Tenor Sax or Bass Clarinet ?
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Topic: Tenor Sax or Bass Clarinet ?
Posted By: Stayl
Subject: Tenor Sax or Bass Clarinet ?
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2014 at 2:30am
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Tenor Sax or Bass Clarinet ? I want to pick up one of these instrument in few weeks or months. I played guitar for 6 years so I already have a good music level, but I'm hesitating with these two instruments, what do you advise ?
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Replies:
Posted By: js
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2014 at 5:55am
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I've done a certain amount of playing and teaching with the saxophone and clarinet family. The easiest is alto saxophone, some recommend starting out on that. Bass clarinet is not that hard and is a very fun instrument to play, its range is incredible. The hardest thing on any clarinet is getting a good tone, it takes a while. Tenor sax takes a lot of air. I've played alto sax for a while and was surprised at the big difference when I tried the tenor.
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Posted By: Stayl
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2014 at 8:02am
| Thank you for the answer, nice to have advises from a player, but I feel like you cannot innovate anymore with the Sax too much things has been done with it... What do you think ? I feel that the Bass Clarinet is more original and you can do more musical experimentation with it, since it's not used much... |
Posted By: js
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2014 at 8:59am
| Sure, the bass clarinet puts you in a more unique group and its a fun instrument, but it can be expensive too. |
Posted By: Stayl
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2014 at 9:18am
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Oh yeah for the price, how much is an average tenor sax and how much is an average bass clari ? I've heard about Bundy Bass Clari, they are student models not very expensive, and most people I saw are pretty satisfied with it for a beginner Bass Clari. For the sax what you would recommand ? Thanks for the answers !
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Posted By: js
Date Posted: 01 Jun 2014 at 9:31am
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I don't know enough about prices and brands to make a recommendation, but I did look into purchasing a bass clarinet once and was discouraged by the price. Your Bundy student model sounds like a good way to go though. I can't remember if tenors are more expensive than bass clarinets, I know they are more expensive than altos. The flute and the alto sax are the ones that cost less.
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Posted By: Cannonball With Hat
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2014 at 8:46pm
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Bass clarinet. ------------- Hit it on Five. Saxophone Scatterbrain Blitzberg Stab them in the ears. |
Posted By: Shrdlu
Date Posted: 31 Jul 2014 at 7:28am
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Hi! I have been playing saxophones and clarinets for over 50 years. Maybe I can help. There is no comparison between a tenor saxophone and a bass clarinet. They sound very different. I do not agree that the possibilities with the saxophone are now exhausted. The possibilities are unlimited. It really comes down to what sounds you want to produce, and what types of music you want to play. What do you hear in your head? A saxophone is much more versatile than a bass clarinet. It is also a lot louder. If you have a microphone, then this doesn't matter, but if you don't, then the drummer is likely to drown a bass clarinet out, especially in the middle register (that is, from middle B to the C just over an octave higher), which loses volume. A saxophone is much easier to play than a bass clarinet. If you have never played a saxophone, I recommend that you start on an alto. Then, you can switch to a tenor. Contrary to what someone said, a tenor doesn't require a massive amount of air, and millions of people play one with no trouble. I started on an alto and now play tenor and soprano. I recommend a gold Otto Link Tonemaster mouthpiece - that is what both John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins used. The bass clarinet is a tricky instrument to play really well, with an even tone throughout the whole range, mainly because the middle register sounds rather thin. It really needs two "register keys" for that middle register, where the notes easily squeak if you push them. The best ones, such as the Selmer, cost about the same as a car! You can pick up an ebonite Selmer Bundy for a few hundred dollars (be careful to get one that doesn't need much in the way of repairs). I have a (low E flat) Selmer Bundy and it's not bad at all. That model only has one register key, which makes the middle register hard to play without squeaking. The low register is easy to play on all bass clarinets. An orchestral player once lent me a top-of-the-line Selmer, with the extension down to low C. That was easier to play than my Bundy, but it was lacking in volume in that middle register. Really, I don't think that a bass clarinet will carry you very far. It is a specialist's instrument, and it is a special tone color. It is not going to fit with a lot of jazz performances. You should definitely start on the regular clarinet (sometimes called the soprano clarinet) before playing a bass. Get used to all the fingerings on the regular one. As in the picture, Eric Dolphy was a real vituoso on the bass clarinet (as well as on everything else that he played), but he was a very rare musician and, realistically, you are unlikely to attain his mastery on the clarinet. It's up to you, but I would go for a tenor saxophone. The Selmer Mark VI is the best one, but the Yamahas are very good, too - I have blown both a Yamaha alto and a Yamaha tenor, and I couldn't fault them. |
Posted By: Shrdlu
Date Posted: 10 Nov 2018 at 3:15pm
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An update. I got a Rico mouthpiece for my (Bundy) bass clarinet. It was reasonable, but not all that good. About a year ago, I got a Vandoren B45 mouthpiece and some Vandoren reeds. That combination made playing a lot easier! I have always used Rico (brown box) reeds, for alto, tenor and soprano saxophones and soprano clarinet, and they have been fine. But the bass clarinet is a very fussy instrument and the new mouthpiece and reeds have made a big difference. The Vandoren reeds are the original blue box ones. I still don't recommend the bass clarinet as one's main horn. The main Selmer one would make a difference, but they are the price of a new car, so they are way beyond my reach.
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Posted By: peter_w
Date Posted: 29 Sep 2019 at 9:28pm
Twice that, and I would recommend you to go for a tenor sax as well. I've played them all - but I think that tenor sax will open more doors for you and you will have more opportunities and more varied opportunities to play. Bass clarinet is still a clarinet with same fingerings (mostly) and range, etc. Tenor sax has a different embouchure and fingerings. Still, you can always pick up clarinet later. But I must admit, it's a harder instrument to play. I can say that - especially since I played for clarinet for years before picking up a sax - clarinet is STILL harder to play. The tension in the lips are different, although just how I cannot quantify any longer. I think that it is always better for a player to move from clarinet to sax, than it is the other way around. That's not to say that the other direction doesn't work, just that it works better for most players. Of course, that's up to you as Shrdly already said. So everything that is written above is just personal opinion you might or not use while doing your research. As for a brand, Yamaha instruments have served me relatively well so far, so I started there. |
Shrdlu wrote:Posted By: Garuda Bhatnagar
Date Posted: 07 Oct 2020 at 2:42am
O Love it Tenor is the best btw
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Posted By: birdtranescoe
Date Posted: 18 Feb 2021 at 11:14am
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Concur with Shrdlu above. I play bass cl as my primary horn. Saxes are overall much easier than clarinets. Also much easier to get a good sax than a good bass cl - the options and avalability are far greater. Yamaha alto saxes and sopr clarinets are on craigslist all day long for a few hundred $ - as disused student horns. Get both.  |