RISE ABOVE YOUR LIMITS
Hello musicians. Here we are now to empower you. To minimize your struggle. Maximize your sax. Because we believe you don't have to be a genius to play a genius – to play like a genius. We believe: Playing your sax doesn't have to be pain but a pleasure. That's why it's called playing. Yeah, we believe in the easy way to learn, to play, to grow. For the Good Vibrations on your SAX. Stop dreaming. Start playing like a Pro. You. Are. Limitless. So feel free to play wildly free. Push your Boundaries. So let’s simplify SAX forever. Welcome to the easy way to learn to play. Now it’s your turn to play the unplayable. You must never doubt your ability to achieve anything. Become anything. Overcome anything. And inspire everything.
Rise above your boundaries. Rise about your doubts. Rise above your limits.
From the Flight of theBumblebee to SaxMax.
Many good ideas are born from a problem.
And it was the same with our start-up GRADIVARI and with our first product SaxMax: I couldn't progress further as an artist, so I started looking for a solution — for me and all the other musicians.
Vienna, 2015: I am standing in my apartment, my fingers floating over the saxophone that has accompanied me for half my life. It is refined with 24-carat gold and specially tailored to my style of music — and it is not an instrument. It is my life that I hold in my hands. And that is exactly what is running through my fingers.
I am frustrated. I doubt myself and my ability as a musician. It's been like this for a long time: no matter how hard I work on my playing technique, no matter how many extra hours I play on my saxophone, no matter what I try — I always reach a point where I can't continue. I can't progress beyond that point, I can't develop my playing technique further, I cannot explore since all the possibilities that music and my saxophone offer are not transferring over.
I ask myself: is this it? All those years of hard work, the trembling, sweating, bleeding, music studies, master classes, concerts, scholarships, awards, and the trust and praise of my mentors all this just to realize that I can't make any more musical progress?
„Mateo is an excellent saxophonist and graduated summa cum laude from our university. He has always impressed me very much with his performance, which combines perfect technique and virtuosity with natural musicality and a confident sense of style.“
These were the words of the music professor, Heinz Medjimorec.
Everything was still possible at that time. I was a music student, I was curious about the music world and its possibilities and I wanted to gain new musical experiences.
"A spirited magician on the saxophone, Mateo Granić is a born musician. He has the extraordinary gift of addressing his audience in a very personal way. The natural gift of making music and the experience of musical stimuli are in harmony with his talent and personality." - Croatian evening newspaper Večernji list
A born musician. A magician with an extraordinary gift — and now I'm standing here, frustrated, doubting myself and thinking of GIVING UP. At this point, I don't know that this is exactly what musicians all over the world are going through.
Give up? Music is and has always been EVERYTHING for me. As far back as I can think, I have always held an instrument in my hands. Let's travel back to my childhood: while other children play with soccer balls, cars or dolls, I play on an instrument — always and everywhere. If there is no instrument nearby... - well, then any object that I can convert into an instrument will do.
I am nine years old when I start my music education. I am a teenager when I play as a volunteer member in the services of the first police orchestra of the Republic of Croatia. And even when the Croatian Homeland War breaks out, I play: while the bombs fall on Dalmatia, we continue to work and make music, on and on, without breaks. We play to comfort ourselves and others. We play to motivate each other. And we play to escape from war for a few sonatas.
Because of my love and passion for music, I have dedicated my life to music. I have never done anything else.
I always wanted to make music. For me, music is what the call of the wild was for Jack London. I have always followed the inner call of music.
All my life, I have not just been a musician, I have lived music. I was obsessed with music and until that moment when I reached the limits of my playing technique, I lived safely and confidently in a big bubble that I had built up with all the scholarships and grants, with all the praise from my mentors and the press. I now realize this painfully.
Back in the days
Every musician gets to this point where he can't progress. Beethoven, Mozart, Coltrane, Parker, Hendrix — all of them
What makes the difference is that some give up and others look for a way to free themselves to reach their full potential. The potential that lies within them and their instrument.
When I realized this, I knew that there was always a solution for every problem. So I set out to find that solution. And then I find a YouTube video:
“Fastest violinist in the world.” The video caught my attention. Mine and that of 10 million others all over the world. And I think: Wow, I can do that as well!
So, I apply to the Guinness World Records. They send me the “record package”. Contents: the notes of the “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimski-Korsakow, specially arranged for the saxophone. Pretty damn hard to play: there are passages in the notes that are UNPLAYABLE on sax even at a moderate tempo.
I train hard. I try to beat the world record. It does not work. The saxophone makes it impossible to use your fingers to play this piece. Absolutely impossible. After a year of trials and trying, I am about to give up.
But then I have an idea. If I manage to push my sax even further away from my body while playing, I can use my right hand more freely. Maybe I could even use my thumb to play. So, I try it. The tool that is supposed to help me with this: a stuffed belt pouch.
Bingo! It's not perfect, but it works: I can already play much more freely, easier and faster. I can use my hand in a way that was never possible before. I am now even developing a completely new playing technique.
I am thrilled. I call the new playing technique that I developed “Criss-Cross-Fingering”. And this technique makes it possible for me to play previously impossible parts on the saxophone. Suddenly I can play scores that were previously considered “unplayable” on the saxophone.
The idea for SaxMax is born.
The small tool that is supposed to solve one of the biggest problems for saxophonists all over the world when learning and playing.
That is exactly why I founded this company.
To enable musicians all over the world to reach their full potentialand that of their saxophone. That is why GRADIVARI exists.
Oh, and regarding the “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov: I can play it now. At the speed of a quarter = 208 BPM.
And now you can do it too. Or whatever else you wish to play — now you can play the “unplayable”.
Rise above,
Mateo Granić
LEARN HOW TO PLAY MUSIC SHOULD NOT BE A PAIN BUT A PLEASURE.THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED PLAYING.
RISE ABOVE
Now it’s your turn to play
the unplayable.
Yeah, you heard me.
Maximize your sax performance with the SaxMax and play more freely, better, faster - more creatively. Max your Sax. With SaxMax.
Buy the SaxMax
Made
in Vienna
