Baritone saxophone fingerings and features?

Question

I'm in my school's jazz band, and my director wants me to play baritone saxophone. I can play alto, so my question is: are the fingerings for bari sax and alto sax the same? Also, what are the differences between the 2 saxophones in general?

Answer 1

once you know common fingerings for one sax, you know them for all saxes. (the differences will appear when you learn extended ranges or your bari sax has a low "A" key,...)

The main difference is obvious, a bari sax is much larger & has a lower, deeper sound. The mouthpiece & reed are bigger, and the instrument requires much more air to play with a good sound.

Answer 2

Fingerings are identical, you won't have any problems with that.  It's written in the same clef - just sounds an octave lower than the alto.  The baritone often has a low A which the alto doesn't have, but this is a RH thumb key and so doesn't affect any other fingerings.  You'll have to move more air through the instrument, as the bore is a LOT bigger, but with proper support you'll have no problems.  I picked up baritone at fifteen, and even though I'm fairly small (five-foot nothing!), I had no problems getting a decent noise out of the thing.  I loved playing bari, and miss it a lot - it's loads of fun :)