Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review

Are you looking for a good beginners mouthpiece for your saxophone ?  This Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece review post will give you a bit more information and help you turn into the rock star that you deserve to be.

The Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece is a great place to start you off on you saxophone journey.

It will also keep you going for many years too.  Not just for beginners learning how to play the saxophone, this mouthpiece will keep intermediate players honking, rocking and mellowing out for several years without ever needing to change.

No matter what your age (suits ages 10 – 110), the Yamaha 4C Alto Sax mouthpiece will give you a nice sound, will be easy to play and will allow you to get the most out of your beginners saxophone.

From the Yamaha website: “Easy to obtain a balanced, clear, and focused tone in any octave. Ideal for professionals and beginners.”

I will go out on a limb here and disagree with the “ideal for professionals” part of their grand statement.  Any professional musician who has been playing for many, many years is most likely to have outgrown their original Yamaha 4C mouthpiece.  They may well have kept theirs as a spare “just in case” – like I have – but I doubt that a pro player would use theirs on a regular basis.

That aside, these are awesome mouthpieces.

 

They will allow the beginner and/or intermediate saxophonist to play any kind and any style of music.

 

From “loud” styles such as Rock, Pop or Jazz, to “soft” styles such as Classical, Folk, or Relaxation music, the Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone mouthpiece has got you covered.

This is a good thing, because most beginners usually want to experiment a bit with different styles or genres of music anyway.  Having the versatility of this “one size fits all” mouthpiece makes playing your sax sooooo much easier.

Speaking of easy, these mouthpieces are really easy to get a good sound and tone out of them.

With a bit of practise (like all things musical, you will need to practise your saxophone !!), you can get raspy or raunchy sounds, or soft and subtle and breathy sounds with no troubles at all.

Many beginners end up buying a cheap(er) saxophone than the one they might ultimately end up with.  I understand this – it makes sense to not spend too much money on an instrument that you or your child may not end up using for very long.

The problem with a cheap saxophone is that it invariably comes with a cheap mouthpiece.

The combination of a cheap saxophone and a cheap mouthpiece becomes a battle and a potentially bad experience.

Sure – while we’d all love a Ferrari, often the budget simply does not allow it.  So we buy a push bike instead.

However, a cheap and nasty mouthpiece more often than not can actually hinder, rather than help, with playing your saxophone.  If the mouthpiece is badly made it will not sound good, will be difficult at best and unplayable at worst.

 

Please, even if you buy a cheaper sax for yourself or your child, make sure that you spend an extra few $$$ on a good mouthpiece.

Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review

A good mouthpiece such as the Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone mouthpieceFor the price, these mouthpieces offer fantastic value for money.

In fact, most new Yamaha alto saxophones comes with a Yamaha 4C mouthpiece in the case.  This shows that Yamaha themselves are confident with their product.

These mouthpieces are made out of high-quality phenol resin (plastic) and feature a design based upon the top grade Yamaha Custom Series (ie the more expensive ones).  They are extremely consistent in specifications and playing quality, and offer excellent value for their price.  The facing (where the reed sits) of this series is slightly shorter than that of the Custom Series making them easier to play, and easier for beginning students to achieve a rich characteristic saxophone sound.

 

The difference between a “beginner / intermediate” mouthpiece and a “professional” mouthpiece is the size of the gap between the tip and the reed.

 

The smaller the gap between the tip of the mouthpiece and the tip of the reed, the easier it is to play.

Beginners have less control of their mouths and their facial muscles and indeed their saxophones.  As such a smaller sized mouthpiece makes it easier to get a great sound.

Think of it like automatic transmission on a car – for a learner driver, not having to manually change gears while driving makes things so much easier initially.  A smaller mouthpiece will be much like the manual car transmission – easier to get a sound out of and you will be off to the races in no time !

The 4C is not the smallest size mouthpiece you can get, but it does the best job in the most scenarios.

 

It is no wonder that Yamaha 4C alto saxophone mouthpieces are pretty much the standard beginner saxophone mouthpiece.

 

If you are new to the saxophone – or if you’ve been playing for a year or two but it doesn’t feel “right” for some reason – please do yourself a favour and order yourself a Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece today.

Your playing will take a big leap forward.

Thanks for reading this Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece review 🙂

Matthew

P.S.  Do you have a Yamaha 4C Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece ?  Have you played one ?  What do you think about it ?  Please let me know in the comments below.  And please share this review using the social sharing buttons below !

P.P.S.  If you would like simple step by step instructions to help you learn how to play the sax, all neatly organised in the one convenient location, all provided by an experienced saxophone teacher who can help you to play the music that you want to play quickly and easily, then check out our saxophone lessons membership options.  Get started on your saxophone journey today !

 

Remember – I can help you learn How To Play The Sax 🙂

 

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