Deciding whether to learn Saxophone or Bass?

Denis322

I'm 16 trying to decide whether to take up bass or saxophone. I've always wanted to learn saxophone but recently I've had an interest in learning bass guitar. One thing is though I have a slight problem in my right arm, with movement and strength. It shouldn't effect my playing too much but I'm just wondering would playing bass be particularly hard with moving the right arm? it's not so much my fingers as moving the whole arm but is there much really involved with using the whole right arm playing right-handed bass? Or would I be better with saxophone?

Rigsby

There is very little movement of the arm itself, required in playing both instruments IMO. I play bass, so my advice will be from that aspect. The first thing you need to decide on is which instrument you love the most, and which you would get the most enjoyment from. Nothing to stop you playing both, if you so wished. Wilton Felder of the "Crusaders" ( their most famous song was "Street Life") did a great job of playing both on their early albums. However, sax and bass obviously have completely different roles in a band.

With regards the bass, if your technique is not up to scratch, the likely physical problems will come from the hands, wrists and fingers. The tendons that move the fingers run up along the forearm, but the arm itself moves very little. Check You Tube for left and right hand technique on both instruments. Also, see if you can try out both, in a music shop. The bass should not be a problem here, but the sax might. The link below features fairly advanced bass playing, but it should give you an idea of the arm movment required. As you can see, his right arm hardly moves at all.

Hope this is of some help.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opDEoTZnrwg

acidskiffle

With regards to your arm I'd say you would be fine.
As for bass or sax, I'd say go for the sax!
I took up guitar when I was 12 and if I could do it all over again I'd get a saxophone instead!
If I ever had the cash now I'd buy one, really expressive instrument.

PaulieBoy

Your right arm will not be a problem playing either. I play both. There is no movement required/desired in playing the sax and little or none for bass.
You could go for both! Your only 16 so no panic, toss a coin :-)

raindog.promo

Slight generalisation, but if you're looking for more rhythm based playing then go for bass and if you'd like to solo and get melodies going, the sax would be a better choice.

Or buy a cheap version of each before making your mind up!

good vibes

Theres very very few decent bassists in ireland,iv been playing 25 years, only played with a few,if you work hard & do something special & play with a lot of feel..you will have a good career..all the best..

thunderdog

Depends what type of playing you want to do. If its playing in bands....then I think sax is the way to go. There are a lot of bass players around but not as many sax players about. I play both but most of my paid work is on sax...play bass mostly for fun.

One thing you will need to consider is that the sax will take a good few years to get good on...to get the right sound you want. You can sound pretty ok on the bass after a couple of months and depending on what sort of music you want to play you can get yourself set up in a band pretty quickly. With the sax, getting up to play in bands will take a little bit longer.