Beginner Top D - pushing my saxophone sideways

Jay

Senior Member
Playing the higher D of the ordinary notes (thumb and palm key) it turns out at my last lesson that I wasn't playing it properly because I was keeping my middle finger on the C, which was flattening the D. Sure enough, it does :rolleyes:

But now, just trying to play the D with the thumb and palm key, there's nothing to stop me pushing the top of my saxophone to the right, which is what happens :confused: My right hand thumb on the hook isn't high enough up to stop this.
?? I'll ask my teacher next week but in the meantime I need to practise :sax:Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong please, or how to prevent this?
 
You shouldn't need a lot of pressure to operate the palm D,use the combination of your RH thumb,the sling at the right tension,this should be enough to stabilise the sax as long as you don't push to much on the palm key,it should be minimum pressure.

You can also buy Runyon palm key risers to see if this problem can eased.
 
Sometimes it is just a matter of getting used to playing it. I know when I first played c# and the palm key notes on my straight sop I though I was going to drop it, now it feels quite natural.

Jx
 
You can take a reasonably firm grip on the bottom of your sax with your right hand, even holding down one of the lower key, maybe with R2 or R3.
Also, as said, you barely need to tickle the palm D to open it and sound the note.
 
What I teach my students is to keep the hand shaped like you are holding a base ball and when going to the high D simply rotate the wrist slightly like turning a door knob. As others have said, it shouldn't take a hard or strong motion to open the key.
 
Yes.....OK, no! I used to hang on that way when playing C#.

But if you keep all your RH fingers on the keys, and not close the keys, just have your finger pads resting comfortably in the pearl cups, then that's usually sufficient to hold the sax firmly
 
Thanks all for the help. From what everyone is saying, I'm probably pressing it harder than necessary. Will go and have another play in a minute, and see if I can do jbtsax's rotating wrist.
 

Members' Blogs

Trending content

Forum statistics

Topics
29,570
Messages
512,683
Members
8,730
Latest member
timhowes
Back
Top Bottom