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Choosing an Alto Saxophone
How to Assemble a Saxophone
What are Saxophone Reeds?
How to Use the Saxophone Mouthpiece
Breathing Techniques for an Alto Saxophone
Note Articulation on an Alto Sax
Alto Saxophone Fingering
Maintaining Your Alto Saxophone
How to Transpose Notes on an Alto Sax
How to Play Octaves on an Alto Saxophone
Range of the Alto Sax
Disassembly of an Alto Saxophone
Playing the Alto Saxophone with Metronomes
Find out whether buying a new or used sax, or renting a saxophone is the best option for a beginner; learn… More
A saxophone has the color of a brass instrument, but a reed like a woodwind. It has a bell like a tuba or … More
Put a saxophone together the right way to get the best sound from the instrument; learn how with tips from… More
Tune the saxophone without taking it into a shop, so it will play accurate notes; learn how with tips from… More
When you don’t have the funds or time to bring your saxophone into a music technician, do-it-yourse… More
Taking apart your saxophone requires that you do things in a certain order when you're handling the instru… More
A saxophone is a woodwind instrument that uses a reed that vibrates when a person blows through it, thus f… More
Get the right saxophone reeds--the wood piece that slides in the mouthpiece--to replace old reeds alto sax… More
Use the saxophone mouthpiece with the proper mouthpiece techniques; learn how from our expert sax player … More
Imagine that you're looking at someone the same height as you when playing a saxophone. Learn about saxoph… More
Practicing the saxophone well is important for performing well with the saxophone. Learn why it is importa… More
Saxophones are versatile instruments with the ability to play every note and tone in between. Review how t… More
When playing saxophone scales, remember that A flat is the same as G sharp. Play an A flat scale on the sa… More
Playing a C on the saxophone is done by playing B and A fingerings. Play this combination of notes to crea… More
Summary: Get the right saxophone reeds--the wood piece that slides in the mouthpiece--to replace old reeds alto sax; learn how from our expert sax player in this free sax video music lesson.
Leslie Burnick graduated from Auburn University in Alabama with a degree in music education. She has studied with Anthony Gigliotti, former principal clarinetist with the Philadelphia...read more
"Hi! My name is Leslie Burnick and I’m speaking on behalf of Expertvillage.com. Today I’m going to talk about reeds and how to put them on the saxophone. Again using a # 2½ to possibly # 3 reed is going to give you a better tone especially in the extreme ranges of the saxophone, the lowest notes and the highest notes. As a beginner just using just an inexpensive reed is fine. When you take the reed out of the case you want it to get wet in your mouth. You want to make sure that you don’t chew on it or anything because the tip of the reed is very very thin, so it’s very fragile. Reeds will tend to break a lot, as a beginner just be prepared, saxophone reeds generally are about $2 each. So you want to be careful as you are doing this. Again when you have your mouthpiece on the neck, what you want to do is if you were to lineup the reed all exact and then go to take the ligature, which holds the reed on and put that on, you are very likely to chip the edge of the reed. So you want to put the ligature on first, this ligature happens to be designed backwards. But your’s will come with the screws probably in the front. So you are going to lift up the ligature, slide the reed in and you are going to adjust the reed. Make it nice and straight, tighten up the ligature, you don’t have to over tighten. The tip of the reed should be even with the tip in the mouthpiece. So you want to make sure again without the reed you are not going to get any sound on the saxophone.So this little tiny piece of wood is very important and that’s the assembly of the reed. "
eHow Article: What are Saxophone Reeds?
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