This is the new Vandoren V16 A7S. This was my main piece for a year or two when I first started playing alto again about 8 years ago. This mouthpiece has a bright powerful sound to it. Nice big full sound with some edge. It has what I would consider a small chamber. the smaller […]
Mouthpiece Cafe NYC 6 Alto Mouthpiece
I received this piece a few days ago from the guys at Mouthpiece Cafe(Brian and Eric). Everyone knows that I’m a big fan of Brian Powell’s work so when I heard they were coming out with their own line of mouthpieces I just had to try one. I really love this NYC mouthpiece. It has […]
LAW MCB 6* (Prototype)
I received this piece a few weeks ago from Laurie Waldron in the UK. He’s been making great tenor mouthpieces for awhile and now he’s taking a shot at some alto mouthpieces. These are two pieces that are prototypes that he wanted to get my opinions on. This piece is metal and has bullet shaped […]
Law Buzzer 6* Alto Mouthpiece (Prototype)
Here is another LAW prototype alto sax mouthpiece from Lawrie Waldron. This one has a baffle that is similar to the LAW “Buzzer” tenor piece. It looks like it is made from the same blank as the LAW tenor mouthpiece but is shorter. It has a fatter smoother sound than the bullet chamber prototype. I […]
Aizen 6 Alto Mouthpiece
This is from a new mouthpiece maker out of Japan. I must say that who ever owns this company pays attention to the details. The packaging of the piece is beautiful and it even comes with cork grease and a mouthpiece patch. The mouthpiece looks perfect. It’s got that quality hard rubber look to it […]
LAW LCD 6*
This is a new LAW mouthpiece I received in the mail yesterday from Mr. Waldron. I really dug this one and played it for awhile this morning. The LCD stands for Large Chambered Dark but I don’t consider it a really “dark” piece. It’s not as bright as the “Buzzer” or the “MCB” but it […]
LAW Buzzer 6* Alto Mouthpiece
This is a new LAW mouthpiece I received in the mail yesterday from Lawrence Waldron in the UK. This is similar to the LAW Buzzer Prototype I played earlier. I’m not sure what the difference is but this one is plated where as the other one was raw brass because it was a prototype. This […]
LAW MCB 6* Alto Mouthpiece
This is a new LAW alto mouthpiece I received in the mail yesterday from Lawrence Waldron. This piece is similar to the other bullet chambered MCB LAW piece I play tested but this one looks to have a slightly bigger chamber on it. MCB stands for Medium Chamber Bright. This piece looks perfect! Great finish […]
Drake Contemporary Tenor Mouthpiece
This is a tenor mouthpiece by Aaron Drake at Drake Ceramic Mouthpieces. Aaron has been generous enough to send two tenor mouthpieces for me to try. This one is called the “Contemporary” . It has an 8 (.110) tip. These mouthpiece are very unique in that they are made of ceramic. I was a […]
Drake Double Ring Ceramic Tenor Mouthpiece
This is a tenor mouthpiece by Aaron Drake at Drake Ceramic Mouthpieces. He has been generous enough to send two tenor mouthpieces for me to try. These are called “Double Ring” Jazz and a Contemporary. They are both .110 tips. These mouthpiece are very unique in that they are made of ceramic. I was a bit […]
Drake Double Ring Ceramic Alto Mouthpiece 5
This is a new alto mouthpiece by Aaron Drake at Drake Ceramic Mouthpieces. He has been generous enough to send two alto pieces to me to try. These are called “Double Ring” Jazz pieces. One has a .075 tip and one has a .080 tip. These mouthpiece are very unique in that they are made […]
Theo Wanne Gaia 7* Tenor Mouthpiece
This is a new Theo Wanne mouthpiece called the Gaia. He advertises this on http://www.theowanne.com/ as being close to a Florida Link type of sound. I have to say that out of the Theo Wanne pieces I have played so far this is my favorite. The higher baffle Wanne mouthpieces were too bright for what […]
Morgan Fry Floridated Link
This is a mouthpiece that Morgan Fry sent me from the UK. He’s been advertising a Floridated link on his site www.morganfrymouthpieces.com. I was curious about how they played so I sent him an email to see if i could try one. In looks it is very similar to my very good Florida Link that […]
Mastering the Dominant Bebop Scale
Mastering The Dominant Bebop Scale The Dominant Bebop Scale is a scale that can be used over a dominant chord. It has both the major 7th and the flat 7th in the scale so in the key of G the scale would be GABCDEFF#G. The reason that the dominant bebop scale sounds so great is […]
Vandoren V16 Hard Rubber T6
This is a Vandoren tenor sax mouthpiece I picked up in a local music store for a student of mine. I tried a Vandoren T7 and this Vandoren T6 and I liked this T6 quite a bit more on my tenor. It has a long roll over baffle that continues right down into the chamber. […]
Approach Note Books and Lessons
“Approach Note Velocity” by Steve Neff Approach Note Velocity is a book that I created for myself so that I could master all the different approach notes in every key. I have divided the book up into sections by key and have written out the exercises so that you can practice them and read them […]
RS Berkeley “Virtuoso” tenor sax review
About 6 months ago I had a new member to my site named Les Silver. Les signed up for online lessons and we exchanged quite a few emails and phone calls talking about my lessons and in our conversations he told me about his saxophone line that he has been developing over the last few […]
Getting the Most from Neffmusic Online Lesson
To get most out of my NeffMusic Online Lessons I would suggest a few simple ideas. 1. Focus on one topic like Blues scales, Approach Notes, Pentatonics……..etc. In my mind it’s always better to focus on one topic at a time and master it. Working on bits and pieces of 10 different lessons and not […]
Two Chris Potter Transcriptions from “Song for Anyone” CD
Here are two Chris Potter transcriptions that I received from Corey Armstrong for tenor sax. I haven’t had the time to check them out note for note but these are two great solos from the “Song for Anyone” CD and must have taken quite a bit of time to figure out. Corey said I could […]
LAW Medium Chamber Bright (MCB) .110
This is another LAW mouthpiece by Lawrence Waldron in the UK. It was in the same package as the LCD(Large Chamber Dark) piece. This piece is a MCB(Medium Chamber Bright) piece. It has a roll over baffle that slopes more gradually into the chamber than the LCD piece. This gives it a bit more power […]
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