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- #29,563 in Musical Instruments (See Top 100 in Musical Instruments)
- #47 in Saxophones (Musical Instruments)
The Yamaha Venova is a totally new type of wind instrument that blends the simplicity of a recorder with the sound of a Saxophone. The YVS-140 Tenor Venova uses a traditional Tenor saxophone mouthpiece and reed, but with simple open-hole fingerings similar to what you'd find on a student recorder. Durable and lightweight, the Venova is a fun and easy way to get started playing music wherever life takes you.
Cgillig08
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2024
Was hoping for an instrument to practice on, similar to a saxophone or clarinet. It is literally a piece of PVC pipe that I paid $140. So disappointed.
rab
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2023
Comes with a hard plastic reed. I don't care how long you have been playing, remove the hard reed and replace it with a lighter one. Yamaha needs to rethink this; they must have gotten a deal on the hard reeds. I spent about ten years investigating the sonics of hard reeds, so it did not cause any issues for me. But I believe this is why so many people give it bad reviews on playability. Not giving a review on anything but playability, it is after all a plastic horn. I love mine, have the alto as well and soon the tenor. A great little funky horn that is a lot of fun to play.
Curtis Miller
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2022
The YVS-120 is easier to play than it's soprano counterpart. Mind you, I was a alto sax player back in my high school/early college days so that may affect this review. For any one who has been reading reviews for the 100, you probably noticed that certain pitches are hard to hit specifically Gb/F#, Ab/G# and Bb/A#. Unfortunately those are kind of important pitches even for basic keys like G and F. You can hit the pitches, but it takes some embouchure manipulation. The 120 can play an F# by moving a finger, which makes things a hell of a lot easier, but Ab and Bb still require some manipulation. If you're going to get one, I'd suggest this one. I haven't tried the tenor, so I can't tell you anything about it, but the alto version is worth it. BTW, don't expect the same sound you'd get from a real saxophone. This is a piece of molded ABS with a sax mouthpiece on it.
Mike Jurney
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2022
This thing gets a lot of hate from stuck up pretentious musicians that can't make it sound good but the fact is they expect to just be able to do it well because they can play other woodwinds, however if you know how to play it, it sounds every bit as good as any other instrument.It takes practice, you won't be good at it, just because you are good at sax. This instrument is all about expression and technique, and it is VERY expressive. you can honk and squeek and even polyphone on demand. You can get about as smooth as a clarinet, or about and hard as a tenor sax (harder to do with higher tones).All that being said, I think this would actually be an excellent first step for someone thinking about playing sax. I never even play my saxes anymore.Only downside is it fill up with spit and is difficult to clean. If spit gets in the finger holes (which it will) the notes won't play correctly. This usually happens after about an hour.
Gabriella
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2022
This is a cool little instrument. Much smaller than a saxophone but still puts out a similar sound. It’s fun to play and the fingerings are fairly simple.However, I have to knock a star off because the synthetic reed that ships with this is just awful. It’s hardly a beginner friendly experience in my opinion. Unless you’ve already learned to play a reed instrument with a synthetic, do yourself a favor and order a pack of basic alto sax reeds with this. Maybe it’s because I learned on wood reeds since high school, but the synthetic reed has an odd mouthfeel and next to no mouth feedback for the vibration of the reed. As a result I had a hard time getting any sound out at all other than a squeak. Frustrating because I know how to play a saxophone already! After a while I was able to fight with the reed to try an make it work for me but ended up just popping a wood reed on anyway. The thing is, once I did that it was like magic. Suddenly I could play no problem! It’s a shame there’s no option to buy this standard with a wood reed instead, but if you’re having trouble playing or just want the option to try both right out the gate to see what works better for you, go get some basic alto sax reeds. I use Rico brand reeds, just make sure you look up some instruction on playing with a wood reed too.
Solmangrundy
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2021
Bought the YVS-120 for its saxophone sound and durability/portability claims.Most spend my time practicing at work in a extremely dirty environment so being able to just spray it down with a hose and not worry is great for me.Never tried the stock reed. Everyone says its too stiff so I picked up a Legere #2.5 Reed and dont really have any trouble playing it.I'm completely new to wind instruments and for the first few days practice was just me trying to figure out how to play notes. Which may put some people off of this. As this defiantly isn't a pick-up and start playing for people who've never used a reed instrument before.There isn't really that much for music out there thats transcribed for it either so unless you can learn by ear or transcribe your own you may not want this instrument until its popularity increases and people produce more readily avalible music thats specific for the venova.
Anthony R Griffin
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2021
I bought this because I thought it might be fun and relatively easy to play. Well, it's not easy and therefore not fun. I don't mind putting some effort into something that will be rewarding (currently learning clarinet) but I don't see that the final result from this will be worth the effort, as it sounds ... OK ... but not great.
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