A beautiful sight it makes, the shining saxophone, it seems to hold out the promise of divine notes that one would hear when it is played. And indeed the music that emanates from it is divine. Adolphe Sax, an instrument maker who belonged to Belgium, invented the saxophone in 1840. It was patented in 1846. Adolphe Sax had followed in his father’s footsteps. His father Charles Joseph Sax was an instrument maker. Adolphe Sax also invented the saxotrompa and saxhorn Tuba. Inventing such an exquisite instrument was not enough. People had to be taught how to use it. So the Paris Conservatoire appointed Sax as an instructor to teach playing the saxophone in the year 1857.

When air is blown into an instrument and it produces a musical sound due to the blown air vibrating a single or double reed then such an instrument is called a reed sounded musical instrument or an aerophone. The clarinet and the saxophone are examples of single reed instruments and the oboe and bassoon are examples of double reed instruments.

A musician playing the saxophone blows air into the mouthpiece. The mouthpiece has a broad reed of springy cane fastened at one end. This reed vibrates when the air blown into the mouthpiece comes in contact with it and beats against the hole several times in a second. As a result puffs of wind vibrate the enclosed air. This in combination with the maneuvering of the fingerplates produces the exquisite notes that we hear.

Saxophone