Problems with high G

[carlosdh]

:cry:

Hi!

I began learning how to play this marvelous instrument 6 months ago. I practice a lot of longtones and scales almost avery day. All the notes (except high G/G#) sound quite well. My sax is a Yamaha Tenor YTS21 in absolute perfect condition.

My problem is that sometimes I get a strange overtone when I try to play a high G. Sometimes I get a a broken sound (like a trill of the Low and the high G). Usually the attack of the note is not a clear sound, my teacher says I should not worry because its too early to control all the notes, but I am a perfectionist.

Are there any advices anyone can give me?

Thanks in advance and sorry for my english

[teacherguy]

How are your notes above high G? If they sound fine above high G, then it may be a problem with your sax. I do have a student that sometimes has a problem with high G, and I just remind him to use more air/support the air, and that always works.

[MarkD]

The high G can be a present a problem. There was a pretty good thread on this subject on the old SaxOnTheWeb Forum in the Tone Production area.

First of all, you should make ceratin that your horn is properly set-up. The high G note can be affected by many things, including the octave vent. Perhaps you could have another player try playing your horn and see how they do with it. If they also have problems with it then you may need to have it adjusted by a competent technician. If it plays OK for others then it is probably something that you can work through with practice.

I had the same problem with the high G when I began, and I had it on alto, tenor & soprano saxophones. I quickly realized that it was me and not the horns! My problem was incorrect embouchure. I was "puffing" my cheeks out instead of drawing them in to form a proper closure around the mouthpiece. On tenor I also had to make sure that I kept my tongue lower in my mouth. I had the tendency to let my tongue rise up and push against the lower lip which in turn put some pressure on the reed. This made the high G "warble" up.

Good luck!

[carlosdh]

Hi again,

Certainly other (experienced players) produce high G without problems using my sax. I really think the problem is my embouchure, but I dont know what to do solve it!.

I´ll try to watch if I am leaning my tongue against the lower lip as you say.

thank you.

[tyler_terlecki]

in my experience, the high G was the hardes note for me to get right, the fact is that the harmonics are just so close to that of C above of it that you need to be very precise in the way you position your mouth and throat.

try using other reeds, that can always help(or not)...lol

what worked for me was just to practice and drive my loved ones crazy.

do octaves alot, work with the low C fingerings to practice your harmonics control and even though you can get G from that fingering, the fingering i recommend is:

octave key +first and third fingers on both hands.


hope this helps a bit.

[Kosma]

Tyler, If I'm not mistaken they're talking about G2 (second octave) and you're talking about G3.

I think there needs to be some set way of naming notes around here. I've found myself wondering which octave was being discussed more than a few times.

There was a discussion on the old board about who could play the highest note. It finally came to light that some were talking saxophone octaves and some were talking piano octaves. So some guys were saying "Oh, I can hit G8!" By the end of the thread I had no idea who was talking about what note.

[Mike Ruhl]

It sounds like carlosdh is talking about G2 (first space above the staff). It's common on tenor for this note to want to jump up a fifth to D. The only way to get around it is practice, practive, practice.

That, and maybe a different mouthpiece :wink:

[Tim Price]

¿el carlosdh nos dejó intentar esto y ayuda quizá muy bien? mi
español es aceptable, así que espero usted entienda que van
this.
La columna del aire es la más importante para hacer un buen tono.
Más aire en el sax, el tono mejor. Thy el fluir de la corriente del
aire como sigue: El aire es empujado de los pulmones por el diafragma.
Después de que pase a través de la garganta que posteriormente debe
estar según lo relajado como sea posible. ¡Después de la garganta
entra en la boquilla!! Los muchos de la subsistencia de aire bajo alta
presión entran en la boquilla. Si éste es el caso, la caña podrá
vibrar incluso. Si éste no es el caso que la caña no capaz de
vibrar constantemente y el tono está así sin la dirección, después
más suave, entonces más ruidosamente y unmanipulatable.We no
quisieran que éste fuera el caso: así tiene que haber muchos de
ayuda del diafragma. ¡El control del tono debe venir del diafragma, no
de manipular la garganta! Al jugar un crescendo o jugando hacia un
punto. De esta manera la garganta no aprieta para arriba, que es a
menudo el caso al jugar softer.This pudo afectar su problema un
pedacito para corregir.
Porque las notas bajas requieren muchos de aire, es sabio jugar muchos
de tonos largos en el registro, el forte y el piano bajos. En piano,
intento a no apretar encima de la garganta, pero cuando el tono
consigue más difícil de sostener y de apretar encima del diafragma y
no de la garganta. Tonos largos de la práctica con acentos. Al jugar
un tono largo, empuje más aire en el sax contrayendo el diafragma
pronto. Repita esto mientras que juega el mismo tono. Mantenga una
ayuda básica del aire al hacer esto.
Al jugar escalas y entrando en el alto registro, dé más ayuda del
aire, porque las altas notas requieren un aire más rápido y suenan
más suaves que las notas más bajas con la misma cantidad de aire.
Otra vez: en vez del ajuste encima de la garganta más y más, apriete
encima del diafragma, mantienen la garganta relajada. Cierto paso
llamará a veces para más tono abierto y más garganta abierta la
hará así es trabajo.
Intente estos ejercicios para relajar su garganta.

