Saxophone history and origins

• The saxophone was invented over 150 years ago in Paris for use in military bands and orchestras.
• Though the saxophone is made of brass, it is a woodwind instrument.
• The saxophone was not initially embraced by composers for orchestral pieces, but it was adopted by jazz and swing bands, becoming a popular solo instrument and is now used in many styles of music.

Saxophone origins

• In the early 1840s, Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, invented the saxophone in Paris.
• Sax combined a clarinet-style reed and mouthpiece design, with a key system from the oboe and flute and the conical brass body of the "ophicleide" – a brass instrument at that time.
• The design allowed the saxophone to project sound like a horn, but with the versatility of a woodwind instrument.
• In 1844, composer Hector Berlioz featured Sax's bass saxophone in one of his choral concerts.
• Sax received the patent for making saxophones in 1846, covering 14 versions of the original design.
• By 1850, the saxophone became popular in French military bands.
• Other instrument makers adapted Sax's original design, adding extra keys, once Sax's patent expired in 1866.
• The bass saxophone became very common in many jazz music recordings from the 1920s.
• From the 1940s onward, the saxophone became associated with swing and big band music.
• The saxophone range extends two and a half octaves.

Top saxophonists

• Jazz music has produced many impressive saxophone players.
• John Coltrane was a tenor saxophonist, composer, and band leader with a huge influence on jazz music in the 1960s and 1970s
• Stan Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, perfectly controlled saxophone sound
• Sidney Bechet was a child prodigy in New Orleans.
• Charlie Parker and Courtney Pine (UK) have also greatly influenced jazz

Elements of the Saxophone

• Mouthpiece
• Reed
• Ligature
• Neck (also known as crook)
• Left-hand keys and buttons
• Bell brace
• Bell
• Main body (Only the small soprano saxophone does not have the characteristic S-shaped body.)
• The thumb rest
• Right-hand keys and buttons
• 20-23 tone holes, including two small speaker boles.
• Pad cups
• Bow

Playing the Saxophone

• Players support the reed against their bottom lip and blow across it into the mouthpiece, while fingering the keys that cover the 20 to 23 tone holes along the saxophone's length.
• Usually made of natural cane, a reed is placed in the mouthpiece. When a player blows into the mouthpiece, the reed vibrates. Wetting the reed before playing helps it vibrate correctly. Plastic reeds are available, but some players think they are not so good.
• The way players use their facial muscles and lip shape when blowing into a woodwind instrument is called "embouchure."
• Once they have mastered the technique, it can be adapted to achieve a number of different sound effects from trilling, slurring, and growling through to flutter tongue and notebend.
• Players can also achieve a note one octave above the one they are playing by adapting the shape of their throat.

Saxophone Types

• Adolphe Sax designed 14 different saxophones, which were divided into seven different types: sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, and contrabass.
• Those pitched in F and C were meant for orchestral use and those in E flat and B flat were for bands.
• They all have the same keys in the same place, so once you can play one, you should be able to play them all!

The saxophone was invented in Paris in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax for military bands. Sax combined features of woodwind and brass instruments in his design. Although initially overlooked for orchestral pieces, it became a popular instrument in jazz and swing bands.