Are there any musicians in here?...

Hehe for sure sis, actually I’m like you, I haven’t picked up the guitar in awhile

I was humming along with this in harmony lol very good video @Marcelo

I don't know about anybody else but I'd sure like a jar of strawberry if you can spare one ?

Is there any girl here who can play bass guitar like this?

This girl says "I can, I can, I can, ....!"

@Marcelo very talented indeed!!

What amazes me is that the bass guitar is not a girl's instrument -- the strings are too heavy.

I play the sax, lots think that’s not a girls instrument, but actually
it suits the smaller hands of a woman. Men often have to overlay
some of the palm keys, with “palm key raises” to reduce hand
movement as their hands are too big for the instrument.

The soprano which I play as well, has even smaller keys.

@Miri oh I didn’t know that about the sax, does alot of air go into blowing the sax?

Btw, lovely pictures sis ❤️

It’s a bit hard at first. You have to develop the correct embrochure, it takes a
while for your jaw muscles to firm up and to also the inside of your lower
lip toughens up a bit to grip the reed properly. It kind of gets a bit rubbery.

You also develop a bit of a two pack due to the need to use your stomach
muscles to force the air out of your lungs and support the air column!
(Beats going to the gym lol). That increases with the soprano as you need
even more air pressure.

Until all this happens which takes a few months, beginners tend to play very
loud as they cannot control the stream of air. Also they can’t play for
much more than 10- 20 mins at a time as your mouth can’t take the constant
pressure of biting down on the reed. You also have to use thin reeds to
start off with.

A lot of people give up after a few goes as they don’t understand the changes
that need to take place.

But it gets easier and after a while you find you can control how loud, quite
you play. Also it gets easier to breath as your stomach muscles firm up.
It doesn’t take long, you get to the point where you are over blowing the
reed as your lung capacity increases and so then it’s time to go up to the
next reed size.

When you first start it feels like your eyeballs are vibrating because you
can’t hold the mouth piece firmly enough in your mouth. Lol

The clarinet is somewhat similar, but a little easier as it had a wider
opening in the mouth piece.

I actually find the sax more comfortable to play than the clarinet, as the
clarinet has a thicker mouth piece and I only have a small mouth
(Contrary to what some people think!). The sax mouthpiece is slimmer.

On the mouth issue, at one point I went to a saxophone summer school
at the royal college of music in my city, I was use to playing for 3 hours at a
time, but they had us practicing for 5-6 hours at a time.
For the first 2 days my mouth was so sore, everyone was the same. We went
through tubes of mouth ulcer cooling gel. But after the first 2 days I was
fine.

I did play in the worship team for 10 years, that picture was when we took the
church service to the town hall and had a special service with 1500 people there
including the Lord Mayer and other town officials.

I’ve had to step out of the worship team now as I don’t have time for all of the
Practice needed, due to being a carer for my aunt.

The quality of the instrument makes a difference too. Beginners tend to go
for cheap ones. But those kind tend to be heavy due to being made of cheap
metal and also don’t sound that great. As a beginner it’s better to get an
expensive second hand instrument.

My first one was second hand but it still cost £800.

My current alto sax is a professional model to buy new it would be
£1800 but I got that second hand as well for £1000 it’s brass but
overlaid with gold lacquer which gives it a warm tone.

As for Soprano sax there is no such thing as a beginners! It’s too hard
for a beginner, you are better starting with something else first.

Oh and there are different mouth pieces and reeds. Ones with a more
Open apature give a loud jazz sound, ones with a more closed apature give
a warmer more classical sound.

I’ve got a special ligature which holds the reed in place with different
plates, they change the sound too, one is more controlled,
another allows the reed to vibrate with more of a sax growl. Lol

I use these, they are brilliant but cost around £100 just for the
Metal bit.


https://www.matthewsmuziek.nl/media...oren_optimum_sax_rietbinder_plastic_dap_1.jpg

I had a colleague who battled against his saxophone for many years. Last time I saw him was 18 years ago and I'm not sure if he has learned proper embouchure yet.

That sounds awful. Lol

Probably due to poor position of the mouth, reed too thin,
or the key on the crook part is leaking air.


This is the crook bit, you see that itsy bitsy key, if it leaks air or
gets gunged up with spit. Your saxophone squeals!

So does anyone want to share any technical tips for playing the
Base guitar!

Miri, is your alto sax pitched in E flat? If so, do you have to transpose or do you use instrument-specific sheet music? Or maybe you never play along with other instruments and just play what you read. Thank God the viola is not a transposing instrument -- reading what is written is already hard enough!

Paul McCartney will be pleased to help you!

Apart from playing bass chords, can you do anything else with them.
Is it possible to boogie with them. Lol