Thinking about playing the saxophone? Adolphe Sax, it's inventor drew up plans for 14 different types of saxophones. I don't know how far he got with that list but I have heard of 11 and personally have seen or played 8 of them. The 10 different voices (types) are sopranissimo, sopranino, soprano, saxello, alto, c melody, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass, and subcontrabass.

Alto or Tenor?

Let's talk about these two since they are the most popular followed by soprano and baritone. Many people wouldn't really know the differences between the alto and tenor saxophones if they glanced at them from a distance but there is a big difference between them.

Girls play alto and boys play tenor.

When I was in high school band it seemed that's the way it was. It make sense when you think of the size difference, a tenor sax in it's original factory case is somewhat heavy to carry, making it very difficult for a small teenage girl to lug it home from school every day.

For a small person, boy or girl it's not a bad idea to start on the alto sax, it requires less air and the notes are closer together making it easier for small hands to control. Of coarse this is a generalization and if you're small and dead set on playing a tenor sax from the get go then do it.

Soprano and Baritone

One voice higher than the alto is the soprano, and because it's smaller it does require less air support. This is the good news, the bad news is that good intonation (tuning) will be harder to achieve for the beginner, especially in the higher register. Same thing applies to the baritone sax as far as being difficult to play in tune in the upper register, and the low register requires lots of air... it's a big horn.

Buy a Cheap Horn at First

This is a good idea for 3 reasons;

1) You, or whoever you're buying it for might not stick with it for very long

2) You won't get a great tone in the first year or 2 no matter how expensive the horn is

3) The horn itself is not the most important part of your set-up, it's the reed and the mouthpiece... just make sure with a repairman the horn is in good working condition.