Xaphoon Lesson Four: Lip Tuning for Cross-fingering and Half-holing

Maui Xaphoon Shelter in Place Lesson Series
Aloha Everyone! Lesson 4 goes deeper into lip tuning, using two difficult notes to play correctly in tune: F# and Eb. The reason these notes are difficult is that the pitch will not be correct by fingering alone; they must be lip-tuned as well! F# is “cross-fingered,” meaning there are closed holes below an open hole. Eb (in this case) is “half-holed,” meaning the operative finger is lifted just slightly off the hole, while still remaining in contact with the edge of the hole. Once you master the relationship between fingering and lip tuning, you will have discovered the essence of good Xaphoon playing. This lesson is in D Major (using F#), but also uses the flat 2nd, (the Eb). This beautiful scale is known as “hijaz.” You can practice with the jam-along track on Soundcloud, at / xaphoon-lesson-series
Buy a Xaphoon at xaphoon.com/

[@quoth_raven]

This video series is great, though I´m not sure I undertand everything you´re trying to show.

[@weissmeos5442]

有中東味道，那音樂

[@Midnight_._Sage]

What Reed are you using? Please and thank you

[@garyfriedman2005]

The reed he's using is a Rico tenor sax reed, of strength 2 1/2. All of the Xaphoon models ship with this reed.