Joy of Sax : The musical instrument is one that can be learned in just a couple of months, according to one teacher.

You won’t be able to trim the federal deficit, meet with Yeltsin or ride on Air Force One.

But there is one thing you can do that will instantly give you something in common with President-elect Bill Clinton, and it’s not jogging to McDonald’s.

You can play the saxophone.

In fact, says Lisa Marie Baratta, you can get pretty darned good at it within a couple of months.

“It’s easier to start playing the sax than a lot of other instruments,” says Baratta, who teaches at Big Valley Music in Northridge. “You can get better sound, and it’s easier to finger the right keys. It’s very rare that I get a student that can’t get a sound out of a saxophone.”

Baratta says that, and you’re thinking, yeah, but she’s never met a student like you.

You try anyway. The first thing in learning how to play the saxophone--alto or tenor--is to become comfortable with it. This is hardly automatic, especially if you’re the kind of person who can barely hold a fork.

The sax is big and fairly intimidating. What matters most is not being afraid of it, which is easy for her to say. You’d like to see how comfortable she’d be under deadline in a newsroom.

There’s a lot to playing the sax the right way. Your finger and mouth positions and your breathing all have to work in sync, which is not easy.

Many people make the mistake of holding their hands incorrectly, and you immediately empathize. The right way is to curve your fingers around the keys. You soon feel more like an acrobat than a musician.

You must also place your mouth properly on the mouthpiece. If you press on the reed too much, no sound will come out; if you press too softly, a horrible, flat pitch will result. You try it dozens of times and, each time, one or the other happens.

“You need to find the right balance,” Baratta says, quickly losing patience, “and that applies to everything about the saxophone.”

Correct breathing is also important. Anyone who wants to play the sax, even for recreational purposes, must breathe only from the diaphragm. A common mistake is puffing your cheeks too much, which wastes a lot of air and makes it tough to sustain any kind of sound. So you go home and practice in front of your mirror every day, trying not to puff your cheeks. You look incredibly stupid, but after a few days of humiliation, it works.

OK, so you got the technique down. Let’s play the devil.

Baratta starts her lessons with a simple understanding of the notes on the musical scale. (Welcome back to seventh-grade music appreciation class, which you slept through the first time around.)

Then, you learn how to play notes in a logical sequence. The hard part is to play one note and smoothly move on to the next one without a break, or any ego petting. Always look ahead to the next one, Baratta advises. Easy for her to say. You know you’re lucky to get one note down.

Yet, slowly, it sinks in, becoming almost instinctive and, presto, you are making clear, precise sounds. At the end of two more lessons, you’re playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It’s cause for celebration.

“Relax,” Baratta warns. “There’s a lot more to do.”

She’s obviously right. There are years and years of practice ahead for the serious student--she recommends 30 minutes every day.

“What I like about the saxophone,” Baratta says, “is that you get a more full sound than other instruments, and it’s so much fun to play and so attractive.”

You know exactly what she’s talking about.

You, millions of others, and Bill Clinton.

The Premise

There are plenty of things you have never tried. Fun things, dangerous things, character-building things. The Reluctant Novice tries them for you and reports the results. If you would like to make suggestions for the Reluctant Novice, please write to us: Valley Life, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. If we use your idea, we’ll send you a present.