Klarinet Archive - Posting 000317.txt from 2004/07

From: "Bernie Hunt" <bernie_ml@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] clarinet to saxophone
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 04:12:00 -0400

On 7 Jul 2004 at 18:45, TON NGUYEN wrote:

> I'm a new member at Klarinet and I play the B flat soprano clarinet,
> but now I also want to learn to saxophone. I like both the tenor and
> the alto sax, so my question is that is it a better transition to go
> from my B flat clarinet to a B flat tenor sax or from the clarinet to
> the E flat alto sax, or if it doesn't matter. Does anyone have any
> opinions and recommendations for me? Thank you

Ton,

I think you said in a later post that you have only played clarinet
for 1.5 years. In this case I would be tempted to only concentrate on
one (wind) instrument for a while - but why not talk to your teacher?

However, if (or when) you do want to go ahead with saxophone too, I
would suggest to find out which saxophone is being played by the
players you really like the sound of (not necessarily those play the
style of music you most like, but those who's tone and phrasing you
most like), and go for that.
It is relatively easy for clarinet players to play notes on the
saxophone, but far too many think this makes them saxophone players.
And without anything to compare to, except the notes on the page, why
shouldn't they?
But if you can compare to some proper references, you can easily
understand what a saxophone can be, and what it is not in many cases.
So if you know in your head what you want to achieve, you will always
know if you need to improve, or do something differently, to really
be a good saxophone player. Of course, you should still use a teacher
to find out "what" and "how" to improve/change!

I've been playing saxophone for aroud 20 years now (and clarinet
~25), and still struggle with classical tenor sax, as I have yet to
come up with an aural vision of what I want to be.

Cheers,
Bernie

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