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Saxophone Brands

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Vintage Saxophones

There are many brands of saxophones!

Within those brands exist several types: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and professional.

No one company has discovered how to make a perfect sax. Certain ones will suit your taste more than others. Try some out to see what you like.

Before buying a completely new horn though, try getting a new mouthpiece, ligature, and/or reeds. Those alone make a major difference in your sound.

Here are a few of the brands of saxophones. When the saxophone was made also can make a difference. A few of the brands no longer manufacture saxophones, Buescher for example, but you can buy their horns second hand.

  • Keilwerth
  • Selmer
  • Yanagisawa
  • Yamaha
  • Conn
  • Jupiter
  • Martin
  • Buescher

To start off when beginning to play saxophone

A beginner model will work fine. They will cost less, but also have less special features like a high f# key or rolled tone holes. Intermediate and advanced horns will be a bit higher end and advanced are rather close to professional. Professional horns are at the top of the line with all the bells and whistles- high f#, rolled tone holes, engravings, silver/black nickel plating, etc.

Most companies make saxophones for musicians at different stages.

A few notes about the companies

Keilwerth– German company, recently acquired by Buffet.
I’m a fan of my Keilwerth tenor. One of my sax teachers, Kristen Strom, liked it too. Other teachers have preferred other horns.

The bells on Keilwerths tend to be a little bigger- so not all cases will work with them.

Mine has rolled tone holes which seems to help prevent leaks under the keys a bit better.

Selmer– French company. Probably the most famous saxophone brand.
They made the famous Mark VI, which many saxophonists prefer. Unfortunately they stopped production for a time. The older Mark VI’s are great, but some have come into disrepair, and made need more maintenance.

Some musicians also like the Super Action’s, others don’t. I played a Mark VII once, it sounded all right, but they didn’t improve on the Mark VI.

Not long ago, they began making ‘reference’ horns which are similar to the Mark VI.

Yanagisawa– Japanese company.
Good reputation. I only tried a couple many years ago. Know some people who like them.

Yamaha– Japanese company.
My friend Tom really likes his custom Yamaha. They make many student models. I’ve played the beginning and intermediate models and they have a decent sound.

I tried the Custom Z models and liked them.

I think Yamaha saxophones can be very good and also can be more affordable than some other brands.

Conn
They have made some decent saxophones. Vintage horns are often harder to play. If you find one, try it out to see what you think. I would not recommend a vintage horn for the very beginning of playing saxophone.

Cannonball– Designed in the US and manufactured in Taiwan.
Make some pretty good modern horns.  I tried a few out and they are decent.  Not going to give you the same tone as a Mark VI or nice vintage horn, but they make some professional horns.

Jupiter– My first sax/clarinet teacher had a Jupiter.
They play fairly well. I have a Jupiter Alto and it has a pretty good sound, better than you would expect for the price.

Martin
An older brand that made some good saxophones.

Buescher
Another older brand.  These days I play both a Buescher tenor and a Buescher alto.

There are a lot of Buescher saxophones on the market.  Sometimes they don’t cost very much.  If they’re in good shape, they can sound great.

They are less ‘user friendly’ than a modern horn.  That means they’ll be harder to play than a student model horn.  You may need to spend some money on repairs.  But you can also get a great

L.A. Sax
These horns often are colorfully painted, the paint will not help your sound though. More of a gimmick really.

Materials

Saxophones are usually made out of brass. Some are made of silver.

Many others are plated or painted. Plating can change your sound with black nickel or silver. They say that black nickel gives a darker sound.

However, paint will not help your sound. It covers the brass with something that
deadens the sound. I do not recommend the red/black/whatever color lacquer on saxophones. It may look cool, but it will NOT help your sound.

Features

  • High f#- nice to have, but not completely necessary since you can reach the same note with alternate fingerings.
  • Rolled tone holes- where the metal meets the leather pads on
    the keys it is rolled to make a better connection that is less prone to
    leaks.
  • Plating- silver and black nickel may help create a sound you want, paint will not

Cost

A decent sax will probably cost at least $800 or so. You might find a used one for less, but you might need to look into repairs also. Tenors will cost more than altos and baris more than tenors. Sopranos usually also cost more than tenors and altos.

It’s good to support local music stores.  If you don’t have that option, you may want to order online or from a catalog if they have a good return policy.  It’s difficult to know in advance whether you’ll like a certain saxophone.

Advice

Go and try out some different saxophones when you’re looking to buy one. Germany, Japan,France, and the U.S. generally have a better reputation, so watch out for a name you’ve never heard of.

Remember though that not all saxophones, even of the same brand are identical. So try out a few and bring a friend, preferably a musician, to listen.

Here’s a conversation I had about saxophone brands, much of it applies to everyone looking for a saxophone.

