Xaphoon Stories

I've had my xaphoon for about 3 weeks now, and I KNOW by far it's the most wonderful instrument I've ever played. I taught myself how to play clarinet about 2 years ago, and I've been an almost compulsive recorder player for about 3 years, so when at a dinner party a woman told me about a bamboo saxophone...well I had to find out what this was all about! After looking through google.com using those keywords, I happened upon xaphoon.com, and I knew I had found something remarkable. I remember calling EVERY music store in town asking them if they'd ever heard of a bamboo saxophone or a thing called a xaphoon, but no one had ever heard of it. One store even advised me AGAINST buying something like that online since they had never heard of it. I resisted their advice, went with my intuition and decided to buy it. I remember feeling a little angst afterwards, so I emailed the webmaster to find out how long this thing was going to take to get to my house. He replied the same day and was very friendly (told me about 3 to 5 business days with the standard postal rate you can choose) In the last few weeks, I've become a lot like the guy in your testimonial who's been playing for 15 years. Wow! I play wherever I can get the chance, and I've already started getting gigs playing at local clubs. It's not a very hard instrument to learn, and even the higher register can be found with some practice. As for the timbre...what can I say? You can make it sound like a saxophone...especially under bridges or anywhere else the acoustics are good, you can make it sound more like a clarinet, and guess what? If you really play with it, you can make it sound a LOT like a flute! Talk about opening entire worlds of music genres with one inexpensive instrument. By the way, if you've never played in public, you'll be amazed how many people want to talk with you...want to meet you. It's truly a fantastic way to connect with other musicians, to meet new friends and dare I say have fun meeting ladies too? Sure! It makes people smile, and that's what I love about it. Steven....Albuquerque, New Mexico USA

I've been playing your instrument, mostly the B-flat, wherever I go for well over 15 years, now. If I do say so, I've gotten quite good, which leads me to the left-handed part of my Thank you. Do you ever get orders from Portland, mentioning this guy who plays the horn constantly wherever he goes?  If so, that's me.  People are always stopping me to ask what's that, and I always tell them, ALWAYS writing down your net site and the latest pricing information. Think of me as a Pied Piper advance man for your pipes. Either and any way, Brian, your invention is still tops in my book. With it, I have just started exploring the complexities of more "modern" jazz melody lines such as "'Round Midnight" and "Take Five." Moreover, when I take midnight walks, I sometimes draw real sax players out of their apartments, whereupon we go down to basement parking lot driveways and blow duets together. For the first time, I find I'm able to spontaneously riff and ornament while the other guy is playing the melody line! What a rush! And of course, the great joy of just communing with the NOW, be it at a bus stop, or before the crashing ocean waves, or in a forest, or on a mountain peak - this is a bliss uniquely and always afforded by your instrument. Stay well and solvent and happy. Always know that your instrument has made my life a profoundly rich one on all levels. Again, thank you, Victor W. Chapman

Hey, I just sent you folks an order for another Maui Xaphoon. I have enjoyed my first one for the past few years but I recently lost it on a beach in South Carolina. I was sitting on the beach late at night, playing my bamboo sax and contemplating the nature of light. Even though the beach was mostly deserted, a young couple came and set up a blanket not ten feet away from me!  Maybe they wanted a serenade...I dunno.  Before I knew it, I could see out of the corner of my right eye that the couple next to me were planning on doing more than studying the configuration of stars. Not wanting to encourage them in my presence, I set my sax back in the box with my tin whistles (which was on my right hand side...the same side as the clinging couple). I studied the length of beach to my left so as not to intrude upon the privacy of the couple to my right even though I felt they had interrupted my personal musings on the sax. When the groans and moans became too much I abruptly stood up and trounced off to my hotel room, leaving my sax and tin whistles lying in the sand. The next morning before heading to the beach I reached for my sax and realized what I had done. I combed the beach (why do people always "comb" a beach?) but found nothing. The life guards had nothing to offer me other than curious looks. My sax was gone. I think the moral of the story is that the music one expresses through the Maui Xaphoon is meant to be shared. The next time I encounter star crossed lovers on a deserted beach I'll keep playing! Dan Meekins

I can't believe I have found the xaphoon again. I first saw and heard the Xaphoon in Sydney, Australia, back in about 1993. I saw it in a market at Bondi and was in awe when I heard the sound that it produced. I got the information and was told that this person would still be there the following week, in which I was going to purchase a xaphoon. Unfortunately , for whatever reasons he was not there, thus I could not buy this instrument. I searched for this instrument in Australia but it was unknown, so I gave up any chance I would own a xaphoon. I was recently going through some old papers of mine and found the information on the xaphoon which I got at the markets all those years ago, and thought I would search on the internet to see if I could find out some information about the xaphoon. Now here I am!!! Kind Regards, Ross Burwood

