As you can see I have a bit of musical experience - but I was looking to take up a new instrument as my tenor sax doesn't half hurt my neck! I'm open to any suggestions. I am looking for an instument that I can teach myself and is easy to play!

If the Tenor Saxophone hurts your neck, why don't you try the Alto or Soprano Saxophone. They all have the same fingerings.

yes you could try alto, or fingerings for the flute are very similar to the sax and it's the best instrument ever!!!!!!!!!!

How difficult is it to master the flute embouchure and actually get a note out of a flute?

From a complete beginner it is resonably difficult, but a little practice works wonders. However, seeing as you are a clarinet player, used to blowing and using your lip muscles, you should find it reasonably easy. The flute is more frowny though, as apposed to the clarinets more smiley embochure

^^ having said that, I had no problem at all! lol... try blowing into the top of a milk bottle...if you can make a whistly sound, flute is for you

Try Recorder

As to saxophone, I wouldn't suggest soprano. I've heard from players they can be quite shrill and more difficult than alto or tenor.

Other instruments - where do I start! My favourites are the unusual sorts that you could learn quite easily. For myself this year I'm buying:

melodica: blow-in piano

xaphoon - cross between a clarinet and a recorder

1 glass flute / 1 glass piccolo

2 ocarina

Fife

descant, sopranino, tenor recorder

Tin whistle


From looking through fingering charts and researching, all are inexpensive, pleasant to listen to and typically easy to learn. All of these would be just the thing to expand your musical vocabulary or begin you on a melodious journey

S.

If you want more details, ask here and I'll give you links and resources for them.

I love soprano saxes - they are abit shrill, but great fun to play, and not THAT hard too play - go on: Be different!!

I personally discourage people starting on soprano sax, a friend of mine who has been playing for about 7 years and doing Grade 8 has found soprano (even though he spent £2500 on a new Yanigasawa!) quite hard to play.

I was thinking of taking the sax up but i think the teacher said about a tenor one to me, i dont know why. Is it the bigger one? As i have no experience i have no clue. Is one harder( alto/tenor) do they sound much different? Im really small (5ft and unlikely to grow!) so i dont want a huge instrument hurting me!

Any advice?
Eve.

Both your instruments are from the woodwind family and are very similar in fingering and embouchure, so why not something completely different?

I don't think the larger members of the Brass family are very difficult. There appears to be a shortage of trombone and french horn players. The french horn is said to be tricky, but my cousin plays trombone and said it was easy to learn.

Apart from clarinet, I've played the trumpet and the advantage is that you can easily switch to the cornet and flugelhorn, and, to a lesser extent, other brass instruments without too much hassle. This is a great advantage. For the trumpet/cornet, there are cheap mutes you can buy from Ebay that allow you to practise without having half the street phoning the police!

Steve

I liked the suggestion about trying various inexpensive instruments. I find the Recorder has a very classic sound and can be quite fun to play. The Penny whistle is by far the easiest fingerings to learn, but needs a little better breath control than a recorder. I like the whistle for playing fun irish tunes. It's a great travel companion. Another off beat suggestion is the harmonica! You'll sound great from day one. I generally learn written tune on the whistle or recorder first, then when I'm out driving around, I'll play that tune from memory on my harmonica. The harmonica is a great starter tool if you ever want to concider a anglo style accordian. The note layout is almost identical (assuming you get a standard 10 hole diatonic model)

However, seeing as how you play clarinet and sax, you may be interested in a xaphoon (pocket sax). It "...sounds like a sax, looks like a clarinet and is played like a recorder." A full description can be found at this site: Bushman Pocket Sax

From the looks of a xaphoon, I want to get one! They look very cool. It's a little more money than I'd normall spend (~$50), but it's far better than spending several hundered.

I just love small portable instruments. However after saying that, I would NOT recommend getting an ocarina. I have one and I find it very limiting. The note range of my ocarina (Mountain Ocarina - Chromatic Polycarbonate Ocarina In The Key Of G) is only an octave plus a 3rd. Sure it's chromatic, but the fingers are clumsy. I've been playing recorder and whistle for a while and I'm ok, but I have a terrible time getting a decent sound out of my Mountain Ocarina. For me, it was a $20 piece of junk. A well made instrument, but very inferior to a similarly priced recorder, whistle, or harmonica. And don't buy the hype of it being a small portable instrument. A harmonic or whistle is actually a better travel companion. If you do opt for an ocarina, then do buy a sweet potato variety. You'll get a much better bang for the buck.

