From the dulcet tones of Kenny G to the infectious hook to Careless Whisper, the saxophone has made an indelible impact on modern music – and become something of a Marmite instrument in the process.
For the many people who find the saxophone an ear-piercing irritation, there are just as many that find it an emotive, irreplaceable musical voice.
The saxophone is a notably new invention, having been pioneered by Adolphe Sax in the mid-19th century. There is an argument to be made that the saxophone was an inevitable instrument, particularly when you look at the rather absurd events preceding its creation; Sax was unusually accident-prone, and had survived a statistically anomalous number of brushes with death. The saxophone was just as contentious in Sax’s time as it is now, but Sax defended its honour through “musical duels” – which, more often than not, he won handily.
Today, there are four different kinds of saxophone in principle, relating to different voice types: soprano, alto, tenor and baritone. These terms refer to different sub-categories of the frequency spectrum, from high to low – that is, baritone saxophones are capable of playing lower notes, while soprano saxes are the highest-pitched.
While there are many merits to learning each of the different kinds, there is an argument to be made that the alto is the better option with which to start. Alto saxophones are relatively small and light, and take a little less breathwork to operate than tenor or baritone saxes. They also share fingerings with the tenor sax, as well as that unmistakable and alluring saxophone ‘S’ shape.
Another important consideration is ‘embouchure’, or the placement of the mouth, lips, jaw and tongue with respect to meeting the instrument’s mouthpiece. Differences in embouchure range from subtle to significant between types of saxophone, but the alto presents the best opportunity to get familiar – and is more accessible to the younger learner, too.
Choosing a beginner saxophone can be a worrisome prospect for those with little insight into these specifics. In truth, there is little to consider as a beginner, outside of how the instrument feels and sounds.
Some saxes might be harder to intonate than others (that is, to pitch notes correctly while playing), while others might expect more in the way of breathwork. To make life easier, we have selected ten of the best beginner saxophones money can buy, and reviewed each with the new saxophonist in mind.
Best saxophones for beginners at a glance
- Best overall: Jupiter JAS-500 Alto Saxophone - £825, Gear4Music
- Best for trying out a tenor: Tenor Saxophone by Gear4music - £399.99, Gear4Music
- Best for a second instrument: Jupiter JTS-700Q Tenor Saxophone - £1299, PMT Online
- Best for disciplined beginner soloists: Jupiter 1000 Performance Series JSS1000 Saxophone - £1249, Thomann
- Best for early beginners: Thomann Piccolino Saxophone - £225, Thomann
- Best for baby beginners: Nuvo jSax 2.0 - £92, Amazon
- Best for the academic music student: Yamaha YAS-280 Alto Student Saxophone - £999, PMT Online
- Best for looks: Elkhart 100TSBK Tenor Saxophone - £779, Amazon
- Best for sound explorationists: Yamaha YDS-150 Digital Saxophone - £675, Gear4Music
- Best for entry-level quality: Trevor James ‘The Horn’ Alto Sax Outfit - £590.69, Amazon
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Jupiter JAS-500 Alto Saxophone
Best: overall
Jupiter is a low-to-mid-range orchestral instrument brand that has been a solid market presence for over 50 years. After a brief foray into percussion, the brand found its stride in brass and woodwind; today, it offers an extremely broad range of instruments, from piccolos to tubas – and their saxophones are amongst the most popular of their brand.
The JAS-500 is arguably their most ubiquitous model, and for extremely good reason. It straddles a fine line between affordability and quality, being a tad more costly than a few of the budget instruments offered here but with a dramatic difference in build quality and sound. Indeed, in terms of sound it is a standout saxophone for beginners; it is amazingly bright, with an expressive, brittle, gritty edge not found in many other student instruments.
The JAS-500 exists in a similar price bracket as Yamaha’s YAS-280, and does defer to the Yamaha with regard to some key elements (including breath response). However, it is the perfect middle-ground between Yamaha’s quality and a budget price point, perhaps making it the perfect all-round saxophone for beginners.
Buy now £825.00, Gear4Music
Tenor Saxophone by Gear4music
Best for: trying out a tenor
Gear4Music is well-known for its budget ranges, producing own-brand entry-level gear for every demographic, from inexpensive audio cables to orchestral instruments and beyond. The Tenor Saxophone by Gear4Music is a rare expensive entry into this pantheon, and the perfect illustration of the base costs that go into even budget brass instruments.
