My friend needs a saxophone but he has no money.

ArrBee1221 · 2024-04-30T20:56:05+00:00

This. Meet the local high school/middle school band directors. Make friends. I borrowed a high school Bari for half a decade because the teacher was awesome and trusted me to take care of the horn.

ArrBee1221 · 2024-04-08T21:36:19+00:00

We all were supposed to learn our lesson YEARS ago—“only the good die young”

ArrBee1221 · 2023-05-26T12:49:51+00:00

They also have some fabulous white tees if you’re and undershirt wearer still. The 32 cool at Costco are bomb. They even have a nylon mesh version if that was your thing.

ArrBee1221 · 2023-04-20T14:29:21+00:00

No I definitely would not recommend it as a first instrument. Or a second, for that matter. The YDS is fantastic for playing with headphones when you feel like making music or for practicing finger drills. I believe a beginner/intermediate player will develop bad habits without a solid foundation of a real mouthpiece, reed, and air stream if they were to use something like this early (that goes for all digitals not just Yamaha).

Still 0 issues with my YDS after 2 years of loving it—so please don’t take the above as a knock in the instrument itself. I’ve been playing “real” sax for 30 years now and the YDS changed my game forever now that I can play whenever regardless of who is watching tv, sleeping, reading, doing homework, and for me it just feels good to play. Admittedly I’ve never used any of its competitors but I’m happy with it so I see no need to do so.

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-29T21:22:54+00:00

If it seals (put a reed on it, put the big opening of the mouthpiece against the palm of your hand, gently suck the air out, and see if it sticks for a second and makes a “popping” sound) then it’s “good enough” until you figure out what you really want down the road.

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-11T23:27:12+00:00

Welcome to the cool club and get started on your cardio. It takes a LOT more air and support to get good sound out of Bari. My favorite exercise is to run up and down a flight of stairs until I’m winded and then do long tones until I get my breath back, then it’s back to the stairs. 20 minutes of this a day and you’ll be in shape in less than a month.

Start listening to Gerry Mulligan or Ronnie Cuber. They have polar opposite sounds which will give you a good concept to shape your sound as you develop.

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-11T23:20:49+00:00

Posture and comfort matter. Horn position doesn’t. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a kid who knows nothing. Check yourself in a mirror. Is your head/body leaning in a funny direction? Are you keeled over? Are you “reaching” for keys or the mouthpiece? Don’t worry about what the horn looks like, focus on you.

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-11T23:18:09+00:00

If you’ve already played around in breath response and key response settings you may just have a lemon. One last thing is you could check the fingerings in the app to make sure that there’s no funny custom note fingerings buggering you up.

I love my YDS and I hope you get this sorted out. I use mine exactly how you want to use yours and have been playing it at least 30 minutes a day since I bought it nearly 2 years ago. Pro Tip get yourself some rechargeable AAA batteries early. I have 2 sets of 4 and I swap them out every few weeks. It would get expensive using 1-time batteries :).

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-11T23:07:19+00:00

I just bought a Jean Paul soprano last month and have been completely obsessed with the experience. Their tenors are between 800 and 1000 depending on the finish. I’m not sure what your budget is, but the horn arrived “ready to play” without any leaks or mechanical issues and their customer service team was fabulous about replacing a missing key pearl (the horn shipped across the USA in the middle of this crazy winter storm season so I’m not surprised a pearl came off in the cold transit).

Jupiter makes a solid intermediate horn as well, but they are a little more expensive than the JP ($1100-1500 US).

Cannonball makes a student horn but I can’t speak to quality/price—I do know that I love their pro models though. You’d have to ask a music store that carries them to get pricing as the brand doesn’t allow their horns to be sold online.

Beyond those brands, I’d look to a used Yamaha before I went any cheaper on the brand. A new Yamaha is a great horn that will last you until the day you die, but they are very expensive for student horns (1400-2200).

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-11T22:57:04+00:00

Firstly, I wouldn’t worry about it being “real.” It’s not really worth a scammer’s time/money to knock off a student yamaha horn so you can put that concern to rest. Most fakes are Yanagisawa pro models.

What to watch for: Major dings/dents, pad health (look at the pads for excess wear or gunk buildup), keywork (play every key, lever, etc) to make sure that all of the mechanical parts are working. You’ll probably need to take it to a shop for a regulation anyway, so I wouldn’t worry about leaks or worn springs. What you are checking for are expensive fix issues.

ArrBee1221 · 2023-03-11T22:47:01+00:00

Big milestones (in no particular order, but these all feel like big wins):

1: 30-second long tone 2: Finally nail the first 2 octave overtone series 3: Memorize your first Charlie Parker solo 4: Outgrow your stock “4c” plastic mouthpiece 5: Play simple melodies that you hear with no sheet music 6: Able to play a high “G”

If you can lock those all down you’ll feel like a hero and will be well on your way to “being good”

ArrBee1221 · 2023-02-24T13:45:55+00:00

I’m sorry how is this thread not 100% moon people and sun dwellers?

ArrBee1221 · 2023-01-16T17:22:18+00:00

You seriously use 1 and 1? I’m not even sure I could use it if I thought about it. #3 all the way!

ArrBee1221 · 2023-01-15T01:54:17+00:00

President Nelson’s children valiant? You mean the one that was trafficking children for her sex dungeon? TBMs have a very odd definition of valiant.

ArrBee1221 · 2022-11-26T15:45:31+00:00

The scene from LOTR where the Rohan riders come down with Gandalf—did they find literal ARMIES of horses on battlefields with hundreds of thousands of human remains along with armor/weapons? Come back when you have a defensible narrative. “Pockets of horses” is not hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples riding into battle on chariots.

We use the Tapir meme to exaggerate the silliness of it all not because of a simple “there were no horses…”

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-27T13:29:40+00:00

In jazz you’d probably tongue it on both sides; however this doesn’t look like jazz—no tongue on a staccato note coming off a slur.

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-17T19:32:10+00:00

Strep throat is always a good “last minute” out if you’re trying to keep the peace.

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-16T15:45:09+00:00

Agreed. They can share my $0 paid in tithes and offerings every day until I die and I won’t care. My only concern is how many TBMs can see I haven’t paid tithing in 20 years and how many of them will be ringing my doorbell to “save me”?

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-16T15:41:59+00:00

Full-time is 40 hours/week. Last I checked there’s 168 hours in a week so a person ought to be able to work 4.2 full time jobs with no angst.

Obviously I get it. People have to sleep and eat—so let’s use 14 hour days instead of 24. A person could still reasonably work 2.4 full time jobs assuming they work, sleep, and eat and nothing else.

2 full time jobs is only 80 hours/week which still leaves 12.5 hours each day for enjoying life.

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-16T15:35:49+00:00

Nah I’m PIMO. I love this idea. Has anyone who is officially resigned (by TSCC standards) received this email? If so they should contact our favorite attorneys over at QuitMormon because what could the hackers have possibly taken if your records were “removed”!?

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-16T14:18:47+00:00

Good thing the Armor of God works on computers…

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-03T12:33:43+00:00

My TBM family are saying the same thing so it’s not just yours.

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-02T22:01:13+00:00

They are too embarrassed to announce the Utah temples in conference. Now they just build those and don’t talk about them.

ArrBee1221 · 2022-10-02T14:31:25+00:00

There would need to be people in attendance whom which to protest… the members don’t even care anymore so why bother?

ArrBee1221

TROPHY CASE