Teaching Alto to soprano - when

[Dr G]

Another consideration in favor of the curved soprano is holding it properly to get the correct angle of the mouthpiece to the face. Straight sops can either be held out or the player tends to drop their head down to get a good angle on the mouthpiece - this is most easily accommodated by a curved sop with a neck strap. If played like a clarinet with the sop body down and the head up, the reed is damped by the lower lip and the sound suffers as a consequence.

 

[EdJ]

Curved sops are handy for microphones. One mic clipped on the bell like alto, tenor, bari.

Curved is also good for portability it fits in a hand luggage bag and a Brompton T bag. Still not as portable as flute / clarinet.

Given the clarinet is straight she probably won’t be particularly worried in terms of feel between curved (like alto) and straight (like clarinet) but it is a bit heavier than a clarinet.

Some people do have preferences for one shape or the other but the quality of play / intonation may outweigh ergonomics

 

[DrJane]

Hi
Well in the end I found a curved roy benson on eBay
It came with a Yamaha 6 mouthpiece and was as new and had had a recent service. At £250 it was worth the gamble - and I think we struck lucky with a very good seller.

We both love it and she is getting a very good sound already.

If she sticks with it and starts playing it in her bands, we will upgrade at some point - but for now it is great.

We just need a bigger living room

 

[Dr G]

Congrats and thanks on behalf of your daughter, @DrJane.

Be aware that as she develops on the horn, these lil’ honkers can be especially loud when played in a small space. Please check in with her to learn whether she experiences ringing in the ears after playing. Hearing damage when young can be avoided. I recall that my ears used to ring after playing my Yanagisawa curvy (SC-992) - even when playing outdoors. Piccolo is especially rough in that regard as well - best played with ear plugs.

 

[turf3]

Congrats and thanks on behalf of your daughter, @DrJane.

Be aware that as she develops on the horn, these lil’ honkers can be especially loud when played in a small space. Please check in with her to learn whether she experiences ringing in the ears after playing. Hearing damage when young can be avoided. I recall that my ears used to ring after playing my Yanagisawa curvy (SC-992) - even when playing outdoors. Piccolo is especially rough in that regard as well - best played with ear plugs.

Yep, on the infrequent occasion when I practice piccolo I use ear plugs.

I always keep at least one pair of of ear plugs in every instrument case.

 

[DrJane]

Congrats and thanks on behalf of your daughter, @DrJane.

Be aware that as she develops on the horn, these lil’ honkers can be especially loud when played in a small space. Please check in with her to learn whether she experiences ringing in the ears after playing. Hearing damage when young can be avoided. I recall that my ears used to ring after playing my Yanagisawa curvy (SC-992) - even when playing outdoors. Piccolo is especially rough in that regard as well - best played with ear plugs.

Thanks - we will watch out for that
She has a piccolo as well

 

[SopJob]

Hi Jane,

P. Mauriat, Le Monde, System 54, and Expression instruments might also be worth a try (all from Taiwan).

Frank.

 

[bobstad]

What we find about music is the best teacher, are musicians which are one's most prevailing influences, eh.

So, soprano playerJane Ira Bloom's albums Red Quartet & Sometimes the Magic, anything by Kate Olson, on soprano half the interstellar folk punk jazz duo Syrnix Effect with Naomi Moon Siegel playing trombone; both with their shoes off in stocking feet, playing an array of effects devices, nice repeating loops, percussion, et cetera.

Naomi a graduate of Cornish College of the Allied Arts a private institution in Seattle where famed trombonist Julian Priester was long a faculty member..she is said to be single handed revamping the whole concept of the use of the trombone in music.

Kate is a facile hand with all four major saxophones, and the deepest soprano player we've ever heard, on Syrnix Effect's final album This Is What Your Brain Sounds Like, recorded with a poet reading their own works..an album we had awhile since lost, dedicated to all the now extinct species on the planet within any of our life times. Kate's undergrad degree if from the University of Wyoming with a masters degree from the University of Michigan in music composition and improvisation.

We've seen them three times live, during 2014 in Seattle following their west coast tour from their base in Seattle to Los Angeles..2014 our educated surmise at least, then October probably of 2020 here in Bellingham's Idiom Theater to a packed house on a Wednesday we followed to Egan's Ballard Jam House in Seattle with Ann Reynolds on Piano heard once in a duo with Seattle saxophonist Tobie Stone playing jazz standards for diners in a nice place with an adjacent bar, plus a fine fellow on double bass violin too whose name unfortunately passed us by.

That was a nice evening, riding buses from Bellingham into Seattle to their venue: where we'd a buttered cornmeal muffin with our Amy Denio suggested glass of water with a slice or two of lemon, atop a tall stool next the east wall from their stage with a tiny table.

[ADMIN: political content removed]

So, not a bad idea for any young musician to become socially conscious. Another favorite alto saxophonist Yuri Yunakov once also Bulgaria's middleweight boxing champion as a teenager three years in a row revered there as a boxer as was Muhammad Ali worldwide

 

[DrJane]

It's difficult to comment when I haven't seen or heard her play. Normally I'd want to hear a certain maturity of embouchure/airstream control, as without this the soprano will find that out rather quickly.

Having said that, none of us know for sure do we and having NO opportunity is awful, so why not find out. You may find that one true love appears - all well and good. Experience/appreciation of the other instruments is very much a plus as a musician too.

I think that the most valuable thing for aspiring musicians is to be surrounded by like-minded people and a depth in talent - if this becomes exhausted at school then you move to county level - and so on. Teachers too - able, with a good (broad) attitude and knowledge.

As Skeller says above about the Basset Horns, you never quite know what journey a school music department can go on if the correct staff, students and parents have a good attitude with funds available. A school I was brought into as a sax specialist went from no ensembles at all to a Big Band, Wind Band, Brass Band, Soul Band, Choirs etc - all down to the new Head of Music and the support of the Headmaster. I ended up running two full SATB sax quartets, playing some challenging stuff like the Saxtet arrangements of An American In Paris and Rhapsody in Blue - aged 13 - 16. This was almost unheard of at a non-private, regular Comprehensive school. The school had about 20-odd saxes (SATB) that it could loan the students, who generally went on to buy their own.

Amazing things can happen..

She took her new soprano to her sax lesson yesterday …….. her sax teacher is so excited He said already she has a great sound
She is the second student in his 30 years teaching at the school to get a soprano
He is now going to set up a SATB sax quartet

Thanks everyone for encouraging me