Your journey to the Bari

[Woodwindswins]

Judging from what I'm reading across the web,it seems that there are a couple different sets of bari players;One that was asked(or pestered)by a band teacher to try it to fill the position,and one that had their eye on the big sax from the get-go,no prodding necessary.Which side did you come from? Did anyone here hate the bari at first? And how long were you playing alto,clarinet,etcetera before your encounter with it?

[maestroelite]

I volunteered to play bari because there were too many tenors. I had played for 3.5 years or so. Now I just play whatever people tell me to... makes no difference.

[Anonymous]

I started playing sax after high school and was self taught. I bought a soprano sax and learned to play it by reading the Teal book and by listening to records. Then, completely ignorant of anything about jazz or jazz bands, I enrolled in a college with a great jazz department and showed up to audition for jazz band on the soprano sax and flute. Boy was I surprised when they told me there was no chair for soprano sax. (seriously - I didn't have a clue). And I couldn't afford to run out and buy an alto or tenor -- so they let me use the school's bari and I found a $25 clarinet. Had the time of my life learning jazz and trying to keep up with all the others.

[bigbadbarisax]

I happen to be one of those who belong to the latter group: I had my eye on the tenor at first, but then I saw and heard the bari for the first time and it was love at first sight! I've been playing for almost 8 or 9 years now and although I play all sorts of other instruments when people ask me what I play, I reply (and I always will reply) that I am a bari player. 'Nuff said.

[SaxPlayer1004]

umm im kinda inbetween. ever since elementary school after hearing peter and the wolf, i had my ears set on a bassoon, we started band in middle school and they had sold their bassoon, like many schools ( along with thd english horns and bass sax's etc) because they had no one who was big enough, had the patience to, or desire to play these big instruments. i knew my cousin played alto in high school and saxbecame my second love to bassoon since i was about 3 or 4. i asked my aunt if i could borrow the alto in 4th grade to start band (vito, kept very well, near mint condition, spare needing a repad and overhaul due to sitting in a closet for 4 years). i had just played alto because there wasnt a bassoon and was hoping that when they built the new highschool they might purchase one for me to play there, a lot of bassoonists started on alto if they werent big enough for bassoon. so that was 4th grade. i switched to a charter school in march of 4th grade and this school didnt have a band till i was in 6th. so i started taking lessons in 6th grade because i was bored being 1st chair (had chair auditions and the conductor wouldnt see me because he knew i was 1st chair).
bought a tenor in 7th grade. went in to the shop to get the sax tuned up (you guys may have heard of cosmo valente and steve justin, they are me tech guys and happen to work in the same shop. any one in the massachusetts area i HIGHLY recommend them for ANYTHING music related) and they suggested that instead of buying a new alto that i go to tenor, the band director would be happy to have a lower instrument to fill out the section and if we started a jazz band id have an automatic in being the only tenor guy. so i bought a tenor, but that was only after my parents said i wasnt getting a bari because it was twice as expensive. had my heart set on a bari. the school had bought two bassoons one for the director and a second for a student, and another kid beat me to it because the school was asking the parents to rent the instrument from the school, i thought it was bs, but then he left the school so there were two bassoons lying around.
so eighth grade comes along and my band director got a job as the assistant conductor to the nebraska philharmonic so we had a new director. this guy was thrilled to have me playing tenor. he thought i had a chance at making the district band so i auditioned for districts and got first tenor by a mile. this guy was an interim director til we found another director and the new guy comes along. i asked him for a bassoon so i could learn and fill out the bass, this guys a jazz guitarist so he knows hardly anything about band stuff, so i end up learning bassoon my self and teaching this guy sax and bassoon, go figure.
freshman year, same band director, and i had bassoon alto tenor clarinet. i went to the local high school and asked to play in the marching band, and they said ya wed love to have you. they asked what i played i said clarinets sax;s and bassoon. they threw me on a bari because i refused to play my pro tenor in marching band. so i got an old leaking king lemaire bari that wouldnt play for the life of it. played that then switched to the other conn that they had which was much better, but the director was skeptical about marching it because it looked like crap. got a tuba after that, but bari and tenor are my instruments till i can afford a bass sax. come on keilwerth. theres my story.

[RS]

I started on clarinet. But I was never much of a clarinet player. Then I switched to alto. But I was never much of an alto player. Then I switched to tenor. But I was never much of a tenor player. Then I switched to bari. Finally--paydirt. The horn fit like an old shoe and I got a sound that could rattle the windows. I've been playing bari as my main horn for about twenty-five years now.

[Gandalfe]

I played alto and lead alto (alto being mostly classic and lead alto is all about being distinctive) through my school years. When my son got to high school he started playing a Jupiter rose gold colored bari so I tried to play it. I couldn’t get it to play smoothly from top to bottom, but my son could and that’s what counted. Unfortunately, the horn got stolen from his car so I sprung for a Yanagisawa 990. I found out a couple of years later I could have saved some money by buying another Jupiter because my son hated the Yani.

