New to the saxophone

[Mark Kiziuk]

Hi all! My name is Mark Kiziuk and I live in NY. I just purchased my very first alto saxophone that will be arriving in a couple of days. I don’t know anything about music but I’m going to give the sax a go, because I have always loved its sound. I purchased an Armstrong 3008A alto sax s/n 746191 from eBay. The description said in very good playing condition and all pads in excellent shape. Anyone know about this sax? Or what the s/n means? Is the year in the s/n anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Hi Mark – welcome to this site! i think s/n stands for serial number?
Serial numbers can usually be traced to the year a sax was made.
Great site for getting information on sax playing!

[paddy jordan]

Hi Mark you chose one of the best sites here for infact theres only one better than this on the planet so thats says something about it! i was exactly just like you a few years ago could not even read a dot.but i will say something about learning this wonderful instrument that i did not know when i started that its like moving a mile inch by inch you have to move many inches to see just how far you have have traveled i think most of the more serious members would appreciate what i getting at happy wood shedding Mark.

[jake]

Welcome mark. I’m from New York too. Central ny that is. Yes I agree. U found an amazing site here. I’ve learned and developed so much from Johnny and the other members here. Good luck. Don’t give up its a bitch at times but if ur like me u will find u will love the beast known as the saxophone!

[jake]

Forgot to say. If u find u are having troubles with notes? Get ur sax checked at a music shop. I’ve bought a few saxes from eBay and none of them played as described! I hope urs is different.

[Mark Kiziuk]

Hi sxpoet,paddy Jordan and Jake. Thank you all for the nice welcome! Excited about getting my sax this Monday! My biggest, biggest problem is where to practice? I live in an apartment, so I guess it’s out to practice here. Where I work, there might be a couple of spots in the back of the building (I just hope some of my co-workers don’t think I’m strange for practicing a sax), and or, I might take a walk during lunch break? By the way I live on Long Island located in NY.
Mark

[Marc]

Welcome to the addiction, Mark…
An alto is THE saxophone to start with… you’ll feel it very comfortable, and it could be the first of a larger set in the oncoming years if you decide to go to tenor, bari or soprano, or it could be your lifetime faithful friend as well…

To practice in an apartment you must put mode FTN (f**k the neighbors) on, which in some cases is kinda hard to do… LOL. Otherwise use your bedroom with all doors and windows closed, but all closet doors open. Carpets, pillows, cushions and hanging clothes are good soundwave attenuators. Better if you can point the instrument towards an open closet. However be prepared to receive some joke-disguised complaints… I used to answer with a “you see… never is too late to start learning something new”.
I don’t recommend using any mute device in the very first steps of learning. They demand more breathing effort from the player, and low notes sound ugly (or don’t sound at all) which causes the students letdown, and they eventually quit practicing.

The bottomline: Practice EVERY sigle day. Muscle memory builds up by constant repetition. And not only finger muscles, but most important: embouchure (mouth).

Good luck, and keep us posted on your learning progress.

Marc.

[Mark Kiziuk]

Thnx Marc I will keep everyone posted. I’m still going nuts trying to figure out the year my sax was made.

[Mark Kiziuk]

Hey jake, it’s Mark. I found a post broken off on my sax. It took me about 2 hrs to solder it back on with flux and and a butane torch, the hard part was keeping the post on the body as I heated it up! I took wire and wired the post to the body, then put flux around the bottom of the post and heated it up! It took so long because I never done this before. But it worked! And it’s a nice clean solid bond! Now next week I’m going to repad it, I never did that before either, but I’m going to do it with a heat gun, a stick of shellac and brand new Pads. When I first got this sax from eBay the seller said in the description “ready to play! All pads in excellent condition” couldn’t be any further from the truth. I contacted the seller and he was nice about things, and the sax is really nice looking (no dents!) and its my first sax,only cost around 200, so I let the matter go and just fix it myself. Between fixing the post and repadding, not much out of pocket money. About $40 bucks for the pads and shellac stick. The flux, wire and butane torch I already had…any how I’m almost up and running.
Mark

[Kevin]

Welcome Mark, sounds like your pretty handy and not reserved about diving into some maintenance type work on your recently acquired instrument! You may already be past this consideration- but some of the pads can be in OK condition but still not able to seal due to some small mis-alignments that could have been induced from just getting it shipped to you. If you spotted visible tears in the pads then replacement is in order of course, but sometimes just some minor adjusting (using a slim style lighting device that can fit down the inside of the bore) is what is needed, and will likely be needed even after the new pads. There’s a number of other things that can be slightly out of sorts- namely the “regulation” of the keys, which closes multiple keys in sync with their “set”. Once new pads are on this will need checking.
There’s a Haynes Saxophone Manual that is a great book for this type stuff, and very educational…

[Author]

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