Hi, I'm Todd, the music coach, and welcome to the saxophone setup and Buyer's Guide. A common question I get asked by my students is, should I be renting something before I buy it? And this is a great question. What I always like to tell them is if you live in an area where there's a large music store where it has a rental program, definitely go ahead and try and rent it before you buy. The rental of a saxophone will usually cost in the seven to $10 for one day, and about $30 for an entire month. And if you're going to be investing, you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars into an instrument, it's always great to get it home and try it out many, many different ways and try to do as many different sounds out of it as you can.

A music store is a difficult place to really evaluate an instrument simply because there's other people around They're trying different instruments, the room is usually very large. And you might feel a little bit self conscious about really trying to play it loudly and see what it sounds like when there's all sorts of other people around you. A question I also get asked a lot by my students is, should I buy an auto? Or should I play an alto or a tenor, or baritone or soprano for that matter? Because there are four sizes of saxophone. There's a few things to consider.

The smallest saxophone, which is soprano, and the largest, which is baritone, tend to be very expensive to buy and rent because they're not as commonly used. And in the case of the baritone because it's so large, it's a lot more metal, the cases are more expensive. I do play baritone and I love it, but it's a bit more of an intermediate instrument to get into. Whereas the alto and the tenor are way more commonly used in bands situations. And so they're more of them being made. They tend to be lower price, the Cases tend to be cheaper.

And in the case of an auto saxophone, it's I find it's often a good size. If you're, if you're, you know, young adults, you know, it's a good and also if you're just a smaller adult, I'm over six feet tall. So for me, the tenor is not really that heavy or difficult, but if it was a lot shorter and smaller, and also might be a nicer choice than a tenner because it's lighter and easier to carry. Also, saxophones are more common in smooth jazz, and in classical music and things like that. And the tenor is a little more common in traditional jazz and r&b and rock and roll. So it's another factor to think about if you're on the fence about Should I do altar tenor is what kind of sound you like the best and maybe spend some time and go on YouTube and look at other people playing altos and tenors and kind of see which personality kind of fits your feeling.

For me, I really connected with the tenor saxophone more than the alto it's not that there's anything wrong with the alto it's just for me in my own personal years, I felt more of a connection to the people playing that instrument. So give that some thought before you decide when you're buying a saxophone. There's some things to consider. There are three main price points. There are student level saxophones, intermediate, and professional. The student level saxophones will start in the 600 to $800 range.

Intermediate horns tend to be in the 900 to 1200 dollar range. And professional level horns start above 1500 and go into the many thousands. When you ever you're buying something in a student level price point, I often recommend, try not to buy the very cheapest thing you find. Simply because companies will do whatever cost cutting is happening in trying to get a model out at that price point you're really going to see it a lot at the very lowest price. And often you're going to get a really nice jump in quality by going up one level higher. So sometimes for even 50 to $100 more, you can get a much nicer saxophone.

Now, you may have had someone in your family say, I used to play saxophone when I was your age, and I've got something, I've got one in my closet that I haven't touched in years, and you can just have it. And although this might be a really good thing, it's important to get the instrument looked at by a really good saxophone repair person before you commit to it. Often, if an instruments been sitting in a closet and not being played for a long time, the pads may have dried out or it may have gotten banged into and there may be some dents in the rods or in the body. It doesn't mean that it's not playable, you just may want to invest a little bit of money to get in really good playing shape before you start. Another factor is if you take it to a technician and they say, this needs a lot of work, they might say this needs 500 or thousand dollars worth of repairs, which can happen.

You may want to think about whether or not you want to invest that money into that particular saxophone or you want to rent or buy something new. A saxophone is a very delicate instrument. So it requires some regular routine maintenance. Another reason why if you're a beginner on the saxophone I recommend buying or renting from a music store is that they'll often have a repair department that's right in the building. Well, they'll take care of any minor repairs on your instrument. And even if they don't have someone who repair saxophone specifically, they often can recommend someone who's a really good repair technician.

A saxophone usually needs a tune up every year if you're playing semi regularly, and if you're playing regularly all the time, it's going to need it maybe every six months. This is just simply because a saxophone has many rods and springs and pads in it and over time they get worn out or they get knocked out of alignment in the case of the keys. And if the keys aren't closing right over the tone holes properly, what happens As the air leaks out in different places, and it becomes a lot harder to make it actually make a sound. The pads themselves also will wear out and rot over time just because there's so much moisture from it being played. And this is just normal and to be expected, I would say a good ballpark is to budget probably about two to $300 a year for basic upkeep and maintenance on a saxophone.

