A saxophone quartet generally is made up of a soprano saxophone, an alto saxophone, a tenor saxophone, and a baritone saxophone. It can also have two altos, one tenor, and a baritone. Occasionally they will use bass saxophones or other varieties even.
Arrangements have been written for many jazz pieces and classical pieces. Here are two videos of saxophone quartets.
Above- World Saxophone Quartet playing ‘Hattie Wall’
Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin
So I bought and received a course on ear training. It’s actually directed at piano players, but everyone should play a little piano.
I’ll write about my progress on it.
Black Saxophone
Saxophones are mostly made out of brass, but they can be plated with other metals, painted, or lacquered. Almost all saxophones have a clear lacquer on the surface. A black saxophone gets its color from black nickel plating or paint. Silver is another metal used to plate saxophones.
The metal, black nickel or silver usually (occasionally gold), actually changes the tone of the horn and can give it a bit different characteristic. Flute can be made with a high percentage of silver- and that is usually desirable. On saxophones, silver gives a “brighter” sound while black nickel produces a “darker” sound. Maceo Parker plays a gold plated Selmer Mark VI alto. Probably mostly for visual effect.
My Keilwerth tenor (in photo) is plated with black nickel. Overall I like the sound of the horn. However, the plating is not the biggest factor in how you will sound. The mouthpiece, reed, and ligature among other things are much more important.
When saxophones are painted however, it does not help the sound. There are no acoustic benefits to putting paint on top of the metal. In fact, many saxophone players think it “deadens” the sound. Basically, the paint is for effect and can only hurt your sound. Some players go as far as saying the clear lacquer on most saxophones hurts the sound as well and that as it peels off over time the sound actually improves.
Selmer has even made a line of saxophones which do not have the clear lacquer at all.
The craziest material I heard of for an instrument is the a solid platinum flute. William Kincaid played one, which he bought at auction for $187,000. His critics say that he needs an $187,000 to sound good…. but it seems to work for him and apparently he can afford it.
I told you that your marketing should be an extension of your art, so here’s a real-world example:
Back in 1997, when “The X Files” was still on the air, a friend of mine who called himself Captain T put out a record called US Aliens that was all about conspiracy theories, Area 51, alien cover-ups, and the Incredible Hulk. It was intentionally funny, but he would stay in character and play it straight : a guy who was trying to tell the world, through music, about the aliens and conspiracies.
He wanted to send his album to college radio stations, but couldn’t afford to hire a real radio promoter. When we decided to do it ourselves, I was about to do things in a very normal way, but I thought I should take my own advice, and make his marketing an extension of his art, his image, his message.
(Also, I was thinking about that kid in the college radio station that gets 20 CDs a day, all exactly the same, in boring envelopes. I wanted to make his week.)
So - we bought 500 black envelopes, 500 sheets of brown oatmeal paper, 500 alien head stickers, and the best part : 500 huge stickers that said “CONFIDENTIAL MAIL - DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON”.
We did a mail-merge to the 500 program directors at 500 college radio stations, so that each one got a personalized letter that said this:
You don’t know me, but I live in the bushes behind your station.
I have been here for 12 years and your station has saved my life many times over.
The music that you play has kept me going through my darkest of days and for this I owe you everything.
In this spirit, I must tell you that a man named Captain T found me in the gutter yesterday, and he taught me about what is really going on with the government and what really happened down there in Area 51. This man has a message that you have to get out to the world, because people need to know the TRUTH!
Signed,
Man in the bushes, looking through your window right now
We laughed for hours while doing it.
Now, imagine you’re that kid working at the radio station, getting 20 CDs a day with normal boring packages, saying “Please play my record!” Then you get this scary black mess of a package that says “DO NOT OPEN”, and when opened is covered in dirt and says, “You don’t know me, but I live in the bushes behind your station.”
375 of the radio stations played it.
Every now and then, my friend Captain T gets approached by someone that used to work at a college radio station back in 1997. They tell him they still remember it, because it was the coolest package they ever got.
