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Playing Outdoors
 Playing outside in a band can be challenging. The musician is constantly dealing with changing weather conditions. Playing in the heat during many marching band camps and then trying to play the same music you have learned in the cooling fall and then cold winter conditions is just not the same outcome. You still must sound as good as you do inside, but sounding good outside must be done differently. Furthermore, you must consider sparing your best equipment from the dangers of playing outside. Brass players don't need to take their custom gold plated mouthpiece on the marching field to sound good. You simply run to great a risk of damage. A friend of mine during a show on a very cold winter day wet his lips, raised his trumpet to play and the silver plated mouthpiece actually froze to his lips, pulling skin off in the process. In winter months it is a good idea to keep your lips protected. Chopsaver does a great job in keeping your lips moisturized, and it is great for woodwind as well as brass wind players. An acrylic mouthpiece such as the Kelly Lexan mouthpiece is more thermally stable, not only making for a better sound outdoors but may just prevent lips from freezing to the mouthpiece. Plus they are very inexpensive too.
Reed players struggle with changing reeds all the time. It is worse when playing outside. Not only does temperature effect the reed but so does the humidity if the reed is made from cane. Today there are some very good synthetic alternatives that did not exist 20 years ago. Synthetic reeds offer great stability. The Legere reeds have the most concert like sound and if you want a reed that is loud, and might even compete with the brass, the Olivieri synthetic model is loud in addition to being stable. For the double reed players the Olivieri synthetic have also proven to be very dependable. |
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Saxophone Support
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Saxophone straps not only support the instrument and prevent damage, but they also support the player too. Supporting your saxophone properly is very important on the concert stage and practice, but even more so on the marching field. Due to the extra movement while marching it not only increases the chances of neck strap failure but also stress to the player. We suggest using a harness instead of a neck strap. The harness displaces the weight away from the neck allowing the shoulder to bear some of the burden. This makes for a more secure, stable setup and removes some of the weight off of your more fragile neck while marching. You may consider the BG Neck Harness made for both male and female. Other options include the NeoTech Soft Harness or the Super Harness.
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