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Availability:
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Arrives
Jul 30 – Aug 3
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Style: YVS-100
Features
- Easy fingering similar to a recorder
- Rich and expressive tone that sounds like a saxophone
- Key of C with a fully chromatic 2 octave range
- Made from lightweight and durable ABS plastic
- Uses a soprano saxophone mouthpiece and reed
Description
Style:YVS-100 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 original YVS-100 Venova uses a regular soprano 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 easy to take with you to the beach, the park, on vacation, or wherever you want to make music.
Item Weight: 2.42 pounds
Product Dimensions: 18.11 x 3.54 x 2.17 inches
Item model number: YVS-100
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer: No
Date First Available: September 15, 2017
Body Material: Plastic
Material Type: Plastic
Instrument Key: C
Size: Soprano
Frequently asked questions
If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is:
Jul 30 – Aug 3
Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.
To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.
View our full returns policy here.
To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.
View our full returns policy here.
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Top Amazon Reviews
Style: YVS-100
I admit I succumbed to FB advertising and became interested in this due to an ad in my newsfeed. I am a middle-aged, former clarinetist who still occasionally "noddles around" and also makes a poor attempt at playing the tin whistle. I am becoming more interested in jazz, and was looking for a smaller instrument to mess around with downstairs and annoy people at Christmas with holiday jazz standards. I read every review and watched every youtube video concerning this product (which are sparse). I have had the instrument for 3 days now and my initial impression is that this is a very interesting alternative to a recorder that produces a sound with some semblance to a soprano sax and on which it is fun to play jazz standards. Some have called this an "overpriced toy." Tin whistles are children's' "toys" that take years to master but sound beautiful when in the hands of an accomplished artist. Recorders are often (mistakenly) considered "children's toys" but have a long history as legitimate musical instruments. Hell, there is that dude on youtube who makes instruments from carrots and garden hoses that he records with. So what is the Venova? Well, its certainly not a "toy," but it is not a symphonic wind instrument either. The construction of the instrument seems solid and it is apparent that a lot of sound engineering went into making it. I think it has great potential for what it is marketed as --- a "casual" wind instrument--appropriate for jam sessions with friends, busking on the street, playing in church. That said, contrary to Yamaha's advertising, this is certainly NOT the musical equivalent of a Polaroid camera. Teh Venova is an instrument in its own right that while quirky, has the potential to sound great--but it is in no way a beginner's instrument. After 15 years of serious clarinet study and another 15 of "noddling," I can attest that the Venova is challenging. The embouchure is not as tight as a clarinet, but nowhere near as loose as most true saxophones. It is somewhere in between. The biggest difficultly is that the instrument is VERY sensitive to changes in embouchure. Once one finds the "sweet spot," one has to maintain it or you wind up sounding like a goose with its balls being squeezed or a ill snake charmer. When played properly, the instrument sounds like a cross between an oboe and a soprano sax. Again, once one finds the "sweet spot," the tone is very pleasant. The sensitivity to embouchure changes also means that the Venova can be played very expressively. That said, I am suffering through my fair share of inadvertent honks and squeaks. Lots of people ask if the instrument is chromatic. Nominally, yes; in practice, not really. Accidentals are played through a variety of odd "forked" fingerings that while playable, do not really lend themselves easily to running 16th notes. What about the tone? Well, again, the instrument is sensitive to embouchure changes. However, as others have reported, F#, G# & Bb are badly out of tune and require "lipping it" to play. To me, this is the biggest drawback to the instrument and something Yamaha needs to address if it expects this to be anything more than a one-off novelty item. Oh, and please ignore that vast majority of youtube videos using mic'd Venova's with the reverb turned up. It is not going to sound like that in your basement. Fingerings are a mix between a recorder/clarinet/sax. If you already play a woodwind, you will have a leg-up with the embouchure control, but will have to reprogram your brain on the fingerings, as they are just similar enough, that sometimes you hands go on autopilot. My only major complaints about fingerings are: 1) you have to "roll" C# and Eb, which is obviously a hassle if you need to return [there is a reason sax's and clarinets have all those side keys!];2 ) The fingering chart for some reason is inexplicably written upside down!--contrary to every other fingering chart I have ever seen; and 3) The manual gives a number of alternative fingerings, which can be confusing at first, but are actually helpful depending upon the piece you are playing. For instance mid-C is supposed to be played with just the thumb hole covered. However, it can also be played like a "C" on a clarinet, using the register key and fully covering the remainder. This alternative doesn't sound as "bright", but is essential if you are running up and down b-c-d-e. I note that the primary fingering for mid-D is the middle top hole, which if played with the primary C fingering results in a flub-flub-flub front/back rocking motion. Other thoughts: Please do yourself a favor and just through the stock plastic reed in the bin--it is unplayable, esp for anyone who is new to reed instruments. Price: Meh.....Is this thing worth $100? Depends on how you intend to use it, how much spare cash you have laying around, if you like experimenting with new things, and if you like the novelty factor. I am not SHOCKED at the $100 price tag, given that it does come with a nice case, cleaning cloth and a rudimentary mouthpiece, but I would have felt better paying $70-$80 for it. Have I gotten $100 in enjoyment from it?