Playing the saxophone Accidental overblowing high G coming down from high C

[swhnld]

A year ago I switched from Alt to Tenor, I play with a group of friends one evening every 2 weeks for 2 hours with a 15 minute break. Between a full time job, a Masters study and my family, I have limited time to practice, but generally that is doable. However, I have one annoying problem, in the second hour, when I am getting a bit tired, I start to accidentally overblow the high G, and it is mainly happening when I am coming down from a High C.

The straight forward solution would be, more practice, but for that I have not enough time at the moment. So I am wondering, is there something I can do with my setup to make live easier.

The setup I am using is a Cannonball T5 with Selmer SD20 mouthpiece and Vandoren blue #2 reed.

Would you have tips for a direction I could go to fix this issue for now?

P.S. the Alt setup I am coming from is a Selmer Ref 54 with S80D and Vandoren blue 2,5 reed.

 

[ellinas]

If theres nothing wrong to the sax you should work on your voicing.
What is voicing? Its the shape of your neck tongue and oral cavity when you blow a note.
Good news is that the concept is close to what happens when we talk.
Im not really experienced as so many wonderful people here but i know that voicing gets more and more exaggerated as you play bigger horns.
If theres nothing wrong with your sax, check if your fingers close at the same time and try to see if your neck opens a little bit and your tongue changes a little bit its position when you drop from C to G.
Practicing voicing will give you easier fuller notes.

Try to sing that C to G and try to do something similar when you play it on the saxophone.
hope this helps

 

[jbtsax]

When the embouchure muscles begin to tire---especially those in the corners of the mouth, the tendency is to "bite down" more to maintain the embouchure's control of the tone. This happens to the best of us. "Biting down" causes us to play too high on the input pitch which in turn encourages the fundamental to jump to the first overtone an octave higher.

The short term solution to this is to put on a slightly softer reed, use more "AHH" shape inside the mouth, and to try to keep the teeth more open. The long term solution is to practice long tones daily to build up the stamina of the embouchure muscles to allow you to play for longer periods of time without fatigue.

 

[Eoe]

There are exercise you can do if you Google. People here can tell you. Like smiling then whistle. Make like you have a mouthpiece in your mouth and do vibrato isometrics And voicing . I do a lot of this stuff and my mouth feels like it is Mick Jagger now.

 

[Guenne]

Hi,

simply take 5 minutes of your practice and do some Mouthpiece-exercises. Work your way one octave down from G concert (on Tenor, A concert on Alto) on the MPC alone. The problem will disappear for sure.

Cheers, Guenne

 

[swhnld]

Thanks for the suggestions, I am going to try them!

 

[spike]

Have a look at PT's artikel on "taming the saxophone" - here:
tamingthesaxophone.com/saxophone-harmonics-overtones
it may help you understand what is happening.