I lost my ligature for my sax just today.

I've been looking on google and they vary from lik $20 - 100s of dollars and I do not wish to spend any more money to buy parts and fix parts for my saxophone.

I am wondering if it would be possible if I put a rubber band to hold my reed. I can afford it, but I'm really getting irritated spending money for my saxophone which cost me a lot to fix.

Thanks.

P.S. I am an alto.

I've never heard anyone here ever talk about playing sax.. Also, theres a music forum. But, an even better idea would be to go to an actual music forum, youknow, with more then 20 musicians who all play guitar:p

There are actually quite a few sax players on here.

A rubber band would work...if you made sure it was tight enough. But I wouldn't recommend it in the long run.

I only played sax through middle and high school, so I'm far from an expert, but that doesn't sound like a very good long-term solution. I'd say go ahead and drop the money for a new ligature.

Uh, the ligature has a huge effect on your sound. A crappy one will make you sound crappy (and will make it harder to play.) If you plan on playing sax, you should probably buy a new ligature and mouthpiece than what your instrument came with anyway.

What kind of music are you playing? Are you in a jazz band, classical band, what?

I asked my wife, who is a clarinet/sax player. She says a rubber band will work. But the tension level on the reed would not be desirable. It would be, say, a temporary fix.

Yer. One of my friends forgot his ligature, so he devised something with a bit of tape and a rubber band. It works, but still not the best thing.

Yeah, you'd have to get the rubber band ridiculously tight for it to be any good. I play alto/bari, but I'd just run out to the store and pick up another one.

If you bought a used sax you need to have it sterilized anyways.

Or you could just spend $20 on a ligature and not worry about it.

Rubberbands? That's a horrible idea, and you'd sound like poopy.

Seriously though, don't get one of those dinky metal ligatures that screw together. They'll do wonders in making your tone sound bad. Get one of the ones that looks more like a tourniquet. I think mine is a Rovner (or something similar-sounding, it's rather old and beat up after 8 years), and it works great. Your tone will be better, it won't break or snap in half, and squeeking is never an issue.

Here, http://www.rovnerproducts.com/ligatures.htm

They have great ligatures for whatever sound you're trying to achieve, and are all about $30. I use the "dark" one with a selmer c-star mouthpiece. You'd be suprised how much better it sounds than the cheaper stuff.

Copycat.