Playing the saxophone Honey I shrunk the Sax...!

[SaxinNZ]

Since I got my new BW Tenor just a few short weeks ago, I’ve hardly been able to put it down, and I must admit that I have let my interest in my Alto wane somewhat… to the point of not getting it out of the case!

Last night however, I felt a little guilty, and decided that I must at least give the Alto a bit of a bash, so I got her out, set her up (something doesn’t feel right I thought), threw on the neck strap and hooked her up….! MY GOD… it’s shrunk!😱

Now obviously I know that it is smaller than the Tenor, but not this much surely? It feels like a toy almost! Weightless nearly!! It sure as heck doesn’t feel like the one I put away a week or so ago. And I still remember not that long ago when I first started to play, how I thought my goodness, what a lump of metal to have suspended from ones neck!!

Okay, so its maybe just my over active imagination, but has this ever happened to anyone else, I mean after “converting” to a Tenor….. or worse, has my Yani actually shrunk?😱

 

[Taz]

Ha Ha, I think it happens to all of us alto/tenor converts. I started on the alto and after about three months I decided that the tenor was the sax for me, so that's the path I took and like you, the alto stood on her stand, in the corner of the room, looking forgotten and forlorn. I left her there for about two or three months before picking her up again, but when I did, I too thought she felt so small and pathetic. But what sweetness, what soul. She was effortless to play and to hold.
I'm still a tenor man, but when my alto comes out, I swear she has a heart!

 

[jadoube]

Okay, so its maybe just my over active imagination, but has this ever happened to anyone else, I mean after “converting” to a Tenor….. or worse, has my Yani actually shrunk?😱

Yup, me for one. I felt I had to try out my alto again after about 18 months moving to tenor.

Shrunk, oh yes it felt like it had shrunk. And could I get a sweet note out of it? 🙁

 

[ArtyLady]

Same here! I can't get a note out of my Alto now though - it's the Tenor all the way for me now 😀

 

[Nick Cook]

Same here!!!

 

[SteveK]

I go though periods of about 3 months, switching between being enamoured by the tenor and then by the alto. The rediscovery of the other sax is always so sweet and the size is a surprise.
Steve

 

[visionari1]

I have the opposite problem, going from Alto to Soprano.
After a while blowing the sop the alto feels like a truck and big and heavy, also the embroshure on alto is looser...tried a tenor, a while ago, and it felt like I needed another set of lungs.

Cheers & Caio
Jimu

 

[dooce]

I have the opposite problem, going from Alto to Soprano.
After a while blowing the sop the alto feels like a truck and big and heavy, also the embroshure on alto is looser...tried a tenor, a while ago, and it felt like I needed another set of lungs.

Cheers & Caio
Jimu

It's the sop that makes me feel like I need another set of lungs. Mind you, that's better than the flute - I feel like I would be better off getting an air compessor when I play that thing.

Don't get me started on the piccolo....

 

[thehunt]

just done the opposite, bought an alto, i have to pull the neck strap up so high just to get the mp in my gob. It feels so small, like a toy as you say. I mainly play my tenor so it does feel really big when i hang that off my neck.

 

[visionari1]

It's the sop that makes me feel like I need another set of lungs.

That's interesting, surely the bigger bore must mean more air to get it really goin, and anyway trying to squeeze both a Sop & Alto onto a bike is enough, maybe I should ditch the alto, in favour of a Piccillo (not bl.......dy likely)

Don't get me started on the piccolo....

Cheers & Ciao
JImu

 

[SaxinNZ]

...anyway, mentioned it to my wife the other night, and she smiled and said 'don't worry, size isn't everything darling..'........

still not sure what she meant, but I thought I would leave it at that!

 

[ArtyLady]

It's the sop that makes me feel like I need another set of lungs. Mind you, that's better than the flute - I feel like I would be better off getting an air compessor when I play that thing.

Don't get me started on the piccolo....

I find Alto much more resistant that Tenor, and Sop made my temples bulge! :shocked: and - but flute has no resistance whatsoever - strange that you find that dooce?

 

[Chris98]

I’ve had a cold for the last few days and tonight was the first night in a while that I’ve felt like picking up a saxophone and it was the alto I reached for. It’s been neglected for more months than I care to share but it appears there are no hard feelings as it has been a joy to play.

Has my alto shrunk? Yes, but it’s so perfectly formed that it will always have a place in my heart and some how it seemed the perfect partner to join me whilst I explored some new music tonight. A little pre-Christmas present to myself in the form of Hal Leonard’s Vol #65 Smooth Jazz, the alto just seemed right for ‘Give Me The Night’ and ‘Just The Two Of Us’ 'Morning Dance' and 'Street Life’ I did reach for the soprano for ‘Songbird’ but then remembered I’ve not got one of them… Yet! So that was played on the alto as well. (Did I get away with it? Playing it on the alto has to soften the Kenny G blow a bit, doesn’t it?)

So back to the theme of this thread has may alto shrunk, yep but I still love it!

All the best,

Chris

P.S. A soprano sax would make a lovely Christmas present, I wasn't sure if my hint was clear enough earlier

 

[Howard Long]

Although I started on tenor, in the past three or four weeks since I purchased both a BW alto and a soprano, I find myself using them all roughly the same amount. Possibly the alto is used a little less than the other two.

I usually switch as the whim takes me through all three horns in a session. The only pain of 'tripling' like this is that there's three times as much tidying up to do.

As it's quite early for me in me sop career, I find that my mouth muscles tire when on the sop quite quickly, although I am sure as time goes on it'll improve. The alto on the other hand was about the same (lower intermediate) level as the tenor in a couple of weeks.

Learning the sop has been interesting to say the least. The first week or so was pretty hard work getting a tuneful string of notes out of it without squeaking, and plenty of horribly out of tune notes. But there's a knack to it that the body seems to pick up automatically, and now I have little trouble getting a note across the whole non-altissimo range, although at the upper end the intonation still needs some work.

I have a feeling that getting a half decent tone on that sop though is probably going to take me quite some time though.

Cheers, Howard