Hello! I’ve just started to play the Alto Sax in my high school course. I rented my sax and, after my teacher taught us how to put all of our instruments together without breaking them, she told us all to bring them home and just blow on the mouth piece to get practice. So I did that and this is my second day of having it at home. The thing is, I found that I can only make noise if I blow pretty hard (I think that’s my first problem) the second problem is that after about two or three 5 min periods of doing that my throat got soar. No problem there cause I just have to get used to the new instrument, right? Well after my throat started to hurt I stopped. It got worse at the end of the day and my throat started to feel raw and very painful. It’s now the morning of my second day with the alto sax and I haven’t touched it because my throat feels like I have a full blow cold, but I’m not sick! It’s just my throat that is bothering me, but its bothering me a LOT! I checked before and the instrument had been sterilized so no problem there. Now my dilemma is: I can’t play the instrument if I don’t blow kind of hard, but if I do blow hard them my throat goes raw, starts to hurt, and after a will gives me a very painful cough. Is there a way to fix this or should I try to get out of the music program being as she only teaches wind instruments to grade nines?

yeah, throat problems seems a little abnormal... I`d say that it`s unrelated to the sax, but if it is, I don`t know why that happened or how to stop it. As for having to blow hard- yeah, untill you get used to the instrument you`re going to have to blow really hard... my advice is, if you`re not considering playing for more than a year- don`t get started. If you`re really serious about it though, you`ll either need to wait it out or play through the pain... good luck

The throat rawness is a little abnormal, I would see a doctor for recommendations. It seems as though you might be blowing a bit too hard. Try adjusting the reed a little,the neck strap also to fit your level. Practice tah-ing with your tongue into the intrument and make sure to talk to your teacher for further problems and advice.