:::Long whistle::: that was brilliant and informative. Thanks.

Thanks for this video, Matt. When I was starting out on saxophone I was taught the "1+1" fingering for Bb, as most probably are. After years of playing, bis Bb made so much more sense sound wise and just for ease of playing. I have also noticed that "side C" sounds much more clear than the classic fingering for C using the middle finger of the left-hand. Now I know why. Thanks again for the explanation!

I've never heard any of that before, but it explains all my playing experiences. Thanks!

Wonderful video and explanation

Thanks for the great and informative video, Matt. I've used side Bb before and also the side F#, but usually prefer bis Bb and regular F#. The concept of "ballad C" you mentioned in this video is totally new to me. Oddly I never have learned what that key will give you, so, I'd never even used it. I gravitate toward ballads, and my intonation definitely needs work, so, this video made me realize that sometimes it could be my fingering of a note and not my embouchure that's got me off or playing certain notes inconsistently. Thanks again for the great video.

Magic - I have been playing Saxophone for two years, and did not know what these keys are really for. Thanks

Thanks for the video. I didn’t know the side C (ballad C), Bb & F# were better acoustically.

This was indeed interesting. Sounds like side F# and side C would be better for tuning notes.

That was a great lesson in set up. Going along with the side b flat on my horn the biz b flat is in tune better than the side b flat. I opened up the venting on the side b flat by filing some of the cushion cork to allow a more open side key. The pitch matches now on my tuner.

Thanks for the explanation, very useful indeed. Always wondered about the stuffy front C. Interestingly enough never felt the front F# was anywhere near as "backed up" as the front C.

This was so helpful. Thank you for this video. It explains so much.

Fantastic! Thanks a lot for the clear explanation Matt. I never bothered to use much the side F# before. Will keep these points in mind now before choosing which keys to use..

Thank you for the presentation particularly on the venting. That was ver informative. After we discussed my concern of several months back i was able to make some small adjustments on certain key heights and have reduced the intonation on the middle left stack. Thanks Again!

Fantastic video Matt. Happy 2018 to you...

Super well presented video!

Very interesting thought. Thank You! Jim

Interesting Matt. Great video. I had never heard that explanation of the side keys before. Thinking of all the horns I've played, that would explain why consistently the side C, & F# tend to sound cleaner. Now having said that, 2 enigmas spring to mind: 1. Why did Martin not put a chromatic F# key on their Committee III baritones? & 2. Your explanation certainly sheds light on some of the complexities we vintage bass sax players face. Side C is the preferred fingering, since the one we shortcut we usually use most often sounds stuffy.

Fascinating explanation for sure!!

Thanks for another great tutorial Matt. I have played a few altos with front C stuffier than the side position exactly because of the under-venting you have so brilliantly explained. On most 'good' tenors front and side positions do sing a bit different, but when it comes to play it's not a big deal, for jazz at least. A significant exception is the SML gold medal. There, the side Bb and C are smaller than in most horns, making these side positions significantly under vented. Although not a problem for fast chromatic passages, based on my experience this could be a problem in 2 situations: 1. if one is playing the C holding with the left index finger Bb, + side C, which sometimes is useful; 2. the standard altissimo fingerings do not work on SML tenors (side keys are not the only reason in this case), but the good news is that the different venting can be exploited using alternative fingerings and the altissimo plays so full and centered and vibrant like one can't imagine. For the SML alto I'm not sure as I never had one. Thanks again Matt, you're great.

Very informative!

Thanks so much Matt!

I'm guilty of raising low E, D, and C too high to compensate for flat middle F#. I was having some squirrely intonation issues with an aftermarket neck on my T992. Probably doesn't belong on that horn, but it sounds so good! I'd love to learn more from you about setting key height across the entire horn.

I had no idea... This changes everything

Great explanation, I never hear anything about this question, only hear people saying and teaching the side F# and C are useless...

Whoa. This is blowing my mind a little bit since F# (normal fingering) is considered the golden tuning note on the saxophone. When you say the normal F# fingering or the normal C fingering should/could be slightly flat, how do you determine what "in tune" is? I've always been taught (from a playing perspective) to tune F# by pushing/pulling the mouthpiece, then make any adjustments you need for any out of tune notes (alternate fingerings, adjusting key heights, or simply adjusting the embouchure). But what constant for intonation do you use from a repair perspective? Love your videos!! Thank you so much for all the info

@StohrerMusic

6 ай бұрын

F sharp on alto saxophone is concert A, and that's the reason groups will sometimes tune to that note- think concert band in middle school. Sometimes this can become a habit that persists. But concert A is perhaps not the best one-and-only tuning note for saxophones, whether Eb or Bb, for the acoustic reasons outlined in this video. Nobody coming at it from principle would choose those notes, it is merely something that has happened to us as saxophone players when we are asked to tune with a band. When I am inspecting intonation on a saxophone that is unfamiliar to me, I'm typically checking everything. I'm looking for trends and I'm looking for outliers and I'm looking for my octaves to be in tune and I'm looking for my overtones to be very close to the fingered notes. Once I am familiar with a saxophone, like my personal instrument, I typically know where my mouthpiece goes on the cork when the horn is warmed up to play in tune with a tuned piano or a tuner, and then I adjust by ear to play with the band. I also know what notes I have to favor and in what way, if any. This is perhaps a strange way of coming at it, but most of the tuning I do is on freshly overhauled horns that do not belong to me, and I have come to this holistic method of tuning from that angle. I don't think that is something that the average conductor for a school band can do, which is why we end up tuning to concert A or Bb and the rest of it is left up to us and our ears. PS For the example of the "normal" F# fingering possibly being flat, what that means is that since the right hand stack is all connected, if you make "normal" F# your prime tuning note and tune the entire stack to that, you may (not always) find that your F and your E are sharp since normal F# is undervented by design so you may overcompensate by having the entire stack being higher than it wants to be. In my book, having F and E in tune and "normal" F# slightly flat/undervented would be a better situation, since you can easily have an F sharp be in tune with your chromatic F sharp fingering, while F and E have no alternate fingerings.

