Advice on Buying Woodwind Instruments

Saxophones

Saxophones are currently enjoying more popularity than ever, having the dual appeal of suiting a wide range of musical styles and being regarded as one of the ‘easier’ woodwind instruments to learn. The saxophone, being second only to guitar in terms of iconic status, is also an extremely popular choice for adults and this has resulted in there being an excellent choice of ‘self-teaching’ books, CDs and DVDs available, many of which we stock at Ritz Music. For young beginners, the Alto saxophone is the instrument of choice as it is compact enough to be suitable for ages down to approx. 9/10. The larger (lower pitched) Tenor saxophone is a popular alternative for adult beginners, whilst the Soprano and Baritone are regarded as more specialist instruments.

The quality of entry-level saxophones made in the far east is now generally very good indeed – brand names such as Trevor James, Earlham, Stagg, J.Michael, Mistral, Odyssey & Jupiter are producing reliable, comfortable instruments at low prices, whilst Yamaha (also made in the far east) still have a slight edge in terms of design, comfort, build quality and durability… albeit at a far greater cost. In general, all these ‘beginner’ instruments are good enough to give many years service and more than adequate to cope with technically demanding music, so the traditional ‘up-grade’ to an intermediate instrument after only a couple of years playing may not be necessary… instead, it’s far more important (and far less costly!) to invest in an ‘up-grade’ mouthpiece, which if correctly chosen will give an immediate improvement in tone and sound quality.

Clarinets & Flutes

Although there are now many extremely affordable instruments coming in from China, it has to be said that some of these, whilst being comfortable and well designed, suffer from the use of inferior materials – unless the instrument is treated with great care this can mean regular visits to a repairer for very small adjustments. This applies particularly to the flute with it’s complex and miniaturized mechanism/keywork. For this reason, it’s still safer in our opinion to go for trusted brands like Yamaha or Buffet for a young beginner, although if your budget precludes that then the Chinese brands (eg Stagg, Earlham, Vivace, Odyssey, J.Michael) will certainly work well if looked after carefully. As with Saxophones, we generally use the Chinese brands for our Instrument Rent-to-Buy Scheme as they offer an affordable way to try an instrument for 3 months, whilst we can offer competitive prices on brands such as Yamaha and Buffet for those who prefer to purchase a superior instrument at the outset.

Woodwind Accessories

Ritz Music stocks a range of popular woodwind accessories including:

Instrument Stands

Floor stands for saxophones, flutes and clarinets. Having your instrument on a stand makes it far more convenient for picking up and playing… although you’ll obviously need to balance the advantages of this with the possible risk of damage if there are young children in the house.

Reeds

Reeds come in different sizes for clarinet, alto, tenor, soprano saxophone etc, the leading brand names being Rico and Vandoren. Reeds are also graded (soft to hard) using a numbering system 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 etc. Beginners generally need a soft reed (1.5 for a child or 2 for an adult) in order to obtain a sound without undue effort, but as technique improves harder reeds can be used which have the advantage of giving a much stronger and more pleasing tone. All reeds are very fragile and, particularly with young beginners, will usually get accidentally damaged long before the end of their useful life, resulting in regular trips to buy replacements!

Mouthpieces, Ligatures & Caps

We stock standard (student quality) replacement mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones, as well as mouthpiece caps and ligatures (including the popular Rovner leather ligatures).

Straps, Thumbrest Cushions & Mouthpiece Patches

A comfortable strap is essential when playing the saxophone and we stock various types, including the famous Neotech Soft-sax brand. Other popular items to help with general comfort are clarinet thumb-rest cushions, clarinet slings and mouthpiece patches.

Cleaning & Maintenance Products

We stock a range of essential items, such as saxophone and clarinet ‘pull-thru’ cleaners, cork grease, flute polish cloths and pad-saver brush cleaners for the crook and body of saxophones.

Woodwind Maintenance

All woodwind instruments have complex, fragile mechanisms and so need to be treated with great care. Apart from accidental damage, most problems are caused by either rushed or incorrect assembly/disassembly or by attempts to clean delicate keywork.

Even if all appears to be working well, it’s a good idea to get your instrument checked over at least every 12 months or so. Very often you won’t realize until after a service that the instrument had progressively become harder & harder to play due to small leaks etc… our in-house woodwind repair workshop at Ritz Music can carry out all such work as well as major restoration of older instruments. Please visit our Woodwind Repair Workshop section for more information.