Here are fast, cheap ways to remedy you problem.

1. Send your mouthpiece to a guy like EZ_Sax (Ed Zentera) and have him reface the Link. More than likely it has defects that are causing the squeaks/chirps.

2. Try a new reed.

3. Get your horn checked out by a local technician. ANY instrument, but especially saxophone, needs professional servicing. Your horn has leaks, go get them taken care of and you will enjoy the instrument much more.

These three factors, when combined, should make for a much happier saxophone player. Playing an instrument is supposed to be a release, not a frustrating experience.

Follow my advice, you'll be glad you did.

Saxaholic

 

And if you want to just pick it up and play, you can try a synthetic reed... no warm-up time. I use Legeres sometimes if I'm doing a multi-horn gig.

 

Well, my frustration has died down a bit, just came home from a gig and it all worked out pretty fine... but still!
I actually just got my tenor done, but in Holland good techs are scarce and the one I usually go to has a tendency to miss out on a lot of stuff. So now I DID have the horn checked, but still, there is insecurity about whether it's done right... it's just the continuous uncertaintity about what causes the problem.. the very source of my frustration

 

I understand you completely. Saxophone is just so frustrating by moment. A different reed could make you sound very ugly. I play since 14 years and sometimes I feel my sound is just not following my technic. Plus since I play on opened mouthpiece the tuning became a big issue. I am never sure to be in tune if I have not warm up the saxophone at least one hour before performing. I love the sax and develloped great technic on it but the sound is so versatile. Mouthpiece, reed,good padd, embouchure, tune, intonation there is so many thing to handle to master your sound. Sometimes I feel like pianist are favoured to just put their hand on the piano and produce nice sound. I play also piano(not very seriously, I just improvise and play chords progressions with some voicing) and when I play on it I always sound nice without any problem of warm up different reed or another thing. My teacher on improvisation workshop which is a bass player give me great compliment one day that I was in tune and have a good sound. And today I had a reed I does not control yet and he critizise my tuning and sound... How could I do to have more consistency in my sound? Always have a very good reed in my pocket and be always warmed up. Forteen year and I am not still serene with my sound exept on some occasion. It so frustating by moment. I am never sure to be in a good sound period and for example when I have to audition or go to an important gig it sometimes depends on my good prepared reeds. If the reeds forsake me I am kind of lost and have to deal with a completely different sound and feel on my sax. When all is perfect I play so good and all the sudden I have the bad reed or not adapted embouchure with that reed and I feel I lost years of practicing in tone producing just cause of a different reed. Of course I finally handle it with work and times but all the time I waiste on it and especially how it is frustrating to assume you play since forteen years and sound bad whereas you sounded great the day before.(of course when I say bad it is not the term appropriate, it is proportionnal to my level and demands) Do you feel the same sound frustration as me sometimes?

 

Ok, first get the equipment issues delt with.

* Ed Zentera can fix your link. He did for me.
* Any good tech can check out your horn.

Now it time to remember the love.

Go off somewhere all by yourself with your sax. Think of something very emotional and important in your life. Now blow the horn with your eyes closed and move your fingers. Don't concentrate on the mouthpiece or the sound in your mouth, but really listen to sound coming out the bell as you let all that energy and emotion pore out through the sax while playing randomly. Now, feel the sound as it comes right from you soul freely. That sound is more real and unique than any technique, method, style, teachers or anything things else that people try to tell you is important.

That's the piece you've forgotten. The joy of being able to express your soul. That's what playing the saxophone can do. Everything else that frustrates you is because of expectations that others put on you.

I know this is deep and maybe even a little out in space. But if there's no love in playing, then there's really no point in doing it.

 

Actually I sometimes play saxophone in a state of real meditation. I look at my window, loose myself in the moment and just enjoy the joy to express my soul through my saxophone, the joy of create something beatifull. I know it is my soul which I express through my sound. The problem and you said it it is the other. You can play freely at home and be happy just to express your soul. But when your are in a group and the drummer play loud and there is like a kind of competition in the air you have to be present, perfect and impress the other. I remember playing with some play along CD and express my joy to be in the moment through my sound and feel. It was like my mood and dreams were on my sound. But since I began to get a professional approache I have to admitt demands of perfection get more and more place over the simple approache of just enjoying the playing. I try to not be too frustrated sometimes. But what I forgot to say in my post is that when all is perfect it become magical and I have so much pleasure and I am so happy. I did a recording with a friend trumpeter and it was just beautifull at the moment and when I am frustrated the first choose I do is listen to when I played without frustration and listen to the player I love. I never forget that I have foremost loved music by listening to other before to play myself. I just put a CD concentrate on the message of the music and its beauty and meditate. When I do that I always have plenty of hope and happiness to pick up my sax. Finally my issue is that I don't prefer sax over the other instrument or over music. For me a sax is a medium to create music not a passion in itself. I could play piano in a jazz trio and it would be as wonderfull for me. I just choose the saxophone where I was very young thanks to my mother who wanted me to play. But for me all the instrument are marvellous and if I could master the piano or trumpet I would be as happy as master the saxophone. Maybe I would be a little more happy to master saxophone because it is my intrument but It could have been the piano or another instrument. I mean I did not really make the choice by my own to play saxophone but I learnt to love music and jazz by my own. Sometimes I wonder if saxophone is really suited to me but what could I do after forteen years and after having put so much work in it. Whatever I love my instrument , it is just I don't put him forward music. But I guess I have a certain story with my sax(I play since I am six year old)and frustration and love will be always here like in a real relationship. I just have to master it enough to not be frustrated anymore and that is like learn to be a kind of buddha. I always though that saxophonist must devellop a kind of serenity like a buddha in meditation in order to produce beautifull sound and line from their soul and not their body. It is the more difficult thing for a saxophonist, express not is body but is soul. I give myself the reason and the solution of my issue but a forum isn't a place were you have to share your idea and thought even if it is in the moment?
I think it is very interessant to know how saxophonist feel about their instrument and its realtion with their music and their artistic expression.

 

I think it's really interesting to hear these stories from others. The thread all of sudden got deeper than it began - from rant to philosophical.
But indeed, I also feel about the sax as being just wat I started to play when I was young. Maybe chose it more out of fascination with the shiny lacquer and all those buttons. If you know what I mean.
When I REALLY got into music, it turned out to be rock and even metal. I picked up the guitar and drums and kinda dumped the sax. But I never got lessons on both. So still, 'sax' was and will be my instrument. Then I got into jazz and funk and founded my current band, and I started getting back to the sax again, and found a new 'place' for it since in jazz it's a primary instrument. Now, though, I kinda feel the frustration coming up again, since my band plays harder funk, you know, the screaming Hammond style. And sometimes the sax just takes away from that.
I feel guitar or keys player have a better position, because they can alternate between improv and just pounding a good chord for some time with a wah and still release their emotion through that. I feel that inside me, but sometimes it's like that, with the sax, you have to have a REALLY good solo with perfect build-up and such to create the same momentum that sometimes can be created with just holding down a high note with a Hammond+leslie.
Now I get almost the same satisfaction in creating songs and ideas than in the actual playing, but I know that with a different and more profound role in the basis of the music I would be happier. I mean, sax is disposable, lots of times 'extra', while without basic groove there is no music (in this kind of band that is).


You might be wondering, why EVER did I pick up the sax. But I think it's interesting to hear others express the relationship between their musicianship and their being saxophone players.

 

I think it's really interesting to hear these stories from others. The thread all of sudden got deeper than it began - from rant to philosophical.
Hammond+leslie.
Now I get almost the same satisfaction in creating songs and ideas than in the actual playing, but I know that with a different and more profound role in the basis of the music I would be happier. I mean, sax is disposable, lots of times 'extra', while without basic groove there is no music (in this kind of band that is).
You might be wondering, why EVER did I pick up the sax. But I think it's interesting to hear others express the relationship between their musicianship and their being saxophone players.

You are right---this is an interesting thread. I know why I picked up the sax--it was because when I was somewhere around 9 years old and knew NOTHING about bands, orchestras, music, etc. a lovely man who was the band director at my tiny rural school suggested I learn sax and join the band, so I did. I played through high school, and then left the instrument home for my younger sister to play while I went off to college, grad school, marraige, kids, widowhood, etc. During those years, I did a lot of listening, mainly to classical music (in the generic, not the music history) sense, discovered the joys of choral singing, of opera, ballet, all of what I never experienced in my youth. I picked up the sax again 8 years ago and got involved in community bands. Unlike lots of you here (and this is probably a heretical statement) I'm not really in love with the sax---it's merely another means for me to be involved in making music with other people, and it was pretty easy to get back into it, since I read music quite well. I have no real interest in jazz, nor even much interest in the "legit" sax literature, and actually would rather be proficient on oboe or trumpet because I'd have more opportunity to be playing the musical literature I love best. However, life is compromise so I'll continue to value the pleasure it gives me, keep practicing, and try to endure with grace the considerable frustration that Iddo describes so well.... defective reeds, squeaks of unknown origin, difficult intonation, and (this is a major frustration in community band) of trying to play in tune and rhythmically with other saxophone players, some of whom don't seem to give a hoot about such "trivialities". I don't think I have the time or the courage to take up another instrument at this point---and the oboe?!! Talk about frustration!

So, even though I don't "love" the sax, I am immensely grateful to this forum for the sheer volume of wisdom it contains. I have learned so much that has helped me become a better sax player, and it has also been useful to me in defining and refining my musical priorities. So a big Thank You to all of you Forum contributors.
Ruth

 

Ps

Given the direction this thread has taken, might I suggest it be moved to the SOTW Forum Lounge.