Stormy weather, rainy weather, snowy weather, cold weather & your saxophone…..

Recently I wrote a guest post on StormHorn.com about saxophone and storms, a combination that surprised me a bit at first.

But that’s not what this post is about!

It’s not always sunny in California, though at the very southern tip in San Diego it is most of the time.  Where I am at, it’s begun to rain.

As conditions start to get colder, the air will move through your saxophone slower.  The air moving slower will lower the pitch of notes on the saxophone.

So the default position of your mouthpiece on the cork of the neck should be pushed a bit more in. Doing this decreases the length of the tube which increases the pitch overall on the saxophone.  It will make your life easier if the you don’t have to fight as much to get proper intonation.  Of course a lot of the adjustments for intonation happen internally.

If it’s cold enough, you won’t be able to push in any further and you’ll have to make do with being a little flat.  As you warm up, things will get a bit better.

If it’s raining or snowing or worse, be extra careful about protecting your horn.

Your saxophone has a lot of small keys, pieces of cork, leather pads, and other parts.  Compared to a trombone, there are a lot more things that can go wrong mechanically.  See Saxophone Parts and Rocket Parts!

So you want to transport your sax with precaution and be wary of weather conditions if you’re playing outside.

Do you have any stories about saxophone and the weather?  Leave a comment!

Saxophones and space shuttles….. what’s the connection?

If there are 1000 parts (for sake of argument) comprising a space shuttle and each of them has a 99.9% chance of working, then the chances for no malfunction is only about 37%.

By multiplying .999 by itself 1000 times without rounding, the true result is found, a 99.9% chance of working seems high, but if you counted on it being high enough, the crew might have piloted the spacecraft and met their doom in an explosion.

There are a lot of components to a saxophone too! Keys, pads, corks, rods, mechanics, etc.

If the pad in your octave key falls out, your saxophone won’t work right, even if you’re Kirk Whalum. That happened to me. I suppose I could have gotten some notes to play, but effectively it put the saxophone out of commission.

If the pad in your octave key falls out, your saxophone won’t work right, even if you’re Kirk Whalum.  That happened to me.  I suppose I could have gotten some notes to play, but effectively it put the saxophone out of commission.

Physically, the parts can limit your playing.

Your skills with the various elements of music can limit you too.  If you play perfectly, but it’s all too loud, you’re not going to be the right sax player for many situations.  Or if your technique and rhythm are perfect, but you don’t listen, there will also be catastrophes on the band stand.

Physically, the parts can limit your playing.

Your skills with the various elements of music can limit you too. If you play perfectly, but it’s all too loud, you’re not going to be the right sax player for many situations. Or if your technique and rhythm are perfect, but you don’t listen, there will also be catastrophes on the band stand.

Everything is connected to everything else!

That was written on the wall in my biology class in high school. He was a bit of a hippie, but I’m seeing that the statement is pretty true.

If there are 1000 parts comprising a space shuttle and each of them has a 99.9% chance of working, then the chances for no malfunction is only about 37%.

By multiplying .999 by itself 1000 times without rounding, the true result is found, a 99.9% chance of working seems high, but if you counted on it being high enough, the crew might have piloted the spacecraft and met their doom in an explosion.

There are a lot of components to a saxophone too!  Keys, pads, corks, rods, mechanics, etc.