Saxophone - Buying tips & guidelines
Baritone, Tenor, Alto and Soprano Saxophones. Find out more by clicking on the tile below. For beginners, the recommendation is to start with the Alto or tenor Saxophone. The Soprano (and Sopranino) is a high-pitched and challenging instrument for a beginner to get a pleasing tone. At the same time, the Baritone (and Bass) is a low-pitched instrument. In addition to being expensive, it is a rigid instrument to blow and finger, especially for children or small adults.
The Alto Saxophone needs less air to play and is recommended for young beginners. It has a compact, easy-to-play key layout than the larger Saxophones; it’s great for developing basic skills and techniques and also has a vast amount of music that exists for it, especially in the classical repertoire. It is a very versatile instrument used considerably by jazz musicians.
Some instrument manufacturers now make Saxophones with reduced keywork the same size as the Alto but remove some extra chromatic keywork to make the instrument lighter.
With its B♭ tuning, on the other hand, the Tenor Saxophone sits happily between the Alto and the Baritone. Though larger than the Alto, the key layout is still easy-to-play and needs less air than larger Saxophones; hence it is recommended for young beginners and teenagers.
Notably, most skills one learns playing any particular Saxophone are readily transferable to other Saxophones.
The Alto Saxophone needs less air to play and is recommended for young beginners. It has a compact, easy-to-play key layout than the larger Saxophones; it’s great for developing basic skills and techniques and also has a vast amount of music that exists for it, especially in the classical repertoire. It is a very versatile instrument used considerably by jazz musicians.
Some instrument manufacturers now make Saxophones with reduced keywork the same size as the Alto but remove some extra chromatic keywork to make the instrument lighter.
With its B♭ tuning, on the other hand, the Tenor Saxophone sits happily between the Alto and the Baritone. Though larger than the Alto, the key layout is still easy-to-play and needs less air than larger Saxophones; hence it is recommended for young beginners and teenagers.
Notably, most skills one learns playing any particular Saxophone are readily transferable to other Saxophones.