of each note and a very soft sound but not the characteristically beautiful intimate subtone sound. So i guess you can either subtone or you just cannot, What is the ideal combination of mouthpiece opening, and general type and reed hardness or softness etc etc. for subtone work?

very good video jef!!!! ) I recommend you to try that Rico Jazz select unfiled. The soud is more consist and full sond more body

Jeff got a question for you, what's the best way to memorize how chords are spelt and built in every key? I'm getting into jazz improvising, and the amount chords is pretty crazy, so what do you think is the best approach to ingrain them all in my head so I don't have to think about them when playing?

I find if you subtone with the inner lip dampening the reed instead of pulling all the way back you get a fuller tone and it's more in tune

The new mouthpiece had a softer sound. I was thinking, "Is that due to a lower volume only?" No, it was still you, but it didn't cut like your set up. I'm sticking to my mouthpiece (Ottolink 7 rubber) for now...but I wonder if I tried a 6 or a 5 opening whether I'd notice much difference. I'm tempted. Mild Spring in Rome

So a pentagram outlined with guitar strings with a pentatonic scale on each point did the trick. Schneider manifested himself!.

Hi Jeff. Could you pretty please give me the notes for this song? Thanks alot! Have a nice day!

Jeff, I know this is not sax related but what is your hairstyle called. Cause i love it so much!

Hey Jeff! I have a question about improv, so my band director gives us a blues scale sheet for a certain chart and tells us to play our whole solo from the Bb blues scale. I feel like its too boring with those notes, what should I do? Do I add more scales or use strong triads...?

What is your mouthpiece setup?

Doesn't backing the lower jaw also flatten the pitch?

The tuning still being the same?

So I tried subtoning in band today during a nice ballad-y song called Voices of the Sky, because I have an extremely bright tone, so I was trying to use the subtone technique to darken the tone. But I ran into a problem when I was backing up my jaw off the reed, the pitch started to drop, and I was trying to raise my jaw to get it back in tune. But then I just started putting pressure on the reed, any advice on how to combat this?

Do I need a saxophone for this? Instructions unclear.

There are more than a sufficient number of videos and articles dealing with subtone production. Not one single video or article, or post offers any suggestions for the choice of mouthpiece of reed. I think for sure it would be most useful if the type of mouthpiece and reed most suited for the production of the subtone sound. Is subtone possible with a double lip embouchure. Someone said in one of the forums, that some 20 years are to be spent in playing long notes, another 20 years on something else and finally for last 3 years of life, the subtone will finally manifest. I have been trying to play subtone for close to 15 years on and off and all that I have achieved is the ability to play softly and very softly but no subtone. I shall be looking forward to any possible help you might be able to offer.Thank you.

where can we hear you music? u got SoundCloud or Spotify

I can’t get the low notes to speak without putting pressure, tips?

Jeff, it's most always the player of the instrument, beginners wisdom?

Play Misty for me

Is this a lesson on reeds or subtones??🤔

Had you not said, "By the way I am not endorsed by D'Addario, this is not a paid promotion" then I would have assumed it was, lol!

Is there any scientific treatment of the subtone? None the posts and videos contain the slightest bit of quantitative information such as precise specifications of mouthpiece, , chamber size and type, lay and facing, baffle details, tip opening and reed type, effects of lip type and size etc etc.

I have written to almost all of the youtubers who have published information on the production of the subtone but not one single one has given any real and meaningful information much less scientific insight into the subtone phenomenon . This can only mean that none of these self appointed experts knows anything worthwhile and transmittable about the subject and are merely using KZfaq as a platform for their products or what it is that they are selling. As just one example of the inadequacy of these experts, not one single one of these worthies has even obliquely referred to the preferred combination of mouthpiece and reed that would facilitate the production of the subtone Contrariwise there are actually conflicting statements with reference to this most important aspect of the matter, some so called or self proclaimed experts insisting that the mouthpiece be open and the reed as hard as playable while others state that any playable combination is suitable while others yet state that the mouthpiece should be as open as possible and the reed as soft as possible/ Brings up the image of blind folk tying to describe and identify an elephant.Many of these self proclaimed experts specify that the throat should be kept as open as possible being totally ignorant of the fact that humans have absolutely no control of the throat and can neither close it or open it, this ability being restricted to most reptiles being quite obvious on all types of lizards, frogs and toads and snakes and perhaps to a few circus freak humans. Some state that the subtone is playable on all sizes of the saxophone, Then why is it that for the past several hundred years there has not been one single alto or soprano subtoner and more to the point why is it that women saxophonists find it impossible to subtone?

After some twenty years on and off trying to get even a hint of subtone on tenor and all sorts of mouthpieces and reed, I have come to the conclusion almost that either one can produce subtone or one cannot and there is no way that player can teach himself to get the subtone or get the world’s most experienced teacher to instruct the would b e subtoner. There are hundreds of videos illustrating subtone but not one single video states the best possible mouthpiece or the type and hardness of the reed. All that would be required is a r eference to the chamber size, and tip opening and for the reed, whether standard cut or file cut and hardness number. So here’s hoping s ome light will eventually directed on to this most important aspect of subtone production

commenting just cuz the last comment was 3 years ago

all you had to say was "pretend its a bassoon"

The video is supposed to incorporate two essential techniques for subtone.only one method seems to have been dealt with and that involves the retraction of the lower jaw. As demonstrated by you this method does most certainly work.I am able to play continuously in subtone for the full first octave and a half. But try as I might I have not been able to get that breathy sound which is essential for subtone playing. This is one aspect you have not dealt with. Also you have not specified the type of mouthpiece, tip opening, chamber and baffle type and most important the reed type and hardness. People specify reeds as hard and soft and this makes no sense. Reeds must be specified by number and while this is not totally accurate it is better than statements such as hard reed and soft reed. Thank you and hope you will attend to the points brought up here.

Please don't look right at me when playing subtones, please. It's embarrassing.