While my son was in Japan for a couple of years I played the bari whenever the band needed one. And this bari was awesome, smooth and controlled from top to bottom of the range. So when my son came back, I gave him my Yani SOP 901 and kept the bari. I get a lot of comments on the bari. It has a very distinctive sound that just cuts through the dance and concert band when I want it to. And it blends so well otherwise. I’ll aways be an alto man, but bari is my second love. You can’t pay too much for the horn that works for you.

[barisaxplayer]

started on alto in 6th. Played too loud for the 6th grade band, so my instructor said "hey, you should play the bari, you'd do fine with how much air you put thru the alto!". so there it is. I played bari on my alto for about 3 months while I waited for the school(then a bundy II held together with string) got repaired. Played that for a year. Christmas time 8th grade I got my nifty ybs 62 8)

in short, didn't know what a bari was when I first started, and I loved alto. Man, when I started playing bari it was definitely my gig!

[MPL]

Started on tenor, self-taught, in 1978. Played tenor throughout college but never got very good. Tenor was stolen in 1988, right before I went to graduate school. Got another tenor but was frustrated with my lack of progress, so gave it up to be a composer/arranger. Got asked to play baritone in the jazz ensemble, as there was a shortage of players that year. Liked it so much I got my own baritone right after that and have played baritone ever since.

[HC]

barisaxplayer, @#$% got a 6,000 bari in 8th grade? I didn't even spend that much on a very nice piano, that was AFTER playing piano 10 years. Life is so unfair. :x

Anyways, I have one heck of a band history. I played alto from fifth grade (started a year later than everyone else), but before 8th grade, everyone that started band in 4th grade quitted except me and a clarinet player. I played alto in the lowest of the three bands in my school. (catholic schools always have really bad music programs.) I taught myself Bb clarinet, since there was one lying around my house. After three months of squeaking, I finally got the hang of it. Auditioning for band placement for next year... practicing three days before the tape was due... BAD IDEA! Landed another year in the lowest band. :x Asked the teacher if I could play Bass clarinet and he said it wouldn't be a problem. Played that for the next year, love to be first chair, (since I'm the only one). Practiced two hours for a month and half and got into the highest band. During that period, I asked the band director how many freshmans are comming in with Bass Clarinets and he said there's three (too many), but also added many people have got moved from the middle band to the best by playing Contra Alto. Little did I know when auditon results came out, he listed my name under contra clarinet, but got put in the best band. (only one to skip a band this year)
So... what's my bari story... director asked me if I wanted to march and I said yes. Origionally he put me down for alto (though I played bass clarinet in regular band, I was playing alto for jazz and pep band). Then he asked me again and prefered me to be on bass clarinet and I said why not. Few days later, he asked if I would like to march on bari. I agreed, stupidly. It turned out to be a lot of fun, since its one heck of a loud instrument. Right now, looking for my VERY OWN bari. Have to march on a crappy selmer signit.

[Biff]

My bari story eh...

Well, i started out in grade 7 playing tenor sax ( i still play it on the side, but bah), until i looked under one of the tables in my schools music room and saw a big black case. intrigued, i asked my music teacher what it was. dhe said it was a baritone sax. I said "can I try it"? he said, next year, probably hoping i'd forget it. lo and behold, next year i was playing bari, and I haven't stopped since. i now have my own bari, which is ancient (somewhere in the 1920s-30s. it's got the low B on the left side), as well as my father's alto, and a soprano we've collected, we went on vacation last year out east, and I happened to spy it in a music store in halifax.


so yeah, that's my story, i play in jazz band and concert band now. rock on...



Biff

[PrivateRyan32]

I start out on alto in fifth grade, as most people did who are around my age. then, one day in sixth grade during band, the director had wrote the names of a bunch of different instruments on the board. He began to talk about all the different instruments and I was really interested in the baritone saxophone. After practice I asked him about it. He said I could try it out next lesson :) When I came to the lesson, he took me to the instrument storage room and showed me a rather large case, about as big as me at the time, and took out the bari. The first time I play it I was too weak to hold it up so I let the bow of it rest on the floor. Me switching to the bari was really cool because it made a lot of other people switch instruments too. So I play the bari through middle school until marching band and concert band when I switched back to alto for half a year. The way i got back was interesting though... I was a 1st alto, 6th chair. One day when I had a lesson I couldn't goto because of a science test during the same period. So me and the 4th chair alto, also in my science class, decide to go to 2nd alto's lesson. Funny thing was me and him were the only ones there :) So the director, same one as in middle school cause the previous director could handle the pressure of high school, talk about the concert needing more low woodwinds. I told him I could do the bari again and he let me. One of the senior who played the bari for symphonic winds let me play the same one as he. So I play bari for a while and really got to like it. I made it into symphonic winds on it for next year. And now I have one of the baris home for the summer to practice for district band. And that's how I got to play the frickin' huge sax

[SaxPlayer1004]

"frikken huge sax" man wait till you see a bass. then you'll say that. good show bringing the power to the bari from 1st alto.

