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Different Types of Saxophone. The most common saxophones are the Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone.
The small Soprano has a lovely tone and is considered fairly specialised. It is usually straight looking like a metal clarinet, but sometimes curved in traditional saxophone style. It is unusual to start on Soprano as the small mouthpiece and difficult tuning can make life hard when you first start playing.

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The Alto is the most popular saxophone for beginners. It is slightly smaller than the tenor and looks and sounds as you expect a saxophone to. Compared with the tenor it is lighter, slightly quieter, takes less puff, less finger stretching and cheaper to buy or rent. Many people start on alto expecting it to be a stepping stone on to tenor at a later date. This is sensible as the fingering for all saxophones is basically the same. However most of these people never sell their alto once they realise the tremendous versatility of the instrument..