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  #51  
Old 07-30-2013, 09:12 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

OMFG, you are right! :doh: What the hell was I thinking?
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  #52  
Old 09-14-2013, 11:19 AM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

I've signed up for a few lessons now. I just met my teacher this morning and she said she didn't see that I've picked up any obvious bad habits by not having had a teacher so far. My lessons will be half an hour every Wednesday.
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  #53  
Old 09-14-2013, 03:00 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

Practice! Practice! Practice!
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  #54  
Old 09-14-2013, 03:58 PM
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Sometimes I miss doing music, I haven't really done anything since high school. I've been meaning to pick up a cheap guitar and start teaching myself, but the money keeps disappearing before I get around to it… :spend:
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  #55  
Old 09-14-2013, 04:34 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

I know what you mean. I tried to play a friend's saxophone a couple Christmases ago and I couldn't remember shit.

I did pick up an electric keyboard from the Amazon because I had a gift card, but I have not played it very much. The time keeps disappearing before I get around to it.
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  #56  
Old 09-14-2013, 05:05 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

A lot of people are interested in exercise as part of staying healthy, and many are interested in burning calories to loose weight. You can look at playing piano or keyboard from this aspect, keeping in mind that 30 minutes will burn about 100 calories. Just count your practice time as part of your fitness plan.
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  #57  
Old 11-03-2013, 09:50 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

The second hand tenor was in worse shape than I thought. Some of the rods that drive the keys were bent and the complicated mechanism that works the octave keys was seized up. There were loads of slight leaks around all the pads so that a lot of notes, even the ones not affected by the bent rods, wouldn't play - well they made some sort of sound, but wouldn't play properly and in tune.

I figured I hadn't got much to lose, so I took the whole instrument apart down to the last screw and washed all the parts in the bath! Then I gently bent the rods back as straight as I could and put the whole thing back together again, cleaning, oiling and adjusting all the pivots as I went. I made a light out of some of those LED strip lights that I could drop down inside the sax in a darkened room - then with all the pads held closed I could spot where the light (therefore air too) was leaking out.

Then a whole lot of adjustment: tweaking adjustment screws; glueing on new bits of cork to regulate the height of the pads and buttons; bending the pad cups so they sealed better on the tone holes; re-corking the neck where the mouthpiece fits on. I also had to drill and ream out part of the octave key mechanism!

Anyway, now it plays. It doesn't sound as clear as my alto, but that may be down to the way I'm playing it. I think it will need a new set of pads fairly soon, but it is working right now. :crossed:

I'll take it along to my lesson next week instead of the alto and see what my teacher thinks of it.
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  #58  
Old 11-07-2013, 04:48 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

My saxophone teacher played the tenor yesterday and said that I've done a good job and the sax is in great shape. :pleased:

However, I'm still not very good at playing it, nor the alto either. :sadcheer: I suppose I just need a few more years of practice before I reach a standard I'll be satisfied with...
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  #59  
Old 11-07-2013, 05:21 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

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Originally Posted by ceptimus View Post
My saxophone teacher played the tenor yesterday and said that I've done a good job and the sax is in great shape. :pleased:

However, I'm still not very good at playing it, nor the alto either. :sadcheer: I suppose I just need a few more years of practice before I reach a standard I'll be satisfied with...
Or you could start repairing and reconditioning instruments for resale. About 2 summers ago I bought my piano and a few weeks after the 2nd tuning I walked past it and heard a loud 'Ping', one of the pins had let loose and a string was out of tune. My piano tuner managed to get out and re-tune the string , then knowing my background and that the piano was just over 100 years old, he said I should get a tuning wrench and mutes and keep after the tuning and repairs of the piano myself. It's not that he didn't want the work or to come out, but my piano was going to need much more frequent attention than I could afford. It seems to be working out OK, there are a few things that need attention that will need the key bed to be pulled out to fix. One of these days when I feel ambitious I'll get to that.
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  #60  
Old 09-03-2014, 07:51 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

I bought one of these gadgets, and it arrived today. :cheer:



It's a sort of electronic synthesizer - the default fingering is similar to a saxophone, though you can also set it up emulate the fingering of other instruments.

You blow into the white mouthpiece to control the phrasing and volume like you do with a real sax and there is also a 'bite sensor' that allows you to 'bend' the notes a bit like you can with a saxophone reed. The separate box shown in the photo is the wireless pick-up unit that you hook up to an amplifier/speaker system.

You can set it up to sound a bit like a sax, but it can also sound like a trumpet, accordion, violin... whatever you want really.

The 5000 model has only just been released, but the previous 4000 model has been around for years and is rated highly by some good players.

So far, I've found it rather confusing to play - not as similar to a real sax as I'd hoped - but I expect I'll get used to it. One advantage is that you can plug in earphones to practice without disturbing the neighbours.
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  #61  
Old 09-03-2014, 08:41 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

My roommate has some model of that controller. He really likes it.
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  #62  
Old 09-03-2014, 08:43 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

Is the fingering on a sax similar to the fingering on a flute? I should ask notsosure, she's the one that made the easy transition from flautist to bari-sax in the jazz band. My grandson just started 5th grade band playing notsosure's beginner flute. It's what he wanted to play.
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  #63  
Old 09-03-2014, 09:19 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

Yes - the fingering is similar.

Actually, saxophone fingerings are simpler than most other woodwind instruments - partly because the saxophone has a fairly limited range (about two and a half octaves) and the fingerings for the two main octaves are identical except that you press one extra button using your thumb for the upper octave.

The clarinet is tricky - it goes up by a twelfth rather than an octave - it was explained to me by my sax teacher that this is because it has a cylindrical bore instead of a conical one.

My sax teacher also plays clarinet and flute: to me she seems to be able to switch between them without any problem. Her main instrument is the sax though. She says she finds it easier to swap to the clarinet because the differences are greater - the flute is more similar to the sax (though still different) but the similarity causes extra confusion for the first few seconds after swapping.
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  #64  
Old 05-03-2017, 08:33 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

Yamaha are now selling the "Venova" - it's a sort of recorder/soprano sax hybrid that uses recorder fingering but a sax mouthpiece and sounds a lot like a sax. Made of plastic and only about a hundred dollars.

This guy does start to play it pretty nicely about half way through the vid - after wittering on in some incomprehensible foreign tongue for a while. ;)

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  #65  
Old 05-06-2017, 11:38 PM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

Een revolutie op blaasgebied!

:lol:
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  #66  
Old 06-08-2017, 01:12 AM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

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Originally Posted by ceptimus View Post
This guy does start to play it pretty nicely about half way through the vid - after wittering on in some incomprehensible foreign tongue for a while. ;)
Sounds like German.
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Old 06-08-2017, 01:37 AM
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Default Re: Saxophone hints and tips

It's (Flemish) Dutch.

He says it sounds a tiny bit like a saxophone, but sounds like it a lot to me.
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