This guide should go in the Saxophone sub-forum in character-specific, but that seems to have been erased. Maybe it was accidentally deleted in the server move? I hope that gets fixed soon.
This is the
Official Saxophone Introductory Playing Guide
Introduction
Saxophone is an often overlooked character. While rarely appearing at tourneys, he is, in fact, very widely used. His popularity seems to be waning. Many would-be Saxophone players gravitate toward the Brass Animals, especially Trumpet. I myself enjoy the very direct play of Trumpet, but my main will always be Saxophone.
Saxophone's name is often abbreviated as "Sax". He is a medium weight, fast-falling character with medium-good range (almost three octaves, although a very advanced player can push the rang as high as 3.5 to 4 octaves, like me). Saxophone has two clones: Soprano Sax (a lightweight character) and Bari Sax (a heavyweight character). Please be aware that Soprano Sax uses a different key than the other two (B flat as opposed to E flat), which makes it extremely hard for Soprano to be used in team matches with the other two. Tenor Sax, which was also planned for Melee, was found to be inherently flawed and unplayable, so he was taken out. I will only be talking about Alto Sax (aka Saxophone) here. I have played all three, and I believe that Saxophone (Alto Sax) is, far and away, the best.
Costumes
Sax has a good selection of costumes. The default is gold with pearl keys. This is the one most people use. I personally use the all-gold alternate costume. Old-school players may prefer the silver alternate costume. Less often seen are the black, red, and even green and blue alternate costumes. These are most often used by metrosexuals and unskilled players with a lot of money.
Overview
Sax's main strength lies in his versatility and incredible comboing abilities. I will get into these combos near the end of this guide. Some of sax's attacks are quite slow and deliberate. They may seem airy and "fwuhshh-y" to many new players, although if Sax is played in a classical manner, these often undesirable traits are eliminated. Sax is able to link attacks about as quickly as the one playing him can say "ta-ta-ta-ta-ta". Why this is so is beyond my guess, but this makes Sax one of the fastest attacking characters in the game, besides Kirby and Sheik with their flurry of punches, and the Space Animals and Captain Falcon with their rapid kicks. An expert player may be able to attack faster than even these characters with an advanced technique called "double-tongue". I won't get into double-tonguing here.
The Moves
Sax is a unique character in the sense that he does not have a full set of moves. Saxophone has no grab (and therefore no throws), no shield, and no side moves of any kind. The only moves Sax has are down a, b, and c; neutral a and b (you can't do a neutral attack with the c-stick); and up a, b, and c. The jump button, instead of jumping, changes the pitch (angle) of his attacks. It is for this reason that it is usually called the "octave key".
Very new players may experience failed attacks quite often. A failed Sax attack is often called a "squeak". These should fade away with practice.
I group the moves into down, neutral, and up instead of a, b, and c because the down moves are most similar to each other; likewise for the neutral and up moves.
Down Moves
Overall, Sax's down moves are his least useful moves. You should still use a couple of them a little bit, though.
Down A: This attack is extremely hard to pull off. Only experienced players should attempt this. It requires one to muffle the bell with their leg to bend a B flat lower. This forces the player into an awkward position that will most likely break their concentration and open them up to attack. It also makes it difficult to find the correct pitch, making it very hard to land this attack accurately. Don't use this move. Ever. Except when showing off in casual play.
Down B: This attack is seldom used. Prone to incorrect pitch (and therefore hard to accurately hit with). You may want to use it to spice things up once in a while. New players may have fun using this attack, along with down c, over and over. That is quite obnoxious and not useful.
Down C: This, the most often used down attack, is still not very common in professional play. Use it to your personal taste. Executing this move well can add excitement to a match and can often "mind game" the opponent. Use this move very rarely if you are an inexperienced Sax player.
Neutral Moves
The neutral moves are the first moves a beginning Sax player should learn and master. As one gets better, one will find that they are using the neutral moves about the same amount as they use the up moves. The neutral attacks are slightly harder-hitting than the up attacks.
Neutral A: A nice standard attack. Some new players may find that they aim too low with this attack. They should tighten their jaw a bit to alleviate this problem. After practice, using this attack accurately will become second nature. A very useful move.
