Articles & Resources

Hi, I know there are the odd articles regards sending Saxophones, but none show you what I feel is the safest way to post one to avoid any damage in transit. Please remember poor packaging is the foremost cause of damage to instruments in their cases whilst in transit. Especially when they are old because the cases can be worn, the majority are ill fitting and allow too much movement inside. We have been selling musical instruments for a while and sold a lot of Saxes, We always pack them...

Obviously we often use the words tone & sound interchangeably, but when you are learning an instrument like the saxophone, it’s very useful to consider them separately. Tone: you can think of this as the “raw” unprocessed sound of your saxophone. Sound: this is the end result after you have used your technique as a musician to manipulate the tone into something that an be more personal or expressive. We tend to associate tone with expression, and sometimes confuse the two. Even the...

Foreword This guide was compiled mostly out of personal curiosity on these saxes and hopefully it will also serve to all those trying to identify the different models produced by this famous Italian manufacturer. It is somewhat peculiar that although Grassi was one of the largest producers of wind instruments in Italy, very little is known about the company and its products. There is much confusion around Grassi saxophones and it is easy to understand why: • There are no known details...

So, you want to play in a band… and why you should One of the best things that you can do as a musician – whether you are very experienced or an absolute beginner – is to play together with other people. There are many reasons why you should do it. Unfortunately, too many people shy away from it thinking that they’re not good enough, or that they will let themselves down, or that they will embarrass themselves, and so on. In this post I am going to talk about what’s involved and what to...

Hi all, I hope that this will produce a very useful resource for all us musicians. Just click on the link and hopefully you should be able to edit the map. Add any pubs that you have been to that host jam sessions and gigs. Tell us a little about the establishment, were they welcoming, was the music good, what genres and how loud was the evening, and most importantly, when is it. Here is the link, if you have any problems let me know. The Breakfast Room Jam and Gig Guide. Thanks for your...

Following some Forum discussions earlier in the year, I have written the attached article (in full below as well) to set out some information about what is involved in setting-up and running a group or society. It is intended to provide helpful hints - it is not a definitive list of what is involved. Circumstances vary from group to group, so if you have any doubts about anything, seek appropriate qualified advice. I have run it past a couple of mods to sense check it, so hopefully it...

I have done a bit of transcribing and use Transcribe ! software which is brilliant in every way. It helps me enormously. My sense of relative pitch and my ability to translate rhythms from their sound to their notation and vice versa are not good at all, but I think it is worthwhile trying to get every aspect of the transcription right (key, harmony, pitches, rhythms, articulations and effects). You can always go back and refine your transcription later on. Here is a rough outline of my...

The modern digital era has made necessary for anyone on the Internet to acquire at least a minimum of photographic skills in order to be able to use pictures for a number of purposes on the web. Of course we all know the old proverb: “ A picture is worth a thousand words “ so, in many ways taking pictures helps anyone to better describe anything also when attempting to ask for information on something that we are trying to identify or perhaps sell. While in order to pursue this goal it is...

As a veteran of more function gigs than I care to remember me and my merry men (and ladies) have fallen foul of a wide array of things that can potentially go wrong, misunderstandings and the like. In the spirit of making our shows run smoothly, and in conjunction with my work colleagues here at sax.co, I’ve devised a letter which we now send out with our booking to try and head off some of the more predicable pitfalls. Feel free to use/modify/ comment for your own projects…. Thank you for...

I am Aldevis Tibaldi, forum member and London based professional musician. www.aldevis.com Currently, I am representing and selling Sequoia saxophones in the UK. I am pleased to endorse and represent Sequoia Tenor Saxophones, by Roberto Buttus and Marcel Jansen a- Why I decided to endorse them: 1- Mr. Buttus himself. Excellent repairer with a past as a professional musician: he knows his stuff. 2- I tried the instrument out of curiosity, and I fell in love with it immediately. When...

I’ve only been playing the sax since November 2004 when my lovely wife bought me an alto, supposedly for Christmas. Well, we got it home and she let me have it there and then! (The saxophone that is!) After around an hour, I could do a bad rendition of several very well known tunes, not in time and not in the right key for that matter! My idea of practicing (probably not recommended by the highly disciplined Mr Thomas) is to turn on my computer, find itunes, and work my way through the...

When you buy, borrow or hire your first saxophone without any experience to speak of it typically throws up a few challenges over the coming months. High ranking on the list are squeaks or the inability to produce certain notes. It's probably much less common to be lucky enough to have avoided these genuine issues than needing to overcome them. This in turn throws open many questions about why its happening and then discussions on the variety of ways people are struggling. At this stage the...

Now this is something I know a lot about as I work for a parcel-carrying company both as a driver and a trailer loader. In the past I have worked for other parcel carriers as a trunker driver and general dogsbody. My advice? Unless you feel lucky, take it yourself! :devil::devil::devil: More seriously. Parcel companies are much the same, only the price differs. No one is deliberately going to destroy your parcel (I suppose there are exceptions, but rarely). Most damage is caused...