Need advice on a mouthpiece, gig bag, and reeds for my bari sax!

Hello, my name is Hannah and I just joined this forum! I'm a junior in high school, and I have been playing bari sax since January 2011. I'm often complimented on how warm my tone is on bari and I love playing such an amazing and unique instrument. I really want to get a degree in Music Therapy at University in Louisville, and I'd really love to also play in orchestras and the like when I'm in college. But anyways. Right now I'm looking for a new mouthpiece and reeds because I have All-District and All State auditions coming up in November and December, and I really want to upgrade. I believe the reed I'm using is a Legere size 3. Its great for marching band, I can belt out low A's like nobody's business. But I can tell my tone is nowhere near as pretty as it was, so I'm looking for a good plastic reed that will allow me to have a beautiful, resonate tone. I tried playing a natural reed for the first time in six months the other day, and I just couldn't do it. I don't know if its my new ligature or what (I also switched to a new ligature when I switched from natural to plastic), but I cannot get a tone out at all. Also, I need a new mouthpiece. Mine has gone through about seven marching seasons, I believe (this is it's second with me), and it has the plastic stuff on the top for your teeth to bite down on. Well, it used to..its all kind of rubbed off and its just gross and needs to be thrown away. So I'd love a good mouthpiece I can keep with me until college. I enjoy having a really warm tone. I don't know any other way to describe it. And a gig bag....I'd really love a gig bag because my case is so big and bulky. Most of our clinic stuff (All District, WKU Honors band, etc) is at Western Kentucky University. They're called the Hilltoppers because the campus is located on a huge hill...meaning its not very fun at all to carry your bari sax around at. So a good, quality gig bag that would effectively keep my bari safe and sound would be awesome, if someone could recommend one. I'd like to use it for the rest of high school but take it with me to college. Thanks so much!


TL;DR? I'm a high school junior looking to upgrade her bari sax equipment for the rest of her high school/college career. I need suggestions on new reeds that will give me a tone so resonate and pretty it could put a baby to sleep (perferably plastic), a new mouthpiece, and a gig bag.  

Reply To Post [Report Abuse]