[rcwjd]

I'm a throwback to the days when schools actually had music programs that were supported with sufficient funds. I started as an Alto and played alto in concert band primarily. However, in jazz band and quartets I played bari more often than not. In college, I focused on bari and bassoon until ending my time as a music major and moving on to other fields. Still, I always liked the bari. Finally I got a chance to pick up a Mark VI, and bari has been my main axe ever since. Later I also acquired a series II bari. I now play the Series II more often and it gets much more play than my alto, tenor, or soprano. I truly believe it is the most versatile of the sax family. :)

[buffalobill]

Hello. I started on baritone because there was an opening in the big band where I play now and I love to play in big bands. I also play alto but those positions are always very popular and hard to get into. I noticed a lot less competition for that bari chair. That being said, I really developed a liking for the baritone and I'm not sure now that I'd jump if the alto spot was freed.
Question for RCWJD. You said you switched from MKVI to Series II. Was that by preference or by necessity? My experience is that the Series II is much easier to play with a good healthy sound than is the MKVI. I checked the MKVI for leaks and it's OK but still much more difficult to keep a good air flow even with the same MPC and reed.

[kcp]

No one ever forced me to pick-up bari and I wasn't interested to play bari at first. Been a tenor player for 15+ years until about a year and a half ago when fellow sax players and I began talking about the idea of having a sax quartet - Someone had to play the bari, that idea suddenly appealed to me then. Also the fact that my bf said he hated the sound of bari and said that I was too petite to play such a big sax - I wanted to prove him wrong and I did :P

[Warder60]

Played alto for a year in 6th grade. Early in the year 7th grade (..like the first day?) the director had folders out for needed instruments. With those were tenor and bari. I started talkin with the kid next to me.. he called tenor.. bari was mine =). Played bari from 7th - 12th, only had the alto back out for 2 years of marching (did the 3rd on the bari.. 4 years of high school when marching starts, but our band program is (er, was, I guess I graduated this year) too large to let freshmen march).

Now I'm preparing to play the alto again =\ since my univ. doesn't march baris, and hoping that non-music major me can get a bari seat in one of the audition bands cause otherwise I'll prob be stuck on the alto in the "everyone" band

:borg:

[rcwjd]

Buffalobill

You asked about why I use the Series II more than the Mark VI. Both play very well for me and the Series II feels very similar to the VI to me. I had the opportunity to pick up the Series II at an attractive price and my VI is showing its age a bit, and I anticipated maybe getting an overhaul done at some point. However, it has no leaks right now and is a strong player. I pick up the Series II more often because it is new and because I think it may have a bit bigger bottom end sound. WHen I have posted clips from both on my website, most can't really tell a difference between the two.

[buffalobill]

OK, thanks RCWJD. From what you say, there shouldn't be any difference in the MKVI and Series II playability. It sounds like the MKVI I'm using needs to be looked at again. I appreciate your answer!

[super20dan]

i started tp play bari after i moved to a very large city and was no longer the big fish in a little pond. i soon found out that just owning a bari could get you gigs. with in a short time i was getting calls to do union big band gigs. of course i didnt hurt that i can really play the thing too.

[SaxPlayer1004]

same here man. every sax player has an alto or a tenor, how many of them own their own baritone? Soprano's can get you a few, but its not really worth it unless you play in a quartet.

[rcwjd]

Buffalobill

No problem. Make sure they check those big keys down at Bb and A. You can play when they are leaking, but it does take more air. Also, make sure the upper pads - G# up and palm keys are tight and closing properly. My VI occasionally has to have that area adjusted. In fact, I play with the octave key rod about an 1/8" out just to keep everything loose and working. Overall, the Series II was a very easy transition back and forth with the VI for me because I find them very close in keywork, etc. I have been told (don't know if absolutely true or not) that the bell on the Series II was extended just a bit to take care of some occasional intonation issues with VIs. I don't really find much of an intonation issue with my VI (at least caused by the horn :wink: ) so that may just be one of those urban legends. Mainly I just don't hear the keys clank and rattle with the Series II like I do with the VI, but I would never part with either. BTW, for what it is worth, I tested all the topline baris - Kielwerth, Yanigasawa, and Yamaha - and all played very nicely - but in my opinion, the Series II outdid them all for the type of stuff I like to play - jazz.

[My-Low-SX90R]

My journey to the Bari,

I started my band life in 4th grade in California. I was playing the clarinet solely because my best friend had decided that's what he was going to play. We had fun for 3 years being last chair, squeaking and laughing, and really not trying to play well.

Then I moved after 6th grade to a whole other part of the country, Indiana. With my best freind gone, I started to take band seriously, this time on the Bass Clarinet. I figured, I'm in a new school, why not a new instrument. I was instantly hooked by the low tones of the instrument. I played Bass for all of Jr High.

