Hullo,
I have a tenor sax which was made in China... No, don't run away; it actually works!
I've never played, nor even handled a saxophone before, and so I didn't want to invest a lot of money on what might turn out to be the wrong instrument for me. I found this one for just over £200 at Gear4music.
(That £200 includes a tough GRP case, one reed, an uncomfortable neck strap, and one of those furry sausages whose name I forget, off hand.)
After I bought it I had two semi-professional musicians check it out, independently (ie - at separate times). Both were appalled at the idea of a Chinese sax and said that I may as well throw it away... but on meeting it, and playing it, they both declared that it worked perfectly well and made a good sound.
I noticed that they both squawked quite a lot, but they said that it was because they weren't used to my mouthpiece. Both said I should chuck the mouthpiece and get something better - but neither made any particular recommendation, so I'm still using the Chinese one.
To my astonishment, I found that I can actually blow the thing quite well, and can run up and down the scale from low C to the upper octave (eventually - after I'd found the octave key). I love it! However, I can never get a clean A.
At first I thought it must be me - and it might be - but I can now get the other notes cleanly almost every time, and yet I can never get that A.
I can't figure it out. If there's something wrong with the pads then surely the G, and the lower notes, would also be affected?
So, do I need to blow differently for the A?
Maybe it's something totally obvious and I'm so dumb I've overlooked it...
I'm in Africa now, and there's no one around to whom I can take the sax for inspection.
Looking forward to your replies
Jill
I have a tenor sax which was made in China... No, don't run away; it actually works!
I've never played, nor even handled a saxophone before, and so I didn't want to invest a lot of money on what might turn out to be the wrong instrument for me. I found this one for just over £200 at Gear4music.
(That £200 includes a tough GRP case, one reed, an uncomfortable neck strap, and one of those furry sausages whose name I forget, off hand.)
After I bought it I had two semi-professional musicians check it out, independently (ie - at separate times). Both were appalled at the idea of a Chinese sax and said that I may as well throw it away... but on meeting it, and playing it, they both declared that it worked perfectly well and made a good sound.
I noticed that they both squawked quite a lot, but they said that it was because they weren't used to my mouthpiece. Both said I should chuck the mouthpiece and get something better - but neither made any particular recommendation, so I'm still using the Chinese one.
To my astonishment, I found that I can actually blow the thing quite well, and can run up and down the scale from low C to the upper octave (eventually - after I'd found the octave key). I love it! However, I can never get a clean A.
At first I thought it must be me - and it might be - but I can now get the other notes cleanly almost every time, and yet I can never get that A.
I can't figure it out. If there's something wrong with the pads then surely the G, and the lower notes, would also be affected?
So, do I need to blow differently for the A?
Maybe it's something totally obvious and I'm so dumb I've overlooked it...
I'm in Africa now, and there's no one around to whom I can take the sax for inspection.
Looking forward to your replies
Jill