Tone question

There is SO MUCH that goes in to understanding how tone is generated, that it might be impossible to describe via a huge text blob. Hence, why a good teacher would be helpful.

However, here we go: It sounds to me like you need to consider a slightly softer reed, a more open chambered mouthpiece, or changing the shape of your tongue and throat to achieve the desired result. Your air is being focused in a “tighter” manor, which isn’t bad at all, but isn’t the sound you seem to want (based on the sampled recordings). You need a more open, relaxed air flow. The good news is you can probably get there, but it will take some experimentation with various mouthpieces and reeds, as well as changing how you deliver the air to the horn. Without knowing your equipment (horn/mouthpiece/reed), it’s hard to give recommendations….

TL;DR - Softer reed, open mouthpiece, relax throat, find a good teacher.

I found Dave Liebman’s book “Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound” very interesting and helpful. I recommend that you get it and work with it.

I agree with most of what u/drjones23b said, but I'll add a couple things:

1. With regards to the first reference you posted, there's not much value to be had trying to match your tone to something with that much processing going on. That's not to say you shouldn't use it an inspiration in the music you make, but it's not going to do you very much good when it comes to raw tone development.
2. The main thing going on in the Bohren track is called "subtones". It's pretty difficult to explain what it is and how to get it, but if I had to put it into words I would say that it's "playing really softly, loudly".

Alright, subtones. The first thing to note is that it's going to be extremely difficult to achieve subtones with your mouthpiece (I saw in another comment that you're using a Yamaha 4C). On tenor the sweetspot seems to be either a 7 or a 7* tip opening, so I'd look into buying a mouthpiece around that area. My first mouthpiece upgrade after a 4C was a Vandoren T7 V16, and in retrospect I feel like it hits a really good sweetspot of ease of tone production and quality of tone.

Back to subtones, when you're starting out it's going to be easiest to produce them somewhere between a low D and a low F. I can't explain exactly what happens embouchure-wise, but it's a mixture of opening your throat, dropping your jaw, and pushing more air through. If you do it right, you should get a "wider" sound with less "core". As you get more control over your embouchure you'll be able to introduce "core" back in to your liking, although I wouldn't worry about that quite yet.

One other piece of advice I'll give you, based on what you said in other comments, is you're going to need to go down reed strengths when you move to a wider mouthpiece. It's a pretty common misconception amongst newer players (middle school and high school especially) that the harder the reed the better the player, and I promise that it's not true. The only players I've ever met that play anything harder than a 3 nowadays are bright, poppy players on ridiculously baffled mouthpieces or pure masochists.

I'm a complete noob, but recently had thoughts on this kind of tonal character. Seems like the mouthpiece and reed strength have a pretty big impact on achieving a specific tone at a certain volume.

In my own playing there is this sweet spot between breathy and bright which exists at a very narrow region of the amount of air I am putting through a 2.5 medium rigotti on my alto with a D'Addario Select Jazz mouthpiece.

There's a lot of reading here, so I'll leave a more concise answer than I usually would. My general tone advice is always: Drop your jaw and increase airflow air. Play scales downward on mouthpiece alone - aim for about an octave of range. The lower and fuller you can make the mouthpiece sound, the closer you'll be to the sound you're seeking. More air is needed for stability as you open up in this way.

My other advice is listen like crazy to players with the tone you want, and practice emulating that sound always. What may feel at first like a useless effort will lead to results in the long term, but you have to keep at it and you have to have every nuance of the tone you want in your head all the time. If you want to sound like that first beat you posted, check out Houston Person, Scott Hamilton, and even older cats like Lester Young and Ben Webster. That's a core sound to start building your own personality on.

Also if you're recording, you can do a ton with EQ and reverb.

If it were me trying to recreate the Bohren / Prowler tone: tenor sax without leaks, hard rubber #7 mouthpiece, broken-in 2 1/2 reed, slightly echoic room, add feeling of melancholy as needed. I'm not hearing anything here difficult to recreate, just breath control and supplying a little less air than normal for effect.

I am also a self-taught sax player. However, I have gotten hints from some very experienced musicians in the area who gave me some valuable pointers.

I don't want to get you going on spending a lot of money on equipment as there are so many variables in tone production from the instrument itself, to the chamber of the mouthpiece, the material of the mouthpiece, the strength of the reed, the shape of the reed, your embouchure, your throat control, and even your body build.

I started on a Yamaha student tenor sax (I think it was a YTS-23). I then lucked into a Conn 10M. With the same reed and mouthpiece, there was an incredible difference in tone and volume.

I later switched primarily to baritone sax. It came with the 4C mouthpiece, which was okay. I had tried some other mouthpieces (some given to me) and each produced an expected difference in sound. The two mouthpieces I now prefer is the Metalite M7 followed by a close second with the Metalite M9. I did change the shape of the baffle in the M7 to slightly darken the sound. I originally bought these mouthpieces to experiment on as they were about $25 apiece a few years ago. They are now about $30 each.

I switched to plastic reeds exclusively when I bought the baritone sax because the low humidity here would cause the reeds to split. They are also very consistent in in their playing -- until they aren't. After a few months on a reed, some notes just don't seem to be easy to play. That is when you know there is a stress fracture developing.

You might try a couple of the inexpensive mouthpieces to see what effect the different chambers have on the sound. In general - the smaller chambers are a brighter sound and the larger chambers are darker. I have not tried the Graftonite mouthpieces from d'Addario/Rico, only the Metalite.

Once again, I don't want to push you toward buying a bunch of mouthpieces to find that 'perfect one', especially if you think you will be upgrading to a different saxophone. Everything will be different when you get a new instrument.

I looked at some of the other responses, most are spot-on.

Great insights shared! I would add to Do embouchere work during your long tone practicing. Concentrate on having solid strong pressure around the top 270° of the Mouthpiece with your lips and mouth muscles, but ALSO the Lightest Pressure that still makes a sound, on the bottom side applied through lower lip to the Reed.

Joe Allard was a famous teacher who espoused this approach, using really light pressure on the Reed. This let's the Reed vibrate massively, easily, which will help you get that baggy-lip old-school Tenor sound.

Do you play Quiet Long Tones? At a clinic I learned to play the lowest ten tones on my sax(es) as quietly as possible to still get a nice sound (for 99 - 120 seconds). The teacher said, 'If you can get a good sound playing really quiet, trust me, you can get a good sound at Any volume.'

Rock on, from one self-taught Sax player to another. ✌💛⚡🎷🎙

Sounds like a baritone sax to me. No special technique.

If you like this sound, maybe start playing baritone saxophone? That’s what it sounds like to me, particularly in the first clip.