Still, sub-£400 is an excellent price category in which to find a new tenor saxophone; tenor saxophones are rarely found below £500 unless second-hand or significantly worse-for-wear. As such, this is a steal already – regardless of its play quality.
It must be said, nonetheless, that the Gear4Music tenor makes some serious concessions in search of its optimal budget price point. For one, it plays quite ‘loosely’. There’s a lot of breath to be heard over each note, and it can be difficult to get a real feel for what’s being played.
This is not an ideal tenor saxophone with which to build a career, but as far as beginner saxophones go it is well worth picking up. It could be a great introduction for the beginner with prior experience on an alto saxophone.
Buy now £399.99, Gear4Music
Jupiter JTS-700Q Tenor Saxophone
Best for: a second instrument
Jupiter not only manufactures different voice types of saxophone, but also different ranges of saxophone to cater to specific musicians or learners. The 700 series is the next step up from the 500 series, boasting some specific improvements that might appeal to the older beginner, or someone seeking out their second instrument.
The JTS-700Q tenor, then, is the perfect target for this round-up. For many beginner saxophonists, the tenor sax is their second saxophone; the similarities between it and the alto make for familiar ground, but the slightly different requirements in terms of embouchure and breathwork make it a new challenge. The JTS-700Q makes the transition to tenor easy, with contoured table keys and adjustable keys and rests to accommodate smaller hands.
The four-figure price point might be a little scary for most at the start of their saxophone journey, but it’s a worthy cost for someone serious about developing their practice in an academic environment. The JTS-700Q is a well-made and dependable lower-mid range instrument, that provides a long-term learner option for the budding musician.
Buy now £1349.00, PMT Online
Jupiter 1000 Series JSS1000Q Soprano Saxophone
Best for: disciplined beginner soloists
The 1000 series is amongst the top range of Jupiter’s brass instruments, where quality takes precedence, and stark differences are drawn with respect to other beginner instruments. The JSS1000Q is a soprano saxophone, and the cheapest of the 1000 series saxes – on account of its diminutive size.
Soprano saxophones are an exceedingly difficult instrument to learn, even for beginners with some experience on an alto or tenor sax. Not only does the smaller mouthpiece make it harder to find the right position, but the higher pitch makes it much harder to intonate. If you’re buying a soprano sax, it’s because you are serious about learning the instrument; if you are serious about learning the instrument, it’s not worth throwing your money into a cheap and difficult budget soprano sax.
As such, the JSS1000Q is an ideal choice. The one-piece body adds stability and reliability, and the metal tone boosters with which it is supplied make intonating far easier for the beginner player. Again, four figures might be a far stretch for the true beginner – but the JSS1000 is a strong choice for the disciplined learner.
Buy now £1249.00, Thomann
Thomann Piccolino Saxophone
Best for: early beginners
Thomann is a European retail site and music equipment distributor. For over a decade, it has been a go-to for high-quality gear at competitive prices. It has also spawned a large number of in-house brands, providing budget equipment in a variety of sub-areas, from microphones and recording equipment to instruments and accessories.
Under its own name, Thomann produces a series of entry-level instruments, including saxophones for beginners. The Piccolino is the most ‘beginner’ of the bunch, being a tiny iteration of a regular saxophone designed for the younger learner. It is a Bb saxophone, matching the pitch of the tenor sax and introducing younger learners to the transpositional nature of the saxophone as an instrument early.
This is a useful, and surprisingly musical, little instrument. It is more than a toy, though its tonal qualities and dynamic potential don’t make it anything like a performer’s instrument. The construction is solid enough that it will endure a little rough handling, and the saxophone comes with a carry case and all the accessories necessary to make it playable out of the box. This is an excellent learner instrument for the younger beginner, and a great first step to understanding how saxophones work.
Buy now £225.00, Thomann
Nuvo jSax 2.0
Best for: baby beginners
If the Thomann Piccolino wasn’t ‘toy’ enough for your young learner, then the Nuvo jSax 2.0 will certainly fit the bill. Nuvo is an innovative musical instrument brand that puts children and learning first; conventional instruments are re-engineered from scratch in an inexpensive, learner-friendly fashion to provide a durable, low-cost solution for family households.
The jSax 2.0 is the second iteration of their saxophone analogue. It is the least recognisable saxophone on our list, in large part due to the plastic construction and unique key mechanism that all Nuvo products share. The jSax is a little less durable in the long-term, as a result of this same plastic construction; however, it is also much more immune to the vicissitudes of the average preschool musician in the short term, to say nothing of its price making it much less painful to replace.
