DIAPHRAGM BREATHING
Correct breathing is one of the most important factors in getting a good sound. Playing the saxophone needs not only more breath than one usually requires, but it is important that the flow of breath is constant, rather like a steam of water when a tap is turned on. This is not a natural process for most people, in order to achieve this you need to control the flow from the diaphragm (a muscle underneath the lungs) while maintaining a constant air column from the lungs, through the throat and into the mouth. More about this later, let's start with the throat and mouth.
The throat should be open at all times. Imagine you are yawning to understand the concept of open throat. It's tempting, but wrong, to close the throat to control the flow. The best way to understand this is to say ah
ah
ah
. To do this you need to close the throat to start the sound, almost like a light cough. To understand how to start the sound on the saxophone you need to realise that the sound is not started by the sudden presence of air pressure in the mouth as with saying ah
, as there should be a constant air pressure in the mouth. It is the tongue which starts and stops the sound, not the throat. With the tip of the tongue against the tip of the mouthpiece, there will be air pressure in the mouth supported by the column
of air in the lungs. The tongue should then be quickly (but not explosively) moved backwards as if saying the sound tu
. This is like opening a valve so that the air then flows into the mouthpiece starting the sound. To stop the sound move the tongue back against the reed, but remember, the air pressure should still be in your mouth, throat and lungs.
The diaphragm is a flattish muscle between the lungs and the stomach. A lot of people do not use it much when breathing, even those who do are unaware so find it hard to control in the way that you control other muscles such as those in your legs when you want to walk. To play the saxophone you need to understand how to develop diaphragm breathing, and this often takes years to fully master.
The sort of breathing that most people do involves expanding the rib cage so the lungs are also forced to expand outwards. Diaphragm breathing involves expanding the lungs downwards as well, so the diaphragm needs to move downwards. As it's a muscle you can't see, I find it easiest to concentrate on the muscles in front, in other words the muscles in your abdomen that you tense when somebody is about to hit you. The combination of very slightly tensing these muscles and pushing the abdomen outwards as you breathe in is probably the easiest way of training yourself.
Be careful, to begin with prolongued tensing of these muscles may result in strain, if you start to feel any pain whatsoever it means you are over exerting. Be patient and remember that you must gradually and gently train yourself to do this or a serious injury might result. If in any doubt get a good teacher to supervise this. After a while (and it may months or years) you will be able to tense these muscles for extended periods of time and this seems to almost subconciously get the diaphragm to start working. For some reason men find this more natural than women.