[littlesprinter]

I'm having some issues with my embochure. My band director says that I'm biting, but I don't know how to correct that. I play the sax, so any help would really be appreciated.

Thanks.

[.Tux.]

I'm not an expert by any means, but try pulling your jaw down, opening up, and using more lip muscle. If it doesn't help.. then ignore what I said

[robert4xst]

A lot of times you "bite" when your reed is either too soft ... or too hard. So that might be the problem.

[asxlittleman]

one trick you might try is to double-lip. play on the mouthpiece like it's a double reed by bringing your top lip over your top teeth so that you have your top lip on the top of the mouthpiece instead of your teeth. if you're biting, it'll be really painful on your top lip the first time you try it. adjust the neckstrap so that the mouthpiece just sits in your mouth without your having to bite it in place, and try playing like that for a few minutes every time you practice, just running scales or something. you'll develop even lip muscle so that you're using your lip muscle for pressure instead of your teeth. then just go back to your normal embouchure (teeth on top) and keep trying to carry over the feeling of using lip muscle. your tone will likely improve (i know mine did). hope that helps. and robert4xst is definitely right. when you start biting, the pressure you put on the reed continues to increase as your mouth is able to handle greater pressure from your teeth, and the tendency is to get harder and harder reeds with a more open mouthpiece. the flip side is that if your reed is too soft, your fighting with it to make it speak when it's collapsing, so experimenting with the reed situation might also be helpful.