Pro Saxophone vs. Student Saxophone

do some student horns actually have a hidden high of sharp key which brand of flute ligatures actually work better on the saxophone is the selmer mark 6 really just a mark 7 with precognition which of these popular reed brands is secretly laced with a synthetic hormone discover all this and more on this episode of saxophone secrets this one hi and welcome to the saxophone academy i'm dr wally wallace and if you're interested in saxophone master classes and product reviews please do subscribe and be sure to hit the like button to unlock the mysteries of your octave key now before we begin i have to say a huge thank you to all of those that helped me get caffeinated this week i really appreciate you supporting the academy and i think you'll see this level of caffeine reflected in today's b-roll especially i really appreciate your support and helping keeping serious saxophone journalism like this free of charge for everybody now today we're talking about saxophone myths and let me know in the comments below which saxophone myths or rumors are driving you nuts but there's a couple floating around on the saxophone zeitgeist that are driving me nuts that i want to address today so let's dive in and talk about some saxophone myths starting with [Music] if you've been on youtube in the past two years and have keyword saxophone anywhere in your search history then you know what i'm talking about these videos wondering is a pro saxophone a waste of money does a pro saxophone sound any better than a student horn can this 300 saxophone sound just as good as my million dollar platinum plated mark six saxophone well the short answer is maybe but it's missing the point the fact is a student horn when we're just speaking about tone quality can sound like a pro horn in the hands of a pro player in the hierarchy of things that affect your tone it is the player the reed the mouthpiece the neck and vocal taper bit of the ligature and then the saxophone the saxophone does impact your tone quality but it's pretty far down the food chains of things that help you get your tone quality so when listening back to a pro versus a student horn they can sound very similar especially when you're listening through your iphone or computer speakers where high fidelity is not really the priority and depending on your preferences of tone that slightly stuff your student horn may sound darker and kind of be your preference in sound that's not uncommon to find but it's kind of missing the point let me explain let's talk about running shoes bear with me usain bolt to my knowledge may be the fastest sprinter on earth say you went to dollar general store and bought the cheapest shoes you could find and you told usain bolt to please put on these shoes and then he ran you may say he's just this fast in these cheap shoes expensive shoes are a waste of money well not really he could be just as fast in the cheap shoes like a pro horn may sound similar to a student horn in the hands of a professional but that's missing a big point are those cheap shoes gonna hurt his feet are they gonna fall apart is he gonna develop bad technique in running trying to keep the shoes from falling off his feet how long will those shoes last and when he does have to go to the cobbler to get the shoes repaired how much do they cost and how often is he gonna have to go to the cobbler year after year you kind of see where i'm going with this the fact is you could probably strap two loaves of bread to usain bolt's feet he's still going to be very very fast faster than you and i that doesn't mean that good running shoes are a waste of money just like a pro horn there's many things to consider beyond just tone quality and when i'm picking a pro horn i'm not really thinking about tone quality that much because i sound like me on almost any saxophone student or pro horn alike so when i play pro horns i can generally feel a little bit more resonance more free blowing depending on the brand but that's only one of the tiny pieces of the puzzle i'm looking at i'm looking at ergonomics quality of materials intonation longevity of the brand is this a brand that's fly by night or have they been around for a while am i going to be able to get service and support in parts of the saxophone if i need it on many of the cheaper horns you're going to get a lot of micro leaks due to inferior pad seating bad pad quality not round or level tone holes and a whole bunch of other host of issues that's gonna give you playing problems that can actually affect your playing in the long term i've had students with very poorly made saxophones in order to get them to seal they get gorilla grip they really have to smash that on the keys and they will seal a little bit better that really develops bad habits for technique likewise it can send you down a rabbit hole of chasing reeds and mouthpieces wondering why you're not getting a good sound or low b flats not speaking when the whole time it's the cheap horn that's holding you up let's not say cheap let's say poorly made and every country makes bad products and good products just to be clear there are good horns coming on of almost every country on earth that manufactures saxophone we're not talking about a country we're talking about the quality of the manufacturing and parts and integrity of the brand and interestingly enough some of the cheap saxophones will actually cost you more money in the long run it's kind of the opposite of luxury cars when you buy a luxury car you pay a lot more up front and you keep paying more every time you go to get your oil changed and the air filter changed they charge you 400 but they give you espresso while you wait saxophones it's kind of the opposite the more you spend in my experience the less you have to keep spending to keep it adjusted better sealing pads good tone hole leveling and quality parts and materials mean it's out of adjustment less often you're gonna spend more time practicing and less time in the repair shop now does this mean i think you should run out and put a seven thousand dollar brand new selmer supreme on your credit card no no you should only spend what you feel comfortable spending but get the highest quality saxophone you can and for me a lot of times that means a used yamaha or maybe a used summer or a reputable brand it's not exciting it doesn't have power bells and buttons and whistles on it and may not have the most exciting engraving or finish ever but it's gonna be a