Saxophone

Fionn R

Hey, I'm looking for information on taking up the saxophone ...I don't play any instruments at the moment and was wondering if it's hard to pick up and what not...also where abouts would I be able to buy an alto saxophone cheap, maybe a second hand ...Cheers

Echoes675

My advise would be not to buy a sax that is too cheap. The cheapest models are more difficult to play and I have seen many a player give up because they aren't making the progress they want down to the fact they are constantly fighting with the instrument, whether its trying to stay in tune or even get a nice tone from it. They can be made very poorly and keys have been known to bend out of shape easily. Technicians hate seeing cheap saxes cause they are so much harder to put right. Another point would be to get a teacher ASAP! The basic techniques of playing the horn are made so much easier when there is someone who can help you develop the right habits. It is easy at the early stages to develop bad habits that will prove detrimental to your progress. Ultimately you will spend more time unlearning bad habits than you would learning the right ones!
As for which to buy, either Alto or tenor would be the right one to start with. Whichever you prefer. Don't even think about Soprano as it requires very precise tension of your embouchure (lips) to keep in tune and baritone requires just too much puff for a beginner. I would say second hand would be fine, that's what I started with. You could pick up a decent student model sax second hand for reasonable prices today. Brands to look out for would Yamaha at the top of the pile, easily the best in student horns; others worth a mention would be Jupiter, P.Mauriet and Antigua (I own one of their sopranos and it is gorgeous!) I would stay away from brands such as Stagg or any of the other brands made by general musical instrument retailers as many of them suffer from the issues I mentioned earlier. I would say if you can budget £500 you will get a good setup that will do you well through your beginner/intermediate stages. The best thing would be, if you know someone who already plays, get them to play any horn you are thinking of buying. Their advice could really help get you a decent horn.
Where to buy, well in N.Ireland I would say Mattchets; It's where I've bought 2 of my horns. Also keep an eye on things like the classified ads if you intend to go down the 2nd hand route. I would stay away from ebay as it is really hit and miss. I'm sure there are plenty of decent music stores doing good deals throughout Ireland, maybe someone else can be more specific. You could also go for one of the online retailers, I regularly buy from sax.co.uk, very quick delivery and reasonable prices. Also, I bought my soprano from Dawkes.co.uk. Both of these retailers will setup your sax so it is playing its best when it arrives with you.
In terms of difficulty, like all instruments it takes time and patience. You will only get out of it what you put in. That being said, I love playing sax! I'm totally obsessed with it Been playing for 13 years. Currently play an Antigua 4290 soprano and my main horn is a Selmer Super Action 80 Series 2 Tenor. (I also still have my first horn, albeit unused these days; it is an old Armstrong Alto Student model, out of production these days).
You should check out saxontheweb.net full of advice and plenty of reading to give you an idea.

PaulieBoy

Agree with above! I got a Jupiter 500 Alto sax this time last year, and I swear by it. There are a couple going on Adverts.ie , I would think you should be able to get one for about €300 or so.
The Staggs and other dodgy makes are going to make learning much harder if near impossible. Deffo you really should get a teacher. I didn't for the first few months and when I did he spent three months trying to sort out the mess!!
It's a fantastic fun instrument to learn, go for it :-)

Echoes675

PaulieBoy wrote: »

There are a couple going on Adverts.ie

Only one I would go near would be this one: http://www.adverts.ie/brass-wind-instruments/jupiter-567-saxophone-for-sale/1118781
Looks a decent price for nearly new. Like I said get someone who plays to give it a blow and make sure it is ok.

Kite Runner

Why dont you pop over to paul ryan in temple bar and ask about his rental scheme, super guy to deal with.

http://www.paulryanmusic.com/

With a sax compared to say strings it really is a case of you get what you pay for. please stay away from any cheap ebay offerings, You need to decide if you want to play a soprano, alto or tenor.