A common thing that happens on the saxophone after you've been playing for a while is that sometimes the keys will get stuck or be sticky. And this is just simply because as you're blowing through and there's condensation happening inside the tube, some of the keys that are being held shut like the G sharp key, for example, will just be stuck. Sometimes when you go back to your horn after it's been sitting for a while. All you need to do is just gently reach into where the key is and open it manually. Try not to push really hard you'll kind of feel it come unstuck slowly. Another common one Is the low E flat key on the back.

And sometimes the palm keys up here. And again, rather than trying to push really hard here, if it's stuck, just reach to where the actual key is and just open it gently. And if you're finding that the keys are really sticky, the ones that sit open, a good thing I recommend is actually taking $1 bill it doesn't have to be $1 if they don't have those where you are anymore, but any kind of money is going to be a little bit coarse. It's not quite as coarse as sandpaper, which you wouldn't want to use, but it has a little bit of texture and you can just hold it under the key and then hold the key close and pull it out gently and it'll kind of wear off a little any little bit of gunk or anything that's keeping it from being or that's making it sticky.

When you're playing saxophone, another expense to consider is the cost and the type of read that you're going to be playing. reeds are made by many different companies and for the most part, they have the same rating system of how thick they are. I like To use reco Royals there, I don't specifically endorse them and they don't endorse me. But that's just the brand that I prefer. They also have a nice option where they'll you'll also see orange boxes which say Rico on them, and that's their student level reads which are nice, they're a little bit less expensive. Because a box of reads like this will cost usually 40 to $50.

Depending on where you live, the thickness of the read has to do with the level of playing you're doing and the style of playing you're doing so in the case of Rico's they start at one and they go to five, and in between each is half. So there's one, one and a half to two and a half, and so on. Even though it starts as low as one with one being the lightest read, I don't recommend that even for beginners, you start there, they're just so little resistance and they don't last very long that I find they're just not a good investment. I would start at a two or two and a half when you're getting started. And as you get stronger and your breathing gets more Get more strength than the able to push more air through the instrument, you're going to want a harder read because you can overblow the read, which means it'll not even make a sound or it'll squeak.

And if you need to generate a lot of volume, you're going to need a read that's tough enough to handle the air speed that you're generating a lot. Another factor is the style of music you're playing. If you're going to be playing in a loud context, with drums and sat drums and guitars and things like that, you're going to eventually need to be playing on a harder read like maybe a three or a four. I personally like to use a four on tenor saxophone. Another factor when you're playing saxophone is what kind of mouthpiece and ligature you're going to use. There are two main types of mouthpieces there are hard rubber, which are black, and there are metal mouthpieces, and depending on what kind of saxophone you're playing, I recommend different things.

A metal mouthpiece is going to give you a brighter sound that's going to cut through a little more if you're in allowance. context. So on tenor saxophone, I play in a lot of bands where we're playing rock and roll and r&b, where I have to really project loudly. So the metal mouthpiece kind of helps me do that. It lacks some of the subtleties. So I also have hard rubber mouthpieces, if I'm playing jazz or classical music where I want to be able to play it at a much lower volume, and have more control, especially in the bottom end of the instrument.

For auto saxophone, for example, it's very rare to find a metal mouthpiece because the auto is higher pitched instruments so it tends to cut through on its own. And you can sometimes find that a metal mouthpiece on an auto is very shrill like it's a little hard on the ears. So you almost never find people playing metal mouthpieces on auto. On baritone it's very common to find metal mouthpieces for the same reason as tenor is that if you're looking to cut through a little more, it's sometimes nice to have a little more high end and your sound. The ligature also has a lot to do with the sound. This is a metal lick.

Get your on a metal mouthpiece. So, just think about how sound is conducted through metal, it's going to vibrate a lot faster through metal than it would through leather, which some of them are made of. And, you know, if you have a leather strap around a rubber mouthpiece, it's going to soften the sound a little bit. And in terms of prices for mouthpieces, they can range anywhere from around $100 all the way up into the high hundreds and into the thousands. And what I recommend is that you try some different mouthpieces before you really settle on it. And you can also have a look online there's lots of videos where people explain why they like their mouthpiece.

