i've enloyed the windsurf journey so far ,footstraps ,harness,water starting PB speed 36.4 knots and so mouch more, past and still to come thats what i love about it.Now a new challenge begins, saxophone,46 years old no music background, what can i expect ,a bigger chalenge than windsurfing ,my goals are to be able to play freestyle sax , yep even sax has a freestyle discipline.
What am i in for ?
This guys is not that good at all.
If that's your goal, practise 60 minutes a day, dont' miss a day, and you'll be better in 18 months. Practise 2 hours a day, and you'll be better in 12 months.
agree they're not that good. the alto player is ok for a kid though. or is it the same kid? sounds better on alto....
this used to be my dream....... all i can say pirrad is live the dream!
Alto, Tenor, Soprano or Baritone?
All very much the same.
Tenor and Baritone more of a challenge.
Tried them all. Started with a tenor, currently playing Alto, and working on my Soprano skills. Baritone in a big band mostly. Great fun.
I think (form me) the tenor is the biggest challenge to play well.
Alto is a good balance between them all.
Soprano, hard to play in tune.
Baritone is easy and fun in the lower register.
Smaller the sax, faster the fingering, but having said that, different saxes play different music, so it's up to someone's preference in music.
All of them are fun. Go for it. It's all about the "time on the water".
yeah i found baritone fairly easy also. tenor never seemed to work with me, i struggled to find a good tone. alto was my first love and used to fit me well.
haven't seriously played for years now although i do get it out once in a while. sad as it was once 90% of my life while windsurfing was 10%.
i never got into 80's style sax playing however i may have dabled with a little careless whispers once or twice. 
for me it was modern and cool jazz i got the most from.
one thing pirrad is if you learn sax you will then find flute very easy as the fingering is nearly all the same.
basically...
the main sax used in most of the sax solos youve heard will be the alto.
Your lucky as youve chosen a woodwind inst that has the same fingering throughout the main octaves. so easy to learn compared to clarinet and others
Learning bits n bobs:
1) learn to read music (Get lessons in this)
2) scales and arpeggios will aid your learning curve
3) mouth form (embouchure) is the key to sounding like a pro
4) a **** sax can be made to play a lot better with just a good mouthpeice ($60 off ebay for a yamaha) a good option if your jaw aches after 5 mins from a dud mouthpeice.
4.5) if your getting a lot of squeaks go a harder reed.
5) if your looking at buying a cheap horn there are some AWESOME chinese rip offs around, which some pros now choose to gig with for around $350. (seriously!!)
a review of them:
www.shwoodwind.co.uk/Reviews/Saxes/Alto/Chinese_alto.htm
a good horn for a cheap price is the "LARGO" which is mentioned in the above site. Ive played this and its just as good as a basic yamaha.
I now expect you to sound like this chap in 6 weeks from now:
Cant believe your saying he aint that good,
[there is only one of him]
I've got the alto [largo e-bay]I work a 4 on 4 off roster and now that the kids have all left home plan on putting a fair amount of time into learning ,when the wind isnt blowing ,i'll be blowing.
yeah, he hasn't developed his embouchure fully yet is the thing. probably needs to do 20 minutes of sustained note practice per day as well as scales.
you can hear it particularly with the tenor sax where he struggles to hold the notes and as a result the pitch varies. from time to time the alto does it also.
on the tenor it could be his mouth piece. i used an otto link metal mouthpiece on my alto and it doess make it a little harder at first as they are professional mouthpieces and are usually cut to reflect that.
best is to stay with the bakelite mouthpiece for the first while. start off with a softish reed and then try a few different cuts out in time.
as mentioned above both the mouthpiece and the reed have a dramatic effect on tone once you are able to play half decent.
i'm not familiar with largo, i used a yamaha. as long as the pads are good and your not loosing air you should be ok for learning.
Changed my mind.
If you play 1 hour per day 9 months (not 12 as I previusly said), you'll be better than him.
You need to consistently blow, day after day, and definitelly a minimum of 45 minutes, and the progress will be respectable. If you can make it over 60 minutes, you'll be there very soon.
You may miss a day here and there, but should not have long breaks (I.E. weeks of no playing), as that will set you back (embouchure ).