--Probably. Would I have gotten the same enjoyment from a J-sax or Xaphoon? Probably. All that being said, I have spent at least a good 1.5 hours the past three nights playing with this thing and having fun with it. I plan on getting a C fake book for Christmas tunes and taking this along on my holiday travels. Like any other instrument, this will require a lot of practice to sound decent, but I can definitely see myself playing on the main street with the rest of the college hispters by the college and making some extra dough this summer if I keep at it. In conclusion, my initial impressions are mixed. Its interesting, fun, portable, looks cool, and can be played with a little practice and patience. Are you going to be able to just pick it up with no musical background and start jamming with your hipster friends under a bridge with a picnic basket---No. Are you going to take the classical music scene by storm once you have mastered it? No. Is it a fun, interesting sounding instrument, that sorta sounds like a sax and can be used to noddle/jam with..absolutely. Can it be used with children as an alternative to a recorder and introduction to reed instruments? Absolutely, if one acknowledges its limitations. Overall, I am generally happy with the purchase. I will update my review if my opinion changes in the next few months. Edit 1: For shites and giggles I threw on a clarinet reed---very interesting change; more consistent tone (that could just be due to added thickness), but less spunky sound. Edit 2: sounding low C consistently is somewhat difficult, as the instrument wants to hop into the upper register--although that could just be me playing with too tight an embochure.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2018 by Amazon Customer
Style: YVS-100
Way back when, Carl Orff had a bunch of instruments built in the pentatonic so children could play them without getting all self-conscious about hitting the right notes. These days we have the ukulele. On the one hand Yamaha seems to be aiming in this direction with the Venova, with a sort of "take it to the beach, play a couple riffs, get it banged up, who cares as long as you are enjoying yourself." And, yeah; a sturdy ABS instrument (like the many, many recorders Yamaha supplied to so many generations of music students) that costs under a hundred bucks is quite certainly something you can feel free to toss in the backpack or the beach bag. Except. Their videos are all of very good players showing off. (And I have this strong feeling that outside of the strange exception ukulele fans have carved out for themselves, we are in a much more judgmental, it-doesn't-sound-as-good-as-the-album, auto-tuned world and few people are going to embarrass themselves in public. Especially on something so terribly capable of making horrible noises as a member of the saxophone family). And then there's the other half of this thing; yes, the idea of a recorder-holed single-reed instrument isn't original. It has been done. What the Venova has, though, is Yamaha acoustic engineers being really clever. The weird shape is all about making it possible to play those scale tones in C without having to have fingers like ET. And to sound at least a little like a sax while doing it. So who is this instrument actually for? I really have no idea. For the dilettante who isn't willing to plop down the bucks for a student-grade sax? Maybe. I've been playing recorder (badly) for years, and trumpet (also badly) for about six months, and I picked up the basics on this thing in a couple of weeks. Which on the one hand is short given I had no prior single-reed experience, but on the other hand is a long time to be squeaking and struggling if you just picked it up on a lark. It works for me. Sure, I want an alto sax now (now that I know I can sort of work a single reed). But for now I can make some useful sounds on it. But that might be just me...I also own a rubber-string bass ukulele and a solid-body electric chin cello. Oh, yeah. And toss the reed. The plastic reed is too firm for a beginning player and sounds awful. I opened a box of Rico 2.5's and haven't looked back since.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2018 by Michael D. Sweeney
Style: YVS-100
I am an intermediate level saxophone player. I’ve been playing for 40 years. Trust me when I tell you that it is very difficult to get a consistent sound on the upper register with this thing. The octave key only works half of the time for no obvious reason, and it makes it impossible to play songs/licks that sound good. The lower register sounds good, but the chromatic notes are also very difficult to sound consistently and there are more squeaks and awful sounds coming from this thing than the beautiful music that I hear on the video. It’s going to take a ton of practice to make this sound consistently good. It’s definitely not a “casual wind instrument” as advertised. This is fun to play around with, and I have seen videos of people playing this and sounding great, but it is not easy to get a good consistent sound, and for this reason I would absolutely not recommend this for beginners. It sounds much better when the resin reed is replaced by a wooden reed.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2018 by Amy k
Style: YVS-100
I bought this as a casual easy-to-play instrument for my adult daughter who plays the clarinet. When we got this, my wife who has been a music teacher for 30 years, has a master's degree, and is the principal oboist of a symphony could not produce consistent tones with this. The low notes squeaked at worst and honked at best. We replaced the plastic reed with a soprano sax reed and got no better results. Perhaps the one we received was defective, but after an hour she could not get it to play a simple tune. I have heard recorders for the same price sound much better than this. Perhaps that would be a better "casual" instrument. My wife's only comment was "I can't imagine the sounds a child would produce with this." My guess they would sound worse than the ones my wife produced, a professional and talented musician.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2019 by S. Files