Saxophone Day 2024 is on Wednesday, November 6, 2024: How did the first saxophones look like? And how was it played?
Wednesday, November 6, 2024 is Saxophone Day 2024. November 6 Holiday - Saxophone Day at Holiday Inisghts Saxophone Day is today.
Saxophone Day is about smooth jazz, soulful blues and traditional rock’n'roll. Everybody’s really wants to have the ability to play that bit from Baker Street (and it is perfectly fine to ‘air sax’ along into it, right?), so take this very day being an chance to visit for this! Pull out, borrow, rent or buy a saxophone and go sax crazy!
A saxophone is a reed instrument with a cone-shaped metal body; keys covering holes along the body's length alter the tone the instrument produces. The Belgian/French instrument maker Adolphe Sax, who worked on the instrument in the early 1840s and patented it in 1846, originally devised a family of fourteen saxophones of different ranges and shapes; four of them—soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone—are in common use today. The alto saxophone and its larger counterparts are generally shaped like an uneven letter U, enabling the player to quickly reach the keys for the lowest notes and to play arpeggiated chords covering a large range. The saxophone has been an instrument of only moderate importance in classical music, but its comparative ease of playing (its large reed is not overly temperamental and its fingering system is convenient and intuitive) quickly earned it a place in the marching band, where it has remained ever since. From there the saxophone passed into jazz, and as saxophones gained importance in jazz ensembles around 1930, the alto and tenor instruments became among the music's most characteristic solo instruments. The saxophone's considerable volume and somewhat percussive attack made it more suitable than other wind instruments for the requirements of rhythm and blues and early rock and roll.
The soprano saxophone is unlike the more common alto and tenor saxophones, its body is straight rather than bent into a U shape. One of the smallest and highest members of the group, the soprano saxophone was a moderately popular orchestral and band instrument in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (it still sometimes appears in marching bands), and, as saxophones gained importance in jazz around 1930, it made its mark on that music as well. The soprano saxophone enjoys some prominence as a jazz solo instrument, thanks to the fascination its piercing tone has exerted upon experimental improvisers such as Roscoe Mitchell.
Near the middle of the group, the tenor saxophone (both the current version in the key of B flat and an orchestral "melody" saxophone in C) was a popular orchestral and band instrument in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and, as saxophones gained importance in jazz around 1930, it became part of many a jazz dance band. Yet the tenor saxophone's prominence as a solo instrument grew largely from the work of one specific performer, Coleman Hawkins, whose 1939 recording of "Body and Soul" was a key event in the evolution of jazz musical vocabulary. The unusual timbres of the tenor that Hawkins explored also played an important role in rhythm-and-blues and early rock and roll, with, for example, such artists as King Curtis lending a distinctive sound to recordings on the Atlantic label.
Also in the middle of the group, the E flat alto saxophone was a popular orchestral and band instrument in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (it is still a mainstay of the marching band), and, as saxophones gained importance in jazz around 1930, the alto became the central melody instrument for many jazz bands. The alto saxophone's current prominence as a jazz solo instrument grew largely from the work of one specific performer, Charlie Parker, whose recordings serve virtually as sacred texts of modern jazz, often learned note for note by aspiring performers. The alto saxophone experiments of Ornette Coleman in the 1960s pushed the instrument to its limits.
Toward the bottom end of the group's range, the baritone sax, usually made in the keys of F or E flat, was a moderately popular orchestral and band instrument in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (it is still a mainstay of the marching band), and, as saxophones gained importance in jazz and dance music in the 1920s, became part of some horn sections. The baritone has enjoyed considerable prominence as a jazz solo instrument, both in the hands of some of the genre's leading lights, such as Gerry Mulligan, and of contemporary performers.
Saxophone!!!?
Actually you need to play the note with good air support. Too much air can cause you to honk the note (like a goose) or make the tone very very airy. What they mean by with lots of air actually means to setting your posture and embouchure as if you were going to play really really loud but then you release the air lightly. A good exercise would be to play long tones in that register loud with the proper air support posture and then gradually decrease loudness of sound to where you can barely hear the note. You may need to learn how to increase your lung capacity to be able handle the back pressure coming from playing soft with good support. Good luck!
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Wow! I have never been demanded to "edit" my answer before. First, realize that you cannot just increase you lung capacity over night. This requires a few weeks minimum of doing breathing excersizes. The point of breathing excersizes are to learn how to control the flow of air both coming into your body and blowing out of your body. Yoga excersizes are great for these. One of my trumpet professor gave me a yoga excersize that have helped me achieve this. take a big breath slowly in, then hold the breath for as long as you can, and then breath out just as slow as you breathed in. Repeat after a few seconds of rest in between. Pay attention to the way you store the breath. The breath needs to be started, held and exhaled from the gut. Do this a few times before you play and you can instantly hear a difference with your playing.
Another like excersize that I did during marching season was to breathe in for 16 counts and breathe out for 16 counts (at 120 bpm). Remember to breathe using the gut (much like how sensei's teach their students to yell kiya from their gut). Also, getting in excersize will help: go swimming, running, cycling for two days of the week. Do the excersize enought so that you are required to regulate you breath.
Some of this may seem like outdated ancient kung fu methods; I can understand that you may not think any of this will directly improve your playing ability. BUT remember that strong air support is the number one way to improve your instrumental ability, no matter what you play. . . . minus percussion or piano of course. If you don't believe me, ask any instructor about breath support and control. Good Luck.
Happy Saxophone Day....?
I'm sending this to my daughter, who hasn't picked up her sax since 12th grade .....ugh!