The kid is having fun and he is confident, but his level is not that advanced. You'll be there in no time. The stuff he's playing is easy.
He's using a lot of "presence" effect, which appears like a deep rich sound which he doesn't really have. A bit like playing in an undercover public car garage where the sound bounces around.
To add to the other guys good advice, don't forget to have fun.
Plenty of "playalong" music on the market.
A love supreme - John coltrane.
My all time favourite sax based record.
Kind of blue - Miles Davis and Bill Evans are great on horn and piano but having Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly on sax make that album epic! Mostly done with no rehearsal too which is sick!
Good advice above.
Playing sax gets the laydees in.. until they spot ur puffy bleeding lips that is! 
Always spotted u as a Dave stewart fan Gesty.
(My mum wants him to return her glasses too)
@ funky - haha, dave stewart.....
i can hear kenny g is in the wings.
i found a good cure for bleeding bottom lip syndrome. just pour salt straight onto it. fixes it up in a couple of days. once played 8 hours each day for 7 days and my bottom lip was a mess.
@Dr Funk - yeah!! coltrane rules. it goes to show it's in the genes though. i reckon his son ravi is one of the best players of modern times. if you close your eyes you can hear his dad's influence.
one of the quotes on youtube was "Props to the drummer, he's really layin down" i love the jazz lingo
Pain in the freckle to record a sax player that moves that much hey Gesty. Still gotta let em do their thang. Clip-on mics (like in the ABC vid usually suk too tho)It's all about the vibe.. man.
I'm not a big fan of endless, pointless (to me anyway) soloing on any instrument but I do love a bit o' jazz horn. Very spoilt for tops players here in Perf. 
Jazz/horn/big band lovers might wanna check out the Mace Francis Orchestra (MFO). They tour nationally a couple of times a year and are worth seeing. Great players. Mace is uber-talented and a funny little bloke too (Note the title of the vid song).
^ it is harder with sax as it's a whole body experience...
you should just threaten them with a tone sucking compressor.....
Pirrad , Don't do it , there's no need to inflict the sax on future generations. The Sax should disappear into the mists of time and go the same way as the horse and cart, DOS, and warts. If elected I would institute a "S.B.S". No, not the TV station , a Saxophone Buyback scheme. I think it's the only way to get these things out of the community.
Sure you aren't thinking of the banjo there loggy?
Only good banjo is a dead one. (er.. except for in the Be good Tanyas
)
I really can't separate them Funk, but here goes. Most hateful instrument 1 - Flute/ recorder, 2 - Sax, 3 - Banjo.
The sax the only intrument made of brass that is soooo good they stick in with the woodwinds[}:)]
Eflat bass player
(Tuba to those not brass minded) because as we all know :- a tuba isa whatcha getta toothapaste in
^ do you need glasses test pilot? all the tuba players i used to know had glasses..... hehe.
another absolute classic! milt jackson on vibes
Vibes and marimba kick @rse. Seriously.
Funky as fk, in the right setting, for an intrument that at first sounds like a kid's toy.
Ha! Note in Milt's 1st clip, the cellophane attempting to keep the breeze outta the goanna? Desperate situations demand desperate acts.
i took me a while to figure out what the plastic was doing. then i had my ahhh moment. it must be difficult to record outdoors....
hey speaking of recording outdoors and getting funky....not sure if your into 70's fusion or not but this is stuff makes me wanna drive....... story behind it was a gig miles and co did at a UK festival, when asked what songs they were going to play miles responded, "just call it anything". they then hit the satge and laid down 37 minutes non stop fusion adlib.
pt1
do you need glasses test pilot? all the tuba players i used to know had glasses..... hehe.
lol, that's so true......
i got myself in to a lot of trouble when i was young playing in school bands because i used to adlib regularly. apparently hogan's hereos theme isn't meant to be given my version of the coltrane treatment.
Hogaaaan!
Unfortunately my knowledge of fusion is very limited.
However a couple of Pulp Fusion CDs have served me well with the likes of Herbie Hancock and contempories bustin some super funky toons
As you can probably tell I like 'pop' angle on it and solos that don't step too far out from the rest of the funkn band. Love it.
it's unhatable is it not
