I've been playing for about 6 months on my trusty hired John Packer JP41, when my teacher recommended that I get my own alto sax, namely a Yamaha YAS275.
This I have now done, but I'm feeling a bit disheartened as I seem to have gone back several steps. Although the instrument has much to commend it, its weighs less, the action is lighter, and has a far superior tone, I just can't play some notes!
The problem notes are D2, E2 and F2, particularly D2, (six fingers plus octave key, hope the naming convention is correct). What seems to happen is that I get some weird harmonic, completely unrelated (?) to the note I'm trying to play, which sounds awful. ALL other notes are fine. The shop checked it out and gave it a clean bill of health. When I started playing the Yamaha, I would fail on these notes about 95% of the time. Its now down to 50%, but I really don't know why. I would claim I'm playing the note the same(ish) each time, but the result appears to be random. I'm not pressing any other keys accidentally either. It appears particularly bad if going from C2 to D2.
Is this to be expected? Are these notes particularly difficult? It was such a relief to get back to the John Packer, after hours of persevering with the Yam.
I will get the opinion of my teacher this week and I have 7 days to decide whether to keep the instrument. Is this a one off or do they all do that Sir? I want to like it but I get a sinking feeling when I see a 'D' approaching on the music.
Hope you can help
Kind Regards
Richard
This I have now done, but I'm feeling a bit disheartened as I seem to have gone back several steps. Although the instrument has much to commend it, its weighs less, the action is lighter, and has a far superior tone, I just can't play some notes!
The problem notes are D2, E2 and F2, particularly D2, (six fingers plus octave key, hope the naming convention is correct). What seems to happen is that I get some weird harmonic, completely unrelated (?) to the note I'm trying to play, which sounds awful. ALL other notes are fine. The shop checked it out and gave it a clean bill of health. When I started playing the Yamaha, I would fail on these notes about 95% of the time. Its now down to 50%, but I really don't know why. I would claim I'm playing the note the same(ish) each time, but the result appears to be random. I'm not pressing any other keys accidentally either. It appears particularly bad if going from C2 to D2.
Is this to be expected? Are these notes particularly difficult? It was such a relief to get back to the John Packer, after hours of persevering with the Yam.
I will get the opinion of my teacher this week and I have 7 days to decide whether to keep the instrument. Is this a one off or do they all do that Sir? I want to like it but I get a sinking feeling when I see a 'D' approaching on the music.
Hope you can help
Kind Regards
Richard