Klarinet Archive - Posting 000037.txt from 2000/02

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] How DID you learn saxophone
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 17:50:18 -0500

At 10:08 AM 2/1/2000 -0800, Daniel Paprocki wrote:
>Here's a new topic. Most clarinetist play saxophone. How did you learn
>sax? Look at a fingering chart and go? sax lessons? read a book? Also how
>long did it take you to feel comfortable on the sax? What was the most
>difficult area? palm keys, low register? middle C? Ready, Set, GO!
>
I am a completely self-taught saxophonist. I picked up an old Conn
C-melody at an antique auction for $50, repadded it myself and set about
learning how to play, with Teal's "Art of Saxophone Playing" and a bunch of
fake books, since that was the sort of music I wanted to play on sax. I
wanted to some day play in a big band, but knew my clarinetting alone would
not get me there. Of course, the C-melody was not going to suffice, so
eventually I picked up a tenor, then an alto, and a soprano and a bari. As
a result of my rather unscientific method of study, I have little trouble
with the low register, since most songs in the "C" fakebooks I used spent a
great deal of time at the low end of the range. For the same reason, I
still have some trouble with the palm keys, painfully exposed lately as the
Bay Concert Band rehearses the "Rolling Thunder" march! But besides those
passages, I play sax well enough to now be lead alto in the "Baytones" big
band locally, and I have also soloed with the Bay Concert Band on alto.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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