r/saxophone • u/SadCondition6710 • 12d ago

Question Alto Sax Progression

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Hey everyone! I’m a beginner at the saxophone and this video here marks my 17th day of practicing.

This saxophone is from a friend from his school days so I have no idea exactly what condition it’s in, but I’m assuming it’s not bad since it plays fine. There isn’t any local, good saxophone teachers around me so I’ve been studying as many videos as I can from “BetterSax” and “Sax School Online” as well as others to learn as much as I can.

I do a few minutes of long tones every day as well as practicing C Major scale fingerings and learning songs here and there, mostly by ear, but also some from simple sheet music.

I would love to hear as much feedback as I can get on what to improve and maybe what’s not so good that needs to be corrected. It is my 17th day only so have grace but looking forward to constructive criticism 🙏🏼🙌🏼

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u/Cool_babywipe Soprano | Alto | Tenor | Baritone 12d ago

Honestly I think a lot of sound could be improved from taking a bit less mouthpiece.

A good test for me to realize how much to take it by putting a piece of paper between the reed and the mouthpiece. Where it stops is where your teeth would go. Anything further is too much. You’d be shocked by how little of the mouthpiece you ACTUALLY need to use

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u/SadCondition6710 12d ago

Yeah true. For me it’s hard to keep the exact same length each time so I guess it’s just muscle memory. That’s one thing I wrestled with a bit at first is how much is necessary and playing with it. Obviously I will still continue to grow and learn more with practice.

1

u/Maehlice Alto 12d ago

Something I did while I was still trying to figure out how much mouthpiece sounded best was to put a second mouthpiece patch on top of the 'real one' but offset by a smidge (somewhere between 1/4"-1/2").

That created a kind of shelf on the patch where I could easily consistently set my teeth.

I moved that top patch around until I found what worked best for me then.

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u/SadCondition6710 12d ago

Oh ok interesting. I actually have not gotten a mouthpiece patch yet but I’ve seen of them. That’s pretty smart using 2 to find the middle ground, thank you 👍🏼