Families - comparing another "family" instrument with the sax.

Families

Above
the recorder family, with which I'm familiar (some hangers-on in this famous Praetorius picture, like those pesky little flutes for example) is in the image above - they're renaissance ones - they've got the "pepperpot" bit near the base.
from bass up (fingerings alternate between C & F, Descant is C, Treble is F), they are...
Subcontra bass/Great Bass : Contra Bass : Bass : Tenor : Treble/Alto : Descant/Soprano : Sopranino : Garklein : Piccolino Recorder (as the 20th century re-invention of it by Twaalfhoven is called. VERY squeakity indeed!)

Below
the saxophone family - with a handy height chart that does make them look a little like they're in a cop-movie ID-Parade! Sax (old Adolphe) conceived of saxes as being a family instrument - and here's the nuclear(ish) ones...
From bass up...
Contrabass (Eflat) : Bass (Bflat) : Baritone (Eflat) : Tenor (Bflat) : C "melody" : Alto (Eflat) : Soprano (Bflat) : Sopranino (Eflat)

there is a weenier one - the Soprillo, presumably designed to cut concrete from a distance.

any key as long as it's C (now includes NEW B-flat). 1 8ve only, terms & conditions apply...

- I discovered another B flat on my sax today - not only that, I discovered the E-flat key - its use (while applying the fingering that otherwise would produce something approximating a D) makes




can you possibly guess?




yes,



amazingly,


An E flat !!!

woo-hoo - complicated, all that keywork, isn't it :)

I feel like my little Yani & I are developing a real relationship now - the relationships you have with instruments are unique & hard to explain - I suppose it takes one to know one!

I used the "V16" reed for tonight's foray into honking and parping. That's the last of the new ones I mentioned in "accoutrementitis" - and I think the one I used last night was the hardest one for me to kick into action - although that said, because I was having to work really hard, last night's session was the single most useful session of practise I've done & gave me the most tonal progress so far - which is good. Will pick one and stick to it for my lesson now - probably the original one or the one I used tonight.

I'm finding out what it means to support the air-column from the diaphragm, and making contact (still at the polite talking-about-the-weather stage at the moment) with the muscles surrounding my mouth.
The "Learn as You Play Saxophone" book of Sophie's has come into play now (since yesterday, really) to practise towards my lesson. I have, however, been unable to resist busking around with the duet "Mexican Madness" from "Unit 4" of the afore-plugged publication - well I am going to be doing the Grade 1 jazz exam! ;)

Other highlights you'd hear if you were unlucky enough to be in the vicinity of this little Harrovian road are exercises from Units 3 & 4 (all the little exercises there) a "Chorale Melody" - anciently germanic, possibly not originally for sax, methinks - "A Heroic Melody in Phrygian Mode", and "Swim Swan, Swim".
This last has troubled me greatly in its interpretation - however I phrase it, it sounds like my swan has a stiletto on one foot and a welly on the other, and is therefore swimming sinking, semi-submerged circles in a pond full of blue-green algae. It just doesn't seem to balance - and it upsets me. :(
Maybe I'm trying to read too much into a piece in a beginner tutor-book?

You would also (were you to dally in the Harrovian road that hosts the House of Liz, Billy et moi) hear the c-d-c-e- (etc) and c-b-c-a- (etc) thing being played v-e-r-y-s-l-o-w-l-y-i-n-d-e-e-d along with a 1 octave C-major scale - joined for the first time tonight by B-flat-major scale (also 1 octave).

I came upon the B flat & E flat while improvising & busking around - especially with experimenting with mangling the sax-solo at the beginning of the arrangement of "Great is the Lord" that we use in ASO (probably not in the right key, but the E flat & B flat meant I could play the whole tune!).

I like the saxophone.
I like the saxophone a lot.
I hope the saxophone likes me!
I hope the saxophone likes me liking it!

want to make a gorgeous sound on it NOW.
THIS INSTANT.
IMMEDIATELY.
TOUT SUITE.



a reassuring advert from a bygone age...

not sure the presence of the banjo particularly piques & peaks my confidence though...

Click the Pic! (Word Document )

me practising - naahh, just kidding, I was NEVER this cute. He's about my level though - an ickle wee beginner. aawwwwww :)
anyway, like I said,
click the pic!
(will open a Word document - clean, no problems, checked & scanned it 'coz I'm nice like that!)