quality instrument that gets you practicing and not spending a lot of time in the repair shop [Music] ligatures do you need a fancy ligature heck no i like stock ligatures i have a small collection that grows every day when i find a good stock ligature i can't help but buy it they're fine but a lot of people will tell you that fancy ligatures or the type of ligature the plating the shape or anything else make no difference whatsoever and they're a waste of money matter of fact let's ask the hippest guy at the jam session johnny jazz pants and back in the day the cats didn't have those fancy platinum rovers or gold-plated van doosals we just had a little bit of shoestring we tie on there maybe a little bit of radiator hose from a 72 buick skylark just use a little bit of nicotine gum stale hot dog bun pop it right on there two squirrels fighting over a pretzel i divorce attorney gary can you hold the reed on the mouthpiece gary can you at least do that oh linda now grumpy guys at the jam session in armchair acousticians seem to think plating and material make no difference in ligature but a lot of really good players think they do and i can tell you firsthand i've owned two bay baroque ligatures one in gold-plated one in rhodium they feel very different now notice what i said i didn't say they sound very different to you i said they feel different to the player and that's been confirmed by some of the players i respect most in the world and that's important even if you can't hear the difference in the back of a concert hall the player feels the difference i don't care if you can hear the difference i can feel it and i'm the one that's got to play the equipment so i'm going to choose equipment that not only sounds good on recordings in the audience but also feels good when i'm playing and you really can tell the difference between the materials and especially the shape of the ligature now beyond just tone quality and response we also need to think about the function of a ligature which is sealing a reed to the mouthpiece is it doing that if the ligature no matter how fancy doesn't do that i find it a big failure on the part of the ligature and even beyond that how hard is it to get the ligature on and off and change reads because if you're like me you're gonna be doing that quite often now we used an analogy of shoes for the saxophone so for ligatures let's talk about pants say a pair of pants is comfortable and they even look good so they serve their purpose but say every time you take a couple steps they fall down that's not good and if that happens often enough you're going to be asked politely but firmly to leave the wedding reception so pants they need to look good and feel good but also serve the purpose of staying up and they shouldn't be too hard to take off and on that would be silly ligatures are the same way no matter how good they look and sound the function matters are the screws easy to work is it easy to slide on and off your mouthpiece without creating gouges and scratches there's some fancy fun ligatures that do all of that very well so if you like it buy one if not stock ligatures are a-okay [Music] reads have you noticed how some brands have almost a cult following these days like the people that are endorsing this brand are getting a little bit overzealous about a little piece of cane well i have a confession i love boston sack shop reads i also love vandoran reads i also love d'addario reads and there's a couple others i'm probably not thinking about that i love as well i love cane reads and all the big brands in my opinion are making very good reads now you may be thinking that's crazy dr wally i know a guy that says this brand is terrible i opened a box of van doren of 10 and there were 12 bad reads inside that box of 10. yes we all hear stories about this but there's a little bit of confirmation bias a little bit of experience a little bit of expectancy theory going on let me explain first thing you'll notice is that the more years you're playing the more developed your embouchure and your sound concept become the less concerned you become with reads sure you can tell the difference between great reads and good reads but i find as the years go on and your embouchure becomes more developed with your sound concept reads start to matter less and less and you can get more reads playing out of the box of 10. and then it's a matter of finding the balancing act between strength and resistance between the reed and your mouthpiece which depends on the facing and the tip opening so it's not so much the quality of the magical cane of this one specific region of france as finding the brand that consistently makes that strength that resistance level that works well with your embouchure your unique oral structure and your particular mouthpiece and i find a lot of brands are great at doing that for me and meeting my needs so which read brand should i choose dr wally which kind of reads should i buy well i'll answer you but before i do have you already you already hit the like button you already hit that we're good okay the best brand of reads are the ones that make you want to practice don't throw stuff at me that's the truth i don't really care what brand you play i don't really care what brand i have i just want to practice and if they're approximating the right strength i can make them work not that huge of a deal so let me know in the comments below which gear myth drives you nuts but don't go too harsh on any particular brand we desperately need the corporate dollars my darlings i'm going to see you next week when we start to dive into a big block of education on the topic of improvisation i've been thinking long and hard about this topic i'm very excited to bring you the series of lessons coming up in the months ahead leading into the summer so let me know your gear myths and in the meantime go practice you

Channel: Saxophone Academy

Views: 21,589

Rating: 4.9488721 out of 5

Keywords: bettersax, better sax, cheap saxophone, cheap tenor sax, amazon sax, cheap vs pro instrument, tenor sax, tenor saxophone comparison, cheapest saxophone on amazon, which saxophone should i buy, chinese saxophone, how to play saxophone, saxophone lessons, saxohone gear review, lade tenor saxophone review, yanagisawa tenor sax, best saxophone, saxophone buying guide, sax buying advice, dr. Wally, Wally Wallace, saxophone academy

Id: 3X_v5dBB0xg

Length: 12min 40sec (760 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021