–
Derek Sivers
CD Baby (cdbaby.com) - sales and distribution for musicians
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First off, don’t buy a fuzzy saxophone swab!
saxophone swab in the trash
I had one myself, but then I cut off the cap and threw it away. They work somewhat well at first and are convenient. BUT as they age, the fibers come off and get stuck to your saxophone’s pads. These fibers then create micro leaks which can hurt your sound. Some saxophone players have used them for years and think that they work wonderfully. However, I know of problems they have caused too. If you go to a repair shop and they have a special light, it can reveal the micro leaks in the horn.
It takes a little more time, but get a swab with a string that you run through the saxophone. I have a one for the body and one for the neck and mouthpiece.
Personally, I clean my saxophone after I use it every time. Some players almost never clean their horns. My cleaning consists of running the body swab through twice and then cleaning the pads on the spoon keys as well as swabbing the neck and mouthpiece.
A few weeks ago while I was taking some music classes, I started writing a list of songs that I mostly know, somewhat know, or would like to know. When I began learning saxophone, a lot of emphasis was placed on reading tunes. These days I am playing more things by ear and trying to have more to play.
Paul Contos once made up a story about a hypothetical guy who had played third chair trumpet in a symphony for years, but when his friends asked him to play something at home he didn’t have a chart and couldn’t. Don’t be that guy!
Here’s my growing list (in no particular order):
I joined the website hearandplay.com yesterday, it has a crazy amount of stuff and a huge membership. It will be one of my models for updating Sax Station.
If you play piano or music in general, you might want to check it out.
I made SaxStation.com today. That will be my site devoted to music.
At combo we’ve been playing Chick Corea’s Spain. It’s a cool tune. I had played it last year too, so I knew it a little better this time around. A good version of the melody is in the real book volume II, but the old real book has the intro to the song. Besides that one we’re playing ‘Someday My Prince Will Come,” Ladybird, and Sugar.
I was listening to Miles Davis on “Bye Bye Blackbird” he has a cool intro.
Yesterday at jazz combo we played a few new songs to start getting ready for when we play on the 20th. We started off with some Charlie Parker- Confirmation and Moose the Mooche. Since I’m playing tenor, Moose the Moose feels a little better at this point. I do have the Charlie Parker omnibook in both B flat and E flat. After that we played Chick Corea’s Spain, which is a cool tune. I had played it a last year, so it’s somewhat familiar.
The Joe Viola chords book I have been using to practice site reading has helped me get better reading crazy keys, ie the exercise I’m on is C flat diminished, so the chord starts on C flat and each chord tone has a double flat.
I was thinking about the chords in Spain as A flat instead of G sharp and E flat instead of D sharp. I’ve heard people say that most horn players like flats more than sharps. I played in orchestra on clarinet for a few years, which helped me get used to sharps though. Really I ought to be able to read them both without any problem, so I need to keep working on that. After Spain we played Someday My Prince Will Come which is a cool song as a jazz walz.
Last night I was practicing sax and then suddenly my reed stopped playing. My sound had been a little funky the last few times I had played and when I looked at it the reed was warped. My reeds have warped before, but never while I was playing them. It had lasted me maybe two weeks.
At this point I soak my reeds (vandoren v16’s) in a mixture of about half scope and half water for 10 days- until they sink. After that many days I put them in a plastic bag and seal it. When I finish playing I rinse it in the same sort of mixture. Occasionally I’ll take them about after less then 10 days if I need to play, but they’re not completely wet at that point. The reason I do all this is something that many other players have told me- that the moistening and drying out process is what destroys a reed. When I started playing a reed would be one way on a particular day and then change on me. If it’s always wet the chances of this happening are reduced.
I’ve seen special moutpiece caps with a little sponge that gets the reed a little moisture when you just set it down. Some people just leave the reed on the moutpiece and put it away like that, but it can get kind of nasty. With the process I use it’s disinfected and the reeds last about two weeks. It’s time-effective if you play a lot since playing also wears down the reed. So far it’s given me good results.
