So for Christmas, my parents bought me a saxophone. I’ve been thinking about learning to play the sax for a long time, and they decided to surprise me with one. Trouble is that it’s a difficult instrument to play.
Does anyone here play it? I’m wondering if there are good books out there to explain the fundamentals and sort of give an introduction, preferably with like a series of lessons or something. I’d appreciate any general advice as well - how do I learn how to play it? What should I do to start out?
Is it an Alto or a tenor?
I played in HS and in college. My college teacher was so great, when The Karate Kid came out, everyone said that Mr. Myagi was like him.
Here is a simple exercise that I remember.
Stand facing a corner. (so the sounds comes right back at you and you hear yourself better)
Play a B (middle of the staff) This note is the easiest to get a good sound with)
Then play a decending scale to a low B
B A G F# E D C B
Do not move your jaw.
Stop moving your jaw!
You should be able to shift back to the first B and then back to the low B, or any other note, with no change in the quality of sound.
No move up half a step and repeat the process till you get up to the B above the staff.
Cool. You didn’t say if you had any previous experience, so I’ll assume you don’t.
So, you should get a teacher. Wind instruments can be challenging, so don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t sound very good at first. Anything with a reed takes some getting used to, especially if you’ve never played an instrument before.
I have to say that the winds (ie clarinet, sax, oboe, etc) seem to be a bit easier than the brasses. My brothers played brasses, but I played clarinet and sax. At least the winds allow you to make most notes with keys; the brasses force you to do a lot with your lips (as far as I can tell).
I can’t offer much practical advice. I’ve been playing since I was in elementary school, so I can’t even remember how I learned some things.
Instead, I’ll offer you encouragement. Try to practice every day, even if it’s for 15 minutes. That will toughen up your lips, if nothing else, and help you develop a good reed. Spend a few minutes each day doing scales, which helps you make your fingering faster and more natural. Find some simple tunes you can play, so that you can keep motivated.
Above all, find a teacher. A good teacher will keep you motivated and get you involved with your instrument and with music. He or she will give you music to practice that’s exactly at the level you need to improve.
For any musical instrument, I also suggest you start looking for groups or other players you can get together with.
The first thing I would do is take your mouthpiece down to a music shop and find out if you have a fairly good one. If they call it a “student model” then invest in a better one and a few good reeds. When I first started playing around with the clarinet I didn’t realize a good mouthpiece makes all the difference in the world. My playing improved overnight because the better mouthpiece allowed it.
I have a couple saxes and clarients but I’ve never taken a lesson, I just sort of goofed off until I figured out where the notes were and how to play with the reed sounds. The one thing I’d do to help my playing is hold notes for a long time. I’d try to hold them as steady as I could for as long as I could.
Any music store will have a beginner’s lesson book. It will show you a basic scale, how to use the octave key, that sort of thing. I taught myself most of what I know, but I already played the clarinet.
The first real song I learned on it was “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” IIRC, it didn’t require much more than a couple weeks’ lessons to learn all the notes in it. My son has my saxaphone now; I’ll try to remember what they were.
Nothing of merit to add, just I read the title as “help me learn the sex”–and I thought, well, now-there’s a thread!
Definetly need new glasses.
Definetly.
You’ve got to get some lessons.
If you don’t start out using a correct emboucure (mouth placement) you may develop a bad habit which will give you a poor sound, which will be much harder to correct later on.
Try to learn early on which reeds are good and which are bad. A big part of being a good reed instrument player is knowing which reeds to just throw away.
Also, if you have regular lessons, you’ll have definite goals to work on.
