The fact it only has three valves makes it much easier if you have a good air stream... I don't think I could ever remember where to place my fingers on a saxophone or clarinet.
^^
Ok the other thing I need to wish for is a piano.
Or I would just start playing.
Look at it this way. You have a guitar a bass and a bass amp I suppose. That is at the very least a $300 US initial investment. If you want to play keys badly enough, well you don't need another $300 to try.
I play the saxophone too. It's a lot easier than piano! Some of the keys play the same note, so you don't even use half of them (I think that they're placed for easy access)
While there are a couple of common alternate fingerings, I use pretty much every key to play the saxophone. However, there is a pattern to the main fingerings, and some sections of keys are only used at the extreme ends of the instruments range. As a fifth grader with a fingering chart, I think it took me about a week to commit the notes to memory, so that should not be a concern to any potential woodwind players out there.
I'm only at grade 1, so I don't know all of the notes yet but I'm pretty sure there's 2 Bb's and the note cluster next to the G key are easy access notes, right?
I suppose what I meant to say is that once you've learned the foundations of a stringed instrument they are applicable to all the others so that those new stringed instruments are more accessible to the musician. At least, that's how it felt to me when I started trying on other instruments for size.
Well, it's not quite as simple as that. The hand positioning for the cello (both for the fingerboard and the bow) is subtly different to the violin, but then again the same could be said about the violin versus the guitar (classical versus modern left hand and plectrum versus freehand picking). But yeah, the principle is similar.
As for picking up the piano... that's a three-man job at least.
I suppose what I meant to say is that once you've learned the foundations of a stringed instrument they are applicable to all the others so that those new stringed instruments are more accessible to the musician. At least, that's how it felt to me when I started trying on other instruments for size.
Well, it's not quite as simple as that. The hand positioning for the cello (both for the fingerboard and the bow) is subtly different to the violin, but then again the same could be said about the violin versus the guitar (classical versus modern left hand and plectrum versus freehand picking). But yeah, the principle is similar.
As for picking up the piano... that's a three-man job at least.
Personally, I still find forming bar chords on the guitar to be difficult - it seems to go against all that violin left-hand training, but I guess it's something to get used to.
^ I've been playing guitar for years and I hate bar chords - forming the shapes and getting the index finger straight is easy enough (it bloody well should be after all this time...) but it physically hurts my hand to play them. It always did to a degree, but it happens quicker now that it used to. I hope it's not arthritis or something similar...
J
Jetfire
Guest
No Mac.
When I was younger I had 2 keyboards but never played them.
I only have a guitar & amp now but I got those for free from a former co-worker.
They are there for alternate fingerings, some runs are easier to hit with the side of finger X rather then the pad of fingertip Y. It is more noticeable on clarinet since the fingers are closer and fingerings are different in different octaves rather then being almost the same on saxophone.
I regret not learning to play the piano because if I had, I might have become a piano player in a whorehouse.
I played guitar a little as a teenager and I'd really like to pick it up again. I was pretty good at scales, but chords were always extremely difficult for me. I could never learn how to form my hand so I could go from one chord to another. I always had to move each finger individually on to the strings they were supposed to be on.
^ Explaining to drummers that it's not enough to just hit things, but that you have to hit them in the right order and - this is important - in the same tempo as everyone else is always fun. Especially when they go cross-eyed with mental effort as they try to figure out what tempo means.
ITL, actually quite a good drummer for a guitar player.
ITL, actually quite a good drummer for a guitar player.
Generally, a guitar is easier to pick up than a piano... and easier on your back too.
I had to read that twice before I got the joke - a sign of more coffee required!
Nice! I've always been tempted to learn the violin, it's something I've always wanted to do but with no time to spare (and being incredibly lazy) it's something I never got around to.
^^ I also play viola. It's very similar to the violin, but heavier, slightly bulkier, loses the top E string for a bottom C string, and most of the music is in alto clef (occasionally treble clef again), but everything else is very easily transferrable with little to no change in fingerboard or bow technique. OK, so you'd need to stretch the left hand slightly more, but not that much, and certainly going back to violin makes the little instrument feel cumbersome to my big fat fingers...
I pity the guy who ends up playing snare drum in Ravel's "Bolero".^ Explaining to drummers that it's not enough to just hit things, but that you have to hit them in the right order and - this is important - in the same tempo as everyone else is always fun. Especially when they go cross-eyed with mental effort as they try to figure out what tempo means.
ITL, actually quite a good drummer for a guitar player.
Technically, a funny video, but suited to this topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ygnGE2gIlQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ygnGE2gIlQ
Actually its not that hard, add more fingers to go flat, lift them to go sharp and an octave key with your thumb. I played around a little with my father's trumpet with some fantasies of being Benny Carter in my head. Coordinating the lip with the fingering on brass is much more critical then on reeds. Sort of like a guitar has to coordinate to hands to hit a single note while a keyboard player just has to hit a single target.
J
Jetfire
Guest
^ Explaining to drummers that it's not enough to just hit things, but that you have to hit them in the right order and - this is important - in the same tempo as everyone else is always fun. Especially when they go cross-eyed with mental effort as they try to figure out what tempo means.
ITL, actually quite a good drummer for a guitar player.
Ha, yeah. People never understood how difficult percussion could actually be sometimes. I was the second best percussionist in our band...and that's only because the other guy actually practiced.
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