How hard is it to learn the saxophone?

[musicalold]

I really fancy getting myself on and giving it a go. I can't read music (not through want of trying) and can't play any instruments. But, my aural ability is good. Play me a tune and I'll be able to play it back to you on my recorder or with one finger on a piano (albeit with terrible technique). I can hum a "c" without a prompt and work out how to hum the other notes if I go up or down. I know, my skills know no bounds .

So, back to the saxophone. I've got a collection of recorders and Irish whistles that i bought when stuck at home during lockdown and which I mess around with at home. But I fancy an instrument that's more "satisfying" I don't want to learn to read music but am happy to have lessons which focus on technique and learning for fun. I have an electric piano that's redundant as my DD gave up lessons so I can sell it and use the money to buy another decent instrument. But am I going to find it really hard to get a note of the sac then give up??

Sax, not sac!

Bump?

I don't want to be your neighbour or live on your street 😮

My dad played Sax and clarinet to a pretty good standard (in a band) and then took up the recorder. He said recorder was easy to learn the basics but hard to be any good so if you can play recorder reasonably well I would think you’d be ok with sax.

You could try hiring an instrument to begin with to see how you get on rather than the outlay for your own and then finding you don’t get on with it?

I don’t know if it is hard , but it’s certainly noisy. Jan Garbarek , imo one of the greatest saxophonists around, says that when he started , his parents implored him to choose a quieter instrument.

The sax and recorder are different in that the sax has a reed and you have to blow with a bit more force (google Embouchure) in the beginning it will squeak until you get the hang of getting the reed to vibrate properly. The fingering is also not as linear as a recorder, I would recommend you have at least a few lessons with a teacher to learn basic techniques.

It's the horn not sax, but your neighbours will agree with the sentiment.