Improving saxophone performance by incorporating recent

IMPROVING SAXOPHONE PERFORMANCE BY INCORPORATING
RECENT DISCOVERIES IN POSITIVE SCIENCE INTO ARTISTIC
PERFORMANCE.
Koen DRIES, Peter SWINNEN, Norbert NOZY
Valve
3. The valve
connects the player
with his instrument
and converts a
steady flow into
vibratory acoustical
power.
THREE PART SOUND GENERATING
MECHANISM
4. The duct is
configured by the
player to produce a
desired tone.
2. The airflow is received by the
glottis. The opening of the
vocal chords regulates air
speed, vocal tract geometry
influences tone production.
2. Conversion
Instrument’s duct
Player’s own windway
3. Oscillating flow
1. Steady flow
1. Diaphragm generates an
airflow.
HOW CAN WE INFLUENCE THE
FUNCTIONING OF THE PLAYING
APPARATUS?
The “scientific
approach”, often
reproached of
having little
applicability in a
practical context,
focuses on small
segments of the
playing apparatus
studied under
controlled
laboratory
conditions.
By focusing on different aspects of the playing apparatus in a four‐stage research process, this project aims to fill the gap between the two complementary aproaches and to develop a new approach to saxophone playing. This approach will enable us to apply recent discoveries from posi@ve sciences to ar@s@c performance, not only for saxophone in par@cular, but wind instruments in general. The “artistic approach”, often
reproached of lacking
uniformity and objectivity and
to be trial and error based, is a
method based on the individual and focusing on the whole playing apparatus, where conclusions are formulated in a personal terminology.