I got a plastic Xaphoon and found it very frustrating. Your video helped me understand why. I tried to play using your suggestions and it did help, but, with all respect, it is not a very pleasing sound. I have no doubt, with a lot of practice, it could be better, but I think it much too difficult to master for most people. I have a Duduk which is about 4 - 6 inches longer with a smaller diameter bore and it plays bang on pitch with a whole lot less effort and sounds a lot better. I take it with me everywhere.
The Maui brand tries to sell this instrument as a "pocket saxophone" by means of marketing. But it is clear that the xaphoon's sound is closer to the clarinet's than the saxophone's. Although xaphoon uses a tenor saxophone reed, the main body is cylindrical, and it makes the sound closer to the clarinet's. Then the way the column of air vibrates inside the xaphoon is different of the way it vibrates inside the saxophone which has a conical body shape. I read, somewhere, the xaphoon is a kind of "chalumeau", a late baroque woodwind instrument that developed into the modern 17-keyed Bb clarinet.
I have had my Xaphoon only one week and I can see/hear that learning to pitch correctly is going to need quite a bit of work. Your video lesson on this is very helpful and encouraging. I like the sound of this instrument a lot and it has other benefits as well but pitching is so important and I use too much pressure. Any thoughts on reed strengths?
This man, who's name I thinks is Kouhei Hichiriko, is a total magician on this type of instrument - not a Maui Xaphoon but very similar. Having watched several of the hundreds of videos that he has posted I can hear in his playing that he is pitching the notes all the time. Everything sounds very in tune but he is constantly sliding up and down between the notes. This is just one example of his, to me , jaw dropping musicality (no pun intended): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE---JeuR1ehQQ.html
