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TREVOR
JAMES ALPHA SAXOPHONE
RRP £475.00
Our Price
£399.00
TREVOR JAMES SAY....
"The saxophone is one of the
most popular musical instruments
around today, and features in many
high profile bands. Until now however,
a new generation of potential musicians
have been denied the opportunity
to learn the instrument, based solely
around their age and size!
The challenge was to design and
manufacture an alto saxophone that
would meet the needs of the smaller
and younger players currently unable
to learn to play the instrument,
due to weight and hand positioning
issues. To enable future progression
on the saxophone it was also essential
that any new design would also fit
in with established instrumental
teaching publications by retaining
fundamental fingerings and instrumental
key of Eb. The revolutionary new
Alphasax has solved all the issues
and now enables young players to
fulfil their dream of learning to
play the saxophone.
What and Why the Alphasax?
As one
of the World’s leading woodwind
manufacturers and distributors,
we have been consistently receiving
comments from parents and teachers
about the problems facing a new
and younger generation of players
wanting to learn the saxophone.
Issues concerning the weight of
an alto saxophone compared with
playing the flute or clarinet along
with the various problems associated
with having smaller hands and therefore
finger positioning issues have surfaced.
As the saxophone is now one of the
most popular woodwind instruments
of today, we set about researching
where and how we can design a saxophone
to cater for the younger or smaller
player.
Our research during the last 12
months has unearthed some very important
factors for us to consider:
(1) Who is the new saxophone to
be aimed at? – Any player wanting
to play the saxophone from the ages
of 7 yrs upwards (school years 2
– 7) who are currently told they
are too small to play the conventional
alto.
(2) The instrument must look like
an alto saxophone! – Therefore just
using a curved soprano was not possible.
(3) The weight of the instrument
must be reduced by around a third
to be acceptable to the younger
or smaller player! - This would
have to be achieved without changing
the thickness, or material of the
body tube! This would ensure the
same tonal characteristics as on
a normal alto saxophone!
(4) A minimum two octave chromatic
instrument – our research was very
specific in that for the first couple
of years, it would be very unusual
for a young player to learn to play
more than a two octave range.
(5) Some keys are impossible to
avoid, making the instrument unplayable
& other keys
are impossible to reach. The weight
can be too much for some young players
(& some adults) so we made changes
to the mechanism to ensure smaller
fingers could reach the keys! –
and not simply putting the pearl
touch pieces closer together.
(6) Having achieved points 1-4,
it was vital that the instrument
package as a whole (which included
the carry case) was light enough
to be carried around by the younger
or smaller player.
SPECIFICATIONS
The left
hand palm keys for top D#, E and
F have been removed.
The top D key has been adjusted
to fit small hands.
The low B & Bb keys have been
removed.
Redesigned G# and low C# keys are
now easier to reach.
The right hand side F# keys and
side C key have been removed.
Redesigned low D# and C keys are
now easier to reach.
The Alphasax retains a fully chromatic
range from low C to high D.
Bb bis and side Bb keys are retained.
BACK
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