First Saxophone for beginner

[npw]

My daughter who is 10 is very certain that she wants to play the Saxophone. She has been playing the recorder and doing well with her music exams but now wants to progress to the Sax. Whilst you can never be certain I would be pretty sure that she will continue with this instrument ? she loves music and she loves the sound of the Sax.

What we are not sure about is the best way to approach getting her her first instrument. Should we hire for so many months or should we buy an instrument like the one advertised here in a local shop:

http://www.mevtaylors.co.uk/saxpackages.htm

We don't mind spending more either now or in the future to get a more quality instrument but we would like her to choose it and obviously she can't do that yet as she can't play.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be gratefully received.

 

[justin_chune]

The good thing about hiring, is that you can hand it back and walk away at the end of the rental period. However, if you are sure that your daughter will stay with it, you could consider a more expensive instrument like the Yamaha 275. If your daughter could choose for herself, the Yamaha would be a good choice.

If the Artemis saxophone is a reasonable quality instrument ?250 seems like a good enough deal.

You could get advice from your child's sax. teacher before you puchase any instrument.

I've been buying all my bits and bobs from Mev's for years.

Happy listening🙂

 

[Saxlicker]

Not to confuse things......
Just to make sure you opened up your options....

www.Saxophones.co.uk have hire schemes with different horns.

www.woodwindandbrass.co.uk also worth a browse.

A visit to their websites will show you many brands.

An experienced unbiased player on hand to demonstrate to you is your ultimate help!

FROM A REPUTABLE SHOP (not ebay)
Spending Sub ?300 should not limit getting the most out of the experience for at least the next 2 or 3 years in my opinion.

I strongly praise the value for money of a yamaha 4C mouthpiece to go with whatever you decide.

 

[yamahaaltoplayer]

Get a YAS-23 like mine! 8) Its clear laquered with nickel plated keys(light gold colour with silvery colour keys) instead of the totally clear laquered YAS-275. the YAS-23 is almost always rated best student model Alto Saxophone and is the precedor of the YAS-275. the 275 has a high F# key though.
Just a heads-up: Saxophones need much more care than a recorder and have more keys/buttons then a recorder. Not to discourage her but if she is good, she should have no problem picking up the Saxophone.

Good luck!

 

[jools]

I agree with Saxlicker - avoid Ebay. To fully enjoy playing an instrument, you have to get the very best you can afford. Cheap ones (i.e. quality) are often harder to play and may well discourage a young player. They need all the help they can get to make a good sound as quickly as possible. To be fair, you are looking at least the ?300 mark for a new one. I really wouldn't spend less, and I wouldn't go for second hand either at this stage.

Scout around for a good rental scheme, but I'd suggest that you need more than three months to decide. From scratch it's going to take the best part of at least six months to see if it's to keep. Saxophone takes a lot of practice to make a good sound. A lot of my students get discouraged because they just loose interest. That's why the guitar and piano are so popular: it takes no effort to make them 'sound' like what they are. A sax can take years to sound 'beautiful'

Most of all you need a good supportive teacher. Someone who can inspire. 🙂

 

[Bobby G]

Yup, a guitar is a lot easier to get started on (Sniffin' Glue Fanzine, 1977 "Here are three chords. Now form a band") and a real cheap horror can get you by, and they're a lot cheaper than saxophones.

It is worth paying as much as you can afford for a saxophone, preferably at a shop that specialises in saxes, and also preferably if you can take someone with you who already plays who can try them out. There are plenty of reputable cheaper models out there, like Yamaha, Trevor James or Jupiter, plus the Hansons have a very good reputation as do the Gear4music horns, but the ones that seem to be ahead in the combination of quality and low price at the moment seems to be the Walstein brand - if it's good enough for Pete Thomas etc.... 😉

 

[jools]

(Bob- you used to read "Sniffin' Glue"!?? LOL there's a blast from the past.)

 

[Col9]

she will rock almost instantly, my 11 year old daughter plays treble recorder and she picked up my alto and played through the beginers book almost straight away. Tone was wobbly but the fingerings are so similar its unreal. (so she tells me)

If you dont hire one you could spend ?189 on a gear4music alto. If she likes it youve spent hardly any money and got a great starter sax. If she dosnt you'll get most of your money back on ebay.

If you can splash out a bit more then as previously mentioned a Walstein from woodwind and brass is a great buy.

She will love it whichever you go for.

Col.

 

[FastFred]

Hi
I got mine from www.saxhire.co.uk in Reading. Great guy, gives a free lesson and you can try them. I 'hired' a YTS275 at around ?700 which is not going back. He has cheaper models but when you can hire one for about ?30 for three months I think it's worth buying a better one and spread the costs over the period. Sounds like your daughter is going to stick with it. Good luck.

 

[philthd]

the hanson buyback scheme is worth mentioning too (they buy your sax back less what you would have paid to hire it from them for that time)




oh, and bg i used to do a song in my solo set called "4 step plan" (form a band, learn a chord, write a song, change the world) which was profoundly influenced by that snigging glue quote