Master of puff, Andy Honeybone considers the birth of the saxophone, the development of brass, and what happens when you blow down things.

Hot on the heels of last month's essay on the piano comes another instalment of the series brave enough to consider musical instruments without a MIDI connector in sight. When is an aerophone?

Doesn't seem to have the punchy ring that we know and love but it does accurately (pedantically) cover woodwind and brass which are both well worth knowing about.

The Saxophone has the dubious pleasures of being the most frequently mis-spelt (Saxa-) and the most recently invented proper acoustic instrument. The patent was granted in 1846 and, after all this time, the sax still has a rather illegitimate status. Perhaps this is what gives it so much appeal to the angry young man.

Mechanically, the saxophone is a family of instruments, each having a single reed and a conical body terminating in a flared bell. Pitch is selected by the shortening-hole principle and fairly intricate keywork is arranged to allow holes that are spread throughout the length of the tube to be covered by a normal hand span.

Confusion arises in many folk because the sax is made of brass but is classed as woodwind. Adolphe (Antoine) Sax (1814-1894), the Belgian inventor, did much to apply scientific methods to the hitherto rather hit and miss process of instrument design. He realised that any non-porous material could be used and would no doubt have approved the white plastic saxes that enjoyed a brief period of success with the ultra-hip (Ornette Coleman).

The origin of the sax comes in two stories with distinct flavours. The first is that Sax wanted to build a clarinet which overblew at the octave (and you thought the electronic stuff was full of jargon). The flute can be considered as the model for woodwind fingering logic. With all the keys down, the flute produces a middle 'C' but by adopting a different mouth position (embouchure) the octave can be sounded.

Due to the construction of the clarinet, a similar procedure sounds the twelfth rather than the octave and so the player has to mentally adjust to remembering two note names for apparently the same fingering. Further, the missing notes between the end of one octave and the start of the higher register have to be filled in with a motley collection of embouchure changes and mechanics referred to as the break. Written passages which need notes within the break are likely to cause the player to curse or alternatively develop 'reed trouble' and not be able to play at that point.

After that lengthy detour, the above origin can be discredited on the grounds that Sax was too much of a scientist to assume that he could retain the distinctive (revolting) character of the clarinet if he altered the bore. Not only that, but if Sax wanted to build a metal clarinet, the first sax would have been a soprano yet history tells us that it was a bass instrument.

The second version of the story also requires a bit of background knowledge. Sax's first claim to fame was as the improver of the bass clarinet. This ace instrument as played by talents as diverse as Zappa's friend, Captain Beefheart and Mingus sideman, Eric Dolphy, was brought to its present state of development through Sax's ministrations.

Continuation requires a brief look at brass instruments proper which Sax also made. A straight tube, when fitted with a mouthpiece (a metal cushion against which 'raspberries' are blown) will produce the harmonic series in response to various lip pressures. The fundamental is absent but the sequence is, for example: C, G, C, E, G', C" etc.

As basic pitch is proportional to the length of the tube there are three ways of adjustment. Firstly, a tuning slide can be incorporated as found on the trombone. Seven positions have to be known to the player (there are no markers) and although it's manageable for bass instruments, the small differences between positions for treble instruments would make intonation difficult. Despite this, slide trumpets are known.

Secondly, valves can be used to change the arrangement of the plumbing by switching in different lengths of tube. Brass instrument valves date from around 1814, invented by either Stolzel or Bluhmel in Berlin. Without wanting to get too boring about dates, it's worth remembering that the sax was patented only 32 years afterwards, and yet no one thinks of the trumpet as being a recent invention. It's all to do with improvement rather than invention and this theme dogged Sax throughout his life in one court case after another. In fact, the smear campaign mounted by the massed instrument makers of Paris against Sax probably accounts for some of the present day bad feeling about his instruments.

The third method of pitch control is to drill holes down the length of the tube. The effective length of the tube is then the distance from the mouthpiece to the first opening. If all holes are closed, that opening is the bell and if a hole is uncovered then that becomes the new exit. This shortening-hole method is well known for woodwind instruments but can equally be applied to brass. The result was something called a key bugle which was known neither for its tone nor tuning. A bass key bugle called an ophicleide was very popular in military bands of the period.

At last it may now mean something to relate that the saxophone was nothing other than an ophicleide fitted with a bass clarinet mouthpiece. Keen as ever to pick up the gauntlet, I fitted a trumpet mouthpiece to an alto sax. Alas, the noise was excruciating and various fingerings had little effect on the resulting 'note'. An expert might do better but whatever the sax's origin, let's say that it fills a gap in combining agility with the power to stand up against brass.

Saxes come in all shapes and sizes. The standard set comprises soprano, alto, tenor and baritone, although extensions up to sopranino and down to bass and beyond do exist. The snake-charmer-like soprano can be found in straight or curved forms, the straight being more available but suffering from becoming slightly bent with use. The baritone can be played resting on a stand, but normally it joins the rest in being supported around the neck from a sling.

Sax spotting at a distance is best accomplished by looking at the pipe leading to the mouthpiece. An alto curves directly down into the body but a tenor rises before the join. The baritone is unmistakable being enormous and having a mouthpipe which not only rises but also bends back on itself.

The standard range of the sax is two and a half octaves but many modern players can squeeze an extra octave of harmonics from the top end by secret fingerings and extra puff. One of Sax's many innovations was to establish identical fingering across the whole saxophone family even though, because of relative sizes, the resulting notes would not be the same. It is up to the arranger to adjust the music presented so that the desired notes are produced. The saxes are therefore transposing instruments (as are trumpets, etc). The alto and baritone are pitched in E flat and the tenor and soprano in B flat. The pitch refers to the note which emerges when a 'C is played.

Brass instruments are physically demanding to play and require daily practice. When writing for brass, always leave plenty of breathing and resting space. The term 'horn' in jazz parlance means any front-line instrument but technically it refers to a brass instrument constructed with a fairly generous conical bore. The flugel horn (the one that looks like a pregnant trumpet) is a proper horn and is much softer in tone than a trumpet which is made, in the main, of narrow, uniform diameter tubing.

Producer Robin Millar has said in this very journal that he tells players to bring their flugels but leave their trumpets at home. Certainly Dick Pearce plays flugel on Everything But The Girl's 'Each and Every One' but, to my mind, the arrangement is more suited to the long note capabilities of synthesisers. Not only is the key signature unfriendly (brass players prefer flat keys) but the horn is required to play taxing high sustained notes immediately before being given solo space. Of course, we'll never know if the solo was an overdub but just because Mr Pearce can cope, don't expect any friends in that line of business to do likewise. The cornet occupies the middle ground between a flugel and a trumpet. Calling a cornetist a trumpeter results in the same wrath aroused by calling Canadians 'Americans'.

One tenor sax and a trumpet constitute the smallest brass section you could add to a band. An alto and trumpet is the classic bebop lineup which is great for unison lines but is lacking the depth of a tenor for harmony parts; the tone of the tenor suggests notes higher than actually played. The addition of a trombone might be useful visually but gives problems when trying to handle angular complex phrases. Although players such as J. J. Johnson proved that the 'bone could handle anything you threw at it, modern players have rediscovered the joys of smears and rasps so characteristic of the instrument and prefer to play that way. Trombones are non-transposing with their music written in the bass clef. This month's tip: don't stand next to the trombonist as he or she will spray you with water when lubricating the slide.

Style is the vital ingredient of any horn player. Recent auditioning polled Michael Brecker and David Sanborn as top sax influences and Freddie Hubbard as top trumpet/flugel. Some might say that these choices short-circuit 70 years of jazz history — but that's another story.