Yes, absolutely! I am happy to teach from complete beginners up to around grade 8 level.
Yes, if you want me to. There is more detail about this on my philosopy page, but in short I don’t follow a graded syllabus as a matter of course. However, grades can be useful learning tool, and if you would like to take a grade exam then I can of course help you prepare for that; I am familiar with the ABRSM piano and saxophone syllabuses.
Yes! I’m quite happy to teach all ages, and I have taught many adults. There is a perception that it is harder to learn as an adult, but I’m not sure it’s quite as simple as that. Learning as an adult is different to learning as a child, but in some respects that can be an advantage: adults tend to have a much clearer sense of what they are trying to achieve, and can be more driven and more focussed. One challenge that adult learners can have is finding the time to practise; we do often seem to manage to be constantly busy. (Having said which, that seems to be increasingly the case with children too; after-school activities and clubs seem to take up more and more of childrens’ time.)
Think more in terms of playing that practising, particularly for young children. What we don’t want is for it to become a chore, like school homework. I would much rather they played music as relief from all their other obligations, than music practise becoming one of them. Naturally, the more they play in between lessons, the more progress we’ll see, and of course my hope is that what we do in lessons will inspire them to play, but if they don’t, then don’t force the issue.
No, please don’t! Particularly for piano (sax is less of an issue). Tutor books are popular with both piano teachers and young pupils, and I have used various different ones in the past, however I have yet to come across one that doesn’t promote misconceptions and misunderstandings (albeit unintentionally). I go into more detail on my philosopy page, but time and time again I have seen pupils develop problems as a result of having been taught using them. On both piano and saxophone, I teach beginners without the use of a book initially (and on piano, for quite some time).
I’m sorry, no I don’t. My lessons are mostly taught back-to-back, and with the teaching time I have available, it would not be practical for me to have to factor in travel time. I do have a dedicated music room at my house, with a real acoustic piano, and parents are welcome to stay in the room for their child’s lesson if desired.
If you’re looking to take up the saxophone, and would like advice about getting an instrument, I have a page dedicated to choosing a saxophone.
For piano pupils, it really depends on the space you have available and your budget. There is nothing quite like the feel and the sound of a real piano, and if you can accommodate it, then it really does give a much more rewarding playing experience. Getting a used one is a great idea, but just be sure to get one that doesn’t need significant work doing; going to a reputable dealer is highly recommended. It is also important to get the piano tuned regularly (typically every six months to a year, at a cost of around £60–£90).
Naturally, a real piano may not always be a realistic option, but this needn’t be a barrier to learning. A good digital piano, such as a Yamaha Clavinova, is a great option, and failing that, a less expensive alternative would be something from the Yamaha P-series, such as the P-45. Any of these options would be suitable right up to the higher grades, although I would still suggest that advanced players (grade 8 and above, roughly speaking) should aim to practise on a real piano.
If a cheaper and/or smaller alternative is required for a young beginner, then a smaller keyboard (such as the Yamaha PSR series) can be used. I would suggest that the most important things to look for in such a keyboard are that it has full size keys, and is touch responsive. This would be fine in the early stages, although in time something with a full-size keyboard and weighted keys will be required.
Yes. Kind of. The technique is essentially the same, and the fingerings for the standard range are the same, so you can switch between them without major grief. However, they do feel different. The higher the sax, the tighter your embouchure must be (and conversely, the lower the sax, the more relaxed your embouchure must be), and this will take time to get used to. Depending on how good your technique is, you might also be ‘found out’—for instance, you need more air for the bigger saxes, however regardless of which size sax you play, you should be using plenty of air (it’s just that you can ‘get away with it’ with the smaller saxes).
As you become an advanced player, more differences become apparent: the altissimo fingerings are not quite the same (these are the very high notes, above the standard range of the saxophone), the alternative trill fingerings are not quite the same (these can even vary slightly among different examples of the same size of saxophone), and they all have subtly different intonation tendencies (the intonation is significantly harder to control on the soprano sax than on its lower siblings). However, if you are advanced enough a player to be concerning yourself with these issues, then you should find you can adapt to the different sizes of saxophone well. It is very very common for saxophone players to play more than one size of saxophone, and quite common for players to play all four of the main types.
I should say that the above is based on my experience with the four main types of sax; I have never played a sopranino or bass sax, or any of the other more unusual varieties, so I can’t offer any insight on whether this applies to them.
