Carrying a sax

1695 Views 16 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Colin B, May 9, 2007

Bennyg

Discussion Starter · May 6, 2007

This is certainly back to basics. In reading this forum I have become educated about how delicate sax mechanisms are and the amount of work that goes into making them work properly.

The other night at rehearsal I picked up my tenor to clip it onto the strap and could feel all those pretty rods flex. My heart almost stopped! This can't be right but I see people carrying saxes this way all the time. Seems to me grabbing the bell might make more sense since it looks a lot more robust than the main body.

Anybody care to further my education on the proper way to pick up and carry a sax?

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JerryJamz2

· #2 · May 6, 2007

Handle it like a raw egg and you'll have minimal problems. Best to grab/hold it on the bell area where your hands/fingers are not in contact with any key mechanisms.

abadcliche

· #3 · May 6, 2007

JerryJamz2 said:
Handle it like a raw egg and you'll have minimal problems. Best to grab/hold it on the bell area where your hands/fingers are not in contact with any key mechanisms.

Raw egg is a good one. My usual metaphors for the how-to-care-for-your-sax spiel are fine watches and kittens. "Any shock, pressure, temperature, or humidity that you wouldn't want to expose a kitten wearing your great-grandfathers wristwatch to, don't expose your sax to"

And then my wife, who is an editor, tells me I need to stop ending sentences prepositions with.

magical pig

· #4 · May 6, 2007

abadcliche said:
And then my wife, who is an editor, tells me I need to stop ending sentences prepositions with.

Victor.

jbtsax

· #5 · May 6, 2007

Another thought here...be careful as you remove the sax from the case gripping the bell that you don't pull quickly or jerk the sax out of the case. This can easily twist the body and bell out of alignment and cause the low B and Bb pads to not seal the toneholes. We fix at least 3 or 4 of these a week. Some of us like to grip the body of the sax in the area of the neck strap ring without putting pressure on the keys or rods when holding or moving the sax.

JerryJamz2

· #6 · May 6, 2007

Cats/kittens can swim well, even though they hate water and will avoid it when at all possible. Being resilient animals, they can fall from 10 stores up, land on their legs always, and rarely are injured. Hence 9 lives..

My grandfathers wristwatch (for me, it's a railroad time-piece) is/was made amazingly well for it's time. Probably why it's still here and working well to this day. I doubt any average wristwatch will stand up to its comparible abuse and age, yet while still working 50 years later, and has never needed or seen a repair shop.

G

· #7 · May 6, 2007

Carrying big saxes

Whenever I'm moving my tenor sax to or from its stand, I hold it by both its bell and thumb hook.

I don't think it's a good idea to hold it by the bell only.

Gordon (NZ)

· #8 · May 6, 2007

If you pick it up by the bell, then do not jerk it. Until you have straightened a few bell/body alignments, to get the bottom 2 pads to line up with tone holes again, you have no idea just how easily the bow bends!

I see little harm in picking up a sax with the fingers almost anywhere, PROVIDING the pressure exerted by each finger involved, is not much more than the finger would normally use in operating the sax. Yes, some keys will close, some may open, some long ones may flex, but this is OK providing the forces are small. That is achieved by spreading the forces around many areas. (BTW I reckon I would do more handling during an overhaul/repad, than the average player does over several years, so I have a fair idea of what handling does what to a sax.)

What should be of more concern to some gorilla-gripping players, is that stack keys without off-centre pearls can easily be bent out of alignment with tone holes by pressing hard on those pearls during normal playing! (Perhaps I should say ABnormal)

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tbone

· #9 · May 6, 2007

JerryJamz2 said:
Handle it like a raw egg and you'll have minimal problems.

Is that in or out of the shell?

Jonathan C.

· #10 · May 7, 2007

Or Both?

JerryJamz2

· #11 · May 7, 2007 (Edited)

Even if scrambled you can still make breakfast...

retread

· #12 · May 7, 2007

abadcliche said:
And then my wife, who is an editor, tells me I need to stop ending sentences prepositions with.

That's a myth. A common myth. but still a myth. Winston Churchill was a master of the English language. His comment: "That is nonsense up with which I will not put."

Gordon (NZ)

· #13 · May 8, 2007

That's funny.

G

· #14 · May 8, 2007

retread said:
That's a myth. A common myth. but still a myth. Winston Churchill was a master of the English language. His comment: "That is nonsense up with which I will not put."

Churchill had tons of quips, this is my favorite !

Shaw to Churchill - ""I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one." --

Churchills response - "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."

Who said the English have no sense of humor ? Or is it humour ?

jbtsax

· #15 · May 8, 2007

My favorite is when a matronly lady at a social gathering remarked, "Winston, you are quite drunk." To which he replied, "Yes I am quite drunk madam, and you are quite ugly, but I shall be sober in the morning.

hansmartini

· #16 · May 8, 2007

Here's one attributed to Shaw, as far as I know,
He asks a lady at a social gathering if she would sleep with him for $1000. She allows that she would. Later in the evening he approached her again and asked if she would sleep with him for $5. She replied "Of course not. Do you take me for a common slut?". He replied "Madam, we have already established that fact; we are bargaining over the price."
Hans

Colin B

· #17 · May 9, 2007

Another one of his: A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.

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