From clarinet to tenor sax for Pep Band?

Question:Hey!

I'm in my college pep band, and I'm frankly sick of never being heard while playing my clarinet SO I want to switch to sax. I hear the transition is pretty easy.

My question is this: I have always adored the tenor sax, but would it be better for me to switch to the alto sax instead? Would playing the tenor sax hurt my embochure at all, or more than the alto would? I hope I can make it work, the tenor is such an amazing instrument!!!

(on a side note, what kind of tenor sax would you suggest me buying? I don't want to spend too much, but paying 50 bucks to rent a horn is silly when I can pay a few times that and get my own horn)

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Hey!

I'm in my college pep band, and I'm frankly sick of never being heard while playing my clarinet SO I want to switch to sax. I hear the transition is pretty easy.

My question is this: I have always adored the tenor sax, but would it be better for me to switch to the alto sax instead? Would playing the tenor sax hurt my embochure at all, or more than the alto would? I hope I can make it work, the tenor is such an amazing instrument!!!

(on a side note, what kind of tenor sax would you suggest me buying? I don't want to spend too much, but paying 50 bucks to rent a horn is silly when I can pay a few times that and get my own horn)

It would probably be the easiest transition to go to alto first, but the difference wouldn't be much to start on tenor. You would just have to get used to using more air and of course the size of the instrument. Switching will not hurt your clarinet embouchure, but it will be making you learn a different form of the embouchure and you will have to learn to be able to switch between the two because a saxophone embouchure on a clarinet will always make the clarinet sound jazzy (doesn't work for classical repertoire), and you will be way sharp on a saxophone if you stick to a clarinet embouchure.
I would not suggest you buy an instrument just yet. See if your school has one you can borrow and try out. I go to a small little state college and they have instruments that we can borrow, and most are VERY high quality instrument. If you are planning on pursuing this at a college level of musicianship, expect to also take the private lesson course for saxophone. Along with this, if you do buy an instrument, expect to pay for a professional level horn, so expect $2000-$5000 for a horn. That is MANY times more than $50 a month. Remember, you are competing against other students that are at the advanced level to nearly professional level of musicianship. This isn't high school any more.

Ya, I went from clarinet to alto and I just learnt it mysef. I just brought my clarinet embouchure to the sax and played like that for years and got away with it. Then I started taking lessons when I went to college and I learnt the proper sax embouchure. My tone improved so much and my sound got way bigger.

So, I don't think it matters really whether you do alto or tenor first, so do tenor shur if that's what you want! Just get someone to show you the proper embouchure, or even take lessons if you can. You'll pick it up very fast though as you have all the basics from clarinet.

You'd get a decent enough horn for around ?800. Whatever that is in $s... Yamaha's are good, jupiters, elkart, earlham - they're alright. You'll prob end up buying a better one in a few yrs time though.

Good luck!