Beginner My Saxophone is blowing whistle

[oluwa]

Good day bosses in the house, Yesterday is my first time to play my saxophone in my church in the midst of 40 to 50 people though I try my best and people like my playing but the only challenge I face is that my saxophone was blowing whistle sometimes mostly if 8I want to change to high octave, pls what happened

 

[Rob Pealing]

I noticed that you have had no replies yet. I had a similar problem and after hunting around the Cafe I found a posting by jbtsax which was helpful. In my case it was a timing problem, I was hitting the octave key marginally before the BCGFED keys and that was triggering a harmonic, (I can now induce it deliberately though I have no idea what use it is) He suggested other causes such as the reed being not quite symmetrical, or split and some I cannot recall. Unfortunately I cannot find the thread and post again.

 

[kevgermany]

Another possible cause is nerves, and you tighten your embouchure. Or there's a leak.

 

[oluwa]

But I am still facing the same problem

 

[oluwa]

pplease what can I do to overcome this problem pls

 

[jbtsax]

[this is a edited reprint of a previous post]

I'm not sure I understand your problem, but an unwanted high note can come out when pressing the thumb octave key opens both the neck and the body octave keys. Here are some procedures to check the adjustment of your sax's octave mechanism:

Check to see that there is at least a 1/16" gap between the neck octave key ring and the post extending from the body. If there is not a gap, place your thumb between the ring and the body of the neck and then gently push down on the octave key. Should you go too far, place a pad slick or tongue depressor under the pad and carefully push back on the ring until the desired gap is achieved.

Press the thumb octave lever hard while fingering G and see if the neck octave key opens. As in the previous case, make sure there is a gap between the ring and the post. On some saxes with a “spongy” cork stopping the thumb octave lever a wider gap may be necessary.

To test the octave key adjustment---finger G and forcefully hit the thumb octave key several times watching the neck octave pad. It should not move if in good adjustment. Then finger from G to A while pressing the thumb octave. The neck and body octave keys should alternate opening and closing completely.

 

[Colin the Bear]

There are a lot of moving parts on a saxophone. Check it over and make sure everything is doing what it should and that nothing has fell off. Open and close all pads and check for stuck/sticking pads. Check the neck octave pip is closing and opening and is switching with the body pip. Put on a new reed. If you can't see what's wrong take it to a technician or a teacher or an experienced player and let them see if they can spot the problem.

 

[Colin the Bear]

You posted while I was typing Jbt.

 

[jbtsax]

You posted while I was typing Jbt.

Great minds think alike.

 

[MrXesX]

One hell of a late reply, but I had to since the same thing happened to me a couple of days ago, now I'm just a beginner so, eh I'm not so sure about this, But first of all, might be a leak, probably isn't, but could be. The other thing is, I want you to try and squeak once, 'Squeak' as in, make the whistle noise.

Now how did that go? If you managed to make it squeak, then I can't help, but if you didn't then you might have learnt something about your saxophone playing.
I did the same thing and when I tried to squeak, it was impossible, so that was my experience.