Any sax players around?

H is a professional saxophonist and teacher so I can ask him if you like?

He teaches his beginners from 'Team Woodwind' which has loads of tunes that are recognisable throughout. What kind of thing do you mean by 'well known'? Nursery rhymes or Robbie Williams?

I think you may be better forking out on a book of tunes rather than trying to find sheet music. Free sheet music on line is really difficult to get hold of and not always worth it.

Are you an absolute beginner? How's your sight reading?

BTW where are you based? If you are still looking for a teacher (which tbh I would - you don't want to teach yourself bad technique - very difficult to unlearn) then he may know someone good locally.

I do, but like you i havent picked it up for ages (well over 3 years its just sitting and colecting dust ?)

a couple of books i started out with were abracadabra saxophone by jonathan rutland and learn as you play saxophone by peter wastall, they are i think designed for kids bt the are imformative and will have tunes in you know. another book i always like was the jazz method for saxophone by john o'neill, it has a cd with backing music on it and its also quite informative and fun. sheet music wise i tend to find things from Fentone music tend to be quite good.

hth

edited to say that these are the books that I started to learn with 14 years ago so im sure there are more recent things out on the market now.

Thanks R-A.

By well-known, anything really that is a tune I'd know. The book I'm learning with is fine but it just gives series of notes, nothing that makes a tune I know. I like the idea of having something I can recognise, and I think it would make me feel a bit more as though I'm making progress if I can actually 'play something' IYKWIM?

I think you're probably right and I need to just go back to the music shop and get a book. Googling has proved fruitless so far.

Yep absolute beginner - I played recorder as a child so just had to remind myself how to read music, and a lot of the beginner notes are the same as recorder so I was able to pick up those basics fairly quickly. I'd definitely benefit from lessons. I live right at the bottom of Cornwall though and the nearest tutor I've found so far is past Truro which is over an hour drive each way. There's someone at work who thinks they "know someone who knows someone" who is a music teacher so I may follow that up.

Thanks again for your reply.

Mr GMT used to run a music shop and the Abracadbra series was popular with different age groups. A good music shop should be able to advise you, or have a look at the Music Exchange website https://www.music-exchange.co.uk/ for some ideas on what's available.

https://www.music-exchange.co.uk/categories/Popular%20and%20Classical%20Collections/SAXOPHONE/Collections/collections/1 shows you some of the great collections that are available.

Your music shop might be able to put you in touch with local teachers. It's worth trying the local secondary schools or colleges, too, as lots of teachers happily offer tuition out of hours for people.

You've reminded me I've not got my alto sax out of its box for far too long!

Are 'Tune A Day' books still around? I used them for most of my instruments.

Most beginner books do have 'tunes' from quite early on, even if it's just Three blind mice, so might be worth switching or using two alongside each other.

Otherwise how about this kind of thing:

https://www.musicroom.com/movie-instrumental-solos-saxophone-alf00ifm0310cd

https://www.musicroom.com/stephen-duro-easy-christmas-tunes-alto-saxophone-musch61524

https://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/09939/details.html

(Don't have any experience of these particularly so don't know how easy they are but there are lots of similar out there)

Musicroom is a pretty good site btw, we use them regularly.

Hmm... don't know if H will know any teachers in Cornwall but I'll certainly ask. There must be some! (H advertises on Gumtree, saxophones.co.uk and a couple of others, I'll ask him)

These are the sites H advertises on

saxophoneteachers.co.uk

sax.co.uk

musicteachers.co.uk

schoolofeverything.com

gumtree.com

saxhire.co.uk

They might throw something up. Otherwise as GMT says, ask the schools who they use, H does both peripatetic and private work and so do most teachers we know.

Edited to add a few more!

I believe Mr G teaches from 'Learn as you play saxophone', you can get cds with it and everyfink.

For advice, why not call sax.co.uk or john myatt wind instruments - they're very knowledgable afaik. John Myatt definitely sell lots of music for wind instruments.

Fab thanks everyone.

I'm currently learning from "Absolute beginners alto saxophone" which has done me fine in teaching me the basics (holding the sax, fingers, breathing, tounging, reading music, embouchure etc) so hopefully once I've reminded myself of all those things again I can treat myself to a few new books.

I think there's a good music shop in town so will go and have a look when I'm there next.

I've just taken my sax out of the case for the first time in about a year and spent fifteen minutes going through the first pages of my book - my lips tingle, my mouth aches and I can't believe that I let myself go back to square one - looking at the book has reminded me how far I'd got before!

I started playing bari sax this year and my local music shop has quite a lot of books that come with backing CDs (sometimes even with a jingly xylophone playing the melody above the backing track) so they might be worth hunting down. What sort of standard are you?

That sounds incredibly familiar - often heard through the wall of our 'music room' from pupils who have been away form the sax for a while! I learnt it to grade 1 in 2 weeks for a charity challenge at Uni and my lips were tingling like craze. I also can't blow for more than a minute or two without feeling like I'm going to pass out (will stick to my instruments, I think!)

<boring stuff> I'm sure you know this but as with most practical skills, little and often is the key. 10 minutes 3 times a week is better than half an hour once a week.

Hope you enjoy your playing anyway and if you have any other sax related queries shout out and I can always ask Mr R-A.

Something like this might be what you're looking for (another one who's sax is gathering dust in the loft ?) https://www.musicroom.com/guest-spot-20-classic-hits-alto-saxophone-musam960730r

My bf plays the sax in a band - he looks sexy with his sax ?

Bit of useless information for you there ?

? thanks Sparkley

R-A today was my first time playing in so long, I didn't manage very long at all so little and often will be the only way for the near future!

I'm going to have a look through all these links and recommendations this evening, thanks everyone. Nice to now I'm not the only one who's had a sax gathering dust. I felt so bad given how much it cost. It was great to pick it back up again and although my playing is back to sounding like a sick seal, I'll hopefully get back up to my previous standard more quickly than the first time that I learnt it all.

I'm definitely gonna try to get some lessons - R-A I'm guessing because of not being able to 'blow' for long lessons will initially be shot?

Actually I think my H looks like he's trying to do a huge poo when he plays his sax but everyone says 'oooh that must be really romantic/sexy' when I tell them his job?

WRT your Qu: a good teacher will do whatever you feel comfortable with. H does no more than 30mins for young'uns. Having said that most of his adults are on hour long lessons with breaks from playing if necessary, for example, to do some theory: working out/clapping rhythms or getting more familiar with reading the music, understanding chords/key signatures etc, or sometimes listening to pieces that they want to learn for example. He seems to get it to work so they don't get exhausted or pass out, and stay interested. I do good tea making duties for 'half time' too ?

Ah yeah I guess there's enough theory to break up the actual playing.

I hope I manage to find a teacher nearby, I think it'll really help.

Cheers everyone for your suggestions.

You've had some great advice and I don't really have any more to give you on that side. You've just made me want to buy a new sax though. My tenor was rubbish and died on me and I used to play the baritone sax but it didn't belong to me, it belonged to the jazz and wind band I played in till I was 18. I miss playing in a band so much (I also play clarinet and now play that at work but playing for the kids just isn't the same!).

I'd love a baritone of my own but I just can't afford the massive price tag they have!

Enjoy playing and I hope you find some good books and teacher!