Difficulty of saxophone..? Help please!

[inhyuk0907]

Hello,
I'm a student saxophone player

( I don't know what happened to the post I just uploaded.. it's not on the forum. )

been having a severe problem with my saxophone.. Yani a901.
One day I just woke up and C and C# came out HORRIBLY.

My teacher tried the horn and said nothing was wrong with it..
I'm beginning to think that she might have missed something.

I thought my problem was that I was using a clarinet embouchure.. but I have been doing that ever since I started.

(I squeaked terriibly in my jazz band audition.. not so great..)

I came back home disappointed because of how I did in the audition, and picked up my old alto sax, a student selmer AS500.

..surprisingly, NOTHING was wrong with the notes. Everything came out great.


Now my question is

Is it the embouchure that's messing me up? I've improved my embouchure practicing 3~4 hours a day now...

Or if that's not the case, is a student selmer horn easier to play than the Yani a901 I have?


Anyone's help would be much appreciated

 

[singlereed]

Do you mean C and C# at the top of the sax i.e. - only one finger down? These notes can be stuffy and sometimes won't work well if your reed is poor or not attached properly. Have you tried the alternate C fingering (B with side C key)? I reckon there is something wrong with your Yani if it suddenly started doing this - if anything, it should be easier to play than your old horn. If the same mouthpiece/reed is working on your old horn, then my guess is something has happened such as a spring popping loose or maybe a pad has been demaged somehow - but if this is the case, it probably won't play properly down the horn at all.

If you are talking about the low C# then possibly the screw that closes the G# has worked loose. Finger a low C# and see if the G# is popping up a bit. If it is, gently turn the screw that closes that pad until it is just shut when you finger a low C# (same will happen with low B and Bb). The low C#/B and Bb also open the G# - you will find that useful later (!) but it can be a source of problems.

Another problem might be that the low C# pad is not seating properly (get professional help) or the spring on the low C# has come undone so the low C# pad is not closed and therefore the low C won't play (hook it back and buy me a drink). Good luck.

 

[inhyuk0907]

Thank you singlereed for the reply.

Sorry for not mentioning what octave the Cs were in.
The problem is with the C and C# with one finger down.

I thought the reed was the problem so I took out bunch of new vandoren 3 reeds out.. but it was the same.
And all the notes are a little harder to play now even though they do come out normally (I have to blow in much harder for all the notes..).

I guess I should take it to a repair shop now to fix it.

Thank you, since I now know that I did not all the sudden lose my saxophone skills haha.

 

[Justin Chune]

A Vandoren Traditional No3 reed would be too strong for me. Perhaps you should try something softer before taking your sax to the shop. Just a thought.

Jim.

 

[MandyH]

I have a Yani 901, about 9 months old. I play Rico Royal 2.5 reeds on a selmer C* mouthpiece. I don't have a problem with the C and C#, although the C# can sound a little watery if I don't get enough puff behind it, as it's just the bare instrument, no other pads closed / open.
Do the notes sound OK if just played in a scale? Sometimes, when I produce something that sounds horible, I just run up and down a few scales to determine if it's the note alone. Usually it's me :crying:
If your teacher has no problem with these notes on your instrument, it does rather suggest that you might be doing something different.