I know many students and professional saxophonist that use distinctly different approaches regarding embouchure when switching from classical to jazz playing. I believe that the same embouchure really can be used for all styles of music, with slight variations depending upon the desired sound. No other musical instrument uses different embouchures for classical and jazz styles, why should the saxophone? Very often students will try to emulate a particular player and incorporate bad habits along with the good. Saxophone performance practices are incredibly varied, and it takes careful listening and examination to discern between a great improviser who has come upon a unique but inefficient way of playing, and a player who really can operate the instrument.
The saxophone does not have the long history of performance and pedagogy enjoyed by the other woodwinds. In addition, the majority of saxophone history is in the jazz and popular areas. Compounding this problem is the current state of classical saxophone performance with its emphasis extended techniques and extreme pianissimo playing. I recently returned from a convention where I heard two of the top classical saxophonists in the world performing concerti with college or professional wind ensembles. I came away from the performances with these questions: Why did the saxophone soloists appear to be unable to play at a volume level to project over the ensemble? Why were the soloists’ vibrati faster than any other instrument? Why was the saxophone sound darker and more covered than any other woodwind? This was a saxophone! It seems there are some schools of saxophone performance that seek to make the saxophone into everything it’s not.
The saxophone is an incredibly expressive instrument, and this malleability allows several radically different approaches to tone and performance practices to exist simultaneously, unlike other woodwinds. The development of the modern symphony orchestra has supported common approaches to tone and vibrato within the woodwind family, so that flutes, oboes, bassoons and clarinets can musically coexist, even referring to common schools of pedagogy such as the teachings of William Kincaid, Daniel Bonade, and Marcel Tabeteau The saxophone has not been part of this shared development, and classical saxophone performance practices have evolved without benefit of this shared vision. Without an established, consistent pedagogical base, saxophonists vary widely in tonal concepts, performance practices, as well as in their selection of instruments, mouthpieces, ligatures, and reeds.
On the jazz side, why do some teachers advocate rolling out the lower lip, or changing the angle of the instrument for jazz playing? Do the physics of the instrument change depending upon the musical style? Without an established pedagogy, jazz players are left to examine photographs of legendary players and to try to divine from recordings concepts of posture, embouchure, and even technique. This leads to entire schools of performance with no basis in physics or ergonomics.
Our goal is to operate the saxophone as efficiently as possible, applying standard principles of physics and ergonomics (See Posture and Embouchure).