HI!
I got a sop sax for christmas. I already play clarinet & piano, and am teaching myself - I think I'm about grade 2/3 on sop. sax. Are there any tips, and do you recommend any books to get to grade 5 by sept.
thanks

no books are going to magically get you to grade 5 by a certain time! it takes practice! can you get a teacher?

what books d oyou have now?

There are very few beginnger / tuition books for soprano sax since most people tend to start on an alto or tenor, then switch later. Having said that, I teach 4 children aged 6-8 on soprano sax and I tend to use a mixture of alto (or tenor if there's a CD with it) tutor books and my own stuff to start them off on.

You should easily be grade 5 by the summer if you are at a higher grade on the clarinet. Play a wide variety of music from alto or tenor repertoire books. Work on intonation especially in the hgher range as sopranos are notorious for going out of tune!

Cheers guys. I'm grade 4/5 clarinet - any hints on how to make the top notes not sound flat - I smile loads but it doesn't help that much?

hey, bout your sax... i have grade 7 clarinet and my teacher wanted a tenor player so he gave me a sax, fingering chart and some music - gave one lesson on how to put together sax, hold it etc. and that was 2 months ago... now im aiming for grade 5 at the end of this term... agh!

go you! good luck! what pieces are you playing?

Not sure which list each is for but i am playin Spanish Love Song (not very hard - sight read it! ) Crazy Hepcats (taking time to get the B and Bb at the end!) and Tango in D (all i can say about this is that it doesnt sound like a piece of music when i play it! - its gonna be one of those ones where i just copy how it goes from my teacher!)

ooh i did Spanish Love Song for my alto sax grade 5. very easy!