I, too, have been playing my Xaphoon for over 10 years now, and it has had a profound impact on my quality of life.  My grandmother lived to be 100 years old, but during her last years she did not recognize her family, surroundings, or her caregivers, and holding a conversation with her was impossible.  During my visits I would instead bring my Xaphoon, and play songs for her from the old country.  Not only did she remember these songs vividly, but she would also start to sing along!!!  On many occasions she would continue to sing, long after I left, and would sing herself to sleep.  Thanks to my Xaphoon, I found a way to reach whatever was left of her inside. One night she was in a hospital just before surgery, completely disoriented and agitated.  I played her music in the echo-y concrete hallways, which pacified her, and to my surprise drew applause and additional singing from some bedridden patients nearby!  Having grown up playing only the piano, my Xaphoon affords me the ability to make little differences like this wherever I go.  I love this instrument.  Thank you, Brian!  -Dan van Nuys

I love my Xaphoons. Yes, I bought two I loved the sound so much when I heard it played in the street here in Basel, Switzerland. I have the mass produced and the original bamboo type. I find the bamboo version easier to play as it takes less "puff" than the other. I also like the connection with a craftsman made instrument. It took me about two weeks to get any sound out of it other than a shrill whistle or a lucky note here or there, but now I can play a scale from C upwards, and then go down again too. I have never played a musical instrument in my life before (except a harmonica, badly, when I was hitch hiking around Europe in 1981) and at 43 I thought I had better do it now or never. After all the trouble I had getting the note out I wanted, I told my five year old daughter how hard it was, that it takes two weeks to get the note out, and that did it. Little Miss Determination took the challenge - and to my surprise blew a perfect note on the second try - and repeated it on demand!!! The only problem was her fingers are too small so she can't play different notes, but already it has given us so much pleasure. I can't wait until I can play it properly. You really are a genius to have made such a thing of such beauty. In a world of chaos and frenzy, the xaphoon brings peace, calm and tranquility - well, at least when I get the notes right: I can't speak for the other times! Thank you once again for your creation. It's great! Nigel MacGeorge Basel, Switzerland

I was so pleased to find this instrument. I've made PVC saxes myself and decided that I loved the feel of that reed vibrating against my lip and all the expressiveness possible with a single reed horn that I decided I just had to have a real sax until I saw just how complex they are and learned that it's totally different fingering for each octave. I couldn't figure out a PVC design that would let me get more than one octave, so finding that you have a 2 octave sax that looks so super cool and is so affordable was a major thrill. Because of years of playing didge professionally I was able to play a PVC sax somewhat OK almost the first day. I plan to be using my little saxes at my next concert. I also expect that these little saxes will be a big hit at our next Joshua Tree International Didgeridoo Festival. -Peter Spoecker

Hi, I bought a xaphoon while teaching English in Tokyo in 1994 because the sound was just great. Couldn't believe it was coming from such a small instrument. I'd played the guitar since I was eight, but I've always loved the reed instruments, especially hearing them played by the jazz greats. Up until about a year ago I confined my xaphoon playing mainly to a nearby park (my wife and I live in a townhouse), and frequently dogs would run up to me and try to grab my xaph and run away with it because it looked like a stick, I guess. Now that I'm not squeaking so much ( a good reed such as a van Doren 3 1/2 makes a lot of difference) I'm playing more at home and have even started regular sessions with a keyboarder friend. We're doing lots of Ellington tunes, Rogers and Hart, standards, etc. It's beginning to sound okay so we might take our act on the road soon, thx to you, Brian! Joel Storer

I was over at Penelope's house in the afternoon, and she had to go out for awhile. I decided to stay there while she went, and since it was a nice day, I went out into the yard and began to play the Xaphoon.  Far away, on 
the other side of a nearby fence, was a cow, and when I started playing, she picked up her ears.  I kept playing and the cow just kept staring at me, and finally began slowly walking toward me. It took several minutes for the cow to cross the pasture, but she kept a steady relaxed pace, and soon enough we were practically face to face. I kept on playing, and the cow opened her mouth, stretched out her enormous tongue, and actually licked the Xaphoon. Well, by now, I decided to stop playing and retreat, so I'll never know what might have come next.  All I can say is that a cow's tongue is awfully big when you are that close to it. -Ching

I'm an elementary band teacher, so I love my xaphoon on many levels. it's a challenging instrument, even to me, and I'm a woodwind player!  My story is getting a student of mine revved up. He has only had a first year on alto sax and found it very frustrating. When I showed him the website and the instrument after I ordered it, he was so excited about it his dad agreed to buy him one! Hopefully this will get him excited about practicing an instrument. I told him if he gets good, we could play a duet at our next band concert! Amber Mesa, Arizona

The Xaphoon is great! I love showing it off to my students and people thought it was a hoot at the American Band College! It is fun to mess around with and a get away from the norm! Thanks! Tom Seaton

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