Another great thing is if you like the sound of someone else, if you say like have a favorite saxophone player, you can usually look up online and just find out those sometimes being endorsed by certain company you can find out what kind of mouthpiece and ligature they're using. Another important piece of equipment with the saxophone is what kind of strap you're using and how it's positioned. Straight. There are two main kinds of straps. There are no Neck straps, which just simply go around your neck like this one. And then there are shoulder harnesses which go around both shoulders and clip in the middle.

Shoulder harnesses are most commonly used with the baritone saxophone, which is the largest one. Although some people like having it when they play tenor. What I find personally is that when I wear a shoulder harness, I would only wear it on a in a situation where I'm always seated when I'm playing, because it tends to hold the instrument very tightly, right at a certain angle. So you set it so that it's, for example, if you're seated, you'd be playing it on your side. And if you then went to stand up and you wanted to play the horn in front of you, a shoulder harness won't really let you do that. Whereas a neck strap will allow you to play it on the side or in front and move it in a way that feels comfortable.

Now, the downside of a neck strap is it's putting all of the weight onto your neck. So if you're playing a tenor or baritone and it's heavy, you're going to feel it more in your neck. A really simple thing I often tell people that they Don't think about is, when you're standing, make sure to bend your knees slightly so that you're absorbing some of the weight into your legs. If your knees are locked, you're going to feel most of the pressure in your lower back because you're going to be leaning up against the weight of the instrument. There are two main types of saxophone cases. There are gig bags, which are soft and hard shell cases which are hard on the outside and have latches.

As a very general thing, if possible, I recommend getting a hardshell case, simply because the saxophone is so delicate and can be knocked out of alignment so easily, that having the extra layer of protection will ultimately save you a lot of money in repairs. Because all it takes is a saxophone getting sort of dinged one time and then all of a sudden, some of the keys won't work and you got to spend a few hundred dollars to get it fixed. There are some pros and cons to each however hardshell case is going to be more expensive. They're going to start in The three to $500 range and they can go up from there. And the hardshell case is also going to be heavier. So if you're going to be doing a lot of walking, it can be a bit of a detriment to have that.

However, if you're going to be traveling by car a lot, for example, a hardshell case is a really good option because it allows you to put it in the trunk for example, and you don't have to worry about if something in the trunk falls down on top of your case, it's not going to dent the horn. A gig bag will have some some pros as well, which is it's going to have often some backpack straps or a good shoulder strap. It'll sometimes also have compartments or zippered areas where you can put music and metronomes and extra mouthpieces and things and like I said it'll just generally be lighter. So if you're doing a lot of walking a gig bag is a good option. And gig bags start in the you know hundred and 50 to $500 range. There are some nice combinations where you'll get it's not full hardcase It's not a full soft case where you get some kind of protection, you can kind of feel when you push on the outside of the case without the saxophone in it, you can feel how far in it's going.

And that's the way I like to gauge how tough the cases. Another often overlooked piece of equipment that's really important when your saxophone player is a good saxophone stand. Now, the reason for having a saxophone stand is that there really isn't a safe and easy way to put a saxophone down for a minute or two. For example, if you got to go to the bathroom, or you're gonna answer your phone or something, it's not as easy to just put it down somewhere because there's so many delicate parts all over it and the mouthpiece and the read and everything. So having a saxophone stand is really important. It'll allow you to just place it into the stands and make sure that it's secure.

And then you've got it so that you don't have to worry about it falling over. Another great reason to have a stand is that there's a great saying that you know, when something's out of sight, out of mind, and having your saxophone out in a To pick up whenever you want to, will allow you to practice more often. And also just enjoy playing it more often. Any barrier between you and playing is going to slow you down. So if you've got to pack it away and put it in the closet every time you done, every time you think about playing, that's going to be a barrier to actually getting it out and starting playing. And a saxophone stand is going to cost you somewhere between, I'd say 50 and $100.

They all work basically the same way. Just make sure to get one that's for the size of instruments you have usually stands are for 10 or or also and they're adjustable. And then baritone stands and soprano stands are separate. If you are going to put your saxophone in the stand. One thing I recommend is that when you're done playing to take the mouthpiece off the cork, the reason is, is that the cork is if it's wet and it stays wet with the mouthpiece on it all the time. It's going to rot faster.

So a cork will usually last you about a year depending on how long you're playing. How much you're playing, but I find it you can make it last quite a bit longer if you just every time you're done you take the mouthpiece off and stick the reed cap on. And I just like to keep my mouthpiece like on a table or something nearby and then just put the stand put sex on the stand like this.