[Richard901]

Sirvalorsax's video description
This is a video explaining the daunting task of being a high-level sax player.

Richard901 - I added (Wind) to the title. Sirvalorsax mentions this at 0:19.

 

[Reet McVouty]

OK, I got about half way through that, it was just too long winded for me. And, I don't think this is titled appropriately, as the major focus from what I gleaned from it was about tone production, not really the difficulty of learning or playing the saxophone. No mystery here though, as most developing students start on their instrument in grade school concert band and have little or no concept of how a saxophone should actually sound. While I don't disagree with SVS's theory in regards to overtones and all the other techniques to good sound production, I think the most fundamental process to developing a good sound comes through listening. I say this from personal experience. Long before I ever heard of overtones, long-tones or just the word tone itself I was playing along with records, trying to emulate different players. Since I had no formal teaching at that time my sole development was learning to play by ear and trying to sound like the pros I was listening to. So, by the time I did start studying formally I had a good sound and was receiving complements from teachers and students, even though I was lacking in technique in all the other areas. My sax teacher actually said to me one day that I had one of the major hurdles taken care of in the fact that I had good tone production, that the rest would be easier to pick up simply by doing my do diligence and practicing every day, and also no matter how much technique you have, no one will want to listen to you if you sound sad. So, now I'm the one getting long winded, when I could have just simply said you can't develop a good tone without knowing what a good tone is. Anyway, that's just my two cents.

 

[TomOhio]

While I don't disagree with SVS's theory in regards to overtones and all the other techniques to good sound production, I think the most fundamental process to developing a good sound comes through listening.

Listening is important, but I think the emphasis Sirvalorsax put on tone production is vital. In that sense I agree with him - producing a full, resonant sound on a saxophone isn't easy. It takes years of work to get to that point, so the title of his video makes complete sense to me.

 

[skeller047]

I watched this all the way through, I generally find Adrienne's videos to be interesting and present a different view point than mine. We often end up coming to the same conclusions, but go via a different path.

The thing that bothered me the most about this video was the idea that a woodwind player (not saying a saxophonist) must invest a lot of money and time to own and perform well on multiple instruments .... for THE SAME MONEY.

This was not the case when I was a working musician. If you played doubles, you got a premium, usually a percentage of base scale, for each additional instrument. In the Bay Area, it was 15% for the first double, and 10% for each additional instrument. In Reno/Lake Tahoe the rate was 10% for the first double, and 5% for each additional one.

I find it disturbing that a saxophonist playing 4 saxes plus flute, piccolo, clarinet and bass clarinet, would not get paid a premium for a) carting all those horns to the gig and b) playing them. Where is the incentive to put in the time and money required to play all these instruments at a high level? To say nothing of the expense of maintenance, and initial cost, all of which are higher than comparable brass instruments.

Maybe some of our cruise ship musicians can chime in here - is it true that a doubling reed player would be paid the same per cruise as a trombonist?

 

[hakukani]

I remember back in the day that clarinet and flute were expected, and not considered a double. Oboe and bassoon were.

 

[lostcircuits]

I like Adrienne, he's a fresh breeze in all those video tutorials but he reminds me of these authors that get paid by the word... I did not have the attention span to sit through his monologue. Sure, there are some valid points but vilifying the octave key for almost 15 minutes, that's a bit too much.

 

[Aquarian]

The expectation that you will double would be fine if it paid. It does not. That is not exactly a saxophone problem, but it is an unrealistic expectation placed on woodwind players in many professional situations. It's absurd.

As someone who played flute mainly or exclusively for many years, I think each instrument has it's own difficulties. Playing full low notes on flute is very difficult. Playing into the 3rd octave or up on sax is similarly difficult. His point about equipment - mouthpieces - and tone is actually very important, though. There are at least two or three standard types of tone. There is a difference in classical and jazz flute tone and technique, but not equipment.

Realistically, there is a standard jazz piece, the Meyer on alto and the Otto Link on tenor, and many of the different mouthpieces are variations on these designs. Similarly, there is a standard jazz form of improvisation (basically a sort of light bebop), but it's less codified than in the classical world because it sits right next to the people who very much reject that same thing... In the jazz world, there are in a sense two types of players, those who are constantly trying to find a new thing, and those who are trying to clone X player or play jazz in a generic sense (the jazz we know Ken Burns, that stopped at 1970). Even on a high level this holds to a large degree. The thing is, we have a pedagogy that doesn't recognize this distinction well.

The music business is terrible but, well, I hate to say it but most businesses are in one way or other.

 

[Tranechaser]

I like him, but his videos are too long for my short attention span.

 

[soybean]

It's hard to imagine that saxophone is more difficult than French Horn or Bassoon.

 

[KeithL]

I generally find his videos interesting and I agree with much of what he says or implies. However, I think he suffers from the same thing that many really skilled or long-time players often do; he believes his experience is universal and therefore universal truth. I think Jay from "Better Sax" is similar in many ways. I don't hold it against either of them because I think in the end they are both really kind souls who provide a lot of good information and expect little in return. Like Steve said above there is often more than one path to get the same result and few of the folks that watch their videos are experienced enough to realize this.

 

[bobsax]

I like Adrienne, he's a fresh breeze in all those video tutorials but he reminds me of these authors that get paid by the word... I did not have the attention span to sit through his monologue. Sure, there are some valid points but vilifying the octave key for almost 15 minutes, that's a bit too much.

I watched it at two times speed so 7 1/2 minutes

 

[goldenskyhook]

OK, I got about half way through that, it was just too long winded for me. And, I don't think this is titled appropriately, as the major focus from what I gleaned from it was about tone production, not really the difficulty of learning or playing the saxophone. No mystery here though, as most developing students start on their instrument in grade school concert band and have little or no concept of how a saxophone should actually sound. While I don't disagree with SVS's theory in regards to overtones and all the other techniques to good sound production, I think the most fundamental process to developing a good sound comes through listening. I say this from personal experience. Long before I ever heard of overtones, long-tones or just the word tone itself I was playing along with records, trying to emulate different players. Since I had no formal teaching at that time my sole development was learning to play by ear and trying to sound like the pros I was listening to. So, by the time I did start studying formally I had a good sound and was receiving complements from teachers and students, even though I was lacking in technique in all the other areas. My sax teacher actually said to me one day that I had one of the major hurdles taken care of in the fact that I had good tone production, that the rest would be easier to pick up simply by doing my do diligence and practicing every day, and also no matter how much technique you have, no one will want to listen to you if you sound sad. So, now I'm the one getting long winded, when I could have just simply said you can't develop a good tone without knowing what a good tone is. Anyway, that's just my two cents.

They say it's easy to learn to play sax. I say it's easy to learn to play the sax BADLY.

I believe that ear playing and improv skills are a hundred times more important than theory, sight reading, or any of the rest of that "due diligence." Music is the sound waves that come out of the horn, NOT a bunch of ink dots on a page, or their mathematical relationships to each other. In the long run, I supported a long and fairly healthy career by "just blowing" when called upon to play.