Neutral B: Very similar to neutral a, but generally without the accuracy problem. Not much to say about it, besides "Use it."
Up Moves
Just like the neutral moves, but they require a small amount of training to tighten up the "embouchure" to be played consistently well. Good all-around moves. Instead of listing each up move (up a, b, and c) individually, I will just say that they are very similar to each other and should be used quite often. Learn them well.
There are moves "higher" than the up moves, but those are possible only after years of training. They are not covered in this introductory guide.
Combos
Combos are Saxophone's forte. He has several very useful combos that, when used often, accurately, and evenly, most distinguish experienced Sax players from the noobs. Note that only the down a attack is not used in Sax's combos. This is because it is much too slow.
Trill: This is one name applied to four different combos. They are all done by alternating between two certain attacks. The attacks that can be used to perform a trill are down b and down c (use this one very rarely, if at all), neutral a and neutral b, up a and up b, and up b and up c. Start with the first move listed in each pair. The faster you can perform this combo, the better. Practice these a lot.
Mordent: Like a trill, but cut short. Can be done a total of 8 ways (double the trill's four). Three attacks long; use the list of moves for trills to see which ones to use. May start with the first move listed in each pair (an upper mordent) or the second (a lower mordent). Do these as fast as possible. Does not require too much practice.
Turn: The most difficult combo. Done by performing up b, up c, up b, up a, up b. Very effective on most characters, and fun to do. You may also appreciate the inverted turn: up b, up a, up b, up c, up b. Practice this one and use it to taste.
Closing Remarks
I hope you enjoyed my introductory Saxophone playing guide. It didn't take that much work to make, but I'm quite proud of it. It's arguably the best Sax guide here on SmashBoards.
I hope that it makes you at least think about picking up and playing Saxophone. He's a lot of fun.
I hereby release this work into the public domain. You can do whatever you want with it (it isn't copyrighted). If you do use it, please say you got it from Jammer (me).
Remember, practice makes perfect!
All questions, comments, feelings, and reactions are welcome. If you liked the guide please say so! It makes me happy!
This is the
Official Saxophone Introductory Playing Guide
Introduction
Saxophone is an often overlooked character. While rarely appearing at tourneys, he is, in fact, very widely used. His popularity seems to be waning. Many would-be Saxophone players gravitate toward the Brass Animals, especially Trumpet. I myself enjoy the very direct play of Trumpet, but my main will always be Saxophone.
Saxophone's name is often abbreviated as "Sax". He is a medium weight, fast-falling character with medium-good range (almost three octaves, although a very advanced player can push the rang as high as 3.5 to 4 octaves, like me). Saxophone has two clones: Soprano Sax (a lightweight character) and Bari Sax (a heavyweight character). Please be aware that Soprano Sax uses a different key than the other two (B flat as opposed to E flat), which makes it extremely hard for Soprano to be used in team matches with the other two. Tenor Sax, which was also planned for Melee, was found to be inherently flawed and unplayable, so he was taken out. I will only be talking about Alto Sax (aka Saxophone) here. I have played all three, and I believe that Saxophone (Alto Sax) is, far and away, the best.
Costumes
Sax has a good selection of costumes. The default is gold with pearl keys. This is the one most people use. I personally use the all-gold alternate costume. Old-school players may prefer the silver alternate costume. Less often seen are the black, red, and even green and blue alternate costumes. These are most often used by metrosexuals and unskilled players with a lot of money.
Overview
Sax's main strength lies in his versatility and incredible comboing abilities. I will get into these combos near the end of this guide. Some of sax's attacks are quite slow and deliberate. They may seem airy and "fwuhshh-y" to many new players, although if Sax is played in a classical manner, these often undesirable traits are eliminated. Sax is able to link attacks about as quickly as the one playing him can say "ta-ta-ta-ta-ta". Why this is so is beyond my guess, but this makes Sax one of the fastest attacking characters in the game, besides Kirby and Sheik with their flurry of punches, and the Space Animals and Captain Falcon with their rapid kicks. An expert player may be able to attack faster than even these characters with an advanced technique called "double-tongue". I won't get into double-tonguing here.
