LoungeNet

[deaks]

This week I enrolled my daughter Caitlin in her first formal music lesson. She will be attending group instruction this summer to gain some familiarity with the instrument she believes she wants to play in band class next year. She has chosen Alto Saxophone.

We have a music book with the introductory lessons she will be going over in this group instruction. While my wife and I have a reasonable familiarity with various aspects of music theory and musical performance we have a very little exposure to the Saxophone.

If anyone has words of advice or comments about their or a friend's experiences with learning/playing Sax I would welcome your words.

To date my wife has introduced Caitlin to our piano but Caitlin never indicated an interest in learning to read music or playing anything that wasn't easy to memorize on the spot. Caitlin and I have gone over some chords on a student guitar I picked up for the kids to play and she showed a passing interest but was never very serious about it.
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[benvis]

I played Tenor Sax back in the day. One piece of advice is to make sure she has a good neck strap. While the Alto is somewhat lighter than the Tenor, it's much more pleasant to play with a comfortable neck strap.

Buy plenty of reeds and a reed holder. If you buy cheaper ones (as a beginner probably should) some will be fine, some will be ok, and some will be useless right out of the box. Reeds break and get warped and all sorts of stuff, so having several on hand can make things a lot easier. There is a lot of advice out there on reed preparation, reed care and reed storage. this article looks pretty good. Some people get really particular (warning: obnoxious music at that one) about how to prepare a reed. I never got that involved in reed preparation, and I got a pretty good sound anyway.

I had to build my lip strength back up any time I came back to the sax after a prolonged absence. It requires some fairly specific muscles, so don't be discouraged if it's hard to play for more than 10 minutes or so at the beginning.

I started band playing clarinet and then bass clarinet. The fingerings are pretty similar to sax, so it was a pretty easy transition. I really don't remember what it was like trying to learn the clarinet, though.

Oh! And get cork grease. If you don't use it, the cork dries out and flakes off. If you use too much, the mouthpiece won't fit firmly over the cork. Make sure she knows to run a dry-out thingy through the saxophone after playing it, or the moisture will eventually rot the pads.

Ok, to prevent myself from endlessly spouting on about the saxophone, I'll stop and let others chime in. And forgive me if I'm telling you stuff you already know. I'm never sure how much of this stuff is common knowledge.
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[deaks]

Most of what you said was unfamiliar to me before today. I haven't yet read the articles you pointed out but between the "how to play Saxophone" book we picked up for my daughter and some intarweb browsing this evening I think we have a good place to start with. Again, most of what you've said was reinforced by these sources and the advice about fatigue from lack of practice and finer points of reed care are much appreciated.

The "starter pack" that came with the Sax rental seems pretty reasonable and included 5 reeds (1 1/2) and an initial version of cleaning implements sufficient to clean out the mouthpiece, neck, and body.

We practiced assembly, playing quarter notes (I think the tutorial had us playing D), and disassembly/cleaning.

My wife and I gave playing the Sax a try as well, hoping that if we could work it out then we could lend some insights to Caitlin. As it turns out both Caitlin and I found exactly what you had mentioned in that it was quite tiresome just making a sound for more than a few measures at a time.
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[True Mike]

Aaron played Sax back in High school, I played clarinet.

The big thing about reeds is you need to start out with the softer ones. Until you get your chops strong enough. They don't sound really good but it's impossible to get sound out of the harder reeds until you are stronger.

Also each box has only about 5 or 6 good reeds in them. Most I find are warped or not evenly cut. This reduces the quality of the sound too. We use to sand and cut our reeds to get them back into working order but this is a bit much.

I've been thinking about starting up playing music again. It's rough starting out but when you can create music it feels really great!

M
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[Meredith]

Find lots and lots of music for her to listen to, and experiment until you find stuff she really likes. In my experience, when you fall in love with certain songs or genres of music enough to want to play them, then you have the inspiration you need to put in the practice time and get something out of it.
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[Amysun]

I don't know anything in specific about the sax, but as a music teacher I have some general thoughts. I don't know how old your daughter is, but I'm guessing maybe nine? Age matters when taking up a new instrument. I have found that my students are much more successful when their families are involved, especially when they are younger (kids often just haven't developed self discipline yet, so they need some help!) This continues on until you get the ennui of the preteen, which is a different problem. Depending on how your family works, you might just need to remind your daughter to practice often (this tends to work well with families who have strict homework policies as well, have given their children chores from the get-go, etc.). Some families need to get more actively involved, whether that means listening to practice and making suggestions, searching out duets so that another family member can play with her, and/or having periodic (you decide how often, twice a week, once a week, once a month, etc.) mini-performances in front of the family.

And of course, if she gets to play music she likes, as Meredith said, that is also very important, although I can pretty much guarantee that as a beginner, she's going to have to play some stuff that she's not overly excited about too.
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[asullivan]

All I have to say, it that when she starts to get the hang of the Sax, introduce her to some Jazz. Jazz is extremely fun to play on a Sax. Improvisational music is neat, but you have to be comfortable with the instrument before you can actually try it out. Otherwise you just get frustrated and have nothing but honking. I think that I actually had more satisfaction for having a good jazz solo than all the practicing and nailing a memorized piece because the music came from me.

Now if only I'd pickup the guitar again and help Alex put the band together

A.
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[lanclos]

Dirty Dozen Brass Band! Learning the second-line swing is vital. Vital.

[Meredith]

[deaks]

We are enjoying tunes from songs such as "Hot Cross Buns", "Jingle Bells", and "Mary had a Little Lamb".

I am enjoying watching her progress and Caitlin is very excited to play for us and show us what she can do.
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This time, I think I'm done -- again. No really this time...