Then in High school for Freshman year I played the Bass Clarinet in concert and marching band only. During the 2nd half of the year Jazz band started and there are no spots for bass clarinet in Jazz band. So I learned the sax fingering and how to read for sax on an alto in about a week. I tried out on Tenor and had a blast. I played tenor soley after that in marching concert and jazz band. I still played bass clarinet for our orchestra all those years though. Then Junior year came. They needed a bari for the musical Bye Bye Birdie. I voluteered, and again was instantly in love with the low tones. Since that musical I played bari in all the bands, with the exception of the orchestra, they still needed a bass clarinet.

About 2 months after graduation I was quickly going insane because I had no horn of my own to play, I always used the schools horn. Well, I found my old assistant band director and coincidentally he was looking for a new tenor. I ended up getting a yamaha 62 tenor from my work, (yes I worked at a music store and owned no musical instrument), and traded him straight up for his 1970 mark VI tenor. Tenor still wasn't quite my bag, but in got rid of the "need music" jones. I played with my university's jazz band and wind ensemble with it for 5 years, (I go part-time while I work full-time to pay for my school out of pocket, I don't like debt). After doing some VI trading I finally came up with enough cash to get the horn of my dreams just this last October. The SX90R black gold, it is my opinion that no better bari exists, and working at a very large music store, I've played everything.

Which brings me to today, I sub for 3 local big bands, play regularly with a semi-traveling regional blues band, and I am working on getting my all-original fusion group off the ground. Getting this bari last October has opened up so many gigs for me that sometimes I have to turn money down either because I'm working, have class, or I already have a gig that night.

[joshuski]

Played clarinet for 4 years prior to moving to saxophone after being pestered by high school band director freshman year. Played it for one year it was a typical beat up Bb bari; for pep rallies the upper classmen would fit a couple of beers in the bell.

It was alright but tenor was were it was at for me so I moved on to tenor and alto still keeping w/clarinet. Fast forward +18 years. I found that I missed the big lug started playing it again in a university band & in a local bluesy type band; ya know I get more offers for work with the bari.

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[Bodhi]

After being on a Selmer Mark VI tenor for many years, I moved to the place I'm at now (NC) only to find there wasn't that much going on in the music area, or should I say I didn't really look. Sold the Mark VI, two months later a friend of mine asked if I would join him (a drummer) and a friend (bass). I've been listening to Morphine (Dana Colley) for a few years prior so the obvious choice was to get a Bari, a Conn 12M. After a couple years it was back to a Selmer Mark VII tenor. Later, a Martin Typewritter Bari with the tenor, then tenor only, back to tenor and a Low A Dolnet, back to tenor only. Just so happens I recieved the baritone I've been looking for for five years via UPS this morning. A King Zephyr, circa 1955 with the gold laquered keys and double socket neck. I'm keeping it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Now surfboards, that's a whole different story!!! 8)

[super20dan]

your really lucky UPS didnt destroy you r king. they totaly destroyed my yani bari

[Bodhi]

I'm really sorry to hear your horn was messed up. Mine was pre-dented but atleast that's all that was evident. Actually a Cool Funky Bari. I was using my Tenor in a Duo with an electric violinist but tonight I thought I'd bring the bari instead. She dug the sound better on it than the tenor, so did I. I think part of it is due to the separation in octaves. The tenor being closer to a lead instrument as the violin. We're experimenting with just the two instruments right now. Differently Cool :roll:

[EZ]

Alto (legit) has been my primary instrument for over 20 years. I've, in the past year, rounded out my STB equipment, so my opinion is rather fresh.

My playing preference is ABTS. Bari is a solid second place as I find the tenor to be voiced a bit awkwardly for legit. The bari sound is really on it's own where it can be lyrical yet obviously unique from the alto range. Tenor does have it's place, but with an alto and a bari nearby, I'm not sure they bring all that much extra to a legit ensemble when an alto and bari are present. I love to play lyrical alto solos on bari. It sexes them up in an Angelo Badalamenti sort of way.

Tenors are perfect for an ensemble when there is only one saxophone present as they cover well in the middle range.

I've really been listening a lot more to the group "Morphine" as they are basically a drumer, a "two string fretless bass" and a bari sax, and the occasional synth. Great rock bari!

I'd never trade my legit alto chops for anything, but if it's time to rock, out comes the low A!

[magnus]

End of 9th grade.
Had no tubas, and the wench of a director had me on alto behind the two decent players, a girl who'd just moved from flute, and a foreign exchange student. So I pissed them all off and pulled out the Yamaha 62 that was in the back. Finally felt good about doing what I was doing, wanted to practice, etc., rather than just doing it for a school credit and to watch free football.

I had to give it up into college, went to school to be an engineer not a musician. By my sophomore year, I'd stumbled onto the internet, and found a bunch of vintage saxophone sites. I'd found a silver soprano in the paper and used it to have something to play.

