Hello. Ya see i`ve been playing the Clarinet for three years and i wanted to try something new so i was thinking off switching to Soprano Sax but still wanting to play clarinet. Is it a hard instument to learn? Do i need an instructor? Are the fingerings similar? Is it worth money time? Are there a lot of piece`s for them in a high school band? Advice would be greatly appriciated

The sop has similar fingerings to clarinet, like all saxes do. As for learning howto play it, the harderst thing and biggest difference should be intonation, cause the sop is a hard sucker to tune. Not like the clarinet, where if your mouths wrong you squeak. BUt, it`s fun to play. Umm, a teacher would probably be good, but i never got one for sop, though i do for "sax" manly alto. As for pieces in highschool, there area few cool solo pieces that your featured in, but not alot. Course, if you could play sop well, you could be guarenteed all teh solo pieces by your director, which would be kindof cool.

Hi Joey, unfortunately there are very few band pieces that feature a soprano sax, it is not very common to play here in the U.S., in fact even (for the most part) sax quartets here are 2 altos, tenor and bari while the oringinal quartet was suppose to be SATB (sop, alto, ten, bari). If you do have an intrest in playing the sax I would recommend alto or tenor, since you play clarinet the transition would be easy. I`m not trying to say that the soprano is bad, it can be a beautiful instrument, there is just not many parts for it, it is truly a secondary saxophone of the primary 3 alto, tenor and bari. Whatever you decide keep up with all your woodwinds as it will be helpful in the future.

Good Luck
CJ

Well I have to disagree with "wildband". The fingerings aren't the same on the saxophone as on the clarinet. On the saxophone it's more like a recorder (or from the D in the middle of the system and up to the next C on the clarinet) that is the same. Since the octave key on the saxophone actually is an octave key and the "octave key" on a clarinet is a 1½ octave key this of course wont be the same.

I played clarinet 6 years before I tried a saxophone and actually it's so much easier! But I wouldn't start on a soprano sax. As all the other posts says the soprano sax isn't commonly used in bands. I started on the alto and I really liked it, but maybe you should stick to a Bb instrument and take up the tenor sax instead

Yeah... That was kind of what I said

I'm sorry, i didn't mean to imply they were the same, just that they are similar, as in go up, go down, and the upper register is the same.

did you file a police report and stuff? I have insurance on my nice saxes.

i know it's been said already, but you probably should start with and alto or tenor if you're looking to play saxophones for the many years to come. still, if your school has a soprano for you to use (which few schools seem to have) i'd recommend getting an alto or tenor for yourself and then taking advantage of the soprano. playing a woodwind already will help you control your sound and you should be getting familiar with tone. but if you've only been playing three years, the soprano may be a bit of a beast for you to tackle. sure, anybody can play it, but not everybody can make it sing.

oh, and lera, i'm sorry, but put your posts in a word processor and spellcheck it just to compare the difference.

To the person who said that most sax quartet pieces do not include soprano, that's simply incorrect. Most quartet pieces are SATB. In fact I played soprano in my college saxophone quartet for three years.

Dewey read the post before you comment. The U.S. was the creator of AATB, while Marcle Mule of France created SATB. Yes at a college college level there are a ton of SATB, but in high school there was alot of AATB. Besides the comment was there is not alot of music for soprano in a band setting. I will agree that more music for quartet is now SATB now that the soprano has become popular in the U.S.

Later
CJ

hi im looking to switch to soprano sax! ive been playing alto for 3 yrs. im in the 8th grade and wanting to switch. for those of you that r playing the soprano, is it hard? is it to hard for a 8th grader going into highschool? also what is the main difference in them other than: in what key, size, shape reed, and high pitch? do you have to have a much tighter firmer amiture? and do you have to ALOT more air?