New
#621
The toughest sax to play was the soprano. The slightest variation in embouchure resulted in a huge change in pitch. I could almost lip a full note.
I was lucky (or blessed, if you prefer). I grew up in a Church that didn't believe in instrumental music in the worship services so I was immersed in four part harmony from infancy on. Because of that, harmonizing comes easy for me. Any more now, most people don't have a clue how to sing harmony a capella. I didn't even care if my singers could read music and still had trouble finding them. The funny thing was, most of my life, altos were a dime a dozen. But once I needed to replace the one I had (she was moving to Montana), where the heck were all the altos? All I could find were high sopranos that couldn't even get low enough for the lead (I already had a high harmony singer). I went through several lead singers; it's a tougher job than most people realize because they have to maintain tempo and pitch. I could do it but I had to be available to replace any missing singers and frequently did. Otherwise, I doubled with the alto unless we were doing four part harmony or I was replacing a singer.