How hard is Saxophone

[guitar344]

Just rented a saxophone. Easier than other instruments. I've heard it's easy to play sloppy. Has anyone had experience with saxophone?

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by guitar344

Just rented a saxophone. Easier than other instruments. I've heard it's easy to play sloppy. Has anyone had experience with saxophone?

Bought one a few years ago for the wife. She got the hang of it pretty quickly because she used to play clarinet and the first thing she told me was how much easier it is to play. I gave it a shot and then tried her clarinet too. It was much harder to get a note out of the clarinet that’s for sure.

[jaybones]

I would agree that the clarinet is harder to get a good sound out of. When I was in school band (alto sax) the clarinet section sounded like a bunch of geese.

I played alto for 4 years (most of them with braces) and the hardest part was getting the muscles around the mouth accustomed to doing the things they needed to do.

And if I didn't play for a very brief period of time (say about a week) I would have to build those muscles up again.

My friend and former keyboardist bandmate had his sax from band. He brought it out one night and I could still blow it reasonably well. Couldn't really remember the fingerings, but he showed me a couple and it came back.

Currently looking for a decent student model tenor, which if I'd gotten that instead of the third owned and not very well taken care of alto I probably would have kept with it. But then I wouldn't have switched to drums and ultimately guitar.

[jemartin]

I learned tenor sax while in junior high school. It ruined me for life... playing any kind of woodwind instrument. To this day I can’t stand hearing a saxophone in certain kinds of music! I guess I was just meant to play guitar!

[ifret]

I played alto sax for 6 years throughout school. It was difficult in the sense that no instrument at that level is easy-peasey. It takes dedication, desire, and practice. That said, if determined, it can be a fun instrument. I played all sorts of genres of music, of which jazz and marches were my favorite. The embouchure, wind control (diaphragm) and fingering are all important.

[reeve21]

Hi 344,

I played the sax all the way through school, but it's been almost 40 years, so take this for what it is worth!

I think it is pretty easy to get started. You can play C major, D major and G major scales with just the first three fingers on each hand, and go up an octave with your left thumb. Start with all the keys on those 6 fingers pressed in and you have a D, take them off one at a time starting at the bottom and you'll go right up to B, and the C on either side is easier to show someone than explain. You can also get a couple of sharps with just these fingers by varying the order you remove your fingers (all 3 on left hand and middle only on right is F#) or leaving all the keys open (C sharp).

Now if you want to add more sharps and flats you involve the pinkies and the sides of your forefingers to hit some of those keys that don't fall directly under your fingers.

Now if you want to play with others remember an alto or tenor isn't tuned to C concert pitch. An alto is in Eb or 3 half steps above and a tenor is in Bb or one half step down. I recommend a tenor for most jamming applications in the keys guitarist like because you are closer to concert. Playing an alto in some guitar friendly keys is like hitting all the black keys on a piano. If your guitarists friends are willing to capo that can help If my memory and math are correct a guitar playing a tune in G with a capo on the 3rd fret should be in Bb just like a tenor sax, and your simple C major scale would work over the I chord

The acclimation process is like getting callouses on your fingers, you'll need a little patience.

Have fun with it!

[PorkPieGuy]

I played brass instruments throughout high school, and I'm pretty sure that playing any wind instrument is 1% fingering the right notes and 99% embrasure.

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by PorkPieGuy

I played brass instruments throughout high school, and I'm pretty sure that playing any wind instrument is 1% fingering the right notes and 99% embrasure.

You got that right. Fingering is just muscle memory, the embouchure is what articulates the tone so to speak. I remember ending up with sore cheek muscles and bitten lower lip by just playing a few minutes. Yeah not for me! What I did notice is that getting the right reed for you makes all the difference in the world. It’s almost like strings, thinner reed is like light strings, easier to play but softer tone.

[JMFingerstyle]

Way back, when I had just started high school in the mid '70s, there was a TV advertisement for the Bahamas that had this cool, jazzy saxophone riff in it. I decided that I had to learn to play the saxophone, just so I could play that riff.

Being young, stupid, and without a clue how to play a wind instrument in the days before the internet, I went to the library and found a book with a saxophone fingering chart, and found a music store willing to rent me a sax for just a few bucks each week. I took that sax home, and full of enthusiasm, tried it out for the first time. I put my mouth up the little round hole in the shiny chrome mouthpiece, and blew with increasing force until finally...BLAAAATTTT. For the life of me, I couldn't get more than a sporadic honk out of the darn thing.

I paged through the library book, and concluded that something must be wrong with the saxophone I rented, so I took it back. The owner, puzzled, took off the shiny chrome mouthpiece cover with the little round hole, and played a nice riff. Somehow, the book I had picked up neglected to mention that the cover needed to be removed.

Sheepishly, I kept the sax for about another week, until the neighbors started to complain, and then went back to the guitar.

[The Bard Rocks]

I started off on sax, had never played anything before that. Which means how can I compare how easy it is. As someone before me said, you need to condition those muscles, get your embrochure right if you are going to make any sounds beyond squawks.

Guitar is a lot better for singing, I never got the hang of singing while playing sax. (joking)

I learned to read music on sax and played it (alto, C melody, tenor and, in college, bass clarinet) for 12 years, and learned more music from teaching myself guitar than from lessons on sax. the reason? You can't play chords on a woodwind.

A C Melody is uncommon, but with them you can play with any guitar, banjo, etc., no need to transpose.

[Big Band Guitar]

They are made of brass and that in itself is pretty hard, softer than steel. They do dent rather easily.

[Dr. Spivey]

Originally Posted by Big Band Guitar

They are made of brass and that in itself is pretty hard, softer than steel. They do dent rather easily.

I was struck in the head with a tenor during a melee at a jazz club. I'd say it was pretty hard.

[Bob Womack]

How hard is saxophone? Well, most saxophones are made from "yellow brass," UNS C26800, a copper zinc alloy. The Rockwell hardness of yellow brass is F58.



Bob

[Inyo]

How hard is the saxophone, eh?

Not very hard.

A saxophone is made of brass.

Brass is only 3 on the mohs scale (hardest would of course be diamond--at 10; talc is 1).

[frankmcr]

How hard is saxophone? Well, the plastic saxophone Ornette Coleman used was made of acrylic, which is quite hard for a plastic but very brittle when formed into the shape of a saxophone. Research continues into the development of a saxophone that will not be very hard, perhaps using polycarbonate.