How I ended up with a Jazzlab Saxholder

Some years ago my back went while I was fishing socks out of the washing machine. It resulted in a lot of pain and many visits to the chiropractor.

So taking up a hobby that involved hanging several kilos of metal from my neck did raise some concerns for me. The alto seemed manageable - especially the Jericho which is lighter than the the Carmichael was. At first I put the idea of playing a tenor in the box labelled "too much for me". But watching Marino Ikemura (see previous post) play tenor made me think, "she's not very big. And she can dance around with that thing. maybe I could do that..." (I know, she's half my age and I should know better).

Then, having got the tenor (and the Gear4Music is not a light one) I began to suffer for my folly. The weight on my neck pulled my head forward and made me play with a kind of stoop. Not a good posture. To counter this I tended to try to lift the horn with my right thumb, which left my hand aching after playing for any time at all.

Looking around, it seemed I had a number of options.

1. A harness. Perhaps the lower cost option. Though it seemed to me to be a bit of a faff in terms of getting it on and off.

2. A more neck-friendly strap like the Cebulla or the B.Air Bird Strap. These distribute the load better an have the advantage of looking totally cool. Also Marino-san uses a Bird Strap and I want to be her when I grow up. On the down side, they are still neck straps, and as far as I could see, the forces in play would remain the same.

3. The Jazzlab Saxholder. One of the tenor players in my sax class had one and was pleased with it. I liked that it looked as if it distributed the weight differently. but at £30plus I continued to um and ah about it.

So I decided to fake one up to see what it'd be like. So with some 9mm copper pipe, a key fob and some other junk from my shed, I fashioned this steampunk item. I'm especially pleased with the U-shaped adjuster.

Anyway. Believe it or not, this worked wonders. The sax seemed almost weightless. It did stab me in the back a bit, but some judicious duct tape and minor bending alleviated that. The downside is it doesn't store away easily. At all really.

But then, ebay, in its wisdom, offered me £10 off any "collectors items" I wished to buy. And for reasons best known to them, the Jazzlab Saxholder was indeed a collector's item. I love you ebay. For I am that collector.

Since using the real thing, I've found that because it presses on my back, I tend to lean into it and so improve my posture and ability to blow the low notes. I now use my right thumb to push the sax away from my body, and hardly make contact with the thumb hook at all and don't use it to carry the sax. And even if I'm not actually playing, I can groove along to the beat and massage my shoulders at the same time. And, unlike my creation, it folds away neatly and slots into the bell of the sax.