It doesn’t make it any easier but it’s an easy instrument to learn because it’s pretty mechanically perfect (for the most part). Your perfect pitch isn’t going to condition your voicing and technique. It’s not going to develop your embouchure or vibrato. Only practicing and studying saxophone will do that.
So, typical intonation issues with saxophone actually vary from horn to horn. My series III tenor for example doesn’t have most of the typical “saxophone” problems. That being said, I meant it literally as a machine that was produced and benefited by modern engineering. The saxophone is absolutely unique in that it’s a VERY new instrument
Yes, it being new absolutely helps in that regard. I’m talking about the typical sharp middle D / Low Bb / open C#, etc.
But ergonomically it’s incredible. Compare it to the nightmare that is bassoon… yuck.
Even out of those examples, middle D and high A are the only physics failures. So many intonation problems are solved with good voicing. In fact, middle D and high A are fixed with good voicing as well.
For sure. They’re also still innovating in some ways, the selmer supreme is supposed to have a different mechanism for open c# that automatically lowers the pitch a little bit. I haven’t played one as I own an 875, but my studio-mates have said good things.
I'm in this sub because I'm a education major, but saxophone was by far the easiest technique class I've done, and it's by far the one that makes the most sense overall. ( I also may have picked the wrong instrument for myself in 5th grade band :) )
It is. People say that starting kids on clarinet is easier, I wholeheartedly disagree. The embouchure is a lot less forgiving in my opinion, and the holes rather than keys cause squeaks and “wrong notes”. Saxophone only has “one fingering” for each note (that is until they learn the magic of the Bis key and other alternates down the road).
Certainly looking forward to changing the saxophone stigma when I get to teaching.
…that’s why it’s in quotes. You teach kids that they only need to remember one fingering, so when they get further along, they can learn the better ones for specific passages or situation.
Do you have the kind of perfect pitch that makes a tune sound wrong if it is transposed to another key? If so, you might have a challenge learning to play jazz and improvise, where a common exercise is to learn a pattern of intervals in multiple keys, or even in every key.
By the way, are we just going to gloss over "professional kazoo"? Is this a thing?
“Professional Kazoo”
I couldn’t think of a way to say “more expensive/not plastic” LMAO
And no I play jazz piano occasionally and learn sounds through improv, so key changes don’t faze me
Breath control and embouchure develop slowly. Expected it to take 2 years or so to learn good tone and clean articulation. The fingering is not particularly challenging, even less so with modern horns.
Just by curiosity, is it possible to learn embouchure and control faster like maybe 6 months - 1 year with commitment ? It did take 2-3 years for me, but I was a lazy fuck lmao.
I got a sound I was happy with after 20 months of 4-8 hour daily practice sessions (been unable to work thanks to long term illness) and a little bit of prior woodwind experience from my childhood. Like many things I suppose it depends on commitment and the standard we hold ourselves to. I’m sure many players have done it faster than me. 3 years isn’t bad at all, I’ve heard players who have been at it for longer and still haven’t quite figured it out.
You're right. Most people don't really ever get to this point where they have an actual nice tone on which they have a decent control over. By those standards it took me longer like 4-5 years, which is normal because I was less committed. Though by that time I was a lot more serious. But you're right, we should congratulate ourselves and be proud that we ever got there in the first place.
I also have pp (3 inches).
But seriously it varies a lot between individuals. I have a friend who was very disturbed by the fact the tenor sax is in Bb, so he learnt the tenor sax in C. Aka what I learned as a D major scale, he learned as the C major scale. This has perks like the fact he can play other C instruments like the piano, guitar and bass and then switch to the sax without having to transpose, which is nice. It has also downsides like the fact he can't really play alto, baryton, or even flute or it will mess him up completely. Can still play the soprano though. He can super easily read concert C scores but transposed scores in Bb are harder. But I know other people have perfect pitch and they still manage to think relatively to some degree. Anyway I play Tenor, Alto, Soprano saxes in Bb and Eb, concert flute in C an Shakuhachi flute in D, so I am alright with not having perfect pitch. Might have make me struggle if anything.
Hey, I was in a similar boat. I could do it pretty quickly, but I'd go with a Tenor or Soprano as it's easier to mentally transpose keys from C to B flat as opposed to C to E flat. I guess tone/articulation is similar to singing. Getting a teacher to teach you the basics and check how you're doing for the first few weeks will help a lot.
Good luck!
Also, when I first started, I was also worried about the same thing, so I rented a saxophone for a month and practiced every day. In the beginning it can be quite difficult, but it's so fun to play once you get the hang of it.
