Squeaking Between Octaves on Saxophone

by Neal on July 1, 2009

Neal,
My biggest frustration right now is technique.  Between octaves I have
tendency to squeak….particularly C to D; it’s most apparent.  It got to be so bad that I took my horn in for
service but very few adjustments were made.  In fact, I was told the
horn played extremely well.

So, its gotta be me – breathing, embouchure or technique.

Nat

Neal: So these notes come out fine when you play them?  It’s just going between them that you have the problem?

Could be something with your fingering.  You should be keeping your fingers on the keys all the time.

If you go between C and D very slowly, is there still the problem?
Nat: Neal,

I figured it was my fingering once the local sax tech played it
perfectly after some minor adjustments from normal wear and tear.

Now 7 or 8 times out of 10 there isn’t a problem.  When I slow down, its
almost perfect.

Nat

Neal:
Cool, glad you got that working.  When you slow things down you can work on them a lot more easily.  Kind of make exercises out of things like that and they’ll get better.

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