Very helpfull, thanks

This is a great video matt but how to you choose mouthpiece placement before adjusting the key heights? For example, if the side C is flat then you can open up the key height more or push in the mouthpiece.... How do you decide? Also, the height of the A key affects the intonation of the side c as well as some of the bottom stack keys.... Between the option of adjusting several key heights and mouthpiece placement, it seems very confusing to me as to where to start?

I too was taught the 1 + 1 Bb fingering and always blamed it on my first band teacher who was a trombone player. ;)

@kevindanenberg

6 жыл бұрын

My first teacher was a trombone player, too. I didn't learn to read chord symbols til college! :D

OMG, mind blown again! I played a lot in my youth, but then I parked my bari in the basement for 40 years until I retired and got back into it recently. The other day I was at practice and was just fiddling with the horn while the conductor worked with another section for a couple of minutes. I noticed the side F# key, maybe for the first time ever, and my mind was blown. What the hell is this? How did I not know about it before? What is it good for? I looked it up in the fingering chart and figured out what it was, but wondered why anyone would need it. Now I have a couple of clues as to why. I knew about the side C, but had never used it and also wondered why it existed. From now on I will be looking for opportunities to use both of them. Thanks for the education! You have a new subscriber.

I wish there was a side key for going from bis Bb to C. I tried opening both side keys (Bb+C) but it only makes it louder, not less flat. Is there some special fingering I may not know about? I guess I can use the side keys for a trill but it's too flat to hold. Opinions? Sax has some difficult "jumps" sometimes. A few moves seem impossible at speed.

Thanks for this, Matt. I actually had been wondering about this after coming across your helpful discussion on venting and middle D on another website (www.bestsaxophonewebsiteever.com/ask-a-saxophone-repairman-why-your-middle-d-plays-too-soft-and-what-to-do-about-it/). As a follow-up, is there such thing as "over-venting," and aside from the effects on intonation, would having too many keys opened have a negative impact on timbre and tone? For instance, if I play side Bb but open the G# key and the RH pinky Eb key?

Matt thank you for a very informative video, I’ve have that the side keys does make a big difference

Hey Matt... excuse my ignorance, but what is 'biss' ? In regards to fingering you refer to notes by letter names with what sounds like biss or bish. BTW.. I'm learning a lot watching your videos. Thanks ! I just ordered the sax repair kit from Music Medic. I took my tenor apart to clean and lube and found nasty things going on... pads with tears, one tone hole damaged. It's a wonder it played as well as it did. It's a Conn M22 US made. Wish me luck.

Hi, Matt. Can you tell about forked Eb? In a similar format.

@StohrerMusic

6 жыл бұрын

www.stohrermusic.com/2011/05/on-the-forked-eb-aka-eb-trill-on-vintage-saxophones/

@alexandervarakosov

6 жыл бұрын

Miss this article. Thanks.

Thanks for this video, Matt. I’ve played the same mkvi alto for 20yrs, and after an overhaul 3yrs ago the mid and high C (front fingerings) became stuffy with a warble. I’ve since had another repad and raised the venting (by someone good) but the stuffiness is still there. Do you have any tricks to help with that. Thanks for any help, and for your great videos!

@kevindanenberg

6 жыл бұрын

My Buffet SDA alto has a really terrible warble on the high C. Common problem. I tried raising the key heights a little, but didn't want to go overboard. I read somewhere that a solution was to glue a small crescent of wet/dry sandpaper into the bottom of the C tonehole. I believe this creates a little turbulence to disrupt the warble, and at the bottom of the tonehole it won't change your pitch. I simply cut a small crescent out of gaffers tape and stuck it in there. No more warble!

@jamieforjazz

6 жыл бұрын

Kevin Danenberg Thanks, I had read that. I did open the action, but it kind of disguised the warble more than get rid of it. I’ve just put some tape in that tone hole and you’re right, it works. I wonder if my repairer just over cleaned the inside or something. Thanks!

@StohrerMusic

6 жыл бұрын

yep, that happens with some horns + some mouthpieces + some people. usually much worse on the high C. fix is as Kevin suggested, although you can make it more permanent if you'd like by gluing or epoxying something in there.

@jamieforjazz

6 жыл бұрын

Matt Stohrer Thanks to you and Kevin for the fix; I really appreciate your advice. J

@jamieforjazz

6 жыл бұрын

Matt Stohrer by the way, do you know what might have caused the horn to start playing that way, it was fine for years, until a re-pad (which I had redone by someone else).

It's incredible how most techs dont even address alternate or chromatic fingering. Hey as long as it's closing and doesn't leak move on! *sarcasm*

Airstream trailer?

@StohrerMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Yep!

Nerd Edition. :)