Beginner Top G down to middle C#

[davhudson]

Not something I have had to do a lot of but a song I am learning at the moment requires it.

I cannot seem to get a smooth transition with this change and get some horrible squeaking on making the change.

Any suggestion on making this change work?

 

[Pjonah]

Apart from the obvious practice, it will come.

Try practicing intervals across the bridge and concentrating on what your embouchure is doing when you play each note. In time this will all occur naturally, but concentrating on small intervals at first gradually increasing the number of notes spanned, trying to keep it as smooth as possible. You may have a problem with the reed position on the mouthpiece if its squeeking also check alignment/position of the Ligature. Assuming all is well with the sax/mouthpiece combo you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Try playing long and short notes increasing intervals:

G F# (Gb)
G F
G E
G Eb
G D
G C#

and up again

Think of other combinations, ie repeating in twos:

G F# G F#
G F G F

etc.

Then threes and so on.

 

[davhudson]

Thanks for the advice. It is the octave jump down that catches me - I guess I just need to keep practising and not avoid things that have such jumps.

 

[Justin Chune]

Just keep at it. It may interest you to know that playing across wide intervals is considered difficult on all wind instruments, with the exception of the clarinet. The book I learned this from stated that on the sax an interval of a fifth could be considered wide. Patience and practice and you'll get there.

Jim.

 

[Bobby G]

Could also be worth checking that the octave pad(s) are springing back as quickly and strongly (is that a word....?) as they need to in order to be 100% sealed at the moment you blow the low C sharp. I speak from recent personal experience here, where the spring tension on one pad was not enough to seal it quickly enough, resulting in some odd squeaks when jumping from the upper to the lower register.