Airy sound

[BobD]

When I play middle G and then go up to middle A I get an airy sound. The G is quite clear but as soon as I go up to A it changes to more air.then when I go to B it gets clear again. Any thoughts on this? Oh, it does go away a little when I frim up the emboucher.

[MS]

The saxophone changes octave vents when you play A2. D2 to G#2 uses the body vent, and A2 and above uses the neck octave vent. I don't know if you hear that change as an air sound becausse it's closer to your ears. The use of only two octave vents is definitely a compromise.

Two things I would check out:
1) does a musician more than 6 feet away hear the air sound
2) When you firm up your embouchure, is the tuning still OK? (Maybe check with a tuner.

You might try some long tones on notes close to the A2 with a tuner to see if you can get the tone more to your liking and still be in tune. It might be that you can keep your embouchure similar to notes around that area and change air speed slightly to improve the tone and maintain your tuning.

[BobD]

There must have been something in the neck octave vent. I just blew into it and it seemed to clear out what ever was in there. It sounds fine now.

[mr00420]

I got a similar problem testing out a horn: the neck octave key wasn't fully open between A and G. When I opened with my rt. hand while playing, there was no problem... it just need some tuning up so the octave wouldn't be jammed up.

[recreational player]

I am having the same problem on my Yani A991. The octave key doesn't open high enough. Is there an easy way to fix this problem or should I bring it to a tech?

[IncognitoSaxman]

i had, and still have this problem on my yani 901 its just the high octave A

its perfectly in tune, and all of the other notes, both higher and lower than A sound fine. i compared it to my friends and they all had it to. Is this something that universally pertains to alto sax?

[Hurling Frootmig]

Your tech can adjust the octave key. I've also seen people recommend putting a piece of stretched nylon over the vent. I have found that large chamber mouthpieces help on my horns (specifically Buescher's).