Saxophone Forum |
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Practicing Tenor Saxophone without a neck strap to build controlI have been working on my endurance and sound a bit MORE recently during the locked up pandemic. I have been instructed by someone with much more endurance than I to spend part of my practice time playing without a neckstrap. At first, my thought was, "do I really want to chance dropping my vintage high priced tenor because I wasn't using a neckstrap"? Then I realized, I can simply put more slack onto the neckstrap, still have the horn hooked on, but not actually using it in any way to support the horn. Then if it slipos out of hand it doesn't hit the floor. At first, High D and E flat were impossible to play on a "moving passage". After a few days of it, they also became playable without the strap. The pain on the thumbs, both of them, is evident as you first start doing this. Then you feel the hot sensation in your thumbs as they wear out. At this point, I usually stop, take a bathroom break, then come back and practice with the neck strap doing its intended support job.
Has anyone else incorperated this exercise into their practice regiment? My goal is to use the neckstrap for its intended use, to help support the horn, but not actually count of it to hold all the weight of the horn, pulling on my back and neck, which over time causes other issues. The instruction came from a player that plays on a double silver plated horn that is also gold plated. So, their horn weighs a bit more than my brass tenor. So, I cant wimp out now. |
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