The suggestion of taking up a totally different instrument is a good idea too. I played trombone back in high school and I'm thinking it would be fun to take up that instrument again. However, I can't afford the cost of a regular instrument. It's why I haven't taken up guitar, banjo or the accordian. I like the price range of the instruments I play now. For less than $30, I can buy a very nice recorder (Yamaha 300 series), a Whistle (Susato V series), or a harmonica (Bushman Delta Frost or Hohner Special 20). All are great instruments that sound good and can play a variety of music. And they're all instruments that a professional would play.

Hi Eve,

Alto and tenor are the same in ease of playing - I've been playing Alto for a couple of years and this week borrowed a tenor from a friend (I'm thinking of switching to tenor) and it took me absolutely no time at all to start playing it - it's so similar. It'll take a bit of time to get a really nice tone on the tenor, but pretty much everything you learn on one can be applied directly to the other.

The other two common saxophones are the soprano which smaller than an alto and often straight so it looks a bit like a metal clarinet, and baritone which is larger than a tenor and has a very deep, rich sound. Not many people start on these instruments, most start on alto or tenor then switch.

Here's my impression of the differences between alto and tenor:

The tenor is about 25% longer than an alto and about 35% heavier. An alto weighs about 5.5Kg and a tenor is about 7.5Kg, an alto is about 66cm long and a tenor is about 83cm long. When you're holding them, it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference though when you put it in the case, the tenor case seems quite a lot bigger and bulkier. If you're going to be carrying it around a lot, it's worth checking this part. However, the shortest person in my sax group plays the baritone - it's over a metre long and really quite heavy, the case is very long. She seems to have no problems, though like most baritone players she uses a chest harness rather than a simple neck sling. The best thing would be try try out an alto and a tenor to see how they feel to you, you could even use a chest harness with a tenor if you like the sound but struggle with the weight.

There is also a slight size difference in the way the keys feel under your hands - tenors are slightly more spread out and altos are slightly more compact, but it's not a big difference and it varies between different instruments of the same size anyway. I would say that unless you have really small hands or really large ones, it won't make a lot of difference - again, it's something you can check yourself by feeling different instruments.

When it comes to sound, there are similarities and differences. Both of them sound like a saxophone, and in fact the range of the two instruments mostly overlaps. However, the alto has a more edgy, piercing sound a bit like a trumpet whereas a tenor has a more mellow, rich sound. In my opinion, the tenor's mellower sound makes it sound better when played alone, when the alto can sometimes be a bit too piercing on its own. However, I enjoy playing alto in a group of saxes, because its shrillness gives a nice distinctive edge to the overall sound, whereas the tenor blends in more.

But you have to keep in mind that the two instruments are basically quite similar, it's not like comparing a violin with a double bass, and there is quite a bit of overlap in the sound they make. I once heard an alto player who got such a full sound that I thought it was a tenor, and there are some tenor players who get a shrill/edgy sound. For example, I have heard Kenny G make a tenor sax sound like a soprano - I'm not sure this is something to cheer about (I think it wastes the best thing about a tenor) but I just mention that it's possible

Something else to bear in mind is that most people seem to begin on alto, so if you're playing in a beginner's group it's likely to contain a lot of altos and few tenors. This might be why your teacher is suggesting you start on tenor, though that's just a guess.

I seem to have written quite a lot there! Here's the summary:

- Tenor is slightly bigger and heavier, but this is more of an issue transporting it than playing it.
- Alto sounds shriller, tenor sounds mellower, but they're not a million miles apart.
- Whichever one you pick it's easy to switch later, so it's not worth worrying too much if you can't decide.

Regards,

Mansarde

Thank's very much for all the information. I understand it alot better now. I think the alto whould be the best one for me to start on as i usually have alot to carry to school and dont think i could handel much more! Also i have got quite small hands! I'll just probabely wait until ive done my GCSE's at the end of the year until i start, theres only like 5 months left!! ahhh. But i feel that i would love to take it up its such a beautiful instrument with a gorgeous sound and ive never player played a woodwind instrument before!

How about the triangle?
No, seriously, why not go to a music shop with a huge range of instruments and see which you can get a sound out of, like the feel of, etc. Go with your gut instinct. Good luck

My clari is my baby, if you want to play something you can teach yourself, why not go for either the alto sax (where you'll be able to use the knowledge you gained from your tenor sax), or maybe another member of the clarinet family, such as the bass or E flat. Flute is another possibility, though I would strongly recommend you have at least some tuition so that you know you've got the embouchure, posture and breathing right.

doesn't soprano sax have the same fingerings as the upper register of the clarinet?

I thought most saxs do. Certainly my alto does. If you've learnt the clarinet, the sax will be a piece of cake!

Steve

Yes, they all do, that's why they are so easy to transfer between.