Saxophones: Rambling Thoughts

Saxophones: the clowns of the band

Saxophones are capable of laughing; braying; singing; talking; barking; yelping; crying; sneezing; meowing. In short, saxophone effects are almost limited only by the imagination of the player. The Brown Brothers were a saxophone band from the 1920s who exemplified just how far the instrument could be pushed beyond the tonal realm that Adolphe Sax envisioned.

Given our instrument’s clownish history, I figured if we couldn’t poke fun at ourselves, who could? With that in mind, here are some of my rambling thoughts regarding the state of saxophone players and our choice in instruments. Not all of these are humorous—although many of them are. Nevertheless, I hope you find the hidden gem of truth in them all…

The big members of the saxophone family

There is only 1 degree of separation between bari and bass sax players, and the brass section. No, not because of the material of the instruments, but because of their spit valves.

What’s worse is that unlike most brass players, due to the design of our horns, we look like the special-needs members of the sax family who drool all over ourselves if we accidentally dribble the water onto our laps, or if the spring or cork in the valve isn’t quite right.

The smallest members of the saxophone family

Until the Soprillo came along, the sopranino and soprano players were regularly mistaken as snake charmers. Now sopraninos/sopranos get a bit of a reprieve, and Soprillo players have that dubious distinction of being the cobra charmers of the sax world.

Working bass sax players: mostly an oxymoron

Until the bass sax Renaissance of the early 21st century, talented or lucky bass sax players really did only need a Year-At-Glance calendar. Now thanks to the increased interest in these once obsolete, hulking, gunk-encrusted pieces of brass, those same players can buy a Month-At-Glance calendar instead. 🙂

What, don’t believe me? Name me more than 5 bass saxophone players who make their living playing bass… Not that easy is it?

Stuff that will drive you bat shit crazy if you let it

1. Reeds are our frenemies. No matter what size of sax you play, you will have a love/hate relationship with you reeds. You need them to generate your sound, but they will generally make you crazy with their inconsistency; breakage at the most inappropriate times; and costs that will send your bank account into the red.

2. The bigger the sax the play, the less work you will get, but the more $ you will spend on gear. This inverse relationship is enough to drive even the most ardent bass/contra lover to seriously question their sanity and vocational choices.

3. The more time you spend communicating with other saxophone players online, the less likely you will be to be satisfied with your gear. This simple fact prompted me to create the Sound Dissatisfaction Chart a few years ago. Although tongue in check, like all humour, there is a strong element of truth in it. For some reason, it’s a simple fact that the dissatisfaction of others rubs off on you.

Why is that anyway? As players are we so insecure about our own abilities that we don’t believe we can make our own decisions about what works best for us? True, some of the players online can be extremely knowledgeable, but just as many–or many more–know little more than you do.

If you really want to know how to improve X, get a teacher. Just as an aside, practicing works too. A teacher will also help you get the most out of your practice time.

Saxophone players are cheap

Why are we so cheap anyways? We are musicians, and as such, we need to recognize that our gear, and maintaining our gear, costs $.

I know the whole saxophone vs. car scenario has been done to death, so let’s try a different track. Musical instruments are not like television sets or other electronic devices: a series of component parts assembled together with the intention of having a “best before” date of 7 years or less.

A professional model musical instrument is intended to last you a life-time. People save for years to be able to buy one. What would ever make us think that a $2,000 model made in China or Taiwan—where many of the parts are assembled by machine—should be able to play as well as a model costing thousands more, and was made in a country where much of the work is still done by master craftsmen? I simply just don’t get it…

Sopranos: those girls in high school everyone wanted to be/hate/date

Soprano saxophones are the mean girls of the saxophone family. There may not be many of them, but you can’t help but notice them. Their voice will always be heard above the crowd, and they really do have perfect posture.

In conclusion then…

Regardless of what size of saxophone you play, here are some undeniable facts:

• 

  Brass players will always mock sax players at best, or have great disdain for them at worst. If you are looking to them for validification, switch to a true brass instrument, not a woodwind made of brass.

• Soprano saxophones will more often than not, sound like a variation on a double reed. If you want to mess with an oboe player’s head, pull out your soprano and try to match their sound note for note.
• Wearing a heavy saxophone around your neck for years will change your posture. How much it changes your posture will depend a great deal on your genetics, but if you turn into Quasimodo, don’t say I didn’t warn you… 😉
• If you think you can’t play in 5, 6, or 7 sharps, then either don’t play with guitar players, or get good at playing in the keys of B, F#, and C#. Playing a C-pitched horn to play in a rock band just sounds wrong. Besides, you can’t get a bari in C, and you certainly can’t get that classic ballsy tenor sound on a C-pitched horn, no matter what you do with it, or how good a player you are on it. There are certain tonal characteristics that are associated with tenor and bari saxes that cannot be replicated by their concert-pitched cousins.
• Nothing will help you improve more than taking lessons with a good teacher. It doesn’t matter what stage you’re at, taking lessons will always help you, because there are always areas you can work on.
• Smart, logical, systematic practice is the best way to improve your playing. A good teacher really can help a lot in this regard by helping you develop a solid, personalized practice routine. Again, regardless of what stage you’re at, going back to basics and having a solid practice outline helps you get the most out of your practice time. Mine looks something like this:
  • 5 minutes of long tones,
  • technical exercises,
  • altissimo/multiphonic stuff,
  • noodling along with Real Book or other recorded tracks working on melodic interpretation and improv.