It is surprisingly congruent with the sound of a real saxophone, despite its size, shape and construction. However, it is pitched to C, in a departure from the transpositional nature of the real McCoy. This is a boon for young learners, though, and a great entry-point on account of its trademark simplicity.
Buy now £92.00, Amazon
Yamaha YAS-280 Alto Student Saxophone
Best for: the academic music student
The Yamaha brand is synonymous with music and music learning, thanks to generations of development and iteration in music and audio products. As well as being a go-to brand for starter guitars, beginner keyboards and electric drum sets, Yamaha is an extremely prolific brand in the orchestral instrument space.
The YAS-280 is another reliable example within this tradition, being an alto saxophone pitched at the beginner saxophonist. It is quintessential Yamaha in construction and build quality, being a rugged and dependable unit with a characteristically clear sound. Its design favours reliability, with hard-wearing adjustable sections and mechanisms that hold up to use and abuse well.
The YAS-280 comes in at quite a high price for the beginner, but is the perfect option as a beginner saxophone for the older student, embarking on a more involved learning process. Its reliability and adjustability make it the ideal long-term learner instrument.
Buy now £999.00, PMT
Elkhart 100TSBK Tenor Saxophone
Best for: looks
Elkhart saxophones are manufactured in good company. The American brand is a sub-division of Conn-Selmer, the ‘Selmer’ part of which will be familiar to most saxophonists. While Selmer saxophones might be somewhat out-of-budget for the vast majority of beginners, their cousin Elkhart is a great beginner option – and a stylish one to boot.
The 100TBSK is stunning to look at, with bright brass keys set off magnificently against a black lacquer finish on the body itself. Its yellow brass construction gives it that ideal sense of brightness without adding too much tinniness to its sound, and its volume projection is more than adequate for learning in a group setting.
There is little to write home about in terms of sound, particularly when pitched against other industry mainstays like Jupiter and Yamaha. However, its build construction is solid and its aesthetics unavoidably a positive factor.
Buy now £779.00, Amazon
Yamaha YDS-150 Digital Saxophone
Best for: sound explorationists
Yamaha makes a wide variety of brass and woodwind instruments, but it is also known for its clever forays into the world of electronic and digital equipment. It has an unusual product that marries these two worlds together, in the YDS-150 Digital Saxophone.
The YDS-150 is an extremely unique synth instrument, being one of a rare few that uses the familiar saxophone key layout as its interface. It even features a low A key on the underside, to enable baritone sax players their moment to shine. Indeed, all four types of sax can be ‘played’ with the YDS-150, via banks of sounds comprising samples of real saxophones. It is eminently tweakable in terms of settings, and its Bluetooth connectivity makes engaging with these settings a breeze.
There are a few potential demerits to this digital sax, though, one of which is particularly pertinent to the beginner. For one, the mouthpiece is an ergonomic and aesthetic addition, and any adjustments you make in terms of embouchure will make no difference to the quality or tone of the output sound. This could lead to some bad habits forming if bought as a first instrument, but its practicality and potential – as a sound exploration tool and a silent practicing tool – are extremely compelling otherwise.
Buy now £675.00, Gear4Music
Trevor James ‘The Horn’ Alto Sax Outfit
Best for: entry-level quality
Trevor James is a UK-based saxophone manufacturer, and one of the younger traditional instrument makers to boot; their operation began just 30 years ago, but in that time they’ve fostered a strong reputation as a brand – having produced some solid sax ranges, and developed a handy learner saxophone in the ‘Alphasax’.
Here, though, we’re reviewing ‘The Horn’, Trevor James’ flagship alto saxophone. It is a strong candidate for a beginner alto sax, being eminently easy to set up and play. The mouthpiece and ligature are designed for ease of use, and the action of the keys is quite smooth. It plays smoothly in general, with a great feel in the mouth and in the hands. It intonates relatively well, and sounds pleasantly clear for a £500-ish saxophone.
The Trevor James alto is a strong candidate for its price range, but suffers from a great deal of competition – and competition from other, more established brands at that. Many beginners would lean towards the reliability and pedigree of a Yamaha over ‘The Horn’, but this is a strong alternative, nonetheless.
Buy now £590.69, Amazon
Verdict
The Jupiter JAS-500 Alto Saxophone pips the rest to the post. It is a well-built, beautiful-sounding saxophone that sets the bar for the beginner saxophonist, and does so well below the £1000 mark.
