Saxophone

11/28/22

Nick Bikoff

Flute or Saxophone? And which is better? I say the saxophone because it is iconic in jazz. Secondly, it can play both smooth and rough tones in a continuous vocalizing manner. Thirdly, the saxophone has a wider variety to choose from. Fourthly, the saxophone is in almost all genres of music and can play all genres. And lastly, it has a much better sound than the flute.

When you hear the word, “jazz,” what do you think of? Swing and blues notes? Improvisation? An epic sax riff? The saxophone can sound amazing when played as jazz. The slurs, ties, 32 notes(sometimes), swing, and call and response are all easy for saxophone players to accomplish. It may take a lot of practice and work, but once you know it, you know it. An example of an iconic jazz sax song is the jazz piece Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. I’m not allowed to show it here because of copyright, but it’s on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and whatever you stream music on, it’s there.

Secondly, the saxophone can play both smooth and rough tones. Smooth tones are what you hear a lot in jazz. Smooth tones are also identified as slurs when written out. You perform a slur by tonguing only the first note under the slur.

Rough notes are mainly in rock music but appear in blues and jazz sometimes. One way you can achieve rough tones is by using a technique called growling. You achieve growling by singing a note into the sax and playing a note at the same time. These are the easiest techniques, but there are many other ways to make a smooth or rough tone on the instrument.

Thirdly, you have more versions of the saxophone to turn to. The four most popular saxophone types in 2022(most store/online-bought saxophones) are the soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, and baritone(bari) sax. But, there are more. The whole lineup looks like this:

Soprillo(Sopranissimo)
Conn-O-Sax
Sopranino
Saxello
Soprano
Mezzo-Soprano
Alto
Tenor
C-Melody
Baritone
Bass
Tubax
Contrabass
Subcontrabass

Below is the full saxophone lineup with their length in all its glory:

The entire saxophone lineup

Next, the saxophone is in all genres of music. And when I say all, I mean all. Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, made a sax orchestra that played classical music by Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, and Rachmaninoff. His orchestra was composed of the bass, tubax, C-Melody, and contrabass’.

Every once in a while, in the Sydney Orchestra House in Australia, they will have a saxophone section among the woodwinds using every sax except for subcontrabass and tubax. You'll often hear saxophone solos in rock bands like The Rolling Stones. It'll be in jazz 98% of the time. Sometimes there will be a slow saxophone in the background of country songs.

Lastly, the saxophone has a much better sound than the flute. The flute can sound kind of nasally, but the saxophone can sound sweet in a ballad. It has a nice fluid sound to it. It sounds good when played fast. It sounds good when played slowly. It just sounds better than the flute. Here is a song from the band book for 6th graders; Essential Elements for Band, by Tim Lautzenheiser, John Higgins, Charles Menghini, Paul Lavender, Tom C. Rhodes, and Don Bierschenk:

Good Version.mp4

The saxophone is jazz’s iconic instrument, it can play both smooth and rough tones, it has a wider variety to choose from, it is in all genres of music, and it sounds much better than the flute. For these reasons, Saxophone is better than Flute.

Contributor Bio

Nick Bikoff is a 6th grader at Edgewood Junior High School. He does taekwondo and is a green belt. He enjoys the potatoes at China Star Buffet. He also plays the alto saxophone and read all summer about embouchure and fingerings. He wants to play piano but currently does not own one. He knows a little bit of guitar.

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