There are two main schools of thought on this: either you keep them moist, or keep them dry. I have to admit that I’ve never tried the former, but there are special reed cases (such as the Vandoren ‘Hygro’ case) which are designed to keep them moist. I believe the idea is that the reed is ready to go whenever you need it, without having to moisten it too much before you play.
I’ve always kept mine dry. I used to use Vandoren reed cases which had tubes of dessicant in order to absorb moisture, however the problem I found with these is that at some point the dessicant reaches it’s capacity, and you open the case to find you have mouldy reeds (presumably due to lack of airflow). I now use basic no-frills D’Addario Reed Guards, which work great as long as you make sure you dry the reed really well before you put it away. I have had no problems with reed longevity doing this.
I’m also not aware of any problems with leaving them in the plastic cases that they come in, as long as you dry them out properly.
In terms of day-to-day maintenance, the main thing is to keep it dry. Moisture will inevitably build up inside the instrument as you play, so when you have finished playing, make sure you take the sax apart and dry all the parts individually: the reed, the mouthpiece, the neck and the body.
I use a normal pull-through swab for the body (in the case of alto and tenor, the kind with a brush on), and I use a smaller pull-through (dsigned for soprano sax) to dry out the neck and mouthpiece (for the soprano sax, needless to say I use the same pull-through for everything). Then I use the cloth part of the smaller pull-through to dry off the pads for the palm keys (these are the ones that get the wettest), I use a polish cloth to buff the lacquer, and I leave the case open for an hour or more to let moisture evaporate. Lastly, I use the smaller pull-through to keep the C# and G# keys open, by wedging a little bit of the cloth in between the pads and the tone holes, to prevent these pads from sticking. Since each of these keys is closed by default, and pressing the key opens it (whereas most keys on the saxophone work the other way around), they spend most of their time closed, and the pads can easily stick to the tone holes—the result being that you try to play a G# or a C# and G-natural or C-natural comes out (which tends to sound pretty bad).
I know it can tempting to leave the sax set up, so you can play it whenever, or to pack it away with the reed still on the mouthpiece, however I have seen this lead to some very mouldy reeds and mouthpieces!
Another popular cleaning product is the so-called ‘pad saver’, which is a long fluffy thing which you’re supposed to leave inside the bore of the sax when you’re not playing it, to absorb moisture. I don’t recommend the use of these. There are very mixed views on whether this is a good idea; personally, I don’t use them as I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of leaving something that’s moist inside the instrument. I don’t know if there is any good evidence one way or another on the efficacy of these, but at the very least they are poorly named, as they don’t even touch the pads.
Lastly, cleaning the baritone saxophone is a bit more complex. A normal alto/tenor pull-through doesn’t have a long enough cord for a baritone sax, and the narrowness of the bore at the top of the instrument (along with the octave pip), make it difficult to pull it all the way through (although I have seen this done on YouTube). By all accounts, the main part of the baritone sax that needs drying is the top bow (the curly section at the top), and there are specific swabs you can get for this, which are inserted into the neck socket. I use something similar myself. I haven’t found a good way of drying out the entire bore of the instrument, though.
I tend to think that provided you have a good student saxophone, there is no reason to upgrade until you have developed a good embouchure and air support, and have found a good mouthpiece/reed combination that works well for you. (I’m not sure that there is much point in trying out expensive saxes with a beginner mouthpiece.)
The only way to know which sax is right for you is to try some saxes out—as many as possible—and unless you already have a good sound, and a reasonably well-developed embouchure, you won’t be able to evaluate the saxophones properly, as you are likely to be the limiting factor of how good they sound.
Because instrument choice is such a personal thing, other people’s reviews are of limited value, and manufacturer’s blurb is even less useful. The most important thing is the player, not the instrument, and so what you should be looking for is the instrument that allows you to express yourself most naturally. Try not to get absorbed in marketing and labels. A sax is a sax; there is no such thing as a ‘jazz sax’ or a ‘classical sax’. Even the designations ‘beginner’, ‘intermediate’, ‘professional’, ‘custom’, ‘elite’, and so on, are really just marketing. ‘Vintage’ doesn’t mean ‘better’, and a Selmer Mark VI is not necessarily better than everything else. For many years, woodwind technician Stephen Howard played a Yamaha YTS-23 (an old student model) as his primary tenor sax.
