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Hello from the South

Hey guys! My name is Tyler. I'm currently a junior in a high school with one of the best music programs in the state and really digging into the baritone saxophone.

Music has been and is my thing - I march the alto saxophone (flute next year), play baritone saxophone in the jazz band, a community band, and in the school symphonic band, and contrabass clarinet in the school wind ensemble. Crazy combinations, right?

I'm doing my best to prepare to go to college and get a degree in music education. Preferable the Jacobs School of Music or Bowling Green, but I'd settle for the University of Alabama.

As for what I own... I've got my hands on two of the typical student models for my fleet... a Vito 7133 alto (my baby) and the ever so famed Yamaha YAS23 alto. I've also got a very old King Conn student alto that is currently stripped of everything and serving as my experiment horse in sax repair and I'm looking into purchasing a bari to serve as my own.
 
Hi Tyler.

Good to see another bari player here.

I don't know where you are in your search for a baritone, but some of us have been discussing find a decent bari at a decent price on this thread. Maybe one or the other posts might be helpful as you consider your buying choices now and in the future.
 
Ohey someone else from Alabama.
Welcome to the forum, Tyler!
Sounds like you're doing well in HS band.
On your getting a Bari-I'm going to try to go to some music stores in Montgomery in the start of November, so if I see a good Bari in there that has all of its parts (and that I don't buy) I'll tell you what and where it is, and how much it costs, if you haven't gotten one already. (Also assuming I don't have the problem of the last time I went down there, that someone bought the one I was planning on buying before I could.)
I'll add that while it was kind of an odd switch for them, we did have someone 2 years ago who played both Contrabass Clarinet and Bari sax.
I've only really played contra a few times ever so I can't really say much on it.
Also, good luck with having free time on weekdays with a music ed degree, you'll be rather busy from what people I know getting one tell me.
 
... we did have someone 2 years ago who played both Contrabass Clarinet and Bari sax ...
Aside from me, you mean?

I went from Bb soprano clarinet to Bb bass clarinet to Eb baritone sax to Bb tenor sax to Bb contrabass clarinet. I eventually went to college with my trusty Yamaha YBS-52 bari. I didn't own the contrabass -- it was my school's horn -- but I owned two baritones. The contrabass was a Leblanc paperclip to low C.
 
Aside from me, you mean?

I went from Bb soprano clarinet to Bb bass clarinet to Eb baritone sax to Bb tenor sax to Bb contrabass clarinet. I eventually went to college with my trusty Yamaha YBS-52 bari. I didn't own the contrabass -- it was my school's horn -- but I owned two baritones. The contrabass was a Leblanc paperclip to low C.

I meant in my school. :)
That's a nice contra compared to our Vito, Houvenhagle's Contras have only given me good experience. (I say that as I've only ever played one)
(Our Contra-Alto is a Selmer Series 9 though, which is very good.)
That's a lot of doubling, too. (says the person who does the same)
 
I initially picked up clarinet in 4th or 5th grade, because I couldn't get a noise out of a trombone mouthpiece and my grandfather played clarinet. I summarily put it down after a year because it was too hard to play. I picked it up again in 7th when I found that my problems went away with a decent mouthpiece -- and I needed an elective. When I started high school, I asked to switch to bass clarinet, because we had 30 or so clarinet players in the band. A year later, I was asked to switch to bari sax because we had three bass clarinet players. Very slightly after that, my family started attending a new church that had a band/orchestra and I became the assistant to the director slightly thereafter. I generally played any part that wasn't being covered, even things like trumpet parts on clarinet and French Horn parts on alto sax. After this, I switched to a different high school that had two other bari players, already, but only one tenor sax. I, therefore, started playing the school's tenors (one was a mint Martin Committee "III" that I had some intonation problems with, and two were Selmer Mark VIs that looked ugly but played great). I then found the Bb contrabass clarinet stashed in a closet at the school and fooled around with it. One of the directors -- they had three -- then asked me to switch to it full time and I did. I still remember the horn shaking all over when I was playing "A Christmas Festival," even though that was almost 30 years ago -- I was 6'1", even then, and I used a rather long peg to get the horn to lip height. In college, they had a neglected Conn New Wonder bass sax that I borrowed for occasional sax ensembles at my church -- the director was a sax player and we generally had enough sax players for a decent ensemble.

Yes, I attended three or four high schools. Four colleges, too.

The biggest "doubling" session I did was to play backup in our church's jazz ensemble for a singer that came to town. I played Bb clarinet, bari sax, bass clarinet, and I think I might have broken out the C melody sax and/or bass sax. I covered some alto flute parts on Bb clarinet. I suck at playing flute :). I always wanted to try to work up the nerve and skill to play my WX11 electronic wind instrument for something like this, but I never got good enough.

I started singing tenor II and bass (I'm really a bass) back in the late 80s. As long as I had someone else screaming in my ear, I could do OK at matching the pitch. I did get better at it.

I stopped all singing in playing about 10 years ago, other than just fooling around, because of health stuff. I now have a Yamaha WX5 and I've been fooling around with computer music, again.
 
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