Brahms Violin Concerto

The The adagio movement 2nd bassoon part of the violin concerto is almost always on every audition for any position, principal or not. Part of the key to playing this right is making a musical partner with the oboe. Even having played this in concert I still find that I don’t have the oboe part in my head well enough, so I made a score rendition of the 2nd bassoon part along with the oboe solo. Probably handy for oboe players too, to see what is happening underneath with harmonic implications.

So here it is: Brahms Violin Concerto Excerpt with oboe

Successful saxophone test!

We’ve determined the Little Jake works great on tenor saxophone. It only requires a modification to the mouthpiece, where a hole is drilled and a threaded tap made. The ideal place is likely in the neck area, but this only requires an extra mouthpiece (and a ligature that won’t get in the way).

The sound was very promising. When I had Brandon Wozniak test this on his saxophone when we turned the amp on it was just like increasing the volume on the instrument. The tone was very transparent, it was even difficult to tell it was on except that it was unnaturally loud. Effects worked very well too.

I’ll modify your mouthpiece for free if you send it to me when ordering a Little-Jake. I would say this would be fine on Alto sax or larger, and I can only do this on plastic or hard rubber mouthpieces (not metal). Soprano sax mouthpieces are probably too small – the ligature would get in the way if there’s even a good acoustic place for it. For soprano sax modifying the neck is still probably the only option.

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