2013/09/15

It's Time For a Little Music: Picking Up the Alto Saxophone

prelude by conn selmer
Today I finally started to learn the Saxophone. It has been a desire to learn the Saxophone for a long time. On a recent trip to see family I managed to get my hands on one that a friend was hanging onto.



My first step was to try and find my old 'tune a day' for alto sax. Unfortunately I think it is still with the friend who had the instrument. Luckily I still have the clarinet edition so had some basic music to play. Obviously there are some things that are going to be different but I didn't want that to stop me from getting started.

One thing I am doing a lot more these days is trying to find video guides on YouTube and one in particular seemed well made and really helpful: beginner saxophone first notes. I then went and found the site which has a free fingering chart. I signed up for the course but the first free lesson didn't work. Most likely it was only design to play video on Windows :-(

saxophone mouth piece
One of the biggest differences that I noticed straight away switching to Sax from Clarinet was the mouth piece. The clarinet did a lot to help me improve embouchure, it couldn't prepare me for the vibrations that come through the mouth piece. A little research turned up a lot of recommendations to replace the premier's mouth piece so I ordered one that comes with a tooth guard on the top to help reduce tooth wear. Can't wait to try it.

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