Does playing saxophone take a lot of air?

Question

Saxophone doesn't necessarily take a lot of air, but it does require strong air control. We call it breath control. Breath control allows you to play loudly or softly and stay in tune with a steady sound.

Good breath control, or breath support, starts with the diaphragm. That's the muscle in your abdomen that allows your lungs to fill and empty. When you are able to control that muscle, you can control how fast your air moves through your saxophone. It's a muscle that is exercised with breath control exercises, some of which are practiced away from your instrument. Just like any other muscle, it needs to be exercised regularly to become and stay strong.

One of my favorite breath control exercises is laying on my bed or the floor and placing a book on my belly. Breath in slowly and see how far you can make the book smoothly rise without tipping off of your belly. Then do the same as you breath out. The slower you can raise or lower the book without finding yourself gasping, the more control you will gain of your diaphragm. After doing this exercise take a full breath and then release it as slowly as possible into your saxophone(or any wind instrument for that matter). You will notice an improvement in your tone immediately. This exercise increases your awareness of your breath and diaphragm from a relaxed posture, which means you will be able take more breath into your lungs. More breath = More ability to sustain a long note that sounds good!

Answer 1

Yes! The hardest part about a wind instrument, like the saxophone, for a lot of people is not understanding how much air to blow through the instrument. The first misconception is that to play softer, you have to use less air than playing louder. You have to maintain a steady support of air to keep a good tone on the instrument, no matter the dynamic you are supposed to play. The best way that I like to describe it is that you have to engage of core and ab muscles to get a good flow of wind through the body of the sax. The real control of the sound that makes it softer or louder comes from your embouchure, not from air support. No matter what, your embouchure should be fairly tight, depending on the type of saxophone, and should cause the back of your tongue to be raised upward to keep a steady stream of cool air through the mouthpiece. The best way to practice and test your air support and embouchure is to play on just the mouthpiece. On an Alto, you should be able to maintain a Concert A, and a tenor a Concert G on just the mouthpiece alone. The next best thing once you are able to hold that note steady is to then work on dropping or raising the pitch with just the mouthpiece by raising or dropping the back of your tongue. Do this by practicing going up or down half steps from your starting pitch, and returning to that pitch.

Answer 2

From my experience of 20 years saxophone playing. I'd say saxophone does take more air when compared to other wind instruments.

I often say to use cold air when playing saxophone. The cold air means fast, steady and big amount of air flow, it makes the whole saxophone to vibrate in order to get a good sound.

Answer 3

Yes!

You need to learn breathe control.

Answer 4

Playing the saxophone takes the right amount of air and breathe control. Getting the right amount of air will be a process but won't distract from your fun with the right teacher. Think about it like this. When you were little, you first learned to roll, then crawl then walk then run. Playing the saxophone has similar skills and your teacher will help you learn those skills that include how much air to take in by introducing you to the right music and exercise that are right for you. Your lung and mouth muscles will gain strength over time and your air control and ability to take in more air will progressively build, too.

Answer 5

Yes it does. This is why with the right kind of teacher, you can learn how to develop your diaphragm muscles which includes your latissimus muscles in your back. This way you will develop a bigger capacity to hold air and then you will have more air to go through your saxophone, thus producing a bigger sound.

Answer 6

It does, but it’s something that is coach-able. Just because a student doesn’t have lung capacity now, doesn’t mean they won’t later. A small breath that is controlled well through breath support and embouchure can sound very nice until lung capacity is increased. I choose to focus on the solutions to this question rather than focus on the fear based question. Fear surrounding current lung capacity discourages many people from trying to play the sax and it really shouldn't. With exercises focused on breath support and lung capacity, those abilities will increase if they're not already there.

Answer 7

The short answer is... yes.

Don't kid yourself. Lung capacity plays a big roll in wind instruments.