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spit coming from middle B and A keys, dripping to the G (and beyond)

GaryF

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Location
Manchester
Does anyone have any experience in how to stop personal biology dribbling from middle B & along the A keys?

Apart from warming up my tenor for an hour on the radiator before I blow down it? :)

Ta.
 
Some people have gone to extreme lengths to avoid this

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I have stuck some plastic tape on the inside of my sax diagonally above the hole to try to re-direct the stream of water. It works most of the time.
 
Two things I've found that really help with this are:

Play with the sax upright. I don't know about anyone else but I have a habit of leaning forward while playing.

Assuming you're not playing an open air gig, allow the sax to get up to room temperature before you start playing. As it's mostly condensation, a warmer instrument creates less moisture. I've just reread your post - do not stick it on the radiator to warm up! Let it acclimatise naturally rather than using a heat source.

Of the two, not leaning forward is probably the one thing that will make the biggest difference, It doesn't mean you should never lean forward, but rather for it to not be your default playing position. It has the added benefit of giving the audience better eye contact at shows., too. After all, there's nothing worse than watching a band where they're all staring at the floor and all you can see are the tops of their heads.

The other thing I've noticed; if I'm playing really quietly, the lack of air flow seems to make moisture noticeably worse. Ironically, playing stupidly hard (when you get carried away ;) or you're battling a deafeningly bad sound mix on stage) seems to create the same problem.
 
Does anyone have any experience in how to stop personal biology dribbling from middle B & along the A keys?

Apart from warming up my tenor for an hour on the radiator before I blow down it? :)

Ta.

this is normal!
My tenor sax is the only sax of all 4 that does this.
I think it has a lot to do with the “angle of dangle” when to let the sax hang loose around your neck.
 
I have this problem while sitting when playing in a bigband section. But only with my Grassi tenor. My Martin and Buescher tenors don’t leak at all from the tone holes.
 
I have this problem while sitting when playing in a bigband section. But only with my Grassi tenor. My Martin and Buescher tenors don’t leak at all from the tone holes.
I have always been "moist" when playing. I noticed that Tenors tend to do this more, something I never knew. I keep a towel on hand, or in my pocket if there is no other place to put it, and I dry it every chance I get. All my tenors did this.
 
I only have the problem when I'm playing sitting down. If I am playing standing up, it's less frequent, so I guess it has to do with how straight you are holding your horn when playing...
 

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