Getting the `lower` notes

Hi! I just got a sax from my aunt a few days ago. I have some sort of a vague idea of what I'm doing, as two of my friends play sax, and I play oboe and trumpet. Apparently, that doesn't help here.

I've been trying to play my Bb scale. The G and A come out, but the B and C go up an octave, ruining the rest of the notes. Casn anyomne tell me what I'm doing wrong, please?

Thanks!

It's an Alto by Sky.

It's really difficult... It might just be because I'm just starting, but the oboe has nothing on this. Is it just me, or does it take a lot of air?

make sure you aren't holding down the octive key (the little key near your thumb) as that isn't used for the low notes.

lol. I wasn't holding the octave key... it muight be my oboe embouchure messing with it. The reeds are so much smaller. i had a similar problem going from trumpet to oboe, so... ack. this is confusing.

Unlike oboe in which you have to exhale before you get another breath, saxophone you don't, (exept soprano). Concentrate on filling up your lungs and exhale into the saxophone with force. Try keeping a paper against a wall, but exhale quickly (with force). Check your embouchoure, take off your mouthpiece and play it, on Alto you should be playing a concert A, this is something Eugene Rousseau teaches and it will tell you if you are too tight or too loose on the mouthpiece. If you want some examples pick up the book "The Art of Playing Saxophone" by Larry Teal. Every saxophonist should have a copy of this. It will help answer many of your questions. If all else fails you may have a problem with the horn and may need to take it in.

While saxophone may be easy to play at first it is also easy to sound very bad. One of my favorite quotes "saxophone is the easiest instrument to play...badly".

Good luck to you
CJ

<Added>

PS when I mean force I don't mean loud I mean fast warm air.

LOL, any instrument is easy to play badly if you have no clue what you're doing on it. If you have no clue what the embochure on the instrument is, of course you're going to sound bad. Sax is a woodwind instrument....hence why you have to use alot of air. I don't see why it comes as a shock that you have to use alot of air with it, when it's a woodwind instrument...

Hey i got a sky to and ive been playin for 4 years for the money the sax sounds really good. Last year during jazz band the r6 key snapped. Icouldnt get parts for it because it was a cheap brand but the guy fixed,its not perfect but it works. I play a yamaha yas 23 in school and this sounds as good or better than that.

Gee thanks flautist4jesus, when someone asks for help I will just send them to you so you can say too bad just deal with it. With that name I would expect you to be respectful and considerate, but thats the way it always is. Sorry not everyone knows exactly how much air to use when playing a "woodwind", especially when changing from one "woodwind" to another. Jean-Marie Londeix sums it up by saying when you are playing any other instrument the quality is always the same when you play saxophone (he also mentions oboe) you have to make constant decisions about how you want to play that note. This would be easy to explain if you did play saxophone, and anyone who does will understand.

Meep
Listen to other peoples advice in this post, they usually will have some good ideas (and some not), but for the most part they are at least trying to be helpful.

Lera was also right on saying it takes alot more air than oboe which is why we don't have to exhale and quickly grab a breath again.

Good Luck to You

Thanks a lot, everybody. My sax is being good today. i found out that I have to put the mouthpiece a certain way for it to play C and B (even A) correctly... It has to beat a weird angle...

Dude, saxes are so complicated! T_T

The mouthpiece or the neck, sometimes when the neck is shifted over, the octave hinge may come in contact with the upper octave arm, causing the key to stick open a bit.

Also check reed placement are you setting up the mouthpiece, ligature and reed properly?

Good Luck
CJ

About the reed... I have to ask my alto friend about it tomorrow. I have a feeling that's my problem, now that you mention it. Reed place ment is difficult for me (I'm used to sticking one piece of cork into a head joint...) so that might be it. Thanks for mentioning that...

I don't know...

they came with the sax...

There's illegible writing on it...!

stupid reed...

Okay, thanks. Maybe I'll try that if I can get my parents to take me to the music store...