r/saxophone

TLDR At end.

Alright, so let me preface by saying… I have wanted to play saxophone since I was a little girl starting band at the very first available age (don’t recall when that was). My mom couldn’t afford one, especially not knowing if I would actually put in the work so we bought a used clarinet from a swap meet for $60.

I ended up eventually switching instruments as I couldn’t make my horn reach the high C very well - honestly in retrospect it was likely partly due to the instrument probably needing repair.

Anyway, now I’m 40 and our kid is starting piano lessons. I wanted to start sax when he started music to hopefully be inspiration for him to not give up. I originally was talking to my husband about financing a YAS 480 as the 280 was being recommended but the 480 wasn’t much more than the 280. He has flip flopped so many times on it. Came down to “you can get a sax if you settle for a cheaper horn”. Okay, fine, reasonable. I show him a used Yas-26 for about $630 (currently 10% off deal running puts it at $566.99. He said “I was thinking a cheaper horn” to which my response was “you’re not going to find cheaper unless it’s basically a toy.

TLDR:
Is $566.99 a good deal on a used Yamaha 26 that I should jump on? It’s through a reputable source with a 45 day return policy. If I do buy it, what do I need to know about buying a used sax?

Basically the title, I play alto on a five and apparently that makes me a freak of nature.

Yes I am referring to reed strength.

I've never ever bought a bari sax, but I need to because my school constantly keeps giving me leaky instruments. I'm an intermediate player, and I was thinking about getting a used YBS-52 because that's the best most rich sounding and feeling saxophone I've ever felt. But I have no idea on how to navigate the used or even new market. I need a horn for marching band, Concert, Jazz, and I've been trying a bunch of classical or dramatic music. Any help would be really really nice.

So I recently inherited my grandfather’s C melody saxophone from the 20’s, as well as an older clarinet. I know he had the sax fixed up semi recently as the pads all look to be intact and it only has one sticky key. I have been a musician my whole life but I’ve never played the saxophone before. I spent a while just playing around with it and it still sounds beautiful even with me playing it! I plan on taking it to a music shop near me to see if they can get it cleaned up and just to check it out.

Here’s what I’m trying to figure out:
What kind of fingering charts should I be looking at? I’m not sure if there are different fingerings for alto/bari or for melody.
When I’m looking at said fingering charts, should I be transposing between keys?
Should I just take some lessons for saxophone instead of learning myself?

Thank you for your patience, and I apologize if these are silly questions!

I started Ode to a Tenor Titan thinking I’d casually read a few chapters on my trip. Instead, I finished it in the airport terminal trying not to ugly cry in front of strangers!

Hi! My husband has a big milestone birthday coming up, and he’s always wanted to own a Phil Barone soprano (unlaquered.)

I have been calling used shops and antique stores for days and days up to several states away and have come up completely empty handed.

Does anyone have advice on places to call or to look at online? I’ve tried eBay and reverb already. Are there any similar places to go?

Thank you!!

So, I have finally started getting my altissimo notes to come out, but do have a lot of confusion on two points. Firstly, I am having a lot of trouble playing overtones even when I am reaching the altissimo notes themselves. I see several YouTube videos on mastering overtones in order to hit those notes and even have Sigurd Racsher's book, but I am just not getting my horn to hit those overtones. My confusion is that I still hit the altissimo notes, so my question is do I really need the overtone practice? Trust me, I still practice them, get frustrated and then just play as usual and finger those alt notes.

Second question is I understand the fingerings for altissimo are secondary and the primary goal is the emboucher and voicing, apparently (after watching a lot of YouTube videos on altissimo). Most of those videos say tongue position is the key and lately, I amazingly enough find myself hitting the right intended notes regardless of my fingering, so feel like I am finally doing something right. What I would like clarification on is if I am really hitting those and not fingering them, does it sound like I am on the right track? For example, I wanted to play alt C and ending up fingering alt B, but the C came out, so it was the right note, wrong fingering. Can I hear your feedback on this?

As the title says, I wanna get louder on Bari. We just got our sheet music for next years marching show and I wanna play as loud as possible without sounding like straight doodoobuns💔 I can already project pretty loud but I want to make sure people can hear me during the woodwind feature. Any help is greatly appreciated🙏🙏🙏 If you’re wondering I’m using a cannonball Bari with 2 1/2 and 3 strength reeds.