About a year later, I had gotten a generous bonus up front (~$1000) to freelance write about football on the internet, and used that money to buy a baritone that was in need of repair off Ebay. The guy's reserve wasn't met, so I talked him down, got a Buescher for $700. Had it overhauled by a local master, added a Master Link to it, and had a kick *** horn. Fell in love, and we've been happy together ever since. :shock:


Yes, I absolutely adore Morphine as well.

[Brendan Muse]

I started on alto in summer band before 5th grade. We had such an alto sax choked section when I was in 5th grade that all of us lesser folk ended up playing bari parts. Student horns do not have anything even approching a decent low end.

The summer after that, I heard the bari for the first time, and I thought that it was the coolest thing in the world. As our bari player was leaving for high school that year, I figured that I might be able to play it. That year, I was first alto for about a month. When jazz band audition season rolled around, I made it on bari! Joy! I had a violently abused Yamaha 52, onto which I later fell off of a rafter, in addition to losing the front F key.

I moved that year and we rented a tenor sax, because we really didn't know if my director would have a bari for me to use. I played tenor in band, and it was boring. But I kept pestering my director about the bari. Again, when the time came to audition for jazz band, I pulled out a bari sax and was instantly put on it in whatever my director could make me play.

The next year doesn't really matter. When I was a freshman, though, I ended up marching tenor and playing bari in the second band. Then, my director asked me to play bass clarinet, since no one else was playing it and we had no bassoons. I suffered on it for two years, since our bari player last year wasn't much of a bari player, but he still managed to beat me. :evil: Not only did I finally make bari this year, but I plan on getting first chair in all state band.

And I bought a Yanigasawa 902 a few months ago. The pads stuck right out of the box, but it's a great horn otherwise.

[gspiegel]

I was playing bassoon in a wind ensemble and wanted to try a loud instrument. The school I was in at the time early '70's had a Mark VI that no one was using! I was hooked.

[Keisha Bedlam]

I started on flute halfway through fourth grade because nobody else played it and I wanted to stand out (my elementary school was unusual; you could start playing an instrument in fourth grade if you so desired. I did). I continued playing flute through middle school, mainly sitting second chair, although I got first chair several times, and then sank back into third in eighth (out of four). My first year in high school (that would be this year) I got ninth chair out of eleven flutes, and asked my teacher if I could switch to bari, because there wasn't one in symphonic band. I've been playing bari for two and a half months now. I'm probably one of the few people out there who went from flute to bari to alto (alto's my practice horn). But I love my bari very very much.

[Martin Williams]

My bari story is unusual you might say. I started sax on a Bundy II alto in 4th grade and played it though the end of freshman year, usually sitting 1st or second chair every year(the other 1st alto player was a girl named stacey who was pretty good). At the beginning of sophomore year I got a school owned Bundy II tenor and I I finnally got my chance to start playing tenor which I had wanted to do since 7th grade. After our Christmas concert, we found out that the bari player was pregnant, and so I volunteered to play it. It was a 98XXX Mark IV bari and man did I love it!! Im in college now, and saving for my own bari.

Martin Williams

[TenTenTooter]

I started on Alto in 6th grade. In 8th, while I was helping the director make an inventory of the school instruments, I found a Conn 12m bari sitting on a shelf collecting dust. I asked about it, then got permission to have it repaired, and I've been hooked ever since.

[OnyxSax]

My first experience on bari was when I first started saxophone. They didn't have a bari player in the band, so I switched over. I switched to tenor once my parents bought me my own horn.

I didn't touch bari again until I decided I wanted to buy one in 1989. I started surfing the classifieds and found "1914 Conn" in the Washington D.C. City Paper. I knew enough about Conns to realize that that was the patent date, not the date of manufacture. I also knew that Conns were pretty decent horns. So I went over to the guys' house, and $600 later, I walked away with my bari. After doing some research, I found the horn was a 1927 Conn Bari.

I knew the horn was special. It had a great sound and it blew away every bari we compared it to. It wasn't until almost a decade later that I learned that the bari I bought was the very much sought after Conn Chu, and one of best vintages of that horn, 204,xxx. In 2002, for the horns' 75th birthday, I sent it down to Gayle Fredenburgh at VintageSax for a full restoration. It took seven months, but it was worth the wait. As good as the horn was in pre-restoration form, it's even better now.

I only use it on about a half dozen gigs a year, but when it comes out, people do notice. It's also become my 15 month old daughter's favorite saxophone, and that, of course, is priceless.

[ClariBariGal]

Our schools "latin" jazz band was formed when i had been learing clarinet for about 3 years, and with the absence of a clarinet part i was going to play percussion. The day of the first rehearsal my teacher and the band director decided that b/c i could play clarinet i could play bari..so i had it strapped to me and the 1st alto and 1st tenor taught me everything i know now! Looking back im so glad i did it, but those first few rehearsals were soooooooooooooo scary!

[geddi]

After playing other woodwind instruments in jr. high, I begged my director to let me play bari in stage band my freshman year. It wasn't really a choice among the members of the saxophone family...bari was the only position open and I desperately wanted to be in the stage band.

