Getting a sop up to pitch...

[Mat]

An old thread I understand. If I am breaking some horrible social rule here, just let me know. However, I am not sure how it turned out so thought I would throw in my thoughts.

I had a lot of issues getting into soprano. My answer was to head back to a bog standard Yani 4 mouthpiece with a 2.5 reed. I found that the easiest way to get it all under control, a simple closed mouthpiece, let me just focus on getting air going through the horn, which then got the confidence up, which then let me relax, which then got everything starting to sound better. I started with a bigger mouthpiece, and every nuance was bigger, which was just compounding the problem.

I have a Tai Shan curved soprano as a safe travel soprano, which actually sounds ok now I got my confidence up. If I can get that going well, the Yani will be fine! I found that initially with the confidence gone, everything went to pieces. My only other thought is don't be afraid to take a reasonable amount of mouthpiece in, and yep, blow strongly. Just because it's little doesn't mean it doesn't need air. And I repeat.... relax. Tensing up because it's frustrating actually just makes it worse.

Once you have everything going together, then yes, bigger mouthpiece can start to make sense.

Obviously just my experience. Doesn't make it right, Just adding to the picture.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Sorry for slow response. I’ve hardly been able to play for a couple of weeks now due to a horrible head cold.

 

[Jeanette]

An old thread I understand. If I am breaking some horrible social rule here, just let me know. However, I am not sure how it turned out so thought I would throw in my thoughts.

No rules broken, always good to hear different experiences

Jx

 

[Thierry]

Playing a Selmer Super Action 80 Series II alto since 2002 (and an 11 years break) as well as a Series III tenor since 11/2017, I bought a Selmer Series III soprano last February. I immediately gave up the S80 C* mpc it came with to go for a Super Session E and a Phil Tone Sapphire .067 opening with Legere Signature 2 1/4 and have so far managed to play decently Gabriel's Oboe and the 1st half of the Schindler's List. Luckily haven't faced much issue with tuning but still can't play palm key #2 & #3 and initially struggled with how close the keys were on a soprano. How it improved my tone on tenor sax came out as a true revelation!

 

[Colin the Bear]

An old thread I understand.

A month. Old? Sheesh! Some get resurrected after a decade.

 

[Hackenbush]

Hi tenorviol,

You said in an earlier thread that you prefer the curved neck, so just wondering whether you've spent much time with the straight neck?

The consensus among owners of Sequoia sopranos seems to be that intonation is much better with the straight neck, so could the same be true of your Yani sop?

 

[Daniel37]

OK so I've now got a nice soprano, but I'm not used to playing it...

I mostly play tenor, I started on alto, and I now play a bit of bari... I've never really had tuning issues until now. I am inconsistent and woefully flat in places, some more than others and I'm struggling to get notes above the A above the treble staff to play in the upper octave (i.e. octave key is depressed).

This is obviously flawed technique... By pushing the mpc right on I can get the concert A just about there... But if I play mpc+neck the sounding note is more like an F than an E.

So... do I need to be looking at airflow, tightness of embouchure, or several things?

The instrument is my new Yani WO10 with Yani mpc. I'm eating humble pie over reeds and gone from 2.5 ==> 2 (Vandoren Java) ==> 1.5 Rico

Yani makes a great soprano, I have one that I bought in 1978 and it plays great with very little maintenance,however it is a straight one piece one. I have tried several good mouthpieces other than the one that came with the horn,and the ones I favor are a Rico Metalite m7 and a Guy Hawkins #6 with a soft reed.