Yanagisawa WO10 Alto: First Impressions Review UPDATED 1 January 2015

One of the coolest parts of my job is that I have access to lots of saxophones.  I have been able to compare many different Yamahas and Selmers, and just recently we received two brand new Yanagisawa WO10 altos.  I was very excited because I had never had more than a couple minutes at a time to spend on a Yany, certainly not enough to form an educated opinion.  Now I was going to have as much time as I would need to really get to know these instruments.

First impressions were good.  They both arrived in good, solid looking cases with cool features like the large external pouch and backpack straps.  The horns were well-constructed; I could not find any visual flaws with either.  They felt the same, too.  I'm not sure I could tell them apart by feel without much more experience with them.  This is pretty rare.  Even among good brands like Yamaha and Selmer, I find that two horns of the same model will still feel different, sometimes dramatically.  The first notes were exciting, and again both horns felt very similar.  There was enough of a difference, though, that I was able to pick a favorite, sign it out, and take it home.  The horn I left behind had slightly fuzzier tone, and low register response was not as good; it might have just needed a good setup.

Now that I have lived with the horn for a week, I have some meaningful thoughts to share.  I will say, though, that one week is still not enough time to truly get to know a new instrument, especially one of a different brand than you normally play.  In my experience, some pros and cons don't reveal themselves clearly until you have played a horn for a long time, seen how it breaks in and holds adjustments, and how it responds to different music.  That is why I call this a "First Impressions Review."  I will be updating the lists below over time as more becomes clear.

Pros

- Build quality: I still have not found a flaw in the horn's construction.  It is beautiful.
- Action: This is some of the smoothest, quietest, most refined action I have ever experienced in a new saxophone.
- Comfort: With a couple exceptions listed below, this horn is every bit as comfortable as my Yamaha, which sets the standard in my opinion.  I might like the Yany's front F key better, and the left hand pinky spatulas are awesome.  I can nearly trill low B-C#, and I can trill low Bb-B. 
- Tone: Beautiful sound that is exactly what I am looking for in the classical realm.  It is in the same sound family as the new Yamaha EX with the V1 neck.  In fact, when I recorded the Yanagisawa and the Yamaha back to back, it was difficult to tell the two apart.  I don't think most audiences would hear the difference.  For me, however, the Yanagisawa is slightly more even throughout the range, with a touch more clarity and focus.  I love the balance of harmonics.  There are enough high frequencies present to give good color and resonance, but it never sounds buzzy or thin.
- It has a lyre mount.  I wish all Yamahas still did.  This is an important consideration for high schools and military bands.
- Reasonable price that is between Yamaha and Selmer.

The Jury's Still Out

- Intonation: Quite different than my Yamahas.  I am having to raise the upper register and lower the low register more than I am used to.  I think this is going to end up being in the Pro list, but more time will tell.  So far, I think this may be one of the easier saxes to play in tune.
- Response: Initially I was having some trouble with the low D# bobbling, but this seems to have gone away now that I am getting used to the horn.  Also, the overall response, especially when navigating big descending intervals, seemed a little sluggish, but again, this may be improving as I get accustomed to the horn.  Similar results in the altissimo register.  All notes up to the F an octave above the palm keys come out fine, and with the fingerings I am an used to, but they respond differently than my Yamaha.  And right now, I am still missing the target more often, though this seems to be improving.  Playing the overtone bugle call is pretty easy.
- Build quality: It is still too early to know how well this horn will hold up over time and hold its adjustments when it does need some work.  There is a clunk sound that only shows up when I play extremely fast, Le Api, for example.  When the first finger in the right hand opens very quickly, it allows the connector rod to slam a bit.  I'm not sure how they would fix this without using a material that would compress too much over time.
- Jazz sound: I have not yet played enough jazz on it.