If you can stretch to it a Yamaha sax is a good investment s a beginner, and will hold its value

carlosvan

i bought a 2nd hand yamaha 23 for 300 and then spent 200 getting it fully serviced, i then had a 500 euro yamaha that played perfect,all im saying is if you get a good sax and get it for a fairly good price you can get it fully serviced , buy a cheap piece of crap and you can service as much as you want but it will still be crap. ive been playing for a year now and it really needs lots of practise , ive put in loads of practise but still nowhere near good enough, many good musicians have told me they tried playing but gave it up.
i think one of the most important things to know which nobody ever mentions is that these beautys make a lot of noise, if you live in a house with very young children like i do/ or live in a flat with others/ neighbors/ your not gona get away playing these late at night, early in morn without complaints. i got a teacher and he said he had to move flats when he started playing due to landlord problems with sound, also the guy in shop when i went looking to buy also told me he took up saxophone and had to give it up because of complaints of noise.
if you want to get anywhere near good at anything like this you need practise practise practise, like 1 hour a night at least, after a year playing im giving it probably 2 hours a week and i love playing but cant give it anymore due to my hours i work. im going to buy a guitar this year and hopefully i can dedicate more time to that, but im gona still keep at the sax.
The one thing i did do while some of the nights were very late was to learn to read music , and i think its important to go in this direction for anyone who wants to get anywhere, im not knocking playing by ear , but theres noo harm in learning to read music.
hope this info helps

thunderdog

carlosvan wrote: »

i bought a 2nd hand yamaha 23 for 300 and then spent 200 getting it fully serviced, i then had a 500 euro yamaha that played perfect,all im saying is if you get a good sax and get it for a fairly good price you can get it fully serviced , buy a cheap piece of crap and you can service as much as you want but it will still be crap. ive been playing for a year now and it really needs lots of practise , ive put in loads of practise but still nowhere near good enough, many good musicians have told me they tried playing but gave it up.
i think one of the most important things to know which nobody ever mentions is that these beautys make a lot of noise, if you live in a house with very young children like i do/ or live in a flat with others/ neighbors/ your not gona get away playing these late at night, early in morn without complaints. i got a teacher and he said he had to move flats when he started playing due to landlord problems with sound, also the guy in shop when i went looking to buy also told me he took up saxophone and had to give it up because of complaints of noise.
if you want to get anywhere near good at anything like this you need practise practise practise, like 1 hour a night at least, after a year playing im giving it probably 2 hours a week and i love playing but cant give it anymore due to my hours i work. im going to buy a guitar this year and hopefully i can dedicate more time to that, but im gona still keep at the sax.
The one thing i did do while some of the nights were very late was to learn to read music , and i think its important to go in this direction for anyone who wants to get anywhere, im not knocking playing by ear , but theres noo harm in learning to read music.
hope this info helps

With regards to noise levels I have a saxophone mute case which works well. Admittedly it isn't cheap but its great to use as you can plug headphones into it.

http://www.vibesmusic.com.cn/English/

carlosvan

wow wow wow, i never saw one of these babies before, i dont think price is that bad, when i 1st saw tho i thought they were 3000 mind, i saw one on e-bay for 200 od, but postage was more than case, where did you buy yours from if you dont mind me asking, plus does the fingering work the same, i have to say im very impressed , thank you very much for the info

thunderdog

I got my sax mute case from sax.co.uk. Actually I get all my sax related stuff from there now. Very reasonably priced and also deliver very quickly. If you have any questions for them they usually respond within a few hours too.

carlosvan

thunderdog wrote: »

With regards to noise levels I have a saxophone mute case which works well. Admittedly it isn't cheap but its great to use as you can plug headphones into it.

http://www.sax.co.uk/

i checked that site but couldnt see it anywhere, ??

thunderdog

Thats strange...maybe they discontinued them. I'd recommend sending them an email to see waht the story is. They reply quite quickly. I bought mine about a year ago so they definitely had them in then..for both alto and tenor (not bari or sop though)

thunderdog

Just checked with sax.co.uk about the sax mutes and the sax mutes can't be sold at the moment due to a patent dispute!

carlosvan

ok that explains that, thanks for sharing that info :0)

Lazerwolf

Saxophone is not hard to pick up if you have the right setup. It isn't that hard to make a sound on saxophone but making a good sound is the challenge. That part takes a lot of practice. The setup is the combination of the mouthpiece, reed, and instrument. You should get a saxophone teacher or experienced player to help you pick out a good saxophone, especially if it is used. Some saxophones have problems when you buy them such as leaks, sticky keys, bad action, or bad intonation. These saxophones will be hard to play. For starting out, I would recommend getting an alto saxophone. Selmers are a good brand but I would still recommend getting a saxophone player to test it for you, especially if it is used. I would try different types of reed sizes. Different reed sizes will work better with different mouthpieces. If you are just starting out I would recommend Rico or Vandoreen reeds and start with size 2 or 2.5. You may even want to see how the size 3 reeds feel and sound.

pmcc1

Hello Saxophone thread,

Looking for sax lessons in Dublin 7. Anyone know anyone who might do it?

Thank you!