Advice please

[hollydog]

Hi guys. I am a newbie, having done the fatal of hitting e-bay having had a few drinks, and minutes later I am the proud owner of a Yamaha YAs 23...which luckily is perfect, and I love it !!!

I have had about 10 lessons (at the ripe old age of 44) and am getting to grips with everything (and there is a lot to get to grips with isn't there ?). Anyway, my question. I want to be able to pick up and play, no particular style, just to play along to whatever takes the mood. I have a wide taste in music, and would love just to be able to join in with performers as and when. However, at the moment I don't even know all of the notes on the sax.....so, what I need to know is at what stage should I begin to aim for ear training etc to enable me to achieve my goal ? At the moment I sound like a clarinet in the upper register anyway, but I dont see how I can ear train if I can't play all of the notes !

Advice for an optimistic and ambitious beginner gratefully received :whistle:

 

[spike]

Hello Holly,

seems to me you can play a few notes on your sax,
there are lots of simple tunes you can play using only a few notes, three blind mice for instance, or other childrens nursery rhymes.
If you can whistle it you can probably play it by ear.
When should you start? - right now,
Try opening and closing some more buttons, just remember when more holes are open the notes are higher as you close them one after the other the pitch gets lower. Have you got a book? A fingering chart will tell you how to play each note and once you've got your first "do re me" scale in the bag, there's no end of tunes that you can play.

I'm sure you'll get lots more advice here.

gruss - spike

 

[Linky Lee]

I think the best bit of advice was 'Right now'!

You shouldn't put off learning anything at all, ever, with anything.

Ear training is crucial. If you can't hear the notes you want to be playing, you're going to have wobbly intonation and not sound too hot when playing with others even if your tone/style and image makes you seem great!

The way improvising, playing from ear, and so on works is your brain works out what note it wants to produce, the easiest method to produce that is by singing or whistling.
If you can do that, you're already getting there.
The next step is to tye in the saxophone fingerings with these pitches. When your brain wants to play a D and the links have been made, you'll find yourself playing the D on the sax without consciously thinking about it.

Once you're at that stage, you limit is your technical ability and your imagination.

It's a good idea to learn some theory as it makes building those links easier (I believe). Sacles will help you too to learn the relationship between notes and introduce you to some of the technical problems with playing the sax.

I think the best way to learn is to transcribe from records, find something you want to play and work it out. Maybe you want to notate it out and analyse it too for the theory benefit. Then you could make your own arrangement to play in a pub with your local musicians!

It's a fantastic journey, and it's the most rewarding thing I know of. You really know when your learning, and it's self teaching essentially. As the saying goes, someone can only show you the door, you have to walk through it. I think that relates to music in general very well.

Get going and enjoy it!

 

[hollydog]

Thanks for this. A long journey I guess. I had suppossed that I had to be able to play every note to even begin, but you are right, there is simple stuff out there and we all have to start somewhere. (Perhaps I'll delay my first public performance though !) I am off to give it a go right now. I will let you now how I progress.......

 

[griff136]

a good tip I was given by a top pro player - turn the radio on and play along - any station pop,rock, classic just play your ear training will improve and so will your playing.

 

[Linky Lee]

I also think you shouldn't delay public performances. But then maybe I'm biased since I was performing from the age of 7 musically.

It's always good experience, and the first time is very nerve racking. Get it out of the way with some people you know won't mind a bad performance, friends and family. You get used to it after a while, and then you start enjoying it and thriving off of the nerves and the buzz.