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Beginner Squeaky Tenor

One of the first things I aim to ask him about is the mpc/lips/reed relationship. I think once I get that down for sure part of the battle will be won. I wouldn't have thought all that was so important-you just put them together and blow...not so, I found out. My short time of playing the trumpet you just attached the mpc and blew with only three keys to be concerned with-precious memories.:)
 
Instead of half an hour, I need about twice that the first time but at this point, I'll take what they offer. Fortunately, it's only about a four mile drive for me.
 
In my opinion a half hour lesson is not enough time. Depending on how your instructor starts the clock on the lesson you could lose time just setting up your sax. A hour lesson will give you plenty to work on between lessons and provide some time for you to ask questions during the lesson without drastically cutting into your lesson time. Are you planning weekly lessons on longer intervals?
 
If any of you night owls are still up(it's 8:00PM here) I had my first lessons today.
Lessons went pretty fair-not near long enough for a first visit. He did stay with me about ten minutes over while someone else had to wait a little. I squeaked a lot, that didn't make me happy as it was worse with that first lesson than at home. I had brought the Yamaha 5C and put a Plasticover #2 on it. It didn't seen to work very well today so, I'm going to practice with the Legere 2 1/2 and see what happens.

He did give me some homework and I think he must have thought I was further along that I really am He had given me a sheet of music in the C, F and G cleft to do and there were notes way below and above the top staff line I hadn't seen before and of course they weren't' marked as B-A-G, etc. like I'm use to seeing. Nothing was marked as such so, I told him I needed to stay with C for a while and asked if he'd mark what notes those dots represented. The F and G cleft must be played with the octave key as those notes on the sheet he gave me are well below and above the staff lines. I'm not that far advanced yet. I see him again in a week. He also told me I was trying to blow too hard and had my mouth too far on the mpc so, I tried to adjust that. In my haste to get there and not be late, I had put the reed on the mpc, tightened up the ligature but got the reed just a bit off center. That caused part of the squeaking I'm sure.

All in all, not too bad for a first visit. I showed him the music for Danny Boy(Sil Austin style) I had bought and he looked at it, took his smart phone and brought up YouTube and that music and listened to it while he looked at the sheet music. He said it was pretty much right on but in another key and played slower. If I can talk him into it, I'm going to ask him next time to take my sax and play a little from the sheet music as I know exactly what it's suppose to sound like. Later, I'm going to try and get him to teach me that song.
 
ColColt said:
If any of you night owls are still up(it's 8:00PM here) I had my first lessons today.
Lessons went pretty fair-not near long enough for a first visit. He did stay with me about ten minutes over while someone else had to wait a little. I squeaked a lot, that didn't make me happy as it was worse with that first lesson than at home. I had brought the Yamaha 5C and put a Plasticover #2 on it. It didn't seen to work very well today so, I'm going to practice with the Legere 2 1/2 and see what happens.

He did give me some homework and I think he must have thought I was further along that I really am He had given me a sheet of music in the C, F and G cleft to do and there were notes way below and above the top staff line I hadn't seen before and of course they weren't' marked as B-A-G, etc. like I'm use to seeing. Nothing was marked as such so, I told him I needed to stay with C for a while and asked if he'd mark what notes those dots represented. The F and G cleft must be played with the octave key as those notes on the sheet he gave me are well below and above the staff lines. I'm not that far advanced yet. I see him again in a week. He also told me I was trying to blow too hard and had my mouth too far on the mpc so, I tried to adjust that. In my haste to get there and not be late, I had put the reed on the mpc, tightened up the ligature but got the reed just a bit off center. That caused part of the squeaking I'm sure.

All in all, not too bad for a first visit. I showed him the music for Danny Boy(Sil Austin style) I had bought and he looked at it, took his smart phone and brought up YouTube and that music and listened to it while he looked at the sheet music. He said it was pretty much right on but in another key and played slower. If I can talk him into it, I'm going to ask him next time to take my sax and play a little from the sheet music as I know exactly what it's suppose to sound like. Later, I'm going to try and get him to teach me that song.
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You have an enormous sense of urgency! Relax as he told you! Practice.....you'll get there!
 
Good to hear the lesson went well.

Just a couple of corrections, you need to be precise and correct with terminology, otherwise there'll be a lot of confusion when we try to answer questions.

The clef shows the location of the notes on the stave or staff. The only one we're interested in for the sax is the treble or G clef. This has a coil around the G, the second line in the stave. You need to learn the note names. No way around it. But there are different nemonics to help. Every Good Boy Deserves Favour gives the names of the lines of the stave, starting at the bottom. FACE gives the names of the spaces between the lines, again working bottom to top. From this you'll see the sequence and be able to name the ledger lines below and above the stave. For now only go up as far as D and down as far as B. Add others above later when you're comfortable with these. Don't worry about going lower, the sax doesn't play lower, except for Baritones which often go as low as A.

When you mentioned C, F, G you were talking about musical keys or scales. The letter shows the starting note. To keep the scales sounding the same, the written notes are sharpened or flattened as needed. It's usual to start with C, which has no sharps or flats. Then progress to a single sharp, G, or a single flat, F. Once you've mastered these, extra sharps and flats are added. one at a time.

There's a lot of good music theory on Wikipedia. Start by looking up clef, stave, key.
 
It's not possible to rush progress on the saxophone. It will take as long as it takes. The old phrase "More haste, less speed" is appropriate here. The more you rush, the slower you'll progress.

An exercise that may help you to recognise the notes on the stave is lightly penciling in their letter names on any sheet music. Erase them and repeat. I still have to count some of the higher ledger line notes.

Playing by ear is also a useful skill that needs to be developed. The Londonderry Air is a simple tune that can be played by ear. Don't disregard nursery rhymes like Three blind mice and London's Burning etc. Simple tunes with few notes to master. They are relevant at any age.

The reed needs to be "set" right before you play. Cane needs to be moistened and many players soak their reed for a few minutes before mounting it on the mouth piece.

Open the case. Drop the reed in a glass of water. Assemble the stand, put on the sling, assemble the saxophone check it over and place it on the stand. Retrieve the reed and set it on the mouthpiece. Hang the saxophone on the sling and fit the mouthpiece. If there isn't a glass of water available you can hold the reed in your mouth to moisten it.

The setting of the reed is crucial for a reed instrument. If the reed isn't set right, the instrument will not play properly.

Going through this ritual will help to put you in the right frame of mind and allow you to focus on the task in hand.


Music needs precision, focus and calm from the player.
 

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