Saxophone beginners Very serious question ...

[RedBottom]

I usually do what Griff suggests - hand it to them and ask them to show me how its done. I've even (jokingly) done that with the odd MD who places a difficult piece in front of me and proceeds to explain how it should sound.

Like several here, though, I tend to practice when no-one's around unless it's a piece I know well and am just trying to perfect. That said, my bloke's a musician too (well, he's a drummer, actually, but I like to keep him happy) and turns a blind eye to most of the less-than-perfect noises I make on my various instruments. We do have a couple of spare rooms, too, so I can disappear to the other end of the house if need be.

Both hubby and dog are undergoing major testing at the moment as I'm trying to teach myself fiddle. To be fair, I only practice when hubby's out. The dog is very patient though. When I first took up the violin at school years ago - for all of three weeks - my mum's Yorkshire Terrier used to howl along to it. My own dog, however, seems to adopt the same attitude as my kids had before they grew up and left home, namely, "What's that bl**dy racket? Oh, it's OK. It's just Mum up to her daft tricks again. Nothing out of the ordinary. Carry on!". At which she promptly curls up and goes back to sleep. 🙂

 

[MandyH]

Progress report - I did rubbish yesterday and just couldn't seem to get mouthpiece at the right angle/sax at right height on the strap.

If it's any help, I was advised to shorten / lengthen the strap until you can get the mouth piece into your mouth by only using your right thumb on the thumb rest, no other digits on the sax at all. This means that all you are doing is pivoting the sax about the strap eye, rather than needing to lift the sax or bend or whatever to get the mouth piece in your mouth.

Fortunately, I don't seem to have had any complaints, except from my 15 year old daughter (who plays violin well) She kept popping up with (constructive?) comments like "that note should be half a beat longer", or "you're moving on too soon".
Although I can read music, my timing and rythm are not good, so sight reading and new pieces are abysmal. Fortunately, I just handed her the piece and asked her to play it for me, so I could get the correct tune into my head 🙂))
I've tried to take the comments like "I think I recognised that one" as positive - or maybe I'm just thick skinned and couldn't care less, 'cos I'm really enjoying learning to play the sax

 

[ladyraygun]

I thought my bari (which I've had about 4 months) sounded quite nice and I was finishing off my practice so was playing Brahms Lullaby knowing that the next door's kids were going to bed around the same time. As soon as I finished the piece, they started howling and crying!
I'd just ignore the stupid comments - as long as you're enjoying yourself and making steady improvement tell 'em all to go an boil their heads!