Growling (wind instruments)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Growling" wind instruments – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Growling

A growl on a baritone saxophone.

---

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Growling is a musical technique where the instrumentalist vocalizes into the instrument to alter quality of the sound. Growling is used primarily in rock and blues style playing, it is also frequently used in klezmer music; it is popular in the woodwind family of instruments, especially the saxophone, though it is also commonly used on brass instruments, as well. It is commonly used by mainstream artists such as Ben Webster, Illinois Jacquet and Earl Bostic.^[1] Outside of these styles and instruments, it is often considered a novelty effect.

The growl gives the performer's sound a dark, guttural, gritty timbre resulting largely from the rustle noise and desirable consonance and dissonance effects produced. The technique of simultaneous playing a note and singing into an instrument is also known as horn chords or multiphonics.