scale question

[mike hawker]

johnny, love your site! being fairly new to the sax –how do i know witch sax scale is relative to the key of the song backing track — is there a chart that will list the scales i can use to play over basic keys thanks! hawkman/sullivan,ind.

[john]

Yes, this is a common question among beginners and you should understand this basic theory well and quickly!
Read this article I posted on my sax articles section:
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/saxophone-keys

Let me know if anything is still not clear.
Johnny

[mike hawker]

that answered my question on the scales perfectly! i was trying to play my b flat tenor in one and a half steps over the key–no wonder it was off ! thanks again hawkman/sullivan in.

[con cunningham]

Hi, great web site.
I understand scales from playing the guitar for quite a few years and just got an alto sax in Eb.
I understand if a song is in the guitar or piano key of E I am actually playing in C#. on the sax, a minor third down from concert pitch.
But when I play along to tracks in E piano/guitar key, I find that I am playing in G blues on the saxophone.
Surely it should be C# blues.
It is as though I’m playing a minor 3rd up not down from concert pitch. It is the same for other keys e.g. D blues guitar is F blues on alto
How can this be? I know the backing tracks are in E, A or B.

[john]

It’s much simpler than the way you’re trying to think about it…
Because you have an alto sax, it simply means that to play an E concert (concert is what guitar and piano are) on the alto it has to be a C#.
Playing in G on alto means you’re playing in Bb concert so that won’t make a lot of sense, sure there are a couple notes that could relate to E but not as a complete and proper scale.

[con cunningham]

Thanks for the speedy reply.
I thought I must be doing something wrong.

[con cunningham]

Hi again
I used a guitar tuner to check the notes I was playing on my horn and and found that C was playing as D#. The other notes were all similarly out of step. Is this unusual?
Is there a way to tune the sax?
thanks

[john]

Yes! Here’s a couple paragraphs taken from the new beginners saxophone book I’m working on that explain it:

The mouthpiece slides directly onto the corked tip of the sax neck. If it does not slide on easily you can apply some cork grease which either came with your sax or you can get at a music store. Slide the mouthpiece about half way onto the cork. So if your cork is about an inch and a half in length as most are, the mouthpiece should cover 3/4 inches of the cork.

Tuning your sax

You can tune your saxophone by pushing the mouthpiece further in on the cork, or pulling it out closer to the tip of the neck. Pushing it in further will make the sax sound sharper and pulling it out will make it sound flatter. You don’t need to worry about the tuning very much until you’re playing with others. At this point just keep the mouthpiece about half way on the cork because having it extremely too far in or too far out will make the sax be out of tune with itself.

[Darwin Enge]

sopranino, soprano, alto, I don,t no witch of the sound is comming from in this song i like verry much,

[john]

well, like to help you but you didn’t leave a link for any song!

[Author]

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