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Old 2009.07.20, 12:39 PM   #35
Glathannus
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You can most easily distinguish between alto and tenor saxophones, by looking at the neck.

Alto:


Tenor:


I didn't know anything about the differences between the subtypes of saxophone, until after I went through band class. Half the class wanted to play saxophone before they knew anything about it, so what the band teacher did was required aspiring saxophone players to start off with clarinets, then the best clarinet players could qualify for playing saxophone in the class. I was always the second best at whichever instrument I played, and I never practiced - while the first and third best people practiced their asses off.

After I qualified, I chose the alto sax, and I regret it. Alto saxophone is not by any means the most hardcore or expressive jazz horn you can get your hands on. Tenor saxophone is so much sassier and more textured, and it can hit slightly lower notes at the cost of not being able to go quite as high as the alto, but in jazz you rarely or never want to go as high as the alto can go (unless you're Moto), and especially not with the natural smoothness of the alto when you are pushing a normal amount of air into it. The alto saxophone is more like a soprano sax than a tenor, and it's all because of the attitude. The soprano sax is best left to new age music like Kenny G, because as far as I'm concerned the soprano has no suitable role anywhere else, and the alto is almost as bad.

Moto must have had a real tenor saxophone for when he didn't have anymore stamina to continue pretending that his alto saxophone was a tenor. You don't have to breath so hard into a tenor or squeeze your lips so tightly on the mouthpiece, to get the kind of sound that Moto wants out of an alto saxophone. I think what he wants is to go higher than a tenor can go, but you can't fake any higher notes on that, so he fakes the texture of a tenor on his alto and tries to get the best of both worlds (if he rarely/never wants to go as low as a tenor can) while he wears himself out.

There's nothing wrong with including an alto saxophone in big band jazz among other saxophones, but when it's the only saxophone a smaller band has, something is very wrong. It parallels with having a back-up style guitarist such as Ukigumo, as your only guitarist. Some people think it's all cool and unique, but I think it's futile. At least Moto has stage presence though.
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