Aquilasax.com limited 1. Which saxophone to choose?
A: There are more than 9 types available (Adophe originally Patented 14 types) but most people start with an Alto, smaller saxophones are easier to blow but bigger saxes are easier for correct tone. Therefore the middle range is best. C- melody Tenors would also be a good choice as the music is easier to figure, no transposing. If you are in a school band, check with your band leader if C tenors are ok. Some band leaders like them and others don't want complications with instrument types Altos are smaller which may be an advantage for smaller students!
In the end it's the sound which will make the difference. If you like the sound of Charlie Parker, you'd better get an Alto. If Lester Young is your man, then Bb Tenor is best, tho he says he likes the C- melody sound himself!
Kenny G lovers will have to have a soprano! etc.
Baritone saxes are a bit cumbersome for most people and the school band parts are boring but there is less competition for gigs. C melody tenors are great for playing with guitar bands and for church groups, there is nothing simpler.
I used to advise getting a hire horn to start with. After you can play a little , you know what you like and don't like better, but now new saxes are so cheap, it is hardly worth it.
Make sure you test a cheap sax tho, some cheap Chinese imports don't work from brand new and no-one will fix them!
All AquilaSax Saxophones are tested and guaranteed or your money back!
The next problem is how to play?
A good teacher is good but good teachers are hard to find sometimes. If you have no teacher, there are some things to watch for.
1. Reeds are the crux of the sax. (makes a sax a woodwind instrument) They make the noise, and they can be faulty sometimes. Don't be afraid to replace reeds if the sax sounds bad. They go off and sometimes they can be bad brand new! Soak reed in hot water before playing and remove from mpc and dry before storing. This keeps reed from growing mould. Lasts longer.
2. Watch you don't accidentaly touch the palm keys. You'll get nasty sqeaks or the wrong note!
3. Embouchre. Bite the mouthpiece about the center of the slope. Bare teeth on the top, teeth covered by your lower lip on the reed.(about where the angle of the facing changes) Move your lower jaw around to get the feel of it.
4. It's good practice to breathe in through the mouth as it helps to relax your jaw while playing and enables you to continue when you have a cold. Lower notes usuallly require less pressure and higher notes usually more.
5. Practice Scales.You can vary the scales to make it interesting. ie. play them at different speeds and different rates (fast for a few notes and then slow for a few) and try tonguing double or triple notes each change or every third change.
6 Long tones are the practice which makes the difference between good tone and novice. Start and stop with the tongue.
Position reed nearly level with tip of mpc.
TUNING the SAX.
Tuning is simply accomplished by pushing the mouthpiece further on to the neck cork (to sharpen) or pulling it out further (to flatten the note) You can usually get a complete half note difference either way. Most saxes are not perfectly in tune for every note (no machine is perfect) so check your tuning against a meter and play E, A, and C through the range to get a good overall compromise. Sometimes a particular mouthpiece and sax combo don't work well and you might need to experiment to get a combo that works.
This system is archaic and the Conn company tried to rectify it in the 1920s with a tuning system on the neck (microtuner) but it cost too much to produce and the old cork slide worked . They discontinued the tuner after the war. Pad hieghts can also affect tuning so if you are having real trouble to get note compatibility, you may need a tech to set it up properly.
Old C melody sound example
Sorry for the sad C sax sound sample! This is about as bad as it gets!
I used my recently acquired Holton in poor condition and had to just make something up in a hurry before the studio's next appointment.
So this is my excuse for the song: time pressure and lack of practice. I improvised on the fly. There are some
glitches, which would have been fixed if there were time. Would have used an entirely different song!
This was the condition of the (unknown) Holton.
Half of the pads were original, 85 years old and the other half had been replaced in 1933. No resonators!
The octave pad was missing and so I made one from cork and sticky tape.
The mouthpiece was original with a #2.5 Aquilasax reed.
The song is in the key of E, a good range for the C mel.
I call it happy day blues!
It's an example of what many people call,
"A stuffy old C Mel"
Altissimo G is often the hardest note to get. On an Aquilasax C tenor try B and F# together.
Old Hard Rubber mouthpieces often develop a nasty salty/sulphur taste especially if left in the sun. Try soaking in hot sugar water to balance the ph.
STICKY KEYS can be improved by clamping a piece of paper between the keypad and the tone hole and drawing the paper out to gently remove any buildup on the tone hole rim or pad.
BURBLING LOW NOTES can often be caused by a poor seat on the octave pad on the neck. It is easy to disturb the seat when taking the neck off after use and also easy to bend it back into position. To reseat the pad, dip in warm water and clamp with elastic band until dry.
Some claim putting a small object into the bell disturbs the flow enough to prevent burbling.
Pushing the bottom lip forward on the reed usually removes the burbling tendency on low notes. (motorboating) The old curved neck's angle can cause the bottom lip to pull back naturally. Lift the sax upwards with the bell closer to counteract this.
PAD LEAKS on BELL KEYS can be caused by the bell clamp loosening and the bell twisting out of alignment. Student models don't have bell clamps.
C Melody curved necks are designed to allow the sax to be held close and high, to enable players to get close to the piano. Holding a curved neck C mel out in front can disturb the embouchure and cause warbling low notes.
Straight neck C mels were for solo performance in a band setting.