Ricardo
Hi , I’m about to get a new saxophone and I want to know about different brands to considder. I used to have a Silverstone alto sax, my fist and only one, but it was stolen not long ago… So I was wondering which one should i go for now, I’ve been playing for over a year, but i am really into it, already playing it live and about to record an album with it.

I would really appreciate any suggestions and feedback for known brands

not many are listed over there
such as king

Neal Battaglia
Kings can be good. There is more information in the comments of this page.

Ricardo
Do you believe those are better than Vito for example. Because i`ve got interesting offers for those

Neal Battaglia
it could be, depends on the condition
I would try both

Ricardo
right, i will see how it goes, any other brand like that?
i am not into getting a really expensive one right now.

Neal Battaglia
I like Bueschers, that’s what I play

Ricardo
good to know
I guess is just about trying them out and see how it works

Neal Battaglia
correct

Ricardo
thanks

How to Play Mr. Saxobeat Tutorial (Alexandra Stan) – Alto Saxophone

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How to play the sax line from Alexandra Stan’s (from Romania) song. First note on alto sax is G#. There are four sharps in the key. The notes for tenor sax are below the video.

If your G# is sticking, this will be a bit difficult to play. Clean it with a bill if you need to. There is a little vibrato that you want to use on some of the long notes.

Also, at about 1:46 in the video, there is a note played (which you can hear) but I forgot the diagram. A G# between the F# and the B, thanks to Grant for pointing that out.

Tenor sax:
C# G# E  C#
G# E  C#
G# E  C#
G# E  C#
G# E  C#
G# E  C#
G# B C# E E D# D#
E E D# D#
E E D# D#
E E D# D#
E E D# D#
E E D# D#
E E D# D#
E E E E E E E E
G# E D# G# E D#

How to Play a Stanley Turrentine Line Over D-7 Chord on Saxophone

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First part of Stanley Turrentine’s solo on ‘The Hustler’.  Played on tenor sax, but if you’re looking at the notes, you can play it on alto sax for a D-7 chord too.  Try playing it in a few keys.  Starts on the fifth and goes to the root for the first interval.  Notice how space is used in the lick.  You can even see that visually in the video.  Filling up all the space doesn’t mean you’re playing something that will sound better!

Saxophone and the ii V I Progression?

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Erskine asked,

Hi Neal , Would explain the II, V I concept in jazz music

Thanks.

Here is part of the explanation, leave a comment if you have some more ideas on it!

The ii V I progression ‘pulls’ your ear towards the next piece. It moves towards ‘resolution’ as we hear it. You may want to try playing the ii V I progression on a piano or guitar to get a better feel for it. Though, almost invariably, you have heard the ii V I progression in music.

If we break the components down, the roman numerals correspond with numbers, but it gives us another set of numbers to use (more options for notation).

If you take a major scale, you can use a number (roman numeral) for each note. And you can build chords and scales starting from each of the seven notes in the major scale.

The progression of ii V I would have chords built on the second note, fifth note, and first note. In C major, that would be D, G, and C respectively.

Those chords only use the notes from the original major scale.

Because of the intervals between the notes in the chords, the movement seems to flow right from ii to V to I, this has to do with the closeness of the notes.

If we look at seventh chords, notes with four chords, here are the notes for the ii V I in C major.

ii: D, F, A, C
V: G, B, D, F
I: C, E, G, B

The C in the ii chord is a half step away from the B in the V chord. The F in the V chord is a half step away from the E in the I chord and the B in the V chord is also a half step away from the C in the one chord. (the other two notes stay the same).

That’s part of the answer at least!

Saxophone & Scales – 12 or 15 scales?

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Mark in the Caribbean asked, “One question, how many scales there are 12 or 15?”

To your ear, there are 12 scales.  They can be written in different ways though.

You could write a C# scale or a Db scale and it would sound the same, but it would be written differently.  Same with F# and Gb.

The are three scales that are somewhat commonly written in different ways which would make it seem like there are 15, but C# sounds the same as Db, F# sounds the same as Gb, and Cb sounds the same as B.

You will see them written in different ways depending on the context.  That can make the relationships between scales and chords more clear.

For example, there is no A# in the F major scale, but there is a Bb.  So if you wanted to show the relationship of a chord to F major, it would be notated as Bb, not A#.  In that way, it is useful to think of there scales in different ways.  And then, visually, there would be 15 (or more) scales.

If you imagined you were playing an A# or Bb, it will still sound the same though.

For me, C# seems more comfortable than Db, so if I see Db major, I might think of C#.

But if you just heard the scales, there would be 12.

Sonny Rollins Drawing

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Drawing of Sonny Rollins by EvilHairDay.  Saw Sonny Rollins at the Monterey Jazz Festival this last year.  He still puts on a great performance!

