Hi all,
As some are aware. I've just switched to a Tenor from Alto (i'm at a very early learning stage)
I have a problem with getting the lower C. If I go down the cromatic scale GFEDC, I can get the low note (though occasionally goes high). However if I try to start off on the low C it is always sounds an octave above where it should be. I also have trouble going from say g straight to the lower C, again it goes high. i have tried not to press the reed etc etc. Is this a common problem or just me?🙁
thanks all
woody
I too had this recently (after getting a tenor), I couldn’t get any low notes, but I ditched the stock MP that came with the sax, got a Yamaha 6C and went down to 1 ½ Rico’s from 2….. also practice practice. Now I can pick up the tenor and hit any low note just perfect without running down to it. I think that also you have to imagine the note you are after, which may be part of the problem when you are used to fingering one note on the alto, and getting a certain ‘pitch’, but then subconsciously imagining the same ‘known pitch’ when you finger the same key on the tenor. Also, your muscle memory. That is you learn instinctively how to use the embouchure along with certain keys and breathing, until you find it becomes easier, which is because then you don’t have to think about it. That’s great until you pick up another instrument which requires a different embouchure/breathing combo… then its hard at first to make yourself change what you are instinctively trying to do “right”.
I found that you have to relax into it, lower the jaw more than you would expect (coming from alto land), and also I found that for me if I tongue the reed as if I am saying ‘tut’, just very slightly, it seems to help me to get the low note, instead of it coming out an octave higher. This helps me immensely. I think it may have something to do with helping the reed instantly achieve a longer, slower oscillation (low pitch) without resorting to having to start it off higher and curving it down through the keys etc.
Another thing that I did was to practice the 12 bar C Blues scale over and over (over the course of a couple of weeks) which really helped… the down side to that however, the neighbours cat committed suicide three days into the second week, our friends don’t pop round anymore, and there is a permanent grey drizzly cloud hovering about twenty foot over our rooftop! But hey, sacrifices have to be made.;}
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