Trevor James TJ 371A Alpha Alto Sax

What and Why the Alphasax?

As one of the World's leading woodwind manufacturers and distributors, we have been consistently receiving comments from parents and teachers about the problems facing a new and younger generation of players wanting to learn the saxophone. Issues concerning the weight of an alto saxophone compared with playing the flute or clarinet along with the various problems associated with having smaller hands and therefore finger positioning issues have surfaced.

As the saxophone is now one of the most popular woodwind instruments of today, we set about researching where and how we can design a saxophone to cater for the younger or smaller player.



Our research during the last 12 months has unearthed some very important factors for us to consider:



(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! This would ensure the same tonal characteristics as on a normal alto saxophone!

(4) A minimum two octave chromatic instrument – our research was very specific in that 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 we made changes to the mechanism to ensure smaller fingers could reach the keys! – and not simply putting the pearl touch pieces closer together.

(6) Having achieved points 1-4, it was vital that the instrument package as a whole (which included the carry case) was light enough to be carried around by the younger or smaller player.



The instrument






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. This ensures that we met the desire that the instrument looked and played like a normal alto sax.



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. New and innovative mechanism has enabled us to maintain the finger
positioning of a normal saxophone.




Key and Mechanism Detail

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.
The Alphasax Solution

Problematic keys have been removed or redesigned for extra comfort.
The weight has been reduced by an amazing 33%.
Weight

At only 1.86kg in weight the revolutionary Alphasax saxophone is 33% lighter than the traditional alto saxophone.



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). A stunning 46% lighter!