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Does anyone out there play soprano?

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Soprano saxes are fairly common you just need to be in the right situation.

Saxophone quartets, and wind bands will have sopranos.
Sometimes they take the place of the clarinet.

They are generally harder to control as they are smaller and the intonation is harder to sort out than on an alto saxophone.

They have a very wide range of playing styles, as I said they can take on a similar role to a clarinet, they can work very well in eastern influenced music and they are versatile enough to get by in jazz, modern and traditional.
 
Hi Impulse, there are a few soprano players in the Room, myself included. Alto is my main instrument, but I dabble in soprano and tenor.

You're right, there aren't so many players who are known exclusively as soprano players, and in band or jam situations I've only seen about four or five, and of those all but one were doubling on other instruments (clarinet or tenor). The 'but one' was Lol Coxhill, and that was a few years back.

Some people consider the soprano an oddity or curio; I suppose in a way it is, I don't know that a soprano leading a jazz quartet could carry a whole gig, but I like the soprano sound and they are great fun to play once you get them to play in tune.

Cheers, Bob
 
Hi Impulse,

I play every horn from Sopranino down to Bass, but focus mainly on Alto, Tenor and Baritone for most of my gigs. The Soprano is common enough, but not frequently heard in many pre College school bands, at least not the smaller schools, as you have found out.

In terms of sheer quantity of horns manufactured, the Alto model outnumbers all the other horns in the Sax family by at least a two to one ratio.

Cheers.
 
I guess the reason alto dominates in numbers manufactured is mainly to do with it's being the ideal learner horn, particularly for smaller people or kids. Very often at jams I am the only alto player, outnumbered by three or four tenors, and the tenor seems generally more prevalent than alto at gigs.

Cheers, Bob
 
I wouldn't agree that the alto is the best horn for learning, unless you are young or vertically challenged (Shhh.. don't tell anyone).

Tenor is equally suitable for a beginner. Also the mouthpiece being easier to control as you have a looser embouchure and make bigger movements means there is probably going to be less biting and not quite so much increased craziness every beginner randomly does on a horn at some point. Myself included, but I like to call it 'playing'.
 
I'd tend to agree that a tenor is as easy to learn on as an alto, but the alto is probably a better size and weight for children, plus a stack of alto cases takes up less space in the classroom or store cupboard.

I may be wrong, but another advantage of the tenor is that the Bb instruments are more common or widely used than Eb's (?). From speaking to an 'old-style' jazzer this is why the traditional horn front line is trombone (sometimes doubling on tenor), trumpet, and clarinet (sometimes doubling on soprano), and not alto. As all the horns are in Bb and have different timbres they tend not to step on each other, whereas introducing an alto could make things sound quite messy.

Cheers, Bob
 
Thank you all very much. The reason I ask is because the small band I play in (about15) is bottom heavy with tenors tubas and what-nots. We only have one clarenet and have now lost our flute. There are lots of altos . We are not very good senior players but are having a lot of fun. I play alto and tenor and because I understand the fingering is the same for all saxes I wondered if I should try the soprano to help with adding some "top" to the group.
What music would I play? We would have no soprano music but could I play the clarenet or flute music, transposed as necessary, to the Bb sop.?
Could you explain a bit more about the difficulty of the soprano? I`ve been only playing for 2yrs. but have no difficulty (said in modesty) with our current repertoire. Thanks
 
If you have no difficulty with the music you are playing how are you going to progress?

You need to constantly push people on, improve and lead forwards especially in a group situation. It can be hard, especially for the weaker players but you all need to be constantly trying to out play each other.

Soprano wouldn't need transposing from the clarinet part and would work quite well playing the same thing, though a specific soprano part would be best. Maybe some new music is in order that is top heavy.
It could be that your bottom end section isn't playing properly as a group. The music may be marked F or something but if you are playing long notes or anything that isn't the melody you should come down in volume until you can hear it clearly over the top.

If you've got an imbalance of instruments to parts you'll need to make sure everyone is playing under their marked dynamic levels to give the top a chance.
 
I found switching from alto to soprano fairly easy, although as has been said before being a smaller horn you have to be slightly more accurate to get it to play on tune. On the plus side, pitch-bending is easy. I don't know if you could get away with playing tenor parts on soprano, but being a Bb horn an octave above a tenor would mean you didn't have to transpose the parts.

Cheers, Bob
 
Just to clarify things I am only one part in the little band. The conductor is trying to get the bass lot to play softer for better balance.There is still tho` too many bass instruments.
Linky Lee I appreciate what you say and you are dead right. I am tho` now playing tenor in the next band up of our group, and this is quite a challange. I wanted to stay tho`with the little earlier group to help out. So if I can play straight clarenet music with the clarenet player who is with us then I`ll give the soprano a try.
 
you'll notice thereis an edit button under your name. You can use that to correct any errors you notice afterwars, saves the pages filling upwith loads of posts. We don't really mind here but some forums will kill you for it 😛

Personally I'd stick with the higher group, if the music is more challaning it's more rewarding and a bit more exciting. I admire your desire to help out with the others though.
 
I play Soprano because I think the sound is awesome!

It sounds gorgeous when played in the slow worship songs in my church. Obviously I would prefere Alto of Tenor for Rock music lol
 
Is that a real church with proper church acoustics? I once saw a solo player do something in a church, the sound kind of 'hangs' long enough with the natural reverb and he was using that to create chords and harmonies that would fade gradually. Wonderful.

Cheers, Bob
 
Jambo, how long have you been playing soprano and if you went there from alto or tenor did you find it signifcantly more difficult than say going from alto to tenor? Just wondering since people tell me it is hard to keep in tune on soprano.
 
Firstly let me state that I don't play the soprano. However, in a bottom heavy band, it really rings out over the top of the other instruments.

I was at a jam session the other day and this little slip of a girl got up amongst all the tenor playing blokes who'd all been going for the faster, louder and more coltrane-like prize.

She played more slowly, but so melodically and beautifully. Her sound rang out so cleanly, clearly and sweetly, it made me wonder why more people don't play the soprano.

I'd go for it and keep the clarinet player company in the small band. The "difficulties" I heard come from the fact that it requires greater embouchure control to get a good sound than the alto or tenor.
 

Similar threads... or are they? Maybe not but they could be worth reading anyway 😀

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