Transposing Chart
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Bb instruments. Long bugle Soprano sax Tenor- saxophone Trumpet |
B |
C Instruments Piano Guitar
Flute, “C” sax Cello, Bugle, C Trombone C Trumpet |
C# |
D |
Eb instruments Alto –saxophone, trombone Baritone sax |
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F# or Gb |
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E |
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C# or Db |
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F |
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D# or Eb |
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C |
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E |
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D |
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B |
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D# or Eb |
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C# or Db |
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Bb or A# |
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D |
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C |
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A |
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C# or Db |
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B |
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G# or Ab |
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C |
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Bb or A# |
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G |
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B |
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A |
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F# or Gb |
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Bb or A# |
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G# or Ab |
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F |
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A |
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G |
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E |
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G# or Ab |
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F# or Gb |
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D# or Eb |
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G |
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F |
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D |
A trumpet or soprano saxophone needs to play a D note to stay in the same pitch as a piano or
guitar playing C. An alto sax needs to play A to keep the same pitch!
1919 Conn C melody
Aquilasax Altos are a cut above the average with many advanced features not usually found on beginners horns. https://aquilasax.3dcartstores.com/Saxophones_c_1.html
For a fingering chart go to:
http://www.lightandmatter.com/music/
saxfingeringsbasic.pdf
Altissimo fingering chart link. http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-altissimo.html
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Buying a Vintage C melody saxophone.
Buying an old sax can be problematic, especially for beginners but there is some good news. The current price is way below a comparable alto or Bb tenor. Finding a vintage C mel is easiest on the internet. Ebay being the most common place to find them but of course you can’t try before you buy. Many shop assistants however don’t know much if anything about C mels except the old fables doing the rounds about how they don’t play in tune and some of them are probably high pitch and can’t be used. (apparently most high pitch saxes were sent to Australia, and they may still be able to be used, playing sharp instead of flat like a Bb!!!) Those that are ok probably need re-padding which will cost more than the sax is worth, if you can find the pads etc. etc. These view points are usually expounded by those that would rather sell you an alto and /or don’t know what a C melody is.
C melodies were made mostly by reputable companies and by mastercraftsmen until the early 30s. They were the same people who made the altos and Bb tenors! I’ve never heard of anyone buying a high pitch sax yet. I believe they may exist but most were sold in Australia?
Most C mels will play as in tune as any sax with the correct mouthpiece and set up. Many people over the years have tried to get away with using alto or Bb tenor mouthpieces and so the intonation problem has arisen. Wrong pad height will also affect tuning.
Maybe! I bought an early 20s Holton that had original pads and some pads that had been replaced in 1933. It played fine for some months until a couple more of the 85 year old pads died. If you buy one with white pads, they willprobably need replacing but the newer brown ones may be ok. Newer ones with resonators may not need replacing for some time.
Yes! Several companies make new pads and they are not very expensive. I recommend “Music Medic” as their pads (and service) are good and only around $60 per set.
Yes! There are severalcompanies who specialize in vintage saxes. You can contact them by internet or phone and send it in for a refurbish. This may cost you $400 or more depending on the work needed. I recommend buying a pad set and taking it to your local tech. His labour should not be more than $200.
If you want to do it yourself there are some things to watch for.(apart from the sharp springs) I once got a sax re padded by a large music co. for $50. I had to get several pads redone as the worker had put too little glue on the pads and some of them had not seated properly. Namely the ones that stay open without finger pressure. It’s a good idea to hold the keys closed while the glue dries so that the pad seats in the right place. Glue? Yes! Traditionally sax pads are seated in melted shellac but a hot glue gun does the job. The biggest problem is getting the corks the right thickness (use a razor blade or scalpel) so that the keys are open the right amount.
Well that depends on your point of view. If you think a C mel is a useless old piece of junk and you want to re sell it quickly, then refurbishing will not help your profit margin. But if you want a good playing sax at a reasonable rate, the window of opportunity is now open.
The gold laquered versions may be more problematic as the laquer deteriorates in wear spots and looks grungy even when really clean. If you are really lucky, you may get a burnished gold model, gold plated! Very rare and more easy to restore!
Maybe! Why should a horn with the same bore as an alto be quieter than an alto? Originally they were fitted with large chambered small tipped mouthpieces and padswithout resonators and those two factors combined with the narrow bore tended to reduce the volume available. Since most people played them in lounges, it wasn’t a problem. However, a new metal mouthpiece or hard rubber mpc with a baffle and a set of new pads with metal resonators will have the old horn sounding significantly louder. My Conn has plastic resonators and it is louder than the Holton without res. I recommend keeping it quiet for home practices, placating the neighbours and get a mic for rock performances.
No! Well actually the reason why C mels were so popular in the 20s was because you could use piano music or any other C instrument music or Hymnals to play by but the majority of school bands use Eb amd Bb music. Very little is written for C instruments for marching bands. You can use flute music if the band leader will let you! Jazz however had a good following in the 20s and 30s (Rudy Weidoeft ) and so that era music may be available and now there are some modern jazz players putting out new CDs in C (Scott Robinson, Nathan Haines) but the best use for C mel’s is still church or pop music which is hardly ever transposed into Eb or Bb for sax.
Whether to buy a C mel or an alto as a first horn is a different question. C mels are easier to begin with as the music is in Concert pitch and most tunes you want to play are too. Also the bore being the same as an alto means they require no more breath, at least until you get to the lowest notes. However, if you like Charlie Parker best or intend to go marching, you might be better off with an alto. Modern C tenors are now available so the quirks thing is solved. https://aquilasax.3dcartstores.com/C-tenor-saxophones_c_9-1.html http://pub6.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=431465883&frmid=90&msgid=973876 For a list of the known C melody types and manufacturers: http://reviews.ebay.com/Saxophone-Stencil-List_W0QQugidZ10000000006282122 Here is a site with a humorous look at beginning the sax;
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Matching set, an Aquilasax alto and C tenor in black nickel. The C tenor has a longer body but a similar bore.
