Is it a good choice to have a go with a recorder like JSax or Venova before jumping to the mighty tenor sax?

Unless this question is for a child under 10 years old I would not recommend wasting your money on lessons on a recorder type instrument. If you want to learn about the basics about reading notes and counting rhythms and a few other foundational aspects of music with some free lessons online, playing a recorder or some other basic 6 hole woodwind may make your beginning lessons with the tenor sax a little easier to comprehend. But having said that, if you know you want to play tenor sax then find a good teacher with good reviews and study the tenor sax. Saxophone is one of the easiest wind instruments to learn, (although it does take just as much time to “really play” it as any other instrument) but it’s an instrument that you can “have fun” on in a much shorter time then other wind instruments. If you want to start on an easier instrument than the tenor sax, I usually recommend the alto sax just because it’s easier to handle, get a decent sound and there’s more of them on the market, so you can usually find a little better deal on a used horn. Switching from alto to tenor is pretty easy once you get good on the alto, and if you buy a good used saxophone you can usually get most if not all all of your money back when you sell it.

Los Angeles Music Teachers - Call 818-902-1233 or email: rick@losangelesmusicteachers.com