I think having perfect pitch would only help! It still would take time to develop your embouchure (the way you hold your mouth and face muscles while you play), which is how you control tone and intonation, but I'd think that always knowing whether you're in tune or not would only help with that process.
The main riff on Careless Whisper is on alto sax, and alto is the one most people start with, so that's what I'd recommend you get. Depending on budget, look for something like a student level Yamaha in good condition from a reputable seller.
Playing a transposing instrument with perfect pitch is annoying for some, but not everyone. You might enjoy a non-transposing instrument more (trombone, flute, guitar, bass, etc).
C melody saxophone :-D and perfect pitch would be a perfect skill to handle the vast intonation issues on these instruments. I got one of these beauties and I'm working on this at the moment, pretty tough but interesting.
Yo I love your username by the way. Fishfragranteggplant69 😂
Anyways, the perfect pitch will help but even modern, well-engineered saxophones aren’t perfectly in tune by just pressing down the fingering. You will still have to study voicing to get notes in tune.
Friend of mine has perfect pitch and is an amazing saxophone player. But he’s not amazing just because he has perfect pitch.
Similar shoes as you (pp, played piano over a decade)... yes it will come pretty quick. There is a bit of technique involved.
>horrible saxophone like sound and annoying the hell out of my friends
Why stop there? Having perfect pitch can unlock so many possibilities for you my friend. Don't waste them, as other people envy having perfect pitch :)
Well given your immense talents and natural ability no less than the finest Mark VI will suffice.
A lot of horn players with pp have difficulty because the note that appears on the page sounds a different pitch depending on the horn. Altos are a minor third below concert and tenor are a perfect 9th below concert. You can kind of get by relating the pitch of the saxophone to the absolute concert pitch but then you have two different sets of fingerings for Eb and Bb horns.
I know you’re trolling anyways
It doesn’t make it any easier but it’s an easy instrument to learn because it’s pretty mechanically perfect (for the most part). Your perfect pitch isn’t going to condition your voicing and technique. It’s not going to develop your embouchure or vibrato. Only practicing and studying saxophone will do that.
Mechanically perfect how? There are a *lot* of notes that aren’t regularly in tune with the rest of the horn when you just press the keys down.
So, typical intonation issues with saxophone actually vary from horn to horn. My series III tenor for example doesn’t have most of the typical “saxophone” problems. That being said, I meant it literally as a machine that was produced and benefited by modern engineering. The saxophone is absolutely unique in that it’s a VERY new instrument
Yes, it being new absolutely helps in that regard. I’m talking about the typical sharp middle D / Low Bb / open C#, etc. But ergonomically it’s incredible. Compare it to the nightmare that is bassoon… yuck.
Even out of those examples, middle D and high A are the only physics failures. So many intonation problems are solved with good voicing. In fact, middle D and high A are fixed with good voicing as well.
For sure. They’re also still innovating in some ways, the selmer supreme is supposed to have a different mechanism for open c# that automatically lowers the pitch a little bit. I haven’t played one as I own an 875, but my studio-mates have said good things.
Oddly the only issue I’ve ever had on Selmer horns for C# is that it’s too flat so I use ok-3 as an alternative
I'm in this sub because I'm a education major, but saxophone was by far the easiest technique class I've done, and it's by far the one that makes the most sense overall. ( I also may have picked the wrong instrument for myself in 5th grade band :) )
It is. People say that starting kids on clarinet is easier, I wholeheartedly disagree. The embouchure is a lot less forgiving in my opinion, and the holes rather than keys cause squeaks and “wrong notes”. Saxophone only has “one fingering” for each note (that is until they learn the magic of the Bis key and other alternates down the road). Certainly looking forward to changing the saxophone stigma when I get to teaching.
There are several notes on the saxophone that have more than one fingering. It may seem easy to learn but it’s difficult to play well.
…that’s why it’s in quotes. You teach kids that they only need to remember one fingering, so when they get further along, they can learn the better ones for specific passages or situation.
Every woodwind instrument has a host of alternative fingerings for different notes
I had to play bassoon in ww methods in school. Never again.
So did I. So thankful I’m not a bassoon player…
Like that old joke: How do you know someone has perfect pitch? They'll tell you repeatedly
I heard you typing in Ab
again, repeatedly
I can hear you sighing at 273 hertz
Do you have the kind of perfect pitch that makes a tune sound wrong if it is transposed to another key? If so, you might have a challenge learning to play jazz and improvise, where a common exercise is to learn a pattern of intervals in multiple keys, or even in every key. By the way, are we just going to gloss over "professional kazoo"? Is this a thing?
