Sweet Dreamer
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Hi everyone,
I'm new to the saxophone so you'll have to bear with me. I'll have a lot of question and some of them may seem really stupid. But that's what beginners do, they ask really stupid questions. ;}
First off, about the tread title:
I recently purchased a brand new alto sax. I have no experience with a sax at all, but I do have a clarinet, although its far from my primary instrument. My "primary instrument" would be guitar, with violin bringing up a close second.
In any case, I thought I'd like to try a sax so I bought a really inexpensive one. An Etude EAS 100. Yes, I know I might have been better off seeking out a good used sax, but what's done is done. I now own the Etude and I've had it for most of this year. Although, I haven't played it much at all. In fact, I bought it this spring and tried it out a little then and put it away for basically the whole summer. I just now got it back out again.
First off, this thing is a dangerous instrument! A person could put their eye out with this sharp mouthpiece. I accidentally poked myself in the face with it several times already. And it really hurt. I'm learning to really be careful with it. But that's why I call it the "Deadly Sax". I guess it takes some getting use to. It seems to me that they should provide a better way to hold the instrument at the bottom when you aren't playing any keys down there.
Anyway, I'm getting better at holding the instrument. Even though it's a "small" saxophone, it still seems like a BIG horn compared to my clarinet, flute and pocket trumpet. As you can see, I toy around with a lot of different instruments.
Getting back to the sax:
When I first got it I tried playing a few notes on it, some scales, and a few simple melodies. It wasn't too difficult since I already had experience with a clarinet, so I was already familiar with playing a reed.
However, at that time I didn't really play "against" anything. No backing track, no other musicians, nothing. So I had no way of knowing whether it was actually in tune with concert instruments at that time or not. I put it away for the summer, and just got it back out yesterday.
The first problem I noticed is that all the valves were "stuck" shut. It didn't seem like such a big deal. I just had to work them all, and once they popped loose they seemed to be fine. I played the horn and was delighted to discover that it seemed far more playable than I had remembered from the springtime. I was also naturally dodging the sharp reed mouth piece as I had learned my lesson well in the spring to avoid poking my eye out.
Now for the problem:
I was doing so well with it I decided to play a tune with a backing track. So I transposed a clarinet piece into Eb and began to play it with the backing track. That's when I discovered that this thing is grossly off pitch.
Now let me see if I have this right. When I finger a G note on the alto sax it should actually sound a Bb. Is that correct?
Well, this horn is blowing an A note. Not a Bb.
I've also noticed that the register key doesn't seem to be doing much of anything. I can blow a low G (second line on a treble staff), but when I try to blow a high G (just above the staff) the pressing the register key doesn't seem to help.
So I'm thinking there must be something wrong with this valves. I inspected it and cleaned the valves. They appear to be physically working with the keys, but they don't seem to be working in terms of actually making these notes playable.
Also, what's the "A" all about? Why isn't it playing a Bb like it's supposed to?
In relative terms I seem to be able to play the melody. But it doesn't match the backing track. And when I test it against a tuning meter it's blowing an A instead of a Bb.
I'm going to take it into a music store tomorrow and see what they can tell me.
I'm also thinking about potentially putting better valve pads on this (if and only if I can get it to play a Bb when it's supposed to).
Anyway, that's where I'm at. Just thought I'd ring the doorbell here and see what you folks have to offer in the way of comments.
All comments are welcome, and if you want to tell me that this sax is a piece of junk I won't mind. ;}
But that's not going to change the fact that I already own it. ))
I'm hoping I can salvage it at least to learn on. I don't know whether it was in the proper key in the spring when I first got it or not. I didn't check it back then.
Maybe the people at the music store will be able to help me tomorrow.
I'm new to the saxophone so you'll have to bear with me. I'll have a lot of question and some of them may seem really stupid. But that's what beginners do, they ask really stupid questions. ;}
First off, about the tread title:
I recently purchased a brand new alto sax. I have no experience with a sax at all, but I do have a clarinet, although its far from my primary instrument. My "primary instrument" would be guitar, with violin bringing up a close second.
In any case, I thought I'd like to try a sax so I bought a really inexpensive one. An Etude EAS 100. Yes, I know I might have been better off seeking out a good used sax, but what's done is done. I now own the Etude and I've had it for most of this year. Although, I haven't played it much at all. In fact, I bought it this spring and tried it out a little then and put it away for basically the whole summer. I just now got it back out again.
First off, this thing is a dangerous instrument! A person could put their eye out with this sharp mouthpiece. I accidentally poked myself in the face with it several times already. And it really hurt. I'm learning to really be careful with it. But that's why I call it the "Deadly Sax". I guess it takes some getting use to. It seems to me that they should provide a better way to hold the instrument at the bottom when you aren't playing any keys down there.
Anyway, I'm getting better at holding the instrument. Even though it's a "small" saxophone, it still seems like a BIG horn compared to my clarinet, flute and pocket trumpet. As you can see, I toy around with a lot of different instruments.
Getting back to the sax:
When I first got it I tried playing a few notes on it, some scales, and a few simple melodies. It wasn't too difficult since I already had experience with a clarinet, so I was already familiar with playing a reed.
However, at that time I didn't really play "against" anything. No backing track, no other musicians, nothing. So I had no way of knowing whether it was actually in tune with concert instruments at that time or not. I put it away for the summer, and just got it back out yesterday.
The first problem I noticed is that all the valves were "stuck" shut. It didn't seem like such a big deal. I just had to work them all, and once they popped loose they seemed to be fine. I played the horn and was delighted to discover that it seemed far more playable than I had remembered from the springtime. I was also naturally dodging the sharp reed mouth piece as I had learned my lesson well in the spring to avoid poking my eye out.
Now for the problem:
I was doing so well with it I decided to play a tune with a backing track. So I transposed a clarinet piece into Eb and began to play it with the backing track. That's when I discovered that this thing is grossly off pitch.
Now let me see if I have this right. When I finger a G note on the alto sax it should actually sound a Bb. Is that correct?
Well, this horn is blowing an A note. Not a Bb.
I've also noticed that the register key doesn't seem to be doing much of anything. I can blow a low G (second line on a treble staff), but when I try to blow a high G (just above the staff) the pressing the register key doesn't seem to help.
So I'm thinking there must be something wrong with this valves. I inspected it and cleaned the valves. They appear to be physically working with the keys, but they don't seem to be working in terms of actually making these notes playable.
Also, what's the "A" all about? Why isn't it playing a Bb like it's supposed to?
In relative terms I seem to be able to play the melody. But it doesn't match the backing track. And when I test it against a tuning meter it's blowing an A instead of a Bb.
I'm going to take it into a music store tomorrow and see what they can tell me.
I'm also thinking about potentially putting better valve pads on this (if and only if I can get it to play a Bb when it's supposed to).
Anyway, that's where I'm at. Just thought I'd ring the doorbell here and see what you folks have to offer in the way of comments.
All comments are welcome, and if you want to tell me that this sax is a piece of junk I won't mind. ;}
But that's not going to change the fact that I already own it. ))
I'm hoping I can salvage it at least to learn on. I don't know whether it was in the proper key in the spring when I first got it or not. I didn't check it back then.
Maybe the people at the music store will be able to help me tomorrow.