 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Alex K.
Date: 2015-03-16 01:02
Hey guys! Its me again, and ive recently picked up the saxophone. Can people who had the same(or are masters at the sax) please help me how to get used to it, take care of it, etc...
Thanks~
Alex
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-03-16 01:18
Clean the mouthpiece and take care of your reeds as you would do with clarinet. Never leave the mouthpiece on the crook while in the case and grease only the crook cork so the mouthpiece fits and can be adjusted easily, but don't grease the crook tenon that fits into the socket. Wipe it clean and dry after playing with a cotton or microfiber cloth as well as the socket to keep them clean so assembly is easy. Always replace the end stopper in the socket when you put it back in its case so the shift lever at the top doesn't get bent.
I'd recommend you get an HW Pad Saver (red/black striped for alto, blue/black striped for tenor) for the main body tube and also a neck saver the crook as they keep the bore clean and are left in the bore of the instrument while it's in its case - they have a black plastic stopper on the end that replaces the usual one and makes fitting and removal of the Pad Saver easy.
Don't leave your sax fully assembled on its stand when you're not playing as they are easily damaged if knocked over and some dent repairs can be expensive if it involves having to unsolder pillars, level toneholes, straighten keys and keyguards, etc. so treat them gently as brass dents very easily.
Keep the lacquer clean by wiping it down with a cotton cloth to remove perspiration as you'd do with a clarinet.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-03-16 05:52
Buy another cotton clarinet swab with the weight on the end and put it through the neck of the sax when you are done playing. Most sax players never bother cleaning the neck, and I will leave it to your imagination what the inside looks like when you do not clean it. Get a really good teacher because the embouchure is different. Good luck!
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Author: kilo
Date: 2015-03-16 17:23
And, taking the header title literally, when you open your case, don't pick it up by the bell alone; grasp it around the receiver in the neck, lift it up a bit, and cradle it where the strap ring is to lift it out. You might find another variation that works but don't just yank it out one-handed by the bell.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-03-16 18:46
Add to that - never hold or carry any saxes around by the crook while assembled. It may look like a convenient carry handle on the top of the instrument. But if the crook drops out the socket, then expect an expensive repair bill. Also the stress on the relatively small area of the solder joints of the crook tenon and the socket will be enough to shear them off over time. so always hold and carry your sax by cradling it like a cat.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Wisco99
Date: 2015-03-16 20:18
Just a few basic I learned from a great teacher. Do NOT lift your left thumb from the round thumb rest back and forth to the octave key. Simply keep it on the thumb rest and just roll it up a wee bit to open the octave key. That will smooth out your playing a great deal. Also keep your fingers fairly loose and shaped like you are holding a tennis ball. Keep your fingers either directly on the pearl buttons on the keys or slightly above them. You just need a light touch and your hands and fingers are exactly where you need them that way. I see too many sax players lifting their fingers up high and hitting the key and not the pearl buttons. I had to relearn these simple things in high school from a great teacher, but I noticed a difference within a week in my playing, and it carried me through 40 years as a professional musician. Getting those basic little things right makes a huge difference down the line.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-03-16 21:37
I'm an amateur, but fwiw . . . I strongly disagree with this advice:
>I'd recommend you get an HW Pad Saver (red/black striped for alto, blue/black striped for tenor) for the main body tube and also a neck saver the crook as they keep the bore clean and are left in the bore of the instrument while it's in its case - they have a black plastic stopper on the end that replaces the usual one and makes fitting and removal of the Pad Saver easy.
>
Pad Savers do work pretty well for swabbing in some situations. For instance, I use a tenor Pad Saver to swab the inside of the long "drainpipe" leading down to the place where the neck attaches on my bass saxophone. But please take the Pad Saver out of there to let air into the bore while the sax is in its case. Leaving a Pad Saver inside the bore causes so much trouble that sax players online have nicknamed the gizmos "Pad Wreckers." The problem with leaving one in: No matter how carefully we swab, there's likely to be some moisture left inside the bore. The Pad Saver traps that moisture inside.
I've seen (and smelled!) the results in saxes I've bought used at yard sales, flea markets and junktiques stores. The instruments stored unused with any type of swab inside were disgusting messes, some of them so full of mold and other ickiness that after pulling out the deteriorated swab, I've had to use a bottle-brush (with a stick attached to the handle to reach down into big saxes) to scrub out the bits of swab, the grime, the mold and other residue. Btw, I once found an excellent clarinet mouthpiece stuffed up the bore of a sax along with an old swab.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-03-17 02:56
I've used Pad Savers since the '80s and my saxes are fine. I wouldn't have recommended them if they did harm and I've never had any problems using them or any problems with all my saxes that I use them in. So in a nutshell, if they did harm, then I definitely wouldn't use or recommend them.
They're designed to be left in the bore to wick the moisture into them and it dries out - the worst thing to do is use them to mop out the bore and then lie them on top of the sax and close the lid on it as they're not going to do any good there as they're designed to do their job whilst left in the bore.
I only use the HW ones as they're made from synthetic microfiber as opposed to the cotton ones which are the ones that cause problems with shed fibres and are often too thick which often breaks the solder joint on the lower 8ve tube.
