039 - A Single Reed
When I was a kid, I really didn’t like my saxophone.
I had a good one too (still have it), a Conn alto with a naked lady on the bell, gold plated even, but that’s a whole different story.
An ungainly instrument to hold. Sounds ugly if you don’t play it right. Worst of all the saxophone parts in elementary band music are typically boring and unmusical, so whenever my parents called me to come down and play my saxophone for relatives and friends, it never really sounded like I knew what I was doing - just random tones strung together.
I got decent on it - played it in UMKC’s concert band while working on my music education degree, but never picked it up again after. My instruments of choice have always been keyboards and strings, with the exception of the melodica which adds a nice wind / tongue shaping to keyboard technique, impossible to get on any other acoustic instrument.
Today, for whatever reason, every student I worked with was playing a reed instrument of some kind, mostly sax’s, which brought back memories of when I was struggling with this stuff as a kid.
But what really made it interesting was the Xaphoon I was using. Jim, one of the mandola players in our mandolin orchestra, gave it to me at the last rehearsal. I’d mentioned I was using a plastic saxophone with students and he started talking about his Xaphoon. He brought it for me to borrow since he’s not getting much use out of it.
Turns out despite its small size and limited range, it has such a beautiful, naturally expressive tone it’s kind of a blast to play. It’s literally been decades since I seriously concentrated on any reed instrument and this simple little woodwind has me charmed. I might just splurge for a handmade bamboo one.
