Oh Lordy No !!!!!!

[Basil]

Obviously in need of stretching after 4 solid months of Boosey and Hawkes "Learn as you play", my teacher gave me "saxsequential" to play, a grade 5 piece. Well, talk about struggle........so, in order to relieve my frustration I thought that I would go back to B&H, and as I can play top register C I thought that I would try these palm key things....and OH MY GOD ! The noise was like nothing I can describe, strangulated, hollow, squeaky, pack of spaniel baying at the door type thingy...I have blown gently, I have blown hard, I have tried sucking ( WELL, NEARLY), AND IT ALL SOUNDS AWFUL.

So guys, what is the secret ??? How do I sound sweet on the high notes (and I haven't even thought about altissimo yet).

:cry:

 

[Bobby G]

Hi Basil, Spike just started a thread on this. About all I can add to it is that those high notes can be a bit troublesome at first. I may be wrong as someone who is self-taught, but minute embouchure adjustments as you go through the high notes can help - well, they helped me...

Cheers, Bob

 

[blaxadder]

Hi Basil,

Well first question I would ask is what 'flavour' reed are you using ? I must admit that when I first tried the palm keys with a 1.5 Rico Royal I could not get any of them to sound (or if they did, like you, it sounded like a cat in a lot of pain !) with a 2 they started to come, and a 2.5 they can almost start sounding 'sweet'.

The other thing with these high notes is you kinda want to increase the air pressure and decrease the volume of air. I think of it as trying to sort of 'whistle' into the mouthpiece. Obviously you don't want to change the shape of your embrochure or tighten too much, but imagine the action of going to whistle. If you do it without a mouthpiece, form a whistle with your mouth, then try the normal toungeing method (tee, ti, doo) in place (or sort of together with) the whistling sound. Hopefully you'll feel a bit of a kick right in the back of your throat, like a small cough (maybe also think of it as your Adams apple trying to go down to the floor). Now transfer that kind of action to your normal embrochure on the mouthpiece, and try it very gently at first. That will hopefully produce a nice high pressure puff of air to start the reed in the right direction -- once you get it you'll see how it works !

Hope that hasn't confused you even more.

All the best

Blax

 

[sharon]

Basil I found this when I first started to play them and like Bob as I'm also self taught assumed it was just because they were new to me and persevered. Remember when you first started playing the "ordinary" notes and they sounded terrible. Well perhaps ignorance is bliss because I can now do them within in piece of music 99% of the time.

Simplistic perhaps but just keep doing long notes and practicing - especially with pieces of music that have a lot of these palm key notes. Eventually they'll come I'm sure. Oh by the way my Selmer mouthpiece was a lot more accommodating than the original stock mouthpiece and I use a 2 or 2.5 reed.

Sharon

 

[nosaxyet]

I'm a newby too but I have no more trouble with the high notes than the low notes.

Mind you, I do have trouble with the low notes :whistle:

One big frustration for me is moving over the break and the significant change in tone from c (with one key held down) and d (with six held down). Never really been above C3 yet.

 

[Mikec]

I found careful choice of reed is essential, then sheer perseverance.