I am not musical at all so please excuse my ignorance.

My son is progressing well with his Sax & takes his grade 4 some time soonish. He has been playing for about 9 months having come from a clarinet.

He really loves Jazz – mainly big band stuff at the moment.

We went to the RNCM Manchester & the guys on the stalls were pushing the idea of jazz specific mouth pieces.

Is this something we should look at ?
At the moment he has the one that came with his Yamaha YAS 275

the guys on the stalls were pushing the idea of jazz specific mouth pieces.

It’s been a long time since I played (although I did eventually get my grade 8 ) but at grade 4 there is no way he should be playing on a jazz specific mouthpiece. I played in the Uni Big Band with a fairly classical mouthpiece with no problems.

YAS 275? I wish I’d had one of those when I was learning!

cheers gonefishin.

YAS275 – I guess they didn’t have ebay when you were learning either.
Got lucky with someone close to home selling a very well looked after one.

I used to play clarinet, bass clarinet & tenor sax. I played the sax in a council run jazz band.
I don’t think anyone in the band used specific jazz mouthpieces.
Finding suitable reeds was much more important. I can’t remember the brands I tried, but I settled on Van Doren reeds. They were a lot better than the other ones I had tried; well, they suited me better is probably more accurate.

+1 for Vandoren reeds. Try a selection till you find one that you like the sound of and can play easily.

Ah vandoren – that is a word I haven’t heard in a long time!

I used to play clarinet and bass clarinet… only ever used the one mouthpiece (per instrument) and I played quite a bit of jazz.

Dave

Your son may benefit from trying different mouthpieces and ligatures as he progresses. Wife and daughter #1 both play clarinet and alto & soprano saxophone (all acquired via eBay) and I can testify that there are at least twice as many ‘bits’ as there are instruments around the house. Local woodwind shop is more than happy to lay on a selection of test kit.

+1 on the vandoren, but again it’s a personal thing.

Daughter used to play sax, her tutor used to tune her reed by shaving it?

You can soften reeds that are too hard by using glass paper but you are better off buying the right ones in the first place.