The Moves
Sax is a unique character in the sense that he does not have a full set of moves. Saxophone has no grab (and therefore no throws), no shield, and no side moves of any kind. The only moves Sax has are down a, b, and c; neutral a and b (you can't do a neutral attack with the c-stick); and up a, b, and c. The jump button, instead of jumping, changes the pitch (angle) of his attacks. It is for this reason that it is usually called the "octave key".
Very new players may experience failed attacks quite often. A failed Sax attack is often called a "squeak". These should fade away with practice.
I group the moves into down, neutral, and up instead of a, b, and c because the down moves are most similar to each other; likewise for the neutral and up moves.
Down Moves
Overall, Sax's down moves are his least useful moves. You should still use a couple of them a little bit, though.
Down A: This attack is extremely hard to pull off. Only experienced players should attempt this. It requires one to muffle the bell with their leg to bend a B flat lower. This forces the player into an awkward position that will most likely break their concentration and open them up to attack. It also makes it difficult to find the correct pitch, making it very hard to land this attack accurately. Don't use this move. Ever. Except when showing off in casual play.
Down B: This attack is seldom used. Prone to incorrect pitch (and therefore hard to accurately hit with). You may want to use it to spice things up once in a while. New players may have fun using this attack, along with down c, over and over. That is quite obnoxious and not useful.
Down C: This, the most often used down attack, is still not very common in professional play. Use it to your personal taste. Executing this move well can add excitement to a match and can often "mind game" the opponent. Use this move very rarely if you are an inexperienced Sax player.
Neutral Moves
The neutral moves are the first moves a beginning Sax player should learn and master. As one gets better, one will find that they are using the neutral moves about the same amount as they use the up moves. The neutral attacks are slightly harder-hitting than the up attacks.
Neutral A: A nice standard attack. Some new players may find that they aim too low with this attack. They should tighten their jaw a bit to alleviate this problem. After practice, using this attack accurately will become second nature. A very useful move.
Neutral B: Very similar to neutral a, but generally without the accuracy problem. Not much to say about it, besides "Use it."
Up Moves
Just like the neutral moves, but they require a small amount of training to tighten up the "embouchure" to be played consistently well. Good all-around moves. Instead of listing each up move (up a, b, and c) individually, I will just say that they are very similar to each other and should be used quite often. Learn them well.
There are moves "higher" than the up moves, but those are possible only after years of training. They are not covered in this introductory guide.
Combos
Combos are Saxophone's forte. He has several very useful combos that, when used often, accurately, and evenly, most distinguish experienced Sax players from the noobs. Note that only the down a attack is not used in Sax's combos. This is because it is much too slow.
Trill: This is one name applied to four different combos. They are all done by alternating between two certain attacks. The attacks that can be used to perform a trill are down b and down c (use this one very rarely, if at all), neutral a and neutral b, up a and up b, and up b and up c. Start with the first move listed in each pair. The faster you can perform this combo, the better. Practice these a lot.
Mordent: Like a trill, but cut short. Can be done a total of 8 ways (double the trill's four). Three attacks long; use the list of moves for trills to see which ones to use. May start with the first move listed in each pair (an upper mordent) or the second (a lower mordent). Do these as fast as possible. Does not require too much practice.
Turn: The most difficult combo. Done by performing up b, up c, up b, up a, up b. Very effective on most characters, and fun to do. You may also appreciate the inverted turn: up b, up a, up b, up c, up b. Practice this one and use it to taste.
Closing Remarks
I hope you enjoyed my introductory Saxophone playing guide. It didn't take that much work to make, but I'm quite proud of it. It's arguably the best Sax guide here on SmashBoards.
I hope that it makes you at least think about picking up and playing Saxophone. He's a lot of fun.
I hereby release this work into the public domain. You can do whatever you want with it (it isn't copyrighted). If you do use it, please say you got it from Jammer (me).
Remember, practice makes perfect!
All questions, comments, feelings, and reactions are welcome. If you liked the guide please say so! It makes me happy!