Sonny Rollins drawn by EvilHairDay

Sonny Rollins

How to Attain the Most Legendary Monstrous Jaw-Dropping Saxophone Skills Ever

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Technology man!  This tool is the latest in 8 bit technology!

Combine this software with blue pants, red leather gloves, and some sunglasses……. and you’re pretty much set.

Made possible by Pippen Barr with a tip of his hat to Sergei Stepanov and SunStroke Project.

Five monumental phases.  Practicing, recording, jamming, the Eurovision contest and 10 hours of youtube glory.

Try this out yourself and become an epic sax guy with 8 bits!

 http://www.pippinbarr.com/games/epicsaxgame/EpicSaxGame.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(And notice today’s date on the calendar)

To learn how to play this on alto – epic sax guy lesson.

 

I emailed a bit with Barr about the game. He lives in Denmark, and while he said he doesn’t know if he’d call himself a Eurovision “fan,” he’s definitely more aware of it than he was when he lived in Canada or New Zealand.

Initially it was just going to be a straight up version of the loop and I was thinking about the style of something like the BIT.TRIP games, where the aesthetics improve/degrade as you perform.

But after a while I became really enamoured of this idea that you could follow the life of the Sax Guy, mostly because when I put in the Practice Mode and I needed a background I ended up drawing him playing at home, and it seemed so nice to recontextualise the music that I wanted to add more contexts.

As for the YouTube page, Barr says that that section certainly goes on for 10 hours, though he hasn’t played it nearly that long. The comments are taken from the page itself. Might this be the first game ever to incorporate real-world YouTube comments?

Full size
Any way you slice it, Epic Sax Game is a great deal of fun, and a surprisingly potent bit of playable history. Barr says he’s bummed that he missed seeing SunStroke Project live in 2010, which he missed by a year. “I wonder whether Epic Sax Guy would have been so striking seen pre-meme?” he writes. “Probably.”

 

How to Play Your First Notes on Saxophone – The Mid Range – on Alto Sax

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How to play the first notes on saxophone. B through F chromatically. Seven notes.

The mid range is easier to play on saxophone than the highest and lowest notes. These notes are taught chromatically. Adding a ‘#’ (sharp) to a note raises it by a half step. Adding a ‘b’ (flat) to a note lowers it by a whole step. The chromatic scale is what you would hear if you play the notes on a piano in order with both the white keys and black keys.

Lesson dedicated to Bess in New Zealand.

How to Play a ‘Digital Lick’ on Saxophone 1 2 3 5 – Tenor Sax

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A while back I mentioned a ‘digital lick’ that you could play on saxophone. You basically equate the notes with numbers. If the scale is C major, 1 would be C, 2 would be D, 3 would be E, 4 would be F, 5 would be G, etc.

This lick uses 1, 2, 3, 5. In C major, that’s C, D, E, G. Here it’s recorded on tenor, and I show how to play it in C, but you can hear it in all keys moving around the circle of fourths. You can play it on alto sax too, it will just be in a different key.

Struggling with Playing by Ear on Saxophone?

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ear training headphones photo

Big Ear - Saxophone Ear Training Class

Why take a class on music by ear?

So that you are able to hear musical ideas and play them.  You also want to be able to play what you hear in your head.  Getting to that level of control on the saxophone will make you a much better musician and give you freedom within the music.

It’s  fun and becomes easier with a little practice.  And once you get rolling, it’s a great skill to have.  There’s more freedom in the music, more control, and it’s easier to get in the zone if you have a developed ear.

If you’re interested in learning more about music by ear on saxophone, enter your name and email address here:

Reading music is important too, but listening and being able to play by ear is a vital part of being a great saxophone player.  It involves taking in the music and being able to play rather than going from the music to paper to music.  Things are lost in that transition…..

The first piece of the puzzle is probably to focus on a small piece of music at a time.

Beyond that, it’s good to know the intervals in music really well.  Having a melody in your ear that has each of the intervals is something that can help.  Generally, we’re more comfortable with ascending intervals as well.  When you combine intervals with several notes, you get chords.  And we can hear the characteristics of chords.

However, really, getting the rhythm of something is harder than getting the pitch in my opinion.  There are only 12 pitches, but the variation in rhythm and getting the articulation just right seems to be the more difficult part in transcription to me.

We have a 6 week online ear training class specifically designed for learning music on sax by ear…

It’s a systematic approach to learning the different dimensions of music through progressively more challenging pieces.  You can work through them at your own pace in the comfort of your home or bring it with you.

The weekly lessons will be sent to via email and you can download all the files through Sax Station.  You can see a sample lesson (here).
There are two choices for the class – standard (with the lessons only) and the Premium (with additional challenges). Full details are listed.

Learn More: