Trevor James 371A Alphasax

No longer need you be told that you are too small or too young to play the saxophone.

The saxophone is one of the most popular musical instruments around today, and features in many high profile bands. Until now however, a new generation of potential musicians have been denied the opportunity to learn the instrument, based solely around their age and size.

The revolutionary new Alphasax by Trevor James design of alto saxophone has solved the issues of weight and hand positioning and now enables young players to fulfil their dream of learning to play the saxophone.

Research unearthed some very important factors:

1. Who is the new saxophone to be aimed at? - Any player wanting to play the saxophone from the ages of 7 yrs upwards (school years 2 - 7) who are currently told they are too small to play the conventional alto.
2. The instrument must look like an alto saxophone - Therefore just using a curved soprano was not possible.
3. The weight of the instrument must be reduced by around a third to be acceptable to the younger or smaller player. - This would have to be achieved without changing the thickness, or material of the body tube, ensuring the same tonal characteristics as on a normal alto saxophone.
4. A minimum two octave chromatic instrument - for the first couple of years, it would be very unusual for a young player to learn to play more than a two octave range.
5. Some keys are impossible to avoid, making the instrument unplayable & other keys are impossible to reach. The weight can be too much for some young players (& some adults) so changes were made to the mechanism to ensure smaller fingers could reach the keys, and not simply putting the pearl touch pieces closer together.
6. The instrument package as a whole (which included the carry case) was light enough to be carried around by the younger or smaller player.

Unique Design

The new Alphasax is based around the original body tube of the award winning Trevor James Horn alto saxophone with completely redesigned mechanism and tone hole positioning.

Key and Mechanism

The Alphasax in the key of Eb, with a full two octave chromatic facility using established finger positioning to enable the smaller player to learn the alto saxophone using current study books.

• The left hand palm keys for top D#, E and F have been removed
• The top D key has been adjusted to fit small hands
• The low B & Bb keys have been removed
• Redesigned G# and low C# keys are now easier to reach
• The right hand side F# keys and side C key have been removed
• Redesigned low D# and C keys are now easier to reach
• The Alphasax retains a fully chromatic range from low C to high D
• Bb bis and side Bb keys are retained
• Problematic keys have been removed or redesigned for extra comfort
• The weight has been reduced by an amazing 33% to only 1.86kg

Case

A new lightweight (1.48kg) moulded case with backpack straps is included along with a padded neckt strap, mouthpiece, cap and single screw ligature. A Vandoren reed completes the package.

The Alphasax by Trevor James is therefore an incredible 3.34kg in its carry case (compared to the usual 4.9kg + of the standard alto saxophone, 46% lighter).

Player and Teacher Reviews

"I'm a teacher based in Hampshire (UK) ..approached by a young pupil who had a very strong desire to play a sax..Aged 6! Spoke to Sax.co.uk and got his parents to purchase on a rental scheme. WOW.. what a well manufactured instrument and once the reeds/mouthpiece were sorted.lessons commenced. I have never seen a young pupil take to his lessons with so much pleasure. AND PROGRESS.

I feel the main reason for his progress is the weight of the Alphasax plus the ease of putting together and it blows so easily. Great starter instrument for budding "Cool" sax players."

David Cole - Teacher - Hampshire UK

"I loved it as soon as I saw it...my son is only 9 years old but he has taken to the instrument really quickly. The Alphasax is much better to begin your sax life with as it is like playing an normal alto saxophone. Better than having to start on the clarinet or curved soprano sax!."

David Hosker - Sax Teacher - Sweden

"Saw this instrument on the Internet and brought one 'blind' for my daughter. Just to say that I had found her a possible sax teacher however she was sceptical about the Alphasax. How wrong scepticism is when you haven't yet seen one as Mary's teacher absolutely loves it! My only recommendation to other parents is that if their new teacher for their child hasn't yet seen one, then ask them to try one first!"

David Shaw - Edinburgh - UK

"The Alphasax is fantastic! The keys are all in the right place and the pointless keys, only suitable for the higher grades have been removed. There is no beginner's music written that uses the high and low notes anyway so they are hardly, if ever, used!

John Berreen – sax teacher - Kent UK