Most helpful client reviews
67 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
A fantasti instrument!
By C L Abello
The reviewer who gave up on it after only 20 minutes did not give it sufficient of a chance. All severe musical instruments take rather a bit of time to learn to play and any severe musician is, even after decades of playing, fundamentally still learning.
The Pocket Sax and it’s older sibling the Maui Xaphoon are severe musical instruments that is worthy of significant input of time in learning to play and reward you with endless hours of enjoyment and discovery.
I’ve played guitar and keyboards for over 3o years and have dabbled in respective other instruments including assorted members of the woodwind family such as the alto sax and flute. The Pocket Sax is a outstanding addition to my collection and you may get started making music on it within a few hours, but realistically, it’ll take a few weeks of regular exercise before you may start out to take pleasure in your own music. It woudl be the same for somebody picking up a guitar for the firstborn time.
Does it genuinely sound like a sax? Not always. At galore notes, it will if you play it properly. Because of it is design, it sounds like a cross amidst a sax and a clarinet, but is capable of flutey sounds as well if played softly. A sax has a conical bore while the PS has a predominantly cylindrical bore like a clarinet. This results in a “tubular” sound that has more in mutual with a clarinet. But since it uses a saxophone reed, you may get all kinds of sax-like expressiveness that is not available on a clarinet. If it were to have a conical bore, it’d probably sound more sax-like, bu would likewise be much longer and unquestionably less portable.
The PS is an splendid initial instrument to give to your child or any person who is giving careful consideration to taking up the sax or clarinet. It’s much less highpriced and may be a outstanding introduction to the world of woodwinds. It’s much quieter too so you’ll be capable to keep it with you at all times and play it at hours when others are sleeping.
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting sound in a little package!
By Chris
As a clarinet and recorder player for years, I was intrigued by this little horn. It took with regards to 3 minutes to get the feel of the larger mouthpiece and saxophone reed. The instructions are very well written and do not downplay the need to experiment a bit with mouthpiece position and lip pressure. For those who had difficultness constructing sound, and for those who have questions in regards to former negative reviews, the instructions make a clear point to be sure the reed is permitted to vibrate when blowing into the instrument. You actually do have to put rather a bit more mouthpiece into your mouth than is necessitated for a clarinet, pin whistle, or recorder. For me, I had to blow regarding 30% harder than I do on my tenor recorder, but much less than necessary to power my clarinet. A little goodnatured tolerance and exercise and any individual may make decent sound.
I may buy another if my son wants one! Once you get the feel of it, it is a lot of fun to play and easy to learn. The Xaphoon maker in Hawaii has a good deal of great sheet music available, too.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Fun, but you’ll need to put in a good deal of time before you may play it
By Martin C. Heermance
This instrument is fun. However, for the initial few days I could only make it honk or wheeze, and get winded in the process. But then the technique of using the reed clicked and it became more comfortable and took less effort.
The low C through A of the introductory register are a snap to play and assorted easy songs are in that range. The B is cross fingered, while the B-flat is not, which seems odd to a whistle player. However, this makes it easy to play in the key of F so this might be by design!
The fingerings for high C, D, E and F make sense, though playing a scale in that portion of the low register is still hard for me. The second register remains elusive for me, so I can’t comment on it yet.
The bottom line is that for $50.00 this thing is aweinspiring and portable. However, you’ll need to exercise before you may play it well. But this is true of any musical instrument and share of the fun.
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