sxpoet

i spent 10 years practicing learning to play the Alto sax, even had weekly one to one sax lessons for the first 7 years with a Pro, over the years i got bogged down in working through various learner books of increasing difficulty, i bought lots of music/cd books from music shops and practiced various songs in them.

What i didn’t realise was…[Read more]

another thing that surprised me with orchestra and big bands, was the amount of people who played another instrument – ex if you were a sax player, and the band didn’t need a sax player for a specific performance, then you weren’t earning money, whereas if they required a clarinet player then you could still earn money. So to keep earning it paid…[Read more]

If you get the opportunity to play in an orchestra it’s an interesting experience.

Where i live there’s an orchestra near me, and one day a year they invite the public to bring along their own instrument and play in their orchestra. I did it twice, and they sent me a questionnaire asking what instrument i played, and what exam grade i was…[Read more]

i never realised there was so many sax related outfits for sale.

to me classical music and operas i will always associate with large orchestras, other types of music like pop, jazz, rock etc.. i associate with small bands. i don’t know where military marching music fits in.

lots of films today still use orchestras that create their own music, like the harry potter films, so in that sense classical music is…[Read more]

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1284925332/without-saxophone-shirt-hoodie?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=saxophone+clothing&ref=sr_gallery-6-5&pro=1&sts=1&content_source=5366a0db8150dacf51da1a92f13f3e783d75bc13%253A1284925332&organic_search_click=1

A Top class player, real gentleman…

i like how Johnny can play so many different styles of music and still make it look so easy.

most original versions sound the best, but i like this version

that’s fantastic news – looking forward to your uploads.

I’ve started playing my daughter’s Bb clarinet as well as still playing my Alto. She wanted to sell it, so i bought it off her, hoping that in later years she might want to pick it up. I played guitar for 40 years before starting the sax about 10 years ago, and i spent 3 years playing the…[Read more]

Michael – you started playing the sax again?

if you can afford it, buy brand new.
if you buy a used sax,
one safer option is to phone round some music teachers and enquire if anyone is selling their sax, or let them know you are looking to buy a sax.

the next safer option is to look online at any reputable music shop that sells wind instruments (preferably ones that only sell wind…[Read more]

currently working on ‘Harlem Nocturne’ – i can just about play it on the Alto, but it’s taking me longer on the clarinet. When i can play it on the clarinet, then i’ll record both instruments separately.

the clarinet has 19 alternative finger positions, so on ‘harlem nocturne’ i’ve been working out where to use or not use alternative fingers in…[Read more]

Well played! i haven’t bought this one yet.

i’m trying to play the same tunes both on Alto and clarinet, so i have to pick tunes on the Alto that have to lie in the range from Low B to High C# for me to play the exact same notes on the clarinet with the same backing track.

Embouchure for classical saxophonists
Classical saxophone embouchure first involves having the lower lip pulled tightly over the lower teeth to form a cushion. Only a small part of the red portion of the lip should be pulled over the teeth. If too much of the lower lip is put over the teeth, then the reed won’t be able to vibrate as w…[Read more]

a lot of serious students who start out on a student sax, the first thing they say when the move up to a pro sax, is that they then realised the student sax was holding them back – ie the pro sax keys responded a lot quicker. Where as with the student sax they were plodding about on the keys.

if somethings fragile i imagine you would have to wear gloves to prevent it from being broken. lol

i have to be more careful with my clarinet than my saxophone, my sax has lots of metal grills to protect all the lower pads from accidental knocks, my clarinet on the other hand has no grills to protect any of the pads. A slight accidental tap on…[Read more]

The guy who runs the shop used to play professionally in an orchestra, he has a lot of knowledge being still in contact with other orchestra players in terms of instruments, set ups, feed back from other players about instruments and set ups etc.. what type of reeds are most popular. Then theres the repair side of wind instruments, the easy ones…[Read more]

That’s exactly the point my local sax shop owner made – when a brand new sax comes into his shop from any manufacturer it goes straight to their repair shop – as all the tuning on new sax’s are all over the place, they have to retune them – and what he noticed was that the yani’s were the only sax’s that worked straight out the box and hardly ever…[Read more]

i play a yamaha alto 480, and i was going to upgrade to a alto 62, and my local sax shop seller who sells saxophones (who also plays saxophones, clarinets), advised me against buying the 62. Two reasons the 480 is lighter and the key work on the 480 is a lot easier, sound wise there is no difference – so i would guess the same thing applies to the…[Read more]

Cool, all my uncles fought in the 2nd world war, towards the end of the 2nd world war. one of them was a navigator in the RAF and he baled out over the english channel when his plane gave up the ghost. My grandad fought in the 1st world war, he was sent home with a shrapnel wound and nearly lost his arm to gangrene. In those days you had no choice…[Read more]