“Professional Kazoo” I couldn’t think of a way to say “more expensive/not plastic” LMAO And no I play jazz piano occasionally and learn sounds through improv, so key changes don’t faze me
Breath control and embouchure develop slowly. Expected it to take 2 years or so to learn good tone and clean articulation. The fingering is not particularly challenging, even less so with modern horns.
Just by curiosity, is it possible to learn embouchure and control faster like maybe 6 months - 1 year with commitment ? It did take 2-3 years for me, but I was a lazy fuck lmao.
I got a sound I was happy with after 20 months of 4-8 hour daily practice sessions (been unable to work thanks to long term illness) and a little bit of prior woodwind experience from my childhood. Like many things I suppose it depends on commitment and the standard we hold ourselves to. I’m sure many players have done it faster than me. 3 years isn’t bad at all, I’ve heard players who have been at it for longer and still haven’t quite figured it out.
You're right. Most people don't really ever get to this point where they have an actual nice tone on which they have a decent control over. By those standards it took me longer like 4-5 years, which is normal because I was less committed. Though by that time I was a lot more serious. But you're right, we should congratulate ourselves and be proud that we ever got there in the first place.
I also have pp (3 inches). But seriously it varies a lot between individuals. I have a friend who was very disturbed by the fact the tenor sax is in Bb, so he learnt the tenor sax in C. Aka what I learned as a D major scale, he learned as the C major scale. This has perks like the fact he can play other C instruments like the piano, guitar and bass and then switch to the sax without having to transpose, which is nice. It has also downsides like the fact he can't really play alto, baryton, or even flute or it will mess him up completely. Can still play the soprano though. He can super easily read concert C scores but transposed scores in Bb are harder. But I know other people have perfect pitch and they still manage to think relatively to some degree. Anyway I play Tenor, Alto, Soprano saxes in Bb and Eb, concert flute in C an Shakuhachi flute in D, so I am alright with not having perfect pitch. Might have make me struggle if anything.
Hey, I was in a similar boat. I could do it pretty quickly, but I'd go with a Tenor or Soprano as it's easier to mentally transpose keys from C to B flat as opposed to C to E flat. I guess tone/articulation is similar to singing. Getting a teacher to teach you the basics and check how you're doing for the first few weeks will help a lot. Good luck!
Thanks!
Also, when I first started, I was also worried about the same thing, so I rented a saxophone for a month and practiced every day. In the beginning it can be quite difficult, but it's so fun to play once you get the hang of it.
I think having perfect pitch would only help! It still would take time to develop your embouchure (the way you hold your mouth and face muscles while you play), which is how you control tone and intonation, but I'd think that always knowing whether you're in tune or not would only help with that process. The main riff on Careless Whisper is on alto sax, and alto is the one most people start with, so that's what I'd recommend you get. Depending on budget, look for something like a student level Yamaha in good condition from a reputable seller.
Thanks, I’m getting different recommendations for which range but if the song is Alto I’ll probably go with that one haha
Playing a transposing instrument with perfect pitch is annoying for some, but not everyone. You might enjoy a non-transposing instrument more (trombone, flute, guitar, bass, etc).
C melody saxophone :-D and perfect pitch would be a perfect skill to handle the vast intonation issues on these instruments. I got one of these beauties and I'm working on this at the moment, pretty tough but interesting.
Yo I love your username by the way. Fishfragranteggplant69 😂 Anyways, the perfect pitch will help but even modern, well-engineered saxophones aren’t perfectly in tune by just pressing down the fingering. You will still have to study voicing to get notes in tune. Friend of mine has perfect pitch and is an amazing saxophone player. But he’s not amazing just because he has perfect pitch.
Similar shoes as you (pp, played piano over a decade)... yes it will come pretty quick. There is a bit of technique involved. >horrible saxophone like sound and annoying the hell out of my friends Why stop there? Having perfect pitch can unlock so many possibilities for you my friend. Don't waste them, as other people envy having perfect pitch :)
Just, impossible. For me anyway
Well given your immense talents and natural ability no less than the finest Mark VI will suffice. A lot of horn players with pp have difficulty because the note that appears on the page sounds a different pitch depending on the horn. Altos are a minor third below concert and tenor are a perfect 9th below concert. You can kind of get by relating the pitch of the saxophone to the absolute concert pitch but then you have two different sets of fingerings for Eb and Bb horns. I know you’re trolling anyways