A daft question, but i had to ask anyway!

[Fraser Jarvis]

Hi All, I work away from home quite a bit so was thinking of some way to keep practicing whilst away, now taking the sax with me is not really an option so was thinking along the lines of a Harmonica/mouth organ, now hears the really daft bit i need help with, when playing one of these do yo put your mouth up against it or do you put it in your mouth so helping keep your embouchure? as this is my main problem when being away from the sax for four or five days on the trot, if you dont think one of these would be suitable i'm open to sugestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[VirusKiller]

The only daft question is the one you don't ask... (can't help you on this one though!)

 

[Jules]

Gob irons aren't- in my opinion- sufficiently similar to saxes for this to really be an issue. There are a couple of different schools of harmonica embouchure- tongue blocking vs lip pursing- both of which have plusses and minusses when it comes to the finer points of harp action.... they're great bits of kit, but I really wouldn't compare it too exactly with a sax. By the way- check this site out for good harp info- http://www.modernbluesharmonica.com/home.html

 

[Pyrografix]

What about the Xaphoon plastic/bamboo sax things? They use a sax reed...

 

[DaveW]

Why not just take m/piece and reed with you, you can keep your embouchure exercised.

 

[Moz]

Try taking up the clarinet, you can buy cheap ones from the devils junkyard which are not all bad, they take up very little room compared with a saxophone and will serve to keep your embouchure exercised. I bought one, it works and at £60 is only the cost of two quality harmonicas.

Cheers

Martin

 

[Rikki]

I am going away to UK for xmas and will be taking a clarinet with me to keep in shape. Playing the clarinet is very good conditioning for playing a saxophone anyhow. I remember reading a biography on John Coltrane, who strongly advocated practicing on a clarinet to improve your Saxophone playing, in fact it seems to have been a common practice at the tiime.

 

[johnboy]

There's always the recorder, the fingerings are similar (treble would be best, much nicer sound than descant).

John.

 

[johnboy]

I am going away to UK for xmas and will be taking a clarinet with me to keep in shape. Playing the clarinet is very good conditioning for playing a saxophone anyhow. I remember reading a biography on John Coltrane, who strongly advocated practicing on a clarinet to improve your Saxophone playing, in fact it seems to have been a common practice at the tiime.[/QUOT

Alto players were expected to double on clarinet, there were always two clips in the alto case lid for the clarinet.

John.

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Thanks everyone for your sugestions, oviously i'm barking up the wrong tree with the harmonica on this one, a clarinet would do the job if i can get a really cheap one off ebay that works, but then i guess you could say why not use a sop sax? i will look into recorders as well.
Thanks again, Fraser.

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

What about the Xaphoon plastic/bamboo sax things? They use a sax reed...

Yeah, just been looking at these and they really seem to fit the bill, two versions one made of plastic and the other that looks to be the better one made of bamboo, both use a sax reed as you say, really small and cheap as chips!

 

[Pete C]

The mouthpiece idea is a good one and you could add a silencer to make it more socially acceptable, see http://www.jazzlab.comThere 's also a thread about it on here somewhere.

Pete

 

[kevgermany]

I'm not so sure that a recorder will help - there's no reed to control/keep under pressure.

 

[johnboy]

I'm not so sure that a recorder will help - there's no reed to control/keep under pressure.

That's true, but you can still form your emboucher as for a sax m'piece and go through the motions.
At the age of eleven I went from recorder to alto, playing the scale of "C" within an hour or so, and playing simple tunes like "Happy Birthday", very soon after that. It is a natural progression.


Good luck,
John.