First sax practice
After the astoundingly helpful Richmond Music furnished me with some new reeds and a copy of the famous Jimmy Dorsey book I whipped out the sax out today and had a blast.
Got to grips with the basic low octave fingering which is essentially the same as the flute’s (woot). I spent quite a bit of time with my electronic tuner, ending up both alarmed and enthralled at how much the sax’s pitch can be varied by the embouchure and lips’ pressure on the reed. It’s quite easy to slide up and down an entire half step, while the flute more or less just plays a note. At least to my naive ear 
Slightly frustrated by not getting a consistent solid 2nd octave C. I had to jam the mouthpiece all the way up the cork and put quite a bit of pressure on the reed to get the pitch up. At that point the timbre was thinned and not at all juicy like the other notes, all of which themselves proved reasonably straightforward. I really need to find a sax teacher to tell me WTF is going on. (Emailed one so far.)
No flute today - can’t wait ’til tomorrow!
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second octave C:
don’t jam the mouthpiece further up the cork!!
i’m a tenor player, not alto - but try to maintain a tighter embouchure (almost smiling) and at the same time increase the volume at the back of your throat (feels a bit like yawning).
also, practice lower register scales by standing flat against a wall to help work your diaphragm.
August 22nd, 2005 at 06:01. Permalink.