It was kind of scary at first. The director gave me the sax and as soon as I got a sound out of it he said, "okay, you're ready." I was immediately thrown into the sax section with the best players in the band. I had a fingering chart and the experience of one half-a** note comming out of the horn from a minute before. Everyone seemed frustated that I couldn't get it together that first hour. By the end of class my director asked me if i wanted to give up and try to play the part on bass clarinet. It was a bit of a blow to my big fat ego.

I stuck with it and by the end of the year I considered myself to be pretty good. Although I later switched to first tenor because I was a big ol' ham and wanted to solo all the time, and eventually picked up alto, bari is still my favorite sax.

[BayviewSax]

I wanted the tenor from the start, but it was $15/month more to rent it, so I started on alto. Later, a friend of my sister sold me a bari for $100. A teacher later overhauled it for another $125, at which time I switched. Tenor was the drawer, but I always dug the bari, guys like Pepper Adams, Tate Houston and Sahib Shihab. I told my first teacher I wanted a tenor and a bari, and that I'd stop playing alto when I got them. She told me the proper order was *always* alto, tenor, soprano, then bari. I didn't listen, but then, I didn't stop playing alto, either. It was about a year ago that I "discovered" that the bari seems to be my voice. Things I couldn't execute on tenor just come out on bari. I still see myself as a tenor player, but now it's more of a 60/40 split. I'm VERY happy to see a resurgence in modern (avant garde) Jazz of the big horn, with the likes of Patience Higgins, Alex Harding, James Carter and Jesse Sharps.

[SaxPlayer1004]

thats an odd order. the way ive seen it soprano is usually either second or last. alto sop, or alto tenor, or alto bari is what ive seen. or atbs is what i did, bought my tenor because the shop didn't have baris and i love it, but i have a fascination with low notes, so now im searching for a bass.

[musikman]

I started out on the clarinet in 6th grade, because my parents didn't want to pay the money for an alto, i kept proding them and eventually they bought me a bundy II, I easily got first chair from then on, in seventh grade, around the beginning of the year the director asked the 2nd chair girl to play bari :cry: i was crushed, but i moved on and in 8th grade she quit band, so i asked to play the bari again, but the director wanted me to lead the rest of the less that capable alto section :-x it was stolen again, i starded proding the director to get another bari for me to play, since we have a poor school, that couldn't be done, so about a month later he kiked her to tenor :D ha, ha, justice had been done, and i am finally playing the bari!

[electricninja]

Bari was the easiest way to relieve bad GAS. For a while anyway. That and it's a real ego trip.

[Bob M]

This is a great topic!!!!

My HS band director asked me to play bari in the Jazz band. It was love at first honk. I also played it in the show bands for our musicals (learned how to transpose bassoon and trombone parts). My biggest thrill musically came when our band played in a competition judged by Count Basie and several of his sidemen and Charlie Fowlkes complimented me on a bari solo (on "Sunny" IIRC).

Since I used the school's bari (owned an alto) my bari career stopped when I started college. It stared up again about a year ago (26-years later) when I bought a "The Martin" bari from Sarge at WorldWideSax. Needless to say, I'm having a ball with it.

[Alexk]

My journey to the Bari ended this week when my ybs62, second-hand, turned up by courier from Sydney.
I started out on alto, played for 4 years and then added a tenor to my kit, and then played in a variety of bands and often thought that a bari would be a good thing to have. I have always been interested in the "big sax" from when I started out, now I'm blowin' it and lovin' it!

[scottiebu13]

I started on Alto in 5th grade. In 6th grade I moved to tenor because I was the strongest of the alto players. I played tenor straight through two years of college and still own one today. I never was very interested in Bari because in Jr. High and in EVERY concert band, the bari player was the weakest of the sax players. It wasn't until I was in High School Jazz band that we had an excellent Bari player. He graduated two years before me. I was his replacement based on being the most reliable sax player who was willing to try something new. After several years off from playing, I miss nothing more than playing the Bari. I hope to buy one and start playing again!

[chipmorrison]

I started with a rental alto eight years ago at the age of about 49. Bought a Chu Berry alto couple of months later. About four years ago, bought a Conn tenor, then, couple years after that, a Zephyr tenor. Finally, June of this year, got a Vega bari (1920s era Conn/Martin stencil). I still play the tenor, and even the alto a bit (when I feel like screaming), but the Vega gets way more attention. Feels like I finally arrived! The sound, down to low C or thereabouts is just tremendous. Full and lush. (Now, if I could just get that bad little B flat to pop out reliably...)

