Saxaphone tuning

[Patrick Farrell]

Is there a way to tune the saxaphone. I have a chromatic
tuner – clipped it on to the bell of the sax and played
some of the notes in the fingering diagram lessons and the
tuner is coming up a little short of the note that supposed
to come out. The tuner screen is blinking saying it’s almost
getting ready to go to the proper note. My sax is new.

[Pete]

Patrick
Either push your mouthpiece in to make it higher (sharper)
or pull it out to make it lower ( flatter)
Make sure your mouthpiece and reed are good and fit well
cork and no leaks on the sax.

[Pete]

Patrick
If you are playing alto A concert = F sharp
if tenor A concert = B or alto is 6 steps higher
and tenor is one step higher hope this makes sense.

[Patrick Farrell]

Great advice about moving the mouthpiece – moved it to the
proper position. The notes I’m playing are matching the
chromatic tuner display now…Thanks!!

[Marc]

The saxophone is pretty much an “imperfect” instrument. So some notes are in tune while others are flat, and usually the highest range sound sharp.
For a tenor, take the middle-B (only left index finger pressed) as the reference note to tune to zero on your tuner (adjusting mouthpiece position as you’ve been told). For an alto, use the 2nd register F# (3 left fingers, right middle finger plus octave key) as the reference note.
Doing that, you’ll find -more or less, depending on the sax brand- the lower notes flat (except the 2 lowest B and Bb, slightly sharp) and the highest range, from high-C up all sharp.

Nota bene: Take into account that you’ll NOT see the “B” or the “F#” on the tuner display unless it has a key-transpose feature (very few have it). So, for tenor, playing the reference notes on any saxohone the tuner will display “A” (due to the different transposing patterns alto and tenor have).

[Author]

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