I've had my current alto sax for twelve years now and the case still smells like emulsion paint as it did when I first bought it - admittedly I repadded it as the pads it originally had were made with plastic coated leather so I had problems with the LH main action pads sticking as opposed to the usual suspects, the G#, low Eb and low C#.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Barry Vincent
Date: 2015-03-17 04:41
Alex, If you have already mastered the Clarinet to a certain extent you're gonna love the fingering of the Saxophone. Like the Clarinet , it's a Boehm System but overblows the octave like the Flute. And like the Flute , the Saxophone is easy to play in ANY key as far as fingering goes. The Saxophone embouchure is more 'open/rounded' than that of the Clarinet.
Some really good advice from other posts above especially concerning finger placement and the correct use of the LH thumb.
I use to be the principle Eb Alto Sax player in a local concert band here in Newcastle NSW Australia. I was really 'into' it , even to the extent of relearning the fingering and playing the Eb Alto Sax in C. Very handy that.
But Saxophones are HEAVY. Especially the Bb Tenor. The neck strap must be set up correctly for yourself. The preferred holding position is to the RH side. This requires that the mouthpiece is slightly turned on the goose neck to accommodate this position.
I eventually went over to Clarinet full time and later started on the Oboe as well. But I still find myself being 'roped' in to teach the Sax. Because of this and the fact I no longer own a Sax, I've relearned the Clarinet fingering as well that enables me to use the Bb Clarinet and play Eb Alto Saxophone without transposing. (* see an earlier post here at the Clarinet BBoard entitled "Old Dog Learns New Trick )
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-03-17 22:17
Re. Pad Savers,
>They're designed to be left in the bore to wick the moisture into them and it dries out - the worst thing to do is use them to mop out the bore and then lie them on top of the sax and close the lid on it as they're not going to do any good there as they're designed to do their job whilst left in the bore.
>
I completely agree about not leaving the damp Pad Savers lying on top of the sax in the case. But as for leaving the Pad Savers inside the bore -- have you ever left one that way for more than a month? More than a year?
It's true that the mold and other gunge don't develop overnight. If you play the same instrument every day or at least once a week or so, then I can see your point. Every time you take the instrument out of the case and the Pad Saver out of the instrument, trapped old moisture evaporates and gets replaced with fresh moisture. But when the instrument sits unused and moisture that comes out of the bore and into the Pad Saver has nowhere to evaporate out of the surrounding metal instrument or out of the case, then it doesn't take more than a few weeks for bad stuff to start growing.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-03-18 03:34
I've left them in my tenor since the end of November (which is when I last played tenor) and it's dry, still smells like new and there's no mould nor mildew anywhere from what I can see - it would absolutely stink if there was. But just like my alto, the inside of the case and my tenor smells like a freshly painted room which is what it has always smelt like since new.
I've seen a tenor sax that was played every day and had grown mould as the owner didn't use anything to dry the bore after playing, so it was put away still wet. Then after I fully overhauled it, left the case open for the time it was being overhauled to dry it out (and also gave it a good brush down and vacuuming out) and also supplied a set of Pad Savers, the owner never had a mouldy sax anymore as he used them.
The most important thing with Pad Savers is they're used on brand new or newly cleaned instruments (fresh from a service or overhaul) - no point in using them on ones that are filthy as that's where the problems can start.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-03-18 18:44
Chris wrote,
>The most important thing with Pad Savers is they're used on brand new or newly cleaned instruments (fresh from a service or overhaul) - no point in using them on ones that are filthy as that's where the problems can start.
>
I'm backing down, then, because you're describing your own experiences with instruments under your control from the time the Pad Savers went into them. In contrast, the saxes I've seen in such horrible condition, with Pad Savers left in, were used instruments that I either bought or saw and decided not to buy at flea markets, yard sales and junktiques stores. I don't know their history. Some of those instruments were vintage ones, manufactured before the invention of Pad Savers. I don't know what shape those saxes might have been in when a former owner first started using the Pad Savers. It's possible that even the newest models of used saxes got into bad condition before an owner tried Pad Savers.
Thanks for giving the context of your advocacy of Pad Savers. That's useful information!
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-03-18 19:28
Whenever I have saxes in with the 'Bad Savers' (the older ones that are too dense, too fluffy, too thin, etc.) I remove them and bin them as they're not doing anyone any good (but do explain this to the owners). I do reuse some tenor ones to use as bore cleaners when I have all the keys and bell off and giving it all a good bath - on older saxes and silver plated ones with badly tarnished bores I wrap some 0000 grade wire wool around one end to clean the bore to clean metal (having used kettle descaler to remove the mineral deposits beforehand).
I will supply brand new Pad Savers to customers whose instruments either came with the bad ones that do damage or none at all if they agree to that (and at around £20-£25 for a set it's not exactly breaking the bank), so they will have a clean sax and brand new set of Pad Savers when they collect it after a full service or overhaul. So far the ones that have come back for routine servicing have all looked pretty good compared to how they were when I first worked on them.
As with clarinets and any other woodwind instrument, simple maintenance will keep things working well, so a simple routine of tipping out the excess condensation that collects in the bow, using the Pad Savers and cleaning them at regular intervals (in a sink or bath with hot water and some fabric detergent, then shaking and standing them up or hanging them out to dry before use). If you use a pullthrough, wash that from time to time as well. Both Pad Savers and pullthroughs have their pros and cons as well as those in and out of favour of them, so use the method of cleaning the bore that does the job well for you.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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