Having trouble hitting a few notes on the Alto Sax?

Question

I am having trouble hitting high F and low C. When I hit high F it gets stuck - it could be the embochure?. Then when I hit low C, I can not seem to get a solid tone, instead I get a wobbly, distorted one.

Help with this would be appreciated - Thanks.

Answer 1

Haha... welcome to the world of sax!  It's an easy instrument to play (hard to master), but at the extreme ranges of the horn it can be very unstable!

For your low C...

make sure you are doing a lot of long tones to warm up.  Start with your G (left hand, fingers 1 2 3) and go down in half steps.  Hold each note for a slow count of 8, and slur down to the next note.  Take a deep breath and do it again, starting on the new note.  When you get to "C", just hold it and try to keep it steady as possible.  If it starts to wobble, adjust: if it gets worse, you will hear it and you know to try somethine else!  A tuner will help with this too... if it goes flat, tighten up a little.

Pay attention to your throat... it should be open.  For the low notes, you want to drop your jaw slightly and make your throat as big and round as you can (like when you yawn).  Also, make sure you are putting some air through that horn!!!  This is usually the cause of wobbliness in the low register- not enough air.  However, if you overblow it will create problems too.  Just make sure you keep your diaphragm tight and SUPPORT your airflow.  

As for the "F"... are you talking top line of the staff "F"?  Or altissimo "F" (3 ledger lines above the staff)?  If it's altissimo F, the paragraph above still applies... but don't drop your jaw!  An open throat, lots of air and good support are what you need, but try putting your tongue into a long "aaaa" (as in "day") position.  Again, long tones, slurring up, and using a tuner will help.  As you get better at this, try slurring back and forth between the octave (Altissimo F to middle F and back up), then try tonguing different patterns on altissimo F.

Now, if you're talking about the top line F getting stuck... it could be 2 things... either your key is sticking (in which case take it to the shop- it could be a pad or spring, but will take 5 minutes to fix), or you're doing something funny with your embouchure.  "D" and "E" have a lot of resistance to blow against... the "F" tends to open up and be more free blowing.  My guess is that you let your embouchure get lazy when you play F and when you change to another note, you're ill-prepared with both embouchure and air support.  To fix this, play intervals in scales... for example:

Low F, High F, Low G, High F, Low A, High F, Bb, F, C, F, D, F, E, F... then back down.  Start slow enough to get your fingers down, and tongue every note.  With practice, you can speed it up, then slur it.  You could even add the next octave, always coming back to that same "F".

The problems you're having are VERY common- EVERY sax player has been through this at some point... so don't feel too discouraged!  A little bit of time and practice will help you out, and just stick to long tones and tonguing exercises for a while.

Anyways, I hope this helped!  Good luck and have fun! :)

Answer 2

I also play tenor...going on 10 years now.

For both, work on your c scale going as high/low as you can. With the high f, work on g upwards, and for c, g downwards. I've also found it helpful to loosen up the mouth, creating a cavity. Thatt should help get rid of the wobbly-ness. Also, check your reed. I highly recommend Vandoren v16 or Vandoren Jazz.