[saxfreak]

My journey to the bari was a gradual process. I began playing clarinet in 4th grade and continued on it through 2 music degrees. In high school I added tenor sax and a little soprano, so I could play in the stage band. In college I earned a degree in woodwind instruments, so I added alto sax (along with flute, and temporarily the double reeds). Over the years I've gotten lots of calls for pit orchestra work, and sometimes I needed a bari. I didn't own one, but I was able to borrow one from my ex-wife (a cool Selmer Radio Improved model). About 2 years ago I bought a Yanagisawa 901 on eBay and have used it in several shows and big band gigs since then. Bari is a blast to play, and I'm always glad to have a chance to use it. I enjoy the baritone part because it's often independent from the rest of the saxes and plays a lot with the trombones. After playing bari parts and getting used to the low range, I got interested in bass parts in general and developed a strong interest in bass clarinet, which is my current passion.
As a doubler, if you have all of the saxes available to you, you become much more versatile and valuable, leading (hopefully) to more gigs. Along that line of thought, I'm wondering whether to develop bassoon and/or oboe/English horn again, which I haven't played since the 1970's. I'll probably pass on the double reeds - they seem to be more of a commitment than I can offer at this time.

[JPSaxMan]

I was "pestered" into it but naturally after a month I no longer felt the sting :D

[CMelodyMan]

I begged my band director to let me play (what was)n the behemoth, and after two weeks I quit. Picked it up a year later, and have been playing on and off ever since. :D

[Ol Danl]

About 10 years ago or so, I was playing tenor in a community band. There were 3 of us playing the same tenor part, and I sat next to the bari player, who is a pretty good guy. He used to kid me about having to play in unison with 2 other tenor players, and "One couldn't play in tune, and the other wouldn't." He was right -- and we sat in front of the baritone horns who generally had the same notes, and yet a third concept of the correct pitch! Anyway, he was the only bari, and apparently enjoying himself. The horn he had then was pretty neat-looking (Jupiter, I think), and he would show me stuff, like the playing of bass clef, by reading it as treble and adding 3 sharps. Seemed like an interesting horn. My tenor got broken and I took it to Mr. Fail in Marietta. While talking with him, the bari subject came up, and he said sometimes if he got in an old Bundy, say, that didn't need too much work, he could sell it for under $1000. (This was early '90's) I had no way to justify (to the Mrs.) spending that much for a horn I did not need. I started squirrelling away a few bucks here and there. I would talk myself out of a Coke at work and toss a $ into the stash. I had them going in my drawer at work, in my glove compartment, in the bottom of my alto flute's plastic case where the glue was broken loose. Had one in a bag in the garage and the wife found it. This was after about 3-4 years. I had to own up, and she said, "Well, why don't you start a little savings account, and put in $20 every pay period?" I was amazed. I did that, but the $20 wasn't always there after everything else. Anyway, after about 9 years of saving/ratholing, I had about $1100, and along came ebay (this is 2003). I looked at Bueschers for a while, and bid on 1 or 2, but they were too much. (Figured I'd need $500-600 for repairs). Asked about Bundys on this forum, and generally got pretty much approval. Bought one in Aug. 2003, and it turned out to be a fixer-upper, pretty much. Took it to the local tech, who told me it would be months before he could get to it. Left it with him anyway, and got it back in May of this year. I don't have that much time for it lately, so I'm pretty slowly getting started. It's a really interesting horn, but I am really feeling like a novice after all these years of playing the other horns.

[Zoot Horn]

The voice inside my head that tells me what to do is a baritone.

[gingerjen]

too many years on clarinet, bought an alto ten or twelve years ago which I never really got on with. Got asked to do a show on bass clarinet and bari, which I had to borrow for the week.... had the most fun ever, and went out and bought my bari a few weeks later. 4 years down the line, and I am soooooo happy that I can now "sing with my true voice". just regret that I didn't discover the bari 20 years ago.....

Jen

[altosaxguy1]

my band director asked me to play bari for jazz band and i said what the heck she said that we needed to balance out the sound because the baris that tried out really sucked and she thought that because i was so good at alto that it would carry over to bari and it did.

[Sadie]

I played flute in concert band, and wanted to learn another instrument so I could play in the jazz band in my school. My dad had played tenor and reccommended it, so I started with that. There were too many tenors when I got to about grade eleven though, so I was like hey, bari, let's give it a shot. Upon playing it, I was just like wow...ok...this is my instrument. And the rest is history.

-Sadie

[deence12088]

I started my freshman year squawking on the alto, after a semester of that i decided that tenor sounded better. So the next school year i moved to tenor and decided that the bari sounded better. But our band already had a designated bari player so i spent a year waiting for them to graduate :P after they were gone, i claimed my stake as the bari player where i have been for the past two yrs. Now, all i can think about is that bass sax. I've never even seen or heard one up close, let alone play one. But that is my next desire. I know that no instrument could ever replace my bari, but i would give anything to run a scale on a bass. ahh yes. :D

[GAS_Wyo]

When I was in 8th grade, the band students loaded up on a bus and shuttled 5 miles to the high school for the last period of the day...band. Keep in mind that the first period was also band! The condition under which I got to go was that I had to play the bari. I'd been a tenor player since the 5th grade (just barely bigger than the horn then), so it wasn't much of a stretch to go one size bigger! The horn had a great sound (1970 Mark VI) and it was a blast to play it. I played 2 times a day for 9 months on that Bari. The best music lessons I ever had.

