How to Hold a Saxophone Properly

Video Transcript

" For expertvillage.com this is Mitch Kaplan. In this clip we will be talking about how to hold the saxophone. How to hold the saxophone is important because a lot of things could happen to you if you hold it wrong or you would get a bad tone. We do not want that, so we have the saxophone strap, the clip simply goes into the round hole that is on the bottom part portion of the saxophone, and you just simply put it in. You clip it in and you should make sure that the saxophone, the clip part does not allow the saxophone to fall off while you are playing, because there is a lot that can happen when the saxophone hits the ground. Once it is clipped on then you can begin to play. And when you hold the saxophone, it is important that your left hand is on top, because then you can adjust any of these keys that you need to for the higher notes, and you will also have your right hand down for your lower notes, using your pinkies. Part of the saxophone and holding it is the thumb rest. The thumb rest is located right here at the bottom of the sax, the base of the sax, and your right thumb would go underneath that; it is part of the support. Then your left thumb would go onto this disc right here and would roll on to the octave key when needed. You want the saxophone to come right into your mouth without bending down. It is important that it just falls right into your mouth. The next thing that I want to mention is that for sound, you would want to play by keeping your fingers as close to the keys as possible. Keeping the keys as close as possible is very important for technique reasons. There is another thing, holding the saxophone. Most people when they sit, they hold the saxophone in front as I am doing it, but if you sit and you are playing in a big band, most professionals prefer you to put it on the side, so it would look uniform and more extravagant. If you do that, you should readjust the saxophone strap to you so that you would want it to sound as good as possible…and that is how to hold the saxophone."