My first homemade bamboo sax
Before my bamboo flute building adventures, I've purchased a little instrument called the Xaphoon. It looks like a small recorder with a saxophone/clarinet like mouth piece. But somehow, I never got good at it, I find it hard to produce a nice stable sound from it. Unlike the saxophone mouth piece, the one from the Xaphoon is much thicker making it more difficult to bite against to keep it in your mouth. I'm sure it's me since there are a lot of good Xaphoon players. But the Xaphoon ended up collecting dust.
Since I've been making bamboo flutes, I thought I could use the same methods for making a bamboo sax and it turned up to not be that difficult. I first found a cheap soprano sax mouth piece on eBay. It turned up quite fast. I already had a 1.5 reed that I used for the Xaphoon and transferred it to this new mouth piece.
I then took a piece of bamboo and started drilling finger holes into it after taking some measurements of the full length including the mouth piece. To my delight, the prototype worked very nicely. The thinner mouth piece made is much easier to keep in between the lips and I had no difficulty playing it.
After a day practicing it, I decided to record a little sample. It sounds like a hybrid between a sax and a clarinet. I kind of like the sound and will try to do a longer song next time mixing it with other instruments.
Happy Christmas time everyone
It's that time of the year again, so I've decided to record "Silent Night" with some pan flutes.
The first pan flute featured in this video is made from bamboo by Robert Moreno. I met Roberto last year before all the lockdowns. I was looking to buy a pan flute and he sold me one of his multiple Sikus (aka Zampoñas) he bought in Chile from Luthier Jose Luis Matus Muños.
Roberto mainly makes pan flutes while his father makes Quenas and Quenachos. He wanted to try the Native American Flute (NAF) and bought one that didn't produce a nice sound. So we decided to swap our flutes since I'm making NAFs but not many pan flutes. Roberto's pan flute was rather large compared to the pan flute I made a while back. It has much longer pipes than mine which gives it a lower pitch. Also shortest pipes have larger diameter so even though they produce higher pitch, their tone is warmer.
Overall, I like how Roberto's pan flute sounds like, it has a very warm and deep voice. It took me a little more practice since this flute was ordered in reversed way compared to mine. Usually pan flutes pipes are ordered with the lowest pipe on the right hand side but Roberto ordered it the other way around like a piano. I got used to the new direction easily and I'm now enjoying it a lot.
Oh this looks so cool, I love hand made stuff, especially Instruments :D
Thank you. I wanted to make a handpan at some point but it’s too complicated to work the metal lol.
Oh wow! That would be quite a project :D I think its very hard to get a good sound and you need the right tools. Also as far as I know, makers "bake" them in a very hot oven several times that the steel keeps the sound.
Yes. I watched some videos on how they make them and it’s another level lol
So you can even make your own instrument? How cool is that! I loved the cover of Silent Night, very nice! I think I could easily fall asleep listening to this😁
Thank you :-) if you fall asleep on this cover then it’s a success 😊
Yes 😊. I started to build my first instrument, a Native American Flute, over a year ago and it has extended to other type of bamboo flutes, some percussions (shaker, drum, rattle, mark tree) and now this.
You are a man of many skills , congrats! I think that many would love to see the creation process for such an instrument, I am sure that it requires a lot of patience and knowledge
Well done! I never thought about creating something like that but I like it and it sound pretty good.
Thanks. I saw someone do it and thought I’d do the same .
!LUV it! I was a terrible clarinet player in high school😬 Then when I tried to sell it in college, I was told that it wasn't my fault because the wood was of a terrible quality lol🤣 I think the bambou looks like it is a better quality. The fingering must be like on a recorder, and because of the reed you might not be able to get the whole range of notes that a normal sax with more holes and hole plugs can get. With a recorder you just tongue on a higher level. You might be able to add on another piece to get the full range. But I absolutely love the combination sound saxo-clarinet💞👏👏👏😍
Thanks dear.
Each bamboo species will be of different « quality » some are more suitable to certain instruments than others. I will be trying a thicker type of bamboo next to see the difference.
You are correct.m, the fingering is very close to the recorder. The Xaphoon is said to have a range of 2 octaves which is not bad. Mine can reach the first note of the next octave. Still working on improving this.
Very interesting indeed. I'm looking forward to hearing the result of the thicker bamboo. Cheers to you and family🙏🙏
@katou.kanga(1/1) gave you
This bamboo sax are looking so amazing. You made it in a very beautiful way with bamboo. Honestly, it looks very beautiful. This instrument also sounds very good.
Thanks. Yes I like it very much. It’s not exactly like a saxophone but it’s OK
this is absolutely amazing! @sazzler took up the saxophone this year, I'll definitely pass this on to her. Maybe she will give it a go someday!
That’d be good for taking on travel. But I think the fingering is different though.
My Proof
I would have love to give a comment below your Youtube videos. But you didn't turn on the comments section for people to comment. Good work my friend. Greetings.
Thank you.
Some of those YouTube content are automatically uploaded by Distrokid and they disabled the comment section. I’ll see if there is a way for me to enable them.
Yes. I can help you fix the issue. Are you on discord. Send me your username. I will send you how to enable the comments section on YouTube. I learnt that as well.
Thanks for your offer to help but it's OK, those videos are managed in a different way, they don't even appear in my Youtube Studio amongst the videos I manually upload. This is because it's uploaded by Distrokid for Youtube Music.
Oh. Okay. No problem 👍
@quochuy wow really nice instrument.. I love it😍
Thank you
Dear friend @quochuy , it is an incredible creativity, Homemade bamboo saxophone, I have seen them in Venezuela in commercial and metallic sales, but bamboo only in the movies, Extrordinary friend publication, which must be curated with the highest rating. Successes
thanks
That's lovely, there's an interesting intonation to it which adds to the character too.
I love silent night song, and It's amazing when you cover by pan flutes.
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This looks like flute with you article ...it will be a good instrument to play with
Amazing creativity🌸
That is so cool and so simple!
you are a craftsman i think it would be great if i had skills like you i don't know if i can do something like you
lol wow goldman bamboo sax
wow it looks sensational!
Congratulations! And I loved the music😎
Wow. This is awesome. I call it CREATIVITY This is what always motivate me to reason and double my thinking skills and Techniques. Thanks. I followed you. @quochuy
I also follow you on your YouTube channel. Well-done friend 💯
Beautiful! That combo of guitar and pan flute is so peaceful and relaxing.
I love the stuff I see people make with Bamboo, IMO it looks a lot more versatile than hard or soft wood.
Aloha! 😀🤙
Just checking out your blog and this post caught my eye. I used to play sax (was a music major, but never grad) anyway, your creations are way cool and that does look like a bamboo version of soprano sax.
Nice sounds from the pan flute also.. good vibrato in your air..