Woodwind Family (Saxophones)

[Kevin]

There are many members of the saxophone family but here we shall show examples of just the four main ones. These are soprano, alto, tenor and baritone. The playing registers are the same for all of them.

Although they are rarely seen in an orchestral situation they are used in light orchestra's, big bands, wind bands and small combo ensembles.

They all have a very vocal quality to their sound as the following extracts will demonstrate.

Soprano




Alto



Tenor



Baritone




They can be used effectively as a like instrument ensemble. This is due to the large playing register they have as an ensemble.



The more traditional Saxophone ensemble playing a piece by DWSOLO!

[Kevin]

DWSOLO brought it to my attention that the last link was not working, my apologies to all! Here is the corrected link.

Attachments:

[ceg]

Like the oboe, saxophones have a conical bore and therefore overblow at the octave (i.e. each note has roughly the same fingering at the different octaves), unlike the clarinet which is a cylindrical bore, stopped at one end by the reed, and which overblows at the twelfth. They also share roughly the same written range (though not sounding range) as the oboe (and saxophonists often "nick" baroque oboe music to increase the range of their repertoire)

[Ed Sharpe]

Supersax!

[ceg]

[Joseph]

Hmpf! A saxophone discussion with no mention of Paul Desmond, Bud Shank, or Stan Getz; this is NOT a West Coast thread :-)

[wizzarts]

I guess this is more the "birds"-family area...

anyway, here we go....



Alto-Sax, the Tin Lizzy of the clarinets...