All was cool until we marched in the "Dogwood Festival Parade" in Knoxville, TN that next spring. It was a great festival, but the parade route seemed like it was 25 miles long! Up and down hills, keeping the horn hanging from the neck while 'at attention' (a band director's way of showing other band directors that his kids are completely under control) for hours, etc. I actually switched from sax to Trombone/marching and basoon/concert in 9th grade and never played bari again until college.

Being a music major, I just had to get into the 10:00 Jazz Band as a freshman. I tried out, looked for my name on the bulletin board and was asked to report to the equipment room. The guy running the room got my name and came back with a bari. This was a surprise to me as I had tried out on tenor. I totally got into it during those 4 semesters. :D

Then, as all music majors who complete their Theory classes, I started to think "how am I going to make a living?". I switched from music to Geology, put down all instruments and studied hard for the next 4 years. ;)

Took about 10 years to start hearing that little voice in my head again. First obtained a bassoon and played in Community Orchestra at the University for 5years. Then my job started moving me around the country. I found it was harder to find bassoon parts than sax, so I dusted off the tenor I bought in the 5th grade and started playing again (1999). Since then you can see evidence of a bad case of GAS in my signature. :shock:

When I was asked to play in the Community Band 2 years ago where I live now, the only part they really needed was for bari. I borrowed the school's Yamaha 52 during the summers and really enjoyed it. So, I just received my new bari 2 days ago. I am fully INTO IT again! :D

[JimmyVon]

Started on tenor but bought a Keilwerth low A Baritone a few years later. The reason? One word: MORPHINE (the band, not the drug, although their music IS pretty addicting) Check out their album "Yes" if you're not already familiar with it. If that guy's sound doesn't pull you in, then maybe you should switch to the piccolo.

[BariSkaJazz]

I believe Dana Colley plays on a Conn

[hgrail]

I had played bari back in college once as a sub in the pep band - back when I could also play tenor, clarinet, bass clarinet and baritone horn well.

After college took a break from music for 7 years - had overdone it with pep band, marching band and 2 symphonic groups (while finishing my accounting degree and 2 co-ops and working to pay for school).

First wife went bye - and I got a life again (yay!). Got a motorcycle and started playing clarinet again. Found my old band director (at a new college) and he let me join his (very good) symphonic group.

Did the clarinet thing there for 4 years. Got sick of clarinet - didn't care - didn't practice - total burnout. Was never my favorite anyway.:evil:

That summer I started playing my tenor seriously again - working hard in the summer community band I played it in (I never told them I played clarinet:D ).

I remembered playing bari in college way back when - and found an "Indiana Horn Company" bari, essentially a Martin Handcraft on Ebay for $800 bucks in OK shape. Being a do it yourself type - and kind of anal too - I found my way through replacing all the pads - regulation, etc. learning along the way. Then started playing it - what a blast!

That fall I had decided to drop clarinet (as primary anyhow) and showed up at the first rehersal with my tenor sax (only). Good deal - except five other tenors showed up that day too....

As the band director looked at our section shaking his head I raised my hand:

"Would you like me to bring my bari next week instead?"

"YOU have a bari??"

"Um, yeah"

"BRING IT!"

Been playing it for two years now - haven't looked back.

Oh yeah, I've got a great wife now too!;)
John

1935 Indiana Horn Company bari (my first bari!)
1935 Martin Handcraft bari
1924 Buescher True Tone Bari
1956? Martin Committee bari (in process)
1956? Martin Committee tenor
1924? Buescher True Tone Alto

[wolfmaiden]

switched to doubling on bari because no tenor seats available.....had a love/hate relationship with it for a while.........now I've got an EDII lig, seems all my problems are solved and I can wail as much on bari as on tenor (even attempting altissimo....god forbid!!)......we had a serious separation though during the Rovner Dark phase.........couldn't get one reed to seal properly (Superial, ZZ, Rico, Legere synthetic) - in fact, I took to leaving the bari in the truck in the hope that someone would steal it, and I could go out and buy an alto!!!....but now, our friendship is growing more with each day......LOL! ('cept for my bug problem......)

[Scott Tringali]

I was an alto player, and my first experience on bari was in high school, doing pit orchestra.

After that, it was in college; I was probably the worst "legit" player in my saxophone class, so when I auditioned for band I got the last seat... baritone. Second baritone.

I made the top jazz band sophmore year on bari, and stayed there for a few years. Eventually, I worked up to lead alto, only to discover I liked bari better. I even declined lead alto to go back on bari.

That stuck. After college I put down the horn for a few years. When I decided to join a big band again, I chose the bari chair and used that as an excuse to get myself the horn I always wanted!

These days I miss my alto! I even play more tenor than alto, which is quite strange. About the only time I get the alto out is for orchestra pits, where I've graduated from Reed 5 to (unfortunately) Reed 1 way too much.