Brian_66
Joined: Dec 05, 2013
Posts: 14
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Posted on Jun 03 2014 01:30 PM
Have any of you that have been playing guitar in a surf band later take up saxaphone to add vareity to your set-list? If so, what was the learning curve? How quickly were you able to play passingly well enough to add to one of your sets?
I play guitar (some lead, some rhythm) in a 4 person surf band (Group Captain and the Mandrakes)and I've recently rented a school band quality tenor sax. I played around with it this past weekend and was surprised to get some pretty cool sounds out of it ... so I'm encouraged it might work out. I'll also take about a month of lessons just so I get some basics down before I become a danger to the listening public 
Last edited: Jun 03, 2014 13:31:15
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Badger
Joined: Nov 16, 2013
Posts: 4537
Wisconsin
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Posted on Jun 03 2014 04:22 PM
Can't help about the learning curve but wanted to wish you luck. That's a really neat option to have in the pocket, considering the time when keys & a sax weren't uncommon at all. I recall back in my bar band days another band had a very good guitarist who could pull that out periodically for stuff like a Bob Seger ballad, or to really make 'Tequila' believable. And women love saxophone, which helps the crowd get into it. All positives.
Best of luck! 
— Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel
DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.
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Tuck
Joined: Sep 02, 2006
Posts: 3166
Denver, CO
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Posted on Jun 03 2014 04:25 PM
Good idea! Historically it was usually the other way.
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JakeDobner
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 12159
Seattle
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Posted on Jun 03 2014 04:45 PM
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Brian
Joined: Feb 25, 2006
Posts: 19337
Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Posted on Jun 03 2014 08:57 PM
What Jake is saying is that he would like you to serenade him with your sax.
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea
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Brian_66
Joined: Dec 05, 2013
Posts: 14
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Posted on Jun 04 2014 06:35 AM
Quick Update: Had my first of four lessons last night. I think finding the right notes with the right keys will come quickly. This may work out.
The goal is to be able to play sax along with the band for 3 songs in 3 months. What's going to take time, effort and new muscle memory skills is the whole "embrochure / breathing" thingy. But, so far so good ...
Last edited: Jun 04, 2014 06:36:19
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surfaholic
Joined: Aug 18, 2011
Posts: 158
The sun kissed beeches of Nottingham, UK.
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Posted on Jun 04 2014 08:41 AM
I took up the alto sax about 18 months ago (with the intention of moving onto tenor, which has been delayed somewhat) and found I was able to get a reasonable sound, and some basic tunes under my belt pretty quickly.
It was a bit of an early plateau though, as once I started having to adjust for the key shift with other instruments, I was no longer playing in a "convenient" key and would encounter fingerings that were awkward to get smoothly, and then starting to work around bigger intervals, trying to drop straight in on the lowest notes, I was generating all manner of parps and squeaks that I'd managed to avoid in those first weeks.
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nickwass
Joined: May 28, 2014
Posts: 8
Leutenbach
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Posted on Jun 05 2014 01:04 PM
I had a really big try with the sax and took lessons. Stuck with it for about 6 months but finally concluded that I was never going to master this instrument. Also, as Surfaholic says, trying to play the thing in a key to match the rest of the band is awful. But good luck, maybe you will get the better of the devil's instrument.
— Nick
The Surfin Birds
Hofner Violin Bass
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eddiekatcher
Joined: Mar 14, 2006
Posts: 2778
Atlanta, GA
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Posted on Jun 05 2014 01:25 PM
Clarinetist that poses as "guitar player" = Eddie Katcher.
— Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?
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Noel
Joined: Mar 15, 2011
Posts: 8528
Back in Piitsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
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Posted on Jun 05 2014 01:33 PM
eddiekatcher wrote:
Clarinetist that poses as "guitar player" = Eddie Katcher.
If I'd only known that was the secret!
— This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
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CrazyAces
Joined: Jul 31, 2012
Posts: 4053
Nashville, TN.
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Posted on Jun 05 2014 01:43 PM
eddiekatcher wrote:
Clarinetist that poses as "guitar player" = Eddie Katcher.
Cool!
Benny Goodman is still one of my melodic and technical abilities favorites.
Do you still play Ed?
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Teiscofan
Joined: Feb 21, 2011
Posts: 513
Ontario
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Posted on Jun 05 2014 09:05 PM
Rory Gallagher was self taught saxaphone. Not a surf player but a fantastic blues player! 
— I am not obsolete, I am RETRO.... 
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eddiekatcher
Joined: Mar 14, 2006
Posts: 2778
Atlanta, GA
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Posted on Jun 06 2014 01:40 PM
All things considered, in my humble opinion, Benny Goodman was the best player in history. On any instrument.
I can't think of anyone that can or could match the virtuosity with the unrelenting expression that he seemed to routinely dish out. He could play anything.
I was really lucky, in about 1960 or so my mom took me to see him play at the Fox Theater here in Atlanta. To this day I have not heard anything that completely blew me away like he did.
I started fooling around with the clarinet in the fourth grade but didn't really make a lot of progress until high school where our new band director (and my brand new Buffet R-13) inspired me to better my playing. The really funny part of all this is that my mom took me over to Rhythm City Music to buy my Gibson SG Special and we ended up buying the clarinet AND my SG! Boy was my dad pissed.
Mom had a soft spot for clarinets...........her father played in John Phillip Sousa's concert band before the touring burned him out and he returned home to Decatur, GA. Unfortunately, he passed away just as I was picking it up for the first time in elementary school.
Papaw was no slouch either. I can still remember him dishing out "Rhapsody in Blue," just for the hell of it. I am lucky to have inherited one of his two clarinets. It's an E flat alto with the Albert system fingering.
Anybody here know what that is?
Nah, Jeff, I haven't really played in years. I still have my Buffet but it needs some serious help. Back in the 70's I'd drag it out at Christmas and knock out a few Christmas Carols for the family.
ed
— Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?
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Slick
Joined: Jul 02, 2013
Posts: 50
Mid-Atlantic
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Posted on Aug 22 2014 09:45 AM
Good Post Brian,
After 28 years of playing guitar, I bought a tenor sax and took lessons for almost 2 years. I was stung by the 50s Blues/R&B thing ala T-Bone Walker, Pee Wee Crayton, Amos Milburn, Roy Brown, just to name a few (there are so many other greats). The learning curve was not as bad as I thought, although playing clarinet as a kid had to help a little. The worst part was having to read musical notation again...OUCH! My take is this: the sax is like any other instrument; practice scales, then modes, then scales, then modes, couple licks, couple songs, more scales, more modes.....Legend has it that John Coltrane practiced up to six or more hours a day, and he played every type of scale he could get his hands on. My favorite, though, was the late Junior Walker because he sang lead AND played sax, and was burnin'.
— East Coast Executive Director Of The Society Of Incompleted Projects
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