Haga los ejercicios arriba y usted notará que la tensión ganada en
el diafragma substituirá las tensiones de la garganta. Respiración
en aire frío. Al hacer esto se abre la garganta y el aire puede pasar
libremente. Al soplar, mantenga la misma sensación la garganta y
mantenga la posición de la garganta como al respirar en el aire
frío. Sople el aire caliente. Sople el aire caliente contra su mano,
esa sensación puede ser utilizado al soplar en su cuerno. Alguna
gente prefiere la sensación de soplar el aire frío, experimento con
esto :D
Estos músculos se deben utilizar para cerrar los labios alrededor de
la boquilla. Al usar la tensión en estos músculos, no tiene que
haber tensión que viene de la quijada más baja y de la garganta,
porque todo el control de lámina directo viene de los músculos
alrededor de los labios. ¡Si usted hace que algunos otros problemas E
me envíen e intentaré a help.Hope que usted entiende mi español!
¡Amigo de Cioo~my!!

[carlosdh]

Thanks to all of you for your help!

Ill clarify some things:

-The sax is in perfect condition (my teacher finds no problems in plyaing high G), so it´s my fault not the sax.

-I am talking about the G just over the fifth line of the pentagram. (Its too early to practice overtones!)


Ill keep following your advices to see if this problem disappears!

[Tim Price]

Carlos- no worry.Keep que practica y el trabajo con su teacher.Save
del Info que le di para later.It es siempre esperanza de useful.I
usted el problema se trabaja hacia fuera. El saxophone es un
instrumento maravilloso y no ese duro a play.Take su tiempo mi amigo y
usted jugará bien en ninguna hora. ¡Todos los la mejores a you.If que
usted tiene cualquier otra pregunta satisfacen ask.That's cuál este
foro es suerte de for.Good!

[Mike Ruhl]

carlosdh, here is another approach. Since the G is trying to jump up to the D above it, let it happen, and try to learn to control it. Try to play the high D while fingering the troublesome G. Pay attention to how it feels to play the D while fingering G.

Then work on playing G while fingering G, and focus on how that feels. Once you learn to recognize the differences in feel, you'll start to automatically make the adjustment while playing.

[Kosma]

Good advice, Mike.

[Mike Ruhl]

Just don't tell Carlos that he'll actually be working on overtones... :wink:

[Tim Price]

los carlos intentan ver si usted puede encontrar este video.it es
mismo profesional de helpful.very también fácil al juego Sax de
understand.
http://www.ericmarienthal.com/videos/playsax.html es una
introducción completa al saxophone para el principiante. Comenzando
con una descripción de cada uno de los saxes (soprano, alto, tenor,
etc.), los indicadores se ofrecen en cada uno de las áreas
siguientes: Los tonos largos de la producción del tono de Ligature
Neckstrap Fingerings de las cañas de las boquillas que machihiembran
rutinas diarias de la práctica de las escalas importantes Juego-A lo
largo de la sección cada tema se presentan en un claro y fácil
seguir la manera que hace esta cinta una herramienta inestimable para
los instructores y perfeccionarla también para el principiante o el
músico intermedio a utilizar en sus el propios. Ayudaría a you.Check
él hacia fuera si usted puede.

[Metro Gnome]

I was having the same problem. Moving from a G(1) to a G(2) made the most horrible noise. Notes either side were more or less okay...(I'm a beginner too!)
So, to fix, I experimented. All sorts. Moving the mouthpiece (and the rest of the sax) up and down, forward and backward, side to side etc, etc...

Finally what hit it for me was changing the air pressure when blowing by altering the position of the back of my tong in my mouth.

What do I mean by that. Well, in exaggerated terms, place the tip of your tong behind your lower teeth. Now, without moving the tip, breath out though your mouth and then move the back of your tong to 'cut off' the airflow. Got the movement? Well it was a much more subtle form when playing with the result of reducing the flow rate, made for a nicer sounding pitch of note either side so by flipping the octave key on a G note, and practicing the tong/air flow movement did it so I can hit the relevant notes on demand. Don’t get me wrong here; you didn’t want to be within ten miles of me when I was trying all this out but ultimately, I guess muscle memory is beginning to kick in and the problem seems to have gone away.

I mentioned this to my teach. He said this was common for all beginners and would, in about 6 months, go away on it’s own. Sounds like we have the same teach(??) Like you, I wanted rid now. :wink:

[tenorOWNZ]

I had the same problem. I took my sax to several different repairmen and some said it was a horn problem, others said it was my embouchure. I've had my horn adjusted and tweaked and what not but nothing has changed. Now I hear that I'm not the only one with this problem so obviously its just my embouchure. I too experimented with it for awhile and what helps me get the note out better is kinda leaning down a little bringing the mouthpiece up in my mouth a little. For some reason that helps. Its quite a pain to do that everytime I have to play a G, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Is there any explanation why just this one note will make an awful sound if your mouth isn't adjusted just right? It doesn't make sense to me...

[psyguy]

I am a novice having the same problem with a fluttering or warbling high G. A technician has adjusted various things on my 82Z tenor but the problem continues. It seems, however, to happen only after I have played for a 1/2 hour or more. So, perhaps it is due to fatigued chops??

At any rate, it is only happening on high G and is very frustrating. My teacher has no such problem. I wonder if it can be the MPC (Yamaha 4C, teache used an Otoo Link on it) but why only on high G??