Have you considered soundproofing the baby’s room? With modern day baby monitors you’ll hear the monitor well before you hear anything through a wall so it shouldn’t be a danger and would allow you to continue playing loudly.
Nah, we like to leave doors open here.
We went back to the music store and I held a sax…MAN, it was heavy! I don’t know if I’d be comfortable holding it! I may need to reconsider this whole thing. They didn’t have any available for rent. The guy said Yamahas play better than Selmers, and I do not like the Yamaha name…it’s so generic and unmusical to me. Oh well.
I only have limited experience with a baby. However, I think the open door policy won’t work well after he/she learns to crawl unless you have a very baby safe house. Once Serra learned to crawl we had doors closed and baby gates in places we didn’t have doors.
Jessie,
You were using a neck strap right? An alto or tenor sax shouldn’t be too heavy with a good neckstrap. Note that ‘good’ does not often cover the neckstrap that comes with the sax. You may need to buy a new one.
With all of the negatives (portability, weight, noise) in mind, you might want to consider the clarinet. They can get a wonderful full woody tone, are smaller, can be played just as quiet, and the fingerings are not too terribly different then what you’d get on a sax. Just an idea.
Seth
Hi Jess-I was a sax major many long years ago and have spent the last 20+years teaching it to kids in public school and privately, in lessons. I too blanch at the Yamaha name, but for the money, it is generally accepted to be (amongst the band directors that I know) the best student model instrument currently avaliable. Selmers, the older models in particular, have traditionally been the sax that most pros use.
If you’re going to take the plunge, make sure to get the best mouthpiece, ligature, and reed setup that you can, because they’ll make even an OK horn sound good. Oh- and don’t start on a reed less then a 3 strength, this will help tremendously with embochure development (this has been my experience, although a lot of teachers will start students with weaker reeds).
Go for it-the baby will love it!
Thanks for the advice, Janice. You write like a true scholar (in the James Galway in LOTR thread) and I have enjoyed your posts.
Thanks everyone.
After playing the sax mouthpiece for two days, I returned today to the flute and am playing much better than before! Something in developing the sax embouchure has made the flute embouchure easier. Yay! I think I am going to pass on the saxophone, because I was really put off by the significant weight of the thing. I will make something out of bamboo to use the mouthpiece.
I will be a better flute player if I stick mostly to the flute.
-Isn’t clarinet a larval stage of saxophone? 
Um, make that four months before you won’t be able to play anything for another four months…
Not to be the naysayer in this group, but I took up the whistle in part because saxophone became out of the question in my house. That being said, do it now or do it never! Have fun!
Robin
Strangely enough,I turned to whistle after getting a bit pissed off with reeds,and welcomed the very ‘basicness’ of the Whistle.But,here’s the perverse bit,I’ve just taken delivery of my Uilllean Pipe practice set!!!
I am told, (though I play neither myself,) that the sax is easier than the clarinet. My daughter is an excellent clarinetist; my husband is a beginning sax student…so around here, the clarinet sounds better. Personally, I am not drawn to either, but may, at some future time attempt to parlay my burgeoning whistle skills into flute. Problem is, the flute I’d truly love made by Chris Abell, runs about 10 grand. Whistle for now. I too much love the handcrafted nature of my whistles to settle for a rented type of flute.
If the weight is an issue, how about one of those Xaphoon things?
Actually Yamaha Wind Controllers are very good for learning various instruments. The WX7 has dip switches in the back to make it behave with several settings. It has setting for Boehm Flute, Two Saxophone Settings and Recorder.
I’ve been playing one now for three years. Of all the instruments I have, I feel that Wind Controller have given me more ability to express myself musically than any other instrument. Another nice thing about is that you adjust it’s response to your liking.
Now a Wind Controller can sound like anything - if you want to sound like a certain instrument you have to learn to play it like that instrument. The way I play it with trumpet settings is different than the way I play it with Clarinet - because I want to sound like these instruments - expression is very important here. Of course, I already knew how to play trumpet.
But only one thing, it you want to feel the tone under your fingers then you better get an acoustic instrument.
And I still disagree.
The midi controllers can get you great music, that’s fine. But they really only teach you how to play midi controllers. If you want to learn to play the sax, get a sax. Period. If you like a saxophone-esque sound, and just want to make some nice sounding music, then get a controller. But that’s not what Jessie was talking about.
Seth
Thanks Jessie! Anyway, it’s good to hear that your experimentation with the sax lead to a better flute embochure…
Jessie…sounds like you have a classic case of what’s commonly known (by me anyway) as This-Pregnancy-Thing’s-a-Breeze Second Trimester Syndrome .
Beware… it also strikes again ridiculously early after the baby’s born This-Baby-Thing’s-a Breeze Need to do Something New and Challenging Syndrome. Climb Everest/Form a New Business Empire, that sort of thing.
Both are, realistically, usually short-lived. In the first case all the niggles of creaky ligaments, heartburn, and diaphragm-in-your-throat kick in; in the second, the stay-in-one-place baby develops “character”.
Trisha, mother to five…14,12,9,7,and 2 (solo Monday to Friday), herd of llamas and a flock of sheep…not sure which is easiest!
Look at it this way Seth…
I learned mechanical drafting with pencil and paper. By todays standards, this is prehistoric as everyone uses computers now. They have fewer limitations than drawing by hand.
I merely made a suggestion to Jessie who’s already an accomplished musician as a way to expand her horizons with a versatile interface. Perhaps not now, but one day she may experience a wind controller clinic and decide to give it a whirl.
Well, Trisha, that would make sense, but I am NOT having an easy second trimester. I still feel tired all the time (most likely because of anemia caused by my pregnancy-induced aversion to meat) and I have indigestion and discomfort and all those things, so I have NO IDEA why I was wanting to pick up a new instrument now! But I am over it. Hee. Five kids and tons of animals, huh? Wow! We want a few kids (Dan wants more, but I told him that unless there’s some medical miracle allowing him to do the pregnancies, it’ll be two or three). Anyway, I am back to my flutes and whistles.
I don’t like jazz and I don’t play classical. I was wanting to be different and play Irish stuff on a sax. People have done it with good results.
I got good sounds out of the mouthpiece, but the inside of my mouth (under my bottom lip) hurts from where my teeth pushed it against the reed! Ow!
Tony, thanks for the thought, and I’m glad you like your electronic instrument, but I am attached to acoustic instruments. Thanks for all the good advice and the anecdotes, everyone.
FYI - you can use wax on your lower teeth (like the kind to be put over braces when one plays) to protect your lower lip until it toughens up. I did a lot of playing a week ago, both on soprano sax and on my wind controller, and had a few nicks in the ol’ bottom lip. 
One thing that might go well with Irish Music and complimentary to high whistles is the Soprano Sax. There are two styles of Soprano Saxes, the straight conical body and the bend conical body. The bent version looks like a toy sax!, the straight version reminds me of my metal clarinet but the big difference is that the bore gets pretty wide near the end of the instrument.
Your sax mouthpiece on a piece of CPVC will not line up on the octave correctly (although they sound great), the mouthpiece on a cylindrical tube overblows on the 12th not the octave. I’ve made CPVC clarinet sticks before:
http://jubileeinstruments.messianic-webhosting.com/clarinet.htm
Ouch, Cal!! I tried using gauze, and that worked ok, but I had a little less control.
I ordered a Xaphoon!