Brass Player Learning Alto Sax?

[jazztastic]

Ok, as you all know, I LOVE jazz. ;D
Well, here's the thing: my main brass instrument is trombone, and I've never put a reed in my mouth my entire life. I want to learn how to play sax because all of those sweet things it can do that brass instruments can't in jazz. Also, I chose alto because I'm TINY, and tenor is a little too much for me (for now! hopefully I'll work my way up to a bari sax. ohhhh yeahh).

Can anyone offer insight on how this went for them? Also any tips on playing or thoughts would be very much appreciated.

And, I'm not switching my major from trombone to alto sax by the way, I just realllllly want to learn how to play it.

[bluescalesdragon]

About the tiny thing.....I knew this girl in middle school who was seriously, 4 foot 5. She played bari sax. She could fit inside the case. She could probably fit inside the bell. Of course now, she is taller than me, but that's another story.

Tenor, bari, soprano, alto. In order from my favorite to least favorite. But having since acquired an alto, I am beginning to accept the low note wannabe of a saxophone. That reminds me. I haven't bought it yet, I've been meaning to contact the guy who offered to sell it to me ..anyways...

Reeds: use 2.5s, and it you should probably start out with cheapo Rico reeds. It really doesn't matter. Oh, and be careful not to chew your reed or manhandle it while you play. Beginners tend to do this a lot without meaning to or feeling it happen. But that's why you start with cheapo reads.

Top teeth bite down on top of mouthpiece (not too hard), lower lip curls over teeth and presses against underside of mouthpiece. Remember to use your tongue to articulate, otherwise, you'll get ugly throaty sounds for a long time. Fingerings are VERY easy and there are some interesting overtones if you attempt to play low notes, especially because being new at sax will make it near impossible for you to get the actual notes out. Although, really, you should start on tenor because I think no matter how good the player is, the lowest notes on an alto sax are the ugliest sounds I've ever heard. On tenor, they take more air, but they are so warm and round and BEAUTIFUL ...anyways, I digress....

Once you've played around for an hour or two and you feel like your tone is mildly acceptable, try starting out with long tones the next time you practice. Start on middle G (since you're a beginner) and work your way chromatically up the octave. If you feel good, you can do any notes above or below this middle octave, but it's highly unlikely that you will enjoy long tones. Hold the note at a soft volume as long as you can, or try starting soft, crescendoing to super loud, then decrescendoing. Long tones will improve your tone a lot in a short period of time.

Even a beginner on the sax can play around with grace notes. While playing tenor lately, I've been grace noting Bb to B, Eb to E, G# to A, C to C#. I love doing that. I think it makes my jazz sound beautiful.

And once you master the alto, be sure to ditch it for something cooler, like tenor or bari....

Feel free to ask specific questions once you start playing. In return, can you give me some tips on tromboning (or marching baritone, because I think I agreed to wield that valved monster instead this season), as to improving my attacks and staying in tune? I'm the low brass captain in mb, so I'm desperately looking for ways to improve my low brass skills before August.

(P.S You should PM me; no one's ever PMed me before. We can talk about jazz. I love that stuff. )

[jazztastic]

Oh wow, that's VERY helpful, I appreciate it!
Oh, I would play something awesome like tenor or bari, it's just that our school has crappy versions of those saxes, but some reallllllly nice altos. And everyone else rents the tenors and bari's, no one rents the alto's, so I'm guaranteed to have one.


And to your baritone problem... I've always found baritone and euphonium harder to make obvious articulation on because it's not as free-blowing (and AWESOME) as trombone, just sayin' . But, what I would definitely do is practice your articulations on your mouthpiece to your tuning note, or the note on which the articulation occurs on. With brass instruments, it's all about that repetition and getting in the "comfort zone" with your mouthpiece, knowing it inside and out, how things work, what doesn't work, and how you can manipulate it with your skillzez.

If you're like me when I was learning baritone, I had trouble with the note being centered when it was first attacked, how it kind of... globbed (?) in, and then settled. Sound familiar? If not skip this part haha.. Most of the time, it's about breath support. You gotta kind of, put your body into the notes and everything you're playing. (I hope this is making sense... I teach tuba and trombone, but it's harder to explain over the computer.) THINK about the note before you play it, feel it inside you, and blow air THROUGH the notes, not into them. I've found that a lot of what I do is mental (and this works for me, may not work for you because everyone's different, ya know?), thinking about the music, going with it, and just feel it inside of you and enjoy what you're doing, because that's what it's all about. And if you get frustrated with low brass instruments, set it down, and just scream. We do this all the time hehehe... and it works.

Hmmm... staying in tune is RIDICULOUS on bartione for me too, I don't get it. Trombone is awesome because we can just manipulate the notes and bend 'em and do all that jazz (sorry for the pun ). Try tuning after you're warmed up of course, and tune all the valves by themselves (except the 3rd, tune that w/ the 1st) to the range that you'll be playing in most of the time for your music because it makes it easier, until you start playing full time and things begin to settle in... Also, when practicing your show music, stop on every few notes, hold them out, listen and ask yourself if they sound right, get your tuner, check again. It's tedious.. but worth it.
Oh, and practice, Practice, practice your low brass instruments! It's fun, and they don't like to be neglected..

Well, I hope that helped, and if it didn't, I'm sorry I just wasted 5 minutes of your life reading and processing that.

AND, that's really cool that you're low brass captain. I'm drum major, but I have to be low brass section leader sometimes because our senior section leader doesn't know what he's doing (I STILL have to sing him his quarter/eighth note basslines on bari-sax, but it's alright, I don't mind helping out at all.) and I play all the instruments in the section besides the saxes.. until soon!!

[bluescalesdragon]

Thanks, this is quite helpful! I haven't yet got to play around with the marching baritone, but I'm hoping whatever goes into my trombone playing will help with the baritone. Basically ,I decided to switch because marching trombone just wasn't painful enough and I figured that if I was to be captain, I should be in more pain than the majority of my section.

Cool, not only did we manage to dominate this thread, we completely reversed it's intent. (Brass player to sax turned to sax player to brass.) Success!