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Anyone any experience with a Saxophone?
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There are actually 7: soparnino, bass and contra-bass. Oh, and they used to make a sax tuned to the key of C, so 8. But anyway.
Alto is just fine to start on. It does not require as much air and you aren't going to be doing any on the fly transposition for a long time. On the opposite side of not needing too much air is that it is very easy to blow too hard and sound like a duck being hit by a car. Playing an alto, or any version for that matter, quietly and in a controlled manner will take years of practice and instruction. Getting your fingers to behave will be much easier then producing a quality sound. The instrument does not end at the mouthpiece; the way you shape your mouth and throat also will have a positive or negative affect.
In other words, take lessons and do not stop taking lessons. There are many little things about any instrument that would be incredibly difficult to figure out on our own. For sax there are alternate fingerings for many notes that are situational depending on what note is coming next, a lot of which you might see in a fingering chart and not know when to use.
Listen to a lot of recordings, but don't limit yourself to just jazz. There is a large library for the classical saxophone, and many of the skills learned by practicing these are easily transferable to jazz. For example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URwiZC9_91I&p=47CF2CB9E064AAE1&playnext=1&index=50
Brandford Marsalis kicks ass no matter what he plays.
It's a long process. Get help and don't give up on it.
It's been quite a while for me as well (I actually sold my very very nice sax a few years ago) but I would bet you would be looking at at least $100 to get it up again.
I just had one of my old saxes that I hadn't touched in years restored a couple of years ago. It was about $800 in total if I remember right for all new pads, new cork, and chemical dip cleaning. A huge chunk of that was the dip. If you can get away without that, you can save some money. It was also the best pads and stuff they had since it's an antique Selmer Paris and there were cheaper pad options that could save more money. For just pads, cork, and adjustments I'd guess $300ish tops, maybe? If I still had the work order with everything broken down I'd pull it out and grab the exact prices for you.
Yeah, I agree--probably about $100-$150 if it's just been neglected. If a rod has been bent through abuse it could get more pricey.
Doesn't the bari only have one additional note at the bottom, the low A? If we assume that a high F# key is pretty much standard these days, then it only has the one additional note. Also, I came across a vintage alto earlier this year that had a low A key, just like the bari. It played beautifully. Shame someone snapped it up before I could get the funds together to buy it... which admittedly wouldn't happen for quite a while.
There are actually a couple of more horns in the family. It ranges all the way from the soprillo down to the sub-contra bass. In addition to the C melody sax, they also used to make one in F. These were to be used for orchestral music, but I guess it just never really took off. The C melody had some popularity in the 30s, and you can find a few floating around (the shop that had the alto with the low A also had a C melody for sale).
Also, OP, I was curious what prior music experience you've had. You mentioned you could already read notated music, so I assume this means you used to play something. How's your saxomaphoning going?
Also, that top quote wasn't me, but either way I am not sure. It has been quite a while since I have had any sax.
I actually played the first movement of that you tube recording back in the day. Now I look at the sheet music and wonder how the fuck I did it.