Cons

- Palm Keys: D and D# are too pointed at the top and dig into my hand just a bit, though not as bad as some earlier model Yany's.
- High F# key: This is not comfortable for me, and I keep nearly missing it.  Crunch G is very awkward.  For those who are not familiar with Crunch G, it is a special fingering for altissimo G that allows one to play the note very softly and in tune.  It is called Crunch G because the right hand has to grab the first finger F key, the high F# key, and the side Bb key (RSK 1) at the same time, which sort crunches the hand.  I can do this comfortably on my Yamaha, but not yet on the Yany.  BTW, I use this fingering all the time; it is one of my favorites for high G.
- The neck cannot be secured tightly enough and moves on me while I am playing.

Update 1 January 2015

I did not get much farther than the first impressions review with this horn.  I always had a sense that the response was slow, especially when playing the Bach Flute Partita BWV 1013 and other pieces with larger interval leaps into the lower register.   This prompted me to bring out my Cannonball Big Bell Stone Series, which I had not played for several months.  Response was much easier on my Cannonball, and I was reminded, again, why I bought the horn in the first place: tone and intonation.  The intonation on my Cannonball is better than on any other alto I have played, and I really like the sound as well.  So where does this leave the Yany?  For now, it is sitting in my office as a backup horn.  I prefer its sound to my Yamaha, and the intonation is no more difficult to manage, just different.  I will probably lean toward Yanagisawa, for now, if I have to choose between Yany and Yamaha, but the brass model feels like a teaser.  It's good, but I'm left wondering what the bronze and silver versions are like....

The Secret to Playing the Saxophone

To make a long story short: Pitch Bending.

The longer story:

If you were to blow a note on just the mouthpiece, it should sound a certain pitch.  For a classical sound and on mouthpieces that lend themselves more easily to that sound these pitches are more or less:

C for Soprano
A for Alto
G for Tenor
D for Bari

For a jazz sound, you would typically shoot for a focus pitch lower than what is listed above, but this can vary greatly depending on the sound you are after.  For example, to emulate Parker you will need a different focus pitch than you will for Desmond.  Regardless of the sound you are after, you should practice sounding the focus pitch by playing it loud and as stable as possible, using a keyboard for reference and pitch accuracy.  That is step one.  Warning: you will annoy anyone nearby and possibly even yourself. 

Step two is the ability to bend this pitch in a controlled manner as low as possible down to an octave below the focus pitch.  To do this you must learn to control the muscles in the back of the mouth and down into the throat.  These are the same muscles you use to control the pitch of your voice.  Although, you won't use them in quite the same way on the saxophone.  Controlling these muscles will allow you to control the airstream into the saxophone, thus having a great effect on pitch and tone.  As you do this pitch bending exercise, it is important to minimize jaw motion.  This step should be practiced everyday at various intervals throughout a practice session.  Don't get discouraged if you can't do this right away.  It can take months or more to even gain proficiency.

The ability to pitch bend will have a huge impact on your ability to play in the altissimo register, as well as harmonics and multiphonics.

There are indeed other ways to practice this same skill.  You can pitch bend on the instrument.  For example, play high Eb, D, Eb, C#, Eb, C.  Now try to do it without moving your fingers; you will keep fingering high Eb and just bend the pitch with your throat.  Don't worry.  I couldn't do it at first either.  In fact, I wouldn't have thought it was possible if I had not just heard Dr. Rousseau do it right in front of me.  But, with practice I was able to do it too, and -- this is the good news -- as soon as I learned to do this, my ability to play harmonics and altissimo improved immensely.  I do find this much more difficult on tenor and bari.  In fact, the higher the note, the easier it is.  I spent at least a year pitch bending all of my altissimo notes every time I played the instrument, even while warming up for band rehearsals, and I think it is the single most important factor that allowed me some control of that register.

Harmonics are another great way to gain control of the tongue and throat muscles, and many great exercises are available in various method books.  In fact, everything on this page is available in greater detail from other sources.

One of my favorite new resources is Eugene Rousseau's Saxophone Artistry in Performance and Pedagogy, available from www.jeanne-inc.com. 

I always thought you could boil down playing the saxophone into pretty simple and concise terms even if it would take a lifetime to master them.  Now Eugene Rousseau has done just that.  Everything I learned about mastering the instrument from Dr. Rousseau in my six years of study with him is here and more.  This should be required reading for every saxophonist. 

For more detail, however, look to Rousseau's Saxophone High Tones and Donald Sinta's Voicing: An Approach to the Saxophone's Third Register.  They provide different and complementary strategies for mastery of the altissimo register and ultimately the saxophone as a whole.  Each of these books is very important and can greatly aid saxophonists of all levels... well, maybe not beginners.  Sigurd Rascher has a book on this subject as well, but I have found that Rousseau's and Sinta's books make it obsolete.

I do feel that simple pitch bending exercises on the mouthpiece alone are of great benefit to beginners and will lay a solid foundation for further study in the Rousseau and Sinta books in later years.

Best wishes on your journey with the saxophone, and now, go learn how to pitch bend.

Windstorm

This is a piece with a long history.  I started writing it as a sophomore or junior theory project back around 1998 while I was a student at Indiana University.  We had to write a composition in the style of another composer, and I chose to write in the style of Berlioz's requiem.  However, I was only ever happy with some of the ideas, not the piece as a whole.  By my last year or so at IU, I had already started reworking the piece.  I scrapped the original accompaniment and added the harp line that you hear today.  I even played it on a recital to celebrate my wife's graduation.  One of her friends from the dorm played the harp part, and I recruited another to play a very simple drum line that had not yet matured into what it is currently.  By 2001, I bought a modest recording rig running Cubase VST 32, Wavelab 3, and Gigastudio.  With GigaHarp and some sounds from my Casio keyboard, I was able to get one step closer to my vision.  I still have the recording somewhere, but it sounds so thin and amateur compared to this.  By 2010 and thanks to my job as an Army Musician, I was able to afford a computer powerful enough to run LA Scoring Strings, Storm Drum 2, and other sample libraries that were a huge improvement over what I had previously.  I reworked Windstorm yet again, adding orchestra, an improved drum track, and I rerecorded the sax part with an AEA R84/TRP combination.  The result was so much better, that I was finally starting to be content.  I can't tell you how many mixes I did, though.  It took a couple more years of tweaking here and there before I finally decided to put it to rest.  Fortunately, by that point we had been living in Alaska for a couple years and collected some great pictures.  The slide show contains pictures taken by my wife and myself.  Some were just with my iPad.  The scenery is of Fairbanks, Anchorage, Denali, and Sitka.  I really think they suite the mood of the piece, and I hope you like it too.  I still think about tweaking things sometimes, maybe recording the sax part again, but I've learned that I need to keep moving forward.  There are many new projects to do.  Whenever I watch this, I miss Alaska.  It was a state that I never wanted to visit, but now that I have lived there, I wish I could go back.

Bozza's Aria

This is one of my favorite pieces and one of the most beautiful ever written for the saxophone. Not everyone knows that Bozza was inspired by Bach's Organ Pastorale BWV 590. You can see the connections in the score below.

I think one should be careful not to play the Aria too slow. I like the tempo I have chosen, but I would not go any faster. There are times when I would even prefer a slightly slower tempo than on my videos.

Control at soft dynamics can be difficult. Careful wind control and tonal balance are important. One must take great care not to drift sharp when soft or when playing all the middle Ds.

I sequenced the piano part in two stages. For stage one, I entered the score into Notion for iPad, which generated a midi file. I then imported the midi file into Reaper on my desktop computer, where I fine tuned the part. I was able to shape both the tempo and dynamics exactly to my taste. The part was played by East West Pianos Steinway. Reaper generated a 24bit audio file, which I imported into Auria on my iPad. I then overdubbed the saxophone, mixed, and added some convolution reverb. There was no editing. The recordings you hear are one complete take. The only problem is that I could not decide if I liked my Larry Teal or my C* better, so I posted them both. If nothing else, you can hear a good comparison of the two mouthpieces this way.

I hope you enjoy these recordings!

Modern Larry Teal:

Selmer C*:

The Ferling Project

Back in January, 2014,  I decided it was time to do something to contribute to the greater good of sax playing.  So, I began my Ferling project.  I have always loved the Ferling etudes since first beginning my studies of them about 20 years ago.  The slow etudes are especially dear to me.  Beautiful miniatures, they have helped me to refine my tone, dynamic control and phrasing more than almost any other pieces of music.  I have even performed a few of them, and the audience reaction was good.  I decided to record all of the odd numbered etudes from the Marcel Mule edition and post them on YouTube for the benefit, hopefully, of all.

At this point in time, there are quite a few editions of W. Ferling's original 48 etudes.  If IMSLP has served me well, there were no metronome markings in the original.  Many oboists, however, use the Andraud edition, which does have metronome markings.  The Marcel Mule edition has quite different metronome markings from the Andraud.  Most of the slow etudes are marked at quarter = 72, which according to Dr. Eugene Rousseau, was Mule's favorite tempo for practicing vibrato.  Mule also composed several additional etudes that cover all of the enharmonic keys up to C# and Cb.  These are mostly very well done and almost indistinguishable in style from Ferling's.  Dr. Rousseau has recently published his own edition of the slow etudes.

This is notable because he includes fingering suggestions for each etude.  He suggests a tempo of quarter = 80 for each etude, the speed he prefers to practice vibrato.  In both cases, Mule and Rousseau, the vibrato should be four undulations per beat.  As a saxophonist choosing your first version, I recommend the Mule edition because there is more music there, and the editorials are more appropriate for saxophone than the Andraud.  However, if possible I would also get the Rousseau edition just to have his fingering suggestions.  Keep in mind, though, that Rousseau only included the slow etudes.

 In my own journey with these etudes, I have approached them many different ways.  Initially, it was a matter of learning the pieces, the notes, rhythms, ornaments, and phrasing.  But as the years progressed I was able to go beyond most of the technical aspects.  I found, at one time, that the most useful way to play them was without any vibrato at all.  When I did this, I discovered how little I was actually doing with the phrasing.  Be careful not to let vibrato become a musical crutch.  It is a color with which we can shape our music, an ornament of the tone.  The videos presented below (on YouTube by searching "Colin Lippy") represent my current thoughts on these pieces.  While definitely inspired by Dr. Rousseau's instruction and the Mule edition, I no longer have much interest in one man's metronome markings.  Rather, I am interesting in capturing the spirit of the music as best I can and in my own interpretation.  They are no longer etudes for me but miniature works of art.  I recorded them in a complete take with no editing or effects.  The goal was to present them as realistically as possible, much as they are often played, in practice rooms or private lessons.   I hope you enjoy these videos and find them useful in your own journey.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out Part 2: The Fast Ones.

Ferling 1

Ferling 3

Ferling 5

Ferling 7

Ferling 9

Ferling 11

Ferling 13

Ferling 15

Ferling 17

Ferling 19

Ferling 21

Ferling 23

Ferling 25

Ferling 27

Ferling 29

Ferling 31

Ferling 33

Ferling 35

Ferling 37

Ferling 39

Ferling 41

Ferling 43

Ferling 45

Mule 47

Ferling 47/Mule 51

Mule 49

Mule 53

Mule 55

Mule 57

Mule 59

Welcome!

There it is!... the source of my misery and frustration... but also of joy, beauty, peace, and inspiration.

I am both its slave and its master, its addict and caretaker. Fundamentally a machine, it has taught me humility and patience, but it serves as the voice of my heart, the vehicle for the wordless language of my soul.

Growing up in the tradition of Marcel Mule as passed on to me by Eugene Rousseau, I have been a student of the saxophone for 27 years and counting. I am a teacher, performer, scholar, and recording artist. I have had a wide range of experiences that continue to challenge my beliefs and perceptions, and which I pray will lead to even a modest sum of wisdom. It is my goal, through this blog, to share some of this with you, to pass on what I have learned (said in the voice of Yoda). As such, I plan to offer up my experience and philosophies on the saxophone and music in general with the full knowledge that there are often many other "correct" answers. Your mileage may vary, and to me, that is one of the greatest beauties of music, that you and I can have different opinions and still both be right. It is when we insist on one right answer that a music will start to die. That being said, I hope to provide some very useful tools to aid you in your growth as a saxophonist, and I hope this blog will be a useful addition to your life.