Saxophone Embouchure

Here are a few quick steps on setting up a good embouchure for the Saxophone –

Reference ‘EdTheJazzMan‘ Dr Carol Johnson

1. Hook the bottom lip over your bottom teeth (the lip goes over the teeth), just turning it out, ever so slightly (the bottom lip acts as a cushion for the reed to sit on). We want to avoid resting the reed on our teeth (it will make a bad sound)  The reed should be resting on the soft fleshy part on the inside of the lip.
2. The reed then sits in the middle of the lip- parallel to the floor (and rests on the cushion of the bottom lip)
3. The top teeth then rest on the top part of the mouth piece, around a 1cm gap- (You should not be biting with the teeth and or have any sort of pressure on the mouth piece)
4. All the gaps formed in the rest of your mouth need to be sealed- the air that you blow just goes down to the centre of the mouth piece- we don’t want the air to escape through the gaps in our mouth.
5. Then we need to relax the bottom jaw (you can say ‘GA’ like a baby to help release any tension) before you blow, and raise the cheek muscles (e.g. imagine biting into a lemon)- the tension needs to come from the cheeks. 

(Three stages of setting up the correct embouchure)

1. Lip
2. Teeth
3. Closing of gaps

Practice and experiment with the variables – the lips, the jaw, the cheeks, plus the breathing exercises

If you’re ever struggling, put the instrument down, breathe in and take a little break- it will make a difference.