So the fact that I've been getting into musical instruments a little bit lately has gotten me a bit bummed out that I sold my saxophone a couple of years ago. I started looking at trying to replace it but I couldn't really find any good deals.
However, while looking around I found a new instrument. One that plays two octaves like many other instruments, but that is basically brand new in the grand scheme of hundred year old horns and flutes and such. It's called a "xaphoon." It's pronounced with a "z" sound.
It's basically a cross between a clarinet, a recorder, and a saxophone. It's about the size of a clarinet, has fingerings similar to a recorder, but uses a reed and mouthpiece similar to a tenor saxophone. It's sound is a very jazzy sax sound...and it's supposedly easy to play if you have experience with the saxophone.
They were invented back in the 70s by a guy in Hawai'i. He has hand made about 15,000 of them...but the hand made ones are a bit more expensive. I bought one that's made out of injection molded plastic. The good news is, the guy that invented them says you can't tell the difference between a plastic and a bamboo one. The bad news is the plastic one doesn't look nearly as cool as the bamboo one. But that's okay, I figure if I end up liking it I can always think about getting a nice bamboo one sometime in the future.
I may keep my eyes open for a great deal on a saxophone still, but I think for now I'll be pretty content learning how to play this new xaphoon, and still learning the ukulele.
1 comment:
This is really cool. I forwarded it to my oldest son who is now going to George Mason. He spent 4 years in high school band playing